Originally Posted By mopar65
Originally Posted By HP2
I have a 72 Charger street/strip car, but I mostly use it for bracket racing. Mostly on 1/8 mile because of distance to track.

I have built it from swap meet finds and left over parts from other projects.
To keep it fun I want to stay on a budget, but until I have a wheelstander I am willing to spend some more smile

I'm considering a pair of Sidewinder heads and it would be interesting to hear from you experienced fellows:
1. how much faster would they make it?
2. if they are good as they come OOTB?
3. suggested compression ratio, gaskets and springs?

I don't know weight but it has fiberglass fenders and both bumpers including brackets, plastic grille, no back seat and lightweight bucket racing seats. No heater box or carpet.
Welded in subframe connectors, Comp Eng Slide-A-Link bars, 318 torsion bars, 90/10 front and race shocks in rear. Cold air T/A style scoop.

Block is a 440 bored .030, top decked, fully balanced steel crank with
JE custom flat top pistons flush with cyl deck,
Hughes solid cam HTL5256BS (610/614 w/1.6 rockers, 252/256deg).
906 unported, just cleaned up and matched to intake, and milled down A LOT. With 200 psi Kevin on Hughes estimated my comp ratio to around 12.6:1... Race gas is no fun! frown
Harland Sharp 1.6 rockers,
M1 intake,
950 Holley DP,
tti 2" O.D. tubes with 3-1/2" collectors extended around 18",
I have modified an universal crank trigger ignition with dual coils, fully adjustable. 10 deg at start and a flat curve running, seems like it likes 36 deg best. Big difference compared to the MSD I ditched. No splutter, no missing, fires right up and steady readings.
Man valve Th 727 w/ unknown 10" converter,
4.30 sure grip
Best 1/8 run 7.32/95.3 mph, 1.662 60' on 9" slicks, slippery track.

Thankful for any input folks!



If you have the money i would get better heads and a converter.

I say that because i had a all steel 1973 dodge dart that weighed 3520 with me in it and ran 6.80 in the 1/8 at 102 mph on 93 pump gas. the engine was pretty close to yours except i had a better set of heads. here is what the engine had in it.
my compression came out to 10.8 and i have 184 PSI cranking compression.

.030 over steel crank 440
wisco pro-true forged flat top pistons i think around .006 in the hole
eagle rods
Dewayne of porter racing heads did a awesome job of selecting me a solid roller cam to go with the stock port Indy EZ heads i got from him.the cam is a roller version of the mopar 590 solid cam

cam comp solid roller 264 at 0.050 and 590 lift
i ran crane gold 1.6 roller rockers
Stock port Indy EZ heads. I ran out of money so Dewayne checked the valve guides ,ground the valve seats and did a very ,very light bowl port on them.
2 inch tti headers
wieand tunnel-ram with 2 750 dp Holley's
dynamic 9.5 inch stall converter that stalled round 4200.which was the wrong one for the cam i had, but i dint have the money for a good one at the time.
4.10 and 4.30 gears
M/T ET street drag radials. in 275/60/15 which is about a 28x9 slick
I let me friend drive the car at the time that weighed 100 pounds less than i do and he ran 3 back to back 10.49 in the 1/4

well before i sold the dart i put in a 8 inch ATI converter that stalled around 5400 and a 3.5 inch exhaust so i could drive it on the street. Man the car was a hole different animal, on the street it was a whole different car and i think with some tuning the dart would of ran some low 10.40 or high 10.30 in the 1/4. also i never did get to do much tuning when i had the 9.5 converter in the car so who knows how much faster it would of been. well sorry for such a long post, i think your car would run a lot better with a better set of heads and a converter matched to your engine set up. mopar65



Thanks for your detailed answer! thumbs
I thought my 10" was loose, but the more I read your inputs I realize it's not.
I have sent SMR Transmission a quote, will be interesting what they'll come up with. I'll keep you posted.

70 W100 Power Wagon. 318 4-spd
70 Sport Fury 440 2dr HT
71 Duster 340
71 Charger Super Bee - 383/727
72 Charger "Sabotage" - 440/727 - Street/Strip
78 Warlock in beautiful patina