Here's the deal, I've been trying to pick away at my car in a quest to beat an 11.99 or better out of it with small gains here and there It's a LOW BUCK, mild 440 in a GTX that's race ready weight is around 3,750 and currently runs 12.30s with D.A around 4,500. This is also a street car so it's full exhaust, full interior, lights, etc. I'll list the engine details below. I've been trying to avoid the tunnel ram, open exhaust and anything else that would lead people to believe it should be much faster than it is. I guess I'd rather have a quick street car than a slow race car if that makes any sense. I also have a few parts laying around for other projects that I am contemplating throwing at it which I will also list below. I was just curious as to whether I am being unrealistic looking for an 11.99 or if I have one particular component that's holding me back that should be changed. Any thoughts or input on how to improve the performance without throwing large amounts of money away are greatly appreciated.

440,Standard bore, Standard Stroke
9.1 Compression
906 Heads with 2.14/1.81 Valves
Hooker 1 7/8 Headers, 3" Full exhaust, Flowmasters, No H or X Pipe
Holley Street Dominator / M1 S.P Intake (Tried both)
B/G 750 Silver Claw
M.P 296/557 Camshaft
J/W 3500 Stall converter
Mallory Unilite @ 39* Total
4.56 Gears, 30" Rear Tire

E.T is 1.69 60', 7.80's 1/8th, 12.30's @ 108+/- MPH

It seems as though it doesn't make the top end power. I shift at 5600/5800 and trap around 6,000. Also, the car ran quicker with 4.56 gears than it did with 4.30's FWIW. BTW, already confirmed fuel pressure is a solid 7 Lbs well into 3rd gear. Fuel Delivery does not seem to be an issue.

Spare parts I'm contemplating swapping in but hesitant about are:

M1 Tunnel Ram w/660's (Race car appearance though.)
Electric Water Pump
Hooker 5209's (2" Primarys) and possibly add H-Pipe
Dana 60 w/4:88 gears
"Your idea here..."

Thanks Guys!

Seems to me that you are doing really really well already! 12.30s and 3750 lbs...not bad.

Given your 108 trap speed I would agree that top end hp is where you could improve.
How about a cold air induction system??? I picked up .25 seconds in a mild 440 cuda years ago.

Is there any weight to shed?

Larger primary's, H/X pipe and low restriction mufflers ( reads straight throughs ) would all help. Running the CR up to 10 / 10.5. Tunnel ram would help. 4.88's would run you out of motor too soon IMO. Higher stall vert ( maybe 4500 / 5000 ) would help.

I'm no expert compared to a lot of you but I would look at head porting (no mention of it) and a bigger carb. The ET seems really good for the MPH.

Sheldon

IMO,. more compression, better heads and more carb.

Hey Trent, Wondered where you had been. Use some of Dad's parts . matt

"440,Standard bore, Standard Stroke"

May want to consider starting at the beginning. I'll wager these 35+ year old bores are oversize, out of round and tapered.

Shave your heads .040/.050, 4500 vert, and add your electric water pump and your there. Might not even need the vert. But that would guarantee it.

Take a road-trip to MIR or Cecil county and you will go some 11.80's

Ross .030 over domes, bush the rods,850dp and find some heads. Leave everything else.

my 2 cents worth - get a larger carb , look at your gearing , exhaust .
When I built my 440 it had 906 heads with home port/cleanup ( 10.4 comp),825 Mighty Demon , M1 single plane with 1" open spacer , 509 cam , 4200 stall, 3.9 gears and 28" radials . At around the same weight , over 3750lbs , it ran 11.80's

Tex

Used aluminum heads. Mill to increase compression. Put it on a diet.
Doug

Smaller chamber aluminum heads like stealths or rpms

Don't know how much "budget" you have, but a conveter will be $600-$700, alum heads wil be $1200-$1600, cam & lifters $300-$400, ect.
What head gaskets are on the engine? If they are the felpro 1009 or similar (which measure approx .040" thick), put on a set of steel shim gaskets (approx .017" thick). The cost is about $50-$60 (head, header and intake gaskets) and a days work. 4.88 gears will make it just about unstreetable.
Cam timing could be usefull and cheap. Advance that cam about 4-5 degrees from recomended to get that boat moving. When at the strip, consider race fuel, then jet the carb up a size or two.
With that low compression and small cam, 40-42+ total ignition timing is not a bad thing as long as you run good fuel (110 octane).
All these things will add up and are cheap. The fuel and ignition timing can be adjusted back to sreet use.
Good luck, you can get there.

Brian