Its easy to make power these days. Other than sharpening a drivers skill, how about recipe for consistent 318-360 low buck bracket car 13:00 or slower?

Got a car yet? Or have one in mind? What's it gonna weigh?

It’s funny this post came up because we were just talking about this the other day. I sold my old 1972 Duster to a good friend in the 1980’s as a roller. He asked me how much I would charge him to build an engine for him and I said 5 dollars. He laughed and handed me a 5 dollar bill. Two weeks later with a stock bore 340 block i honed it, file fitted the rings, we cleaned it, checked the clearances, degreed in a 484 purple shaft cam, and put it together in his pool room. A week later it was in the car and running. He was a dirt track racer so we went to the track and I told him to put a couple of easy passes on it then we let her rip. He ran 12.20’s that night. His first race he went 3 rounds, and a week later he won. Lol. That combo with super stock springs, J convertor, and 4.88 years was a deadly combo. Oh with the 5 dollars I went and bought a bag of jawbreakers that we all chomped on while putting that engine together so we named it the “jawbreaker” engine. He raced most of that year going lots of rounds and then never raced again

A body works. Interesting with the J converter and 4.88 gears.

Pick a car & a motor: pretty easy to go 13.0 and drive it to & from the track. And if you accidentally make it a 12-second car, just shift at lower RPM to slow it down.
FWIW: With my old 358" X-head SB combo in my Duster, running its 750 Holley on just the primaries meant dead-consistent 12.80s. As a 4-bbl, it ran 11.40s.

Ya it was a combo of parts I would never try today. We used to really wind the heck out of our stuff back then to get it to work and budgets were very tight. I liked the stock 10.5-1 pistons the 340 had stock but trust me today I would grab a 360 block.

I bought my '71 no's matching 340 Cuda in 1980, hot street car, all stock motor apart from a .484 purple hyd, dual plane and a 750DP, small tube hdrs. Had a B&M super holeshot converter and 3.55's. Would rattle off 13.1's@102 all day long with 8x26" M&H slicks revving to a mere 6k.

67 dart 360 30 over 9-1 flat top, 509 type cam, 308 head with a good clean up m-1 intake all matched 650 dp ,tci 11 convert 727 mvb, 4.30 gears = 2.00-2.10 60ft 13.30`s @107-110 mph , its real fun to run 11 sec cars with the same mph hehehe

The lighter the car the easier it is to make it go fast with a little power and make it consistent and unbreakable AKA, put the correct SB parts into a light weight A body you should have a good combination for Sportsman bracket racing I would try to start with a 360 motor instead of the smaller 318
Good luck

my duster that i use as a bracket car goes 1240 with 360 huges hydr cam 8to 1 comp 750 carb 904 trans 430 gears 275/60/15 drag radial or 308 casting heads

We used the old 368 recipe . 360, w/72 340 std bore piston. cam dyn. .585-310 solid. 273 rocker arms. Fly cut the p1stons our selves . used a paint scale to balance the piston to the same weight as the 360 piston. comes out to almost 12 to 1 com. For a low budget engine made great power. used some old x heads. We ran the thing for 3 seasons 3 times a week.

A body, boneyard Magnum 5.9 that runs well, a crosswind intake and timing chain cover and pump off an la engine. Stock type fuel pump. You could try a stock converter with a stock cam and see if it is fast enough with tall gears and the stock motor with headers, upgrade converter and cam first, then gear as needed if it really needs it. That is about as cheap as you can get IMHO.

The reason I started this post was I met a guy at the track and he was a down and dirty bracket racer. I don't know if he still likes drag racing but does like winning money. His combo was a Lincoln with no add-ons, full tank of premium and it idled all the time at the track. According to him, he always goes home with money in his pocket. Not looking for a modern motor or computer or even being a bracket money maker, just good combos that are reasonable in price, maintenance and consistency at the track. I meet a lot of people at the track who have a desire to race or are plagued by inconsistencies of info that's out there and make bad decisions. For example, I know, for example, that the "J" converter is probably the best converter for bring out performance for a BB. Its been around for 20-30+ years. The 360 makes enough torque to pull a B body to decent times.Something like the Edelbrock packages that make consistent power for the motor combo or even the development of the crate motors. Looking for that complete package that anyone could use and afford.

Good post, it brings back memories!