I've made a couple posts about my car already. It's a '68 Fury III (4500 pounds with me in it!!) that has an old school built 440 in it. Ported 906's, 30 over 6 pack pistons, LY rods, 590 mopar cam, TM7 intake, 850 Holley DP and 1 3/4" headers with 3.5" exhaust and flowmasters. I ran 12.40's with it last month and am going to try to get it to the track one more time this year before the season is up. I'm thinking I can maybe get another tenth or two out of it. It's also got an Ultimate converter that seems to flash around 4500, and 4.30 gears with 295 M/T drag radials. Have spent some time messing with timing and squirters, it runs pretty good at this point and at the track it hooked fine launching from 3000-ish, but it just has air shocks in the back so I assume I'm going to need caltracs and adjustable shocks if I put any more power to it.
The goal is to run 11.50's in any conditions, so probably 11.30's in good air. That needs a minimum of an 150 hp bump over where I'm at now. Whatever I do with it, I also want it to be reliable, as the goal is to run one of the drag and drive events next year. Drag Week, Midwest Drags, or Rocky Mountain Race Week.
The initial thought was to put a 200 hp plate kit on it, that should get it to where I need to be. I'll need to upgrade the fuel system, but other than that it might be ready to go. I worry a bit about durability with spraying it, but it should at least get me to the ET goal.
The other option is to spend some money on the motor and make that difference up n/a. I think the heads are the biggest restriction currently. Trick Flows look like there really is no ETA on them due to supply issues - every time I look on Summit's site the expected ship date keeps slipping. I think Indy 440 EZ's are available, but don't know if they would get me to where I need to be out of the box compared to the TF's.
The other concern is I'm not sure the small-ish headers, cam, and honestly the rotating assembly, is going to be ok to get a 446 to the 600 hp range without being suspect. I'm not an expert by any means but I'm thinking to get 600 hp out of an n/a stock displacement RB is going to require more rpm than the pistons and rods are safe to.
What are everyone's thoughts? Will a head swap get me there? Or do I really need to dive into the shortblock to get to where I need to be?
Thanks, Nick
My mate ran a 3150lb Dart to 10.1'@132 best with a 12.7:1 440 with LY rods I believe, had the .590 cam and MCH ported Eddy heads (320cfm), a Victor Intake and a 1050 Dom, just barely made the 600fwhp mark on Wallace with weight/mph. The block was well built in the US by the guy that raced it and he bought it over to the UK so I would think it had well prepped rods/bolts but who knows for sure. He used to turn near 6800rpm in the traps with it with his chassis combo. Lasted for approx 4 seasons here of hard racing before it blew.
So I personally don't think just a head swap would get you another 150hp with your in theory 10:1CR and that cam. I ran a similar motor to what you have in 1990 with 6pk rods/pistons, a Team G intake, 850DP, 2" f/well hdrs, ported BV 906's (260cfm) and a .650"/290@.050 SFT cam@around 9.8:1 and made 530fwhp according to Wallace for weight/mph. I turned that to 66>6700 in the traps NA and 7400 with a 175 b/shot N20 system,=660hp. I had a single external oiling system to handle the rpm. Pistons are no problem, its the rod bolts you may have that are the weak link as we know.
I think if TF heads or similar 300+cfm heads were about then apart from B1's which I couldn't afford to pull the motor and replace everything I could've got close to around 570>580hp at that low CR mainly cos of the cam. I would go with a 150 shot and see where you end up you would in theory be pulling 63>6400rpm max in the traps with your parts. So unless you want to pull the motor and go through it completely with ally heads and more comp NA that 600 no. ain't gonna happen the way I see it in reality.......my 2c's.
Last edited by rb446; 10/02/2111:26 AM.
1969 'Cuda 446ci, best 9.96@133.9 in 1990 1971 340 'Cuda, best 11.01@122.8 in 1987
