I think, as others have mentioned, a cam swap might be in order, among other things. Everything has to be right and matched to get them to run how they are capable of.

My old 416 combo was a 260/266 flat tappet, 560/580 lift that i ran 1.6 rockers on(made it 598/623)it was on a 108, in at 104. Weiand excellerator, mildly ported eddies(maxed at 274 at 600 lift) TTI 1 5/8 step to 1 3/4 headers

8 inch convertor that flashed about 4900-5000, 28 inch tire with 4.30 gears(they were too steep, would have liked 4.10 like you have better)had a 1025 race demon, that was a great carb for that combo, this all was in a 3400+ pound car with full interor and bench seat, column shift at 11.8 compression.

car went 10.74 at 123.70, through the mufflers so at 3150 pounds, it should be extremely easy to get in the 10's with a combo similar to the above, even if the heads are just mildly cleaned up.


The above all said, there is no way i would lean on the combo you have with those eagle I beam rods amd that cast crank for any extended period of time and not expect you arent going to drive over the bottom end at some point in the very near future.


So, i would step up the cam to something with 600 corrected lift and 260 ish on the intake, consider going to a 950 ish carb and perhaps more convertor, after you fortify the bottom end to handle the expected power you are going to have on tap.....

I took that bottom end on my 416 above( h beams and cast crank and threw w5's on it) and changed nothing except headers and intake and went 10.30's with that swap,and proceeded to drive over the crank and ruin the shortblock, so your indy's should net you a similar gain if you have everything corect with the eddies you are currenty using and make that swap.

Strokers like cam and carb, you are lacking on both currently, as well as having a solid shortblock foundation to build from.I might leave it as is until you get a good shortblock under it.

Good luck