which upgrade? 440

So lots of reading last night about what others have done. I have some money coming in 1500-2000 and would like to do some upgrades. This is for a street car, that may, only God knows when, see the strip.

Current Setup in a 70 cuda'

440 .030 over with L2295F domed pistons Has about 3000 miles on engine since I rebuilt it.
906 heads, original to car, mild porting and multiple valve jobs
Voodoo 60303 cam
Performer Intake
750 Speed demon with mechanical secondaries

727 with shift kit and 3600 Hughes Converter

3.23 suregrip. Would like to to go lower but retain some sense of drive ability.

Thinking of a set of aluminum heads. Which ones and what cc?

Long Term goal is to get the shaker setup, (out of reach currently), but a six pack setup would eat that up.

Thoughts, suggestions,

Given the dollars, my advice would be to replace the rear gears with a 3.55 or (best choice IMO) 3.91s. I drove my '70 6bbl car with 3.91s for years daily, snow, rain, highway, whatever. Heads will eat up that money plus a few $$ and may not work well with the domed pistons. So I'd concentrate on the gears.

(as said) deeper gears/dial in dist spot on/free flowing ex/carb mixture. what is your cranking compression? Regarding the heads I read some info that other than the weight diff there is no magic in alum vs iron but it does wick away heat faster & lets you run a higher SCR WO pinging (all else being the same) but I do have some bare super stealths sittin in the front room. We'll see!

84cc Sidewinder heads, PM member Sasquatch. Piston domes will not be an issue. Everything else is okay except maybe the Performer. I believe the Holley Street Dominator would be an improvement and squeeze in where the Performer sits. Should be able to get both given your budget.

I'd leave the gears where they are.

R.

Best bang for your buck? Rear gears and an overdrive transmission. Rear gears don't cost much. Do some careful searching and you may eventually be able to find an early 90's dodge pickup/van overdrive trans. You may even be able to find a non-lockup version which will allow you to reuse your current torq converter. That trans will allow you to run 4.10 gears in the back while giving you a lower highway cruise rpm than you have now. That will give you a better seat-o-pants performance upgrades than heads/intake.

Definitely swap that performer intake out for a Holley Street Dominator!

Ill go against the grain...gears would be the last thing id change..no need to kill streetability....

Sidewinder heads, diff cam and a street dommy or rpm intake. High 11s to 12.0s, easy if the tune is good and converter is legit....

For a street car with street tires, replacing the gear would not make my top 100 things to do, even if they were free.

To the OP, are you running pump gas? Very surprised that you don't have detonation with those pistons and that cam.

And honestly, without some track data, it is hard to say where the next best place is to spend money. If your exhaust is known to be decent, then I'm with the intake and cam crowd. If the heads are marginal (which they usually are unless you or someone has plowed a bunch of money into them) then get some aluminum heads. Which ones might be best determined by the current cranking cylinder pressure numbers.

IMO,
Check the resulting CR with your pistons and an 84cc head such as the Edelbrock Performer. I would keep the CR to less than 10.7 for your application. It may cost more than the $1500-$2000 you have, but a good set of aftermarket heads with some porting will wake up your combo.

With a hydraulic cam, I am good with a Performer RPM intake. But I do like the Holley Street Dominator intake.

A gear change to 3.55 or 3.91 is great at the track (especially with good tires), and will smoke the tires on the street. But is that what you want?

I wonder what you like or don't like in terms of how it drives now? Is it healthy? Do you travel/cruise in it? Mostly around town? It sounds like a pretty well sorted engine combo to me. A set of open chamber Edelbrock heads (88 cc's from memory) would help it breathe and should be (basically) drop in replacement for the 906's and work with the domed piston (but check!).

Personally, I'm not a fan of buzzy gears or slippery converters unless racing is the main objective. 3.23's work well and a 440 should have the torque to handle them even with some cam. OK at highway speeds and around town. Even the original 318 in my Challenger handled 3.23's well.

Perhaps there are other areas that would benefit from attention. Suspension? Tires/wheels? Exhaust?

For exhaust I'm running thorley headers 2 1/2 pipe through magnaflow muffflers and through modified tips. Running 250/50/15 on the rear currently, just bfg ta's, with new superstock springs. I can a.oke the tires now. I am more interested in making the car perform or be ready for track. Not my daily driver.however I'm 46 and taking some night classes and drove her to tonight. She always leaves me smiling.

I like how the motor runs and power it has. Been the best since I got the car over 25 years ago. The front suspension needs a rebuild, seems like I just did it, 20 years ago. When I built the engine I had purchased a set of performer aluminum heads for it. But things happen and they got sold and I went with the 906s I had. I drive the car occasionally and when I do, there is usually a trip out the country.

my goal for the car is I would like it to be a 12 second car. Always have, although never been on a track in all these years. She saw lots of racing way back when, just of a different sort. Pulling a wheel off the ground was cool though back then, but really not in the realm of a need. I feel like there is some more hp and torque to pickup, but as others have posted, without track data, or dyno, still doing a lot of guessing.

With the above being said..........

I would do the gearing, intake, upgrade to full 3" exhaust, converter, shift kit/manual valvebody and taller D.O.T. sticky tire.

Wait for another windfall of $$ to do the heads & cam upgrade.

Just to contradict myself, this is contingent upon minimal hwy driving. If you do a lot of hwy, I'd forget the gears/tires and change those heads that have had multiple valve jobs.

My son and I swapped out gearing and went tall tires on a Brand-C streetcar and it made the car so much more fun on regular surface roads that we now are maxing out the heads/cam/intake to get the most out of the gearing.

$1500-2K won't do just heads, never mind heads, cam, etc etc etc. Pretty sure if yo udo want heads, anything angle plug will hit the pistons. Could be wrong there - but I seem to recall that.
Besides, the driveline the OP has should run into the 12s anyway. Go to the track and see what it does. You may find when the Truthteller speaks you have issues other than "not enough gear" or "stock heads".

I agree with moper. Should be a mid 12scd deal as it sits.....assuming the tune is good.

If you go with an RPM intake, be forewarned. They are tall and you'll have clearance problems with a flat hood unless you get real creative with a drop base air cleaner or plenum. Ask me how I know...

lol How about some paint for under the hood before it rusts away

As others have said - whats it running now? dose it have traction?

If you dont want to/cant get to a track, there are a few ways of testing, the cheapest being a smart phone app that uses its built in accelerometer

Has the dizzy been set up?
Has it been tuned with an A/F meter? dyno?
Many people consider the BFG's junk traction wise

If your just wanting to be able to say it dose 12's and retain all of its current manners, hook up a bottle of nos

lol, The hood, that's another story.
The Distributor was recurved, vacuum advance removed when the engine was put together.
No Dyno A/F Meter. Have a droid will check on this accelerometer.
Tires are fairly new, but was looking into ET sTreets? Is there a preferred street/strip tire?

Not much traction in first, until I shift to second.

if i had a couple grand to blow i'd get rid of those pistons and loose converter. i'd keep the 3.23 gears.

Have you taken it to the track as is? I disagree with losing the vacuum advance but I've grown tired of arguing about it. That combo should be in the 12s. Take a test-n-tune day and go see what it does, just as it sits.

Why? Do have experience with this converter?

Spend $2k on CNC ported 440 Source cylinder heads. Bolt on with your existing stuff. You will need new incidentals like spark plugs and head bolts.

The horsepower upgrade will be significant!

that cam doesn't need a 3600rpm converter.

that cam doesn't need a 3600rpm converter. [/quot

Maybe it doesnt "need" it...but it dang sure aint slowing it down...unless it is a sloppy piece...if its a sloppy 1980s technology vert it needs to go. Period. The term 3600 converter means squat. What is the actual flash speed?

The slower et in my sig was with a comparable size cam and actually a comparable combo...with an actual quality 4500 flash vert. No chance it would have et better with the "right" on paper vert. Pulled left front 2 inches.