You're right. It's been awhile since I looked at the blocks. They're red. bottom is open second is plugged. 3rd is open and the top is plugged. Yeah a dominator would be a diffrent beast to learn for me. I wanted to keep this engine "basic". Maybe a 4500 carb in the future but I need to walk before I run. I am right there with you on the 1050 though. Dwayne said too big and I didn't second guess that at all and went with his recomendation on the 950.

I still stand on my Dommy making more average and peak power w/great drive ability...........I test constantly on the street and verify at the track and my junk picked up 2.5 mph going from a 1050 to a big bore 1050 w/skirted banjos that flows 1230+..........Ask Al, Shiloh and others who run bigger than "normal" carbs and go quicker and faster than ever and even get mileage and win Drag Week...........

oh hmm, that sounds like the old holley setup but maybe a bit lower than float level.

I'm sure you're right Thumper. A few guys around here said a dominator would probably be a "20 horsepower deal" on a combo like mine. But who knows till it's tried. The guy at Magnum Superchargers (shop around here) talks like you lol. "Single planes and 4500 carbs are the way to go". I got stuff to learn for sure

Ask Humpty on here who went from 10.70's to 10.18 so far w/a stroker small-block and iirc he picked up 5+ mph..........there's MANY more just like that out there who are now believers...........

I know. I follow you on facebook and have seen posts here praising the dominating dominator. I'm not a non believer at all. Like I said earlier I'll wanna get advice from you for tuning carbs. I'm sure a dominator will be in my future sometime after I make the car readier than it is for the power that this engine makes as is.

Absolutely enjoy it now as is then after you feel it's maxed out, try a Dommy and see what YOUR results are but I'm sure she's gonna fly as is............

Here's a interesting (to me) long winded update.

I found a older Holley Dominator "9375 HP" 3 circuit carb at a swap meet I couldn't pass up for super cheap. I added the QFT bowls and blocks. Then sent it to Dominic Thumper for mods. Great customer service by the way! Thanks Dom. While he had that I had the oil pan off to fix a leak and discovered the boss in the block that the oil pickup tube threads into was damaged. The top two-three threads were broken off. There was iron dust covering the crank counterweights and rods. So I took the whole engine apart and cleaned it and reassembled it with the Milodon 21010 external oil kit.

Then as I had it back together I found another good deal I couldn't pass up even though I probably should have. A comp cam RX296/303 solid roller cam. It's 263/270@ .050, .650/.651 lift, 108 LSA, cam with Comp 96829 sportsman lifters, and original 1.5:1 Harland Sharp rockers. I asked Dwayne Porter if it was a good cam for a street/strip 440 and he said yes. I degree'd it in at 104. Installed Trick flow 16943 springs (which are the same as comp 943's and pac 1243) @ 1.9 with 260 seated and 620 lbs at .650 lift with my tool steel retainers.

Then as I was setting up the rockers with checking springs I found the lift was .676/.684 so the rockers are approximately 1.55:1 but the sweep pattern was .125" wide. So I called up Micheal and B3 Racing Engines and ordered a geometry kit. Another great guy to deal with! His kit made the sweep between .030-.035 wide. Lift checked in at .650/.654 now, so the ratio checks out to about 1.5:1 now. He explained why a loss of rocker ratio might happen before I even bought the kit. Because the rocker is built wrong and the heads have the rocker pedestals in the wrong location, especially considering the increased valve length that are in Indy heads. so after fixing the valve side by relocating the shaft, that the error built into the rocker arm goes to the push rod side which is a compromise but the valve action is less stressful on the valve train now and under control.

After a bunch of grinding rocker shaft bolt holes and clearancing the heads for push rods. I got Manton "series 3" 7/16" straight .120" wall for the exhausts and "series 3" 7/16 tapered to 3/8 with .168 wall on the intakes that are an effective length of 9.75" (9.9" overall length). Lift was now .637/.639 with zero lash after deflection with the actual springs. I lashed the valves to .016/.017 cold (about 20-30 degrees in the garage hah) after the checks.

I figured with a roller and a Dominator this engine would be 650+ on the dyno. But wasn't sure how my Doug's D452 with 2" primary pipes and 3.5" collectors would stack up to the old hooker super comps with the same sizes (but a better performance header that wouldn't fit my car well). I figured with no valve float I'd be happy with even the same power as before. I didn't the the cam and rocker swap was gonna be worth too much for peak power because Dwayne picked a great cam for the 1.6 Mancini/Harland rockers and I read this was mild for a solid roller but I don't know for sure.

What I do know is this upgrade combination picked up the torque 40 lbs feet to 550 at 4000 rpm, dropped the torque peak to 46-4700 and the peak number was down to 555 but still had 550 at around 6000. Ron and Brian at R&R performance said that's as flat as a torque curve gets. Peak power was 6600 at 649 after adding the wooden 1/2" 4 hole spacer on the dommy adapter and jetting the front down two sizes. The power maintained 649 and 6800 which was the highest we went to because time ran out.

A real nice perk to top it off is the AFR light throttle cruise test between 1800-2900 rpm. Thumper knows his stuff!

All in all it looks like a nice 10.3:1 446 with heads that are too big, a carb that's too big and maybe slightly over cammed lol. Thanks to R&R performance, Dwayne Porter, Micheal at B3 racing engines, and Thumper.

Nice. Dom busts his ass every day to help carb guys out if they listen. I've also seen mark Mark Whitener do the same. That's why it pays to pay up front and get your money's worth.

That's a nice combo for sure. With Mikes correction kit your valve train will be so happy you'll never have to mess with it. I keep pushing his stuff because it works and everybody that doesn't have it, needs it.


Very cool.