Dragula's Quest for the 5's....on Pump Gas

Well, this year is almost in the books, got one more race this weekend, but my bracket car is out for the season....And as usual, we went thru some parts, figured some stuff out, and just wished it had all come together at least at one of the races this year.

I really thought last weekend was it. The car was running awesome. The driver was dead on the tree, and it was looking promising in record good air. But it was not to be. Seems I got bit by everything at least once this year. From tow vehicle issues to you name it. Last week,the no oil pressure light came on just as I hit the return road on a good pass. Checked a couple things, and it looks like I didn't hurt anything, but the engine has to come out for a mild freshen up.

So with that said, I was really hoping for 6.0's or better this year out of our new 400/512...We are just under 11:1 and have EZ1 heads and a .680 roller cam. A Thumper 1050 dominator, and basically just a port match on everything...Its a nothing fancy bracket engine, but we had opted for the light weight crank option. Figured 6lbs off the rotating assembly should have been worth somthing...

What would you guys change? Go with better heads, or send these out?

Well how fast have you gone....... and how fast do you wanna go?

Car went the quickest with the old 440/512 same heads and cam and carb. It went 6.13 at 111.9...The current based 400/512 has gone 6.17 at 110.8....60fts are real good with either. We are in the 1.35 range...

Car weighs 2920 with me in it.

Looking to go 5.95 at 113 or so...We had talked about going -1 heads with the 400 as it allowed a little extra room in the engine bay. Or maybe having Modern port them and maybe the intake as well.

Looking to go 5.95 at 113 or so...We had talked about going -1 heads with the 400 as it allowed a little extra room in the engine bay. Or maybe having Modern port them and maybe the intake as well



Had this work did on my -1's and run a best of 6.00.2@114 , 3350bls.

Doing a few calcs and it looks like you need around another 60fwhp to go 5.90's, current 618>678, your 60's are good so not a great deal to be done there. As you said send them to Modern and see if you can get them to the 345cfm mark with some intake mods, not sure what they flow ootb though, 310?.....should be enough.

Different set up, but I went from 11.2@118.6 with stock 906's to 10.7@125 in the 1/4 with just a pair of BV 906's around 260cfm bolted on in a 3300lb 440ci car with a .650 solid cam.

I think a full port job on your heads and intake should get you there. Maybe a set of 1.6 rockers if needed. Maybe consider an 1150 billet main body, too.

I'd have the heads and manifold ported. Talk to Dwayne Porter.

To me the 60 foot is kinda soft for a car at that weight running that ET.
That translates to mid 9’s easily in the 1/4, to me could easily be 1.30ish.
I guess i compare it to 3350 pound S/S spring equipped car i had that ran 6.20’s/ 30’s typically and the same 60 foot. Lots heavier...... and slower.
Making the heads better will obviously help, the 60 will too.

Well the engines out...Oil pressure is back. Either the pickup got starved for oil on the hard braking shut down and and sucked some air and lost prime, or the pump pressure relief was lightly stuck and as soon as we put a wrench on it, came loose.

Left a message at modern to see about porting and or head options we should be looking at...

fwiw: We had Wilson port the indy single 4 intake and picked up over 35 hp and thats with a 4150 flange.
Its pretty amazing how much flow restriction/turbulence is in the intake's.

Just a thought.

We were looking for 6.41 this year at 3345 lbs and got to 6.37 .
Night we pulled the .37 i still had another carb formula in my pocket but ran out of time, pretty sure we could have pulled a .35- but i reckon i'm bench racing now- grin.

I have the 4500 flanged low deck one on this engine. What did that run you cost wise if you don't mind me asking?

I've been very happy with my -1 heads from Modern. I run more cubic inch, cam, and compression. But the cross ram and Eddy carbs probably aren't as good as your stuff. That being said Jeff's heads have sent me to 5.73@121 3345lbs. Personally I think 1.35 60ft is pretty close for that ET.
Doug

You could go small block and get where you want easily at that weight.
A good 4 inch indy headed small block should run 5’s easily. Even a W5 deal would.
Plus you would be shedding more weight

Are those EZ heads M.W. size or 440 port size? If 440 size have them enlarge to M.W. size
I saw 50 HP gain on my old pump gas 518 C.I. Duster motor by switching from a set of Indy SR with M.W. size intake ports that flowed 340 CFM at .700 to a set of MCH CNC ported 440-1 that flowed 370 CF @ .700 with every other parts the same
Switching the same heads onto my 526 RB higher compression ratio dyno test mule motor with a little bigger camshaft made 65 more HP than with the same set of SR heads, same compression ratio with both motors due to the CC being 76.0 on both sets of heads
Both motors wanted more air and fuel, the single 1050 CFM Dominator carb was not enough carb. on either motor with the 400-3 or the 440-3 intakes
More air and fuel equals more power

Small block W anything is really not in my future. I do however have a brand new set of G3 heads here all ported, but still looking for a 6.1 block. I might just bite the bullet and get the aluminum one if my tax return is any good.

The heads I have are the MW port size already. My thoughts are between the EZ295-325 & -1's at the moment. Mine flowed 327 at .600 and fell off after that. I run a .680 lift cam.

Obviously, the -1’s would be the hardest of those three to outgrow.

And, from what I understand, EZ295s wouldn't be much of an improvement over some basic hand porting to the OPs current EZ1s.

And so the upgrades are starting to come together...Heads will stay the same for now...My next build is hopefully a procharger motor...

Intake is ported a little further...Couldn't afford any of that nice high dollar professional porting...

You're leaving a significant amount of power on the table by not spending any money on the heads. I guess I don't understand what your goal is, since it seems to have changed from the original post.

Please tell me you don't use that air filter on it.
14 X 4 " should be minimum.
I'd even look at a 6" tall element if you have to run a filter.

5's is still the goal ....We weren't far off last year, and with a burnt head gasket and blown header tube, there should be some power left on the table. But yes, heads were what we originally wanted to do, but I think we will change it up more next year and with a procharger, we don't need super good heads.

Money was the other decision. New heads were outside the budget, and the porting quotes I got seemed pretty high to me. So we went with new pistons and head gaskets to get a little closer to max compression. We will be starting the season on 50/50 race fuel and getting everything dialed in from there.

Were I am pitted its like a sandbox and I have fenderwell headers that kick all that stuff up. I originally bought that to fit the Hemi, but I will have cut the intake down or switch intakes for it to fit the hemi. So, I have not raced the Duster with an air cleaner, but I am changing the hood this year to a forward facing scoop, and that might fit right in the scoop. I am worried about getting crap in there....

you definitely need to run a air cleaner, there is power in straightening out the airflow trust me on this, testing on the engine dyno and again at the track has shown me as well as many others about this
Drop base air cleaners are the answer to carb. to hood problems 16x3 inch elements works very well on 512 + C.I. motors with excess of 750 HP

I didn't see it if you said it had to be na. I'd put a plate kit on it as is and presto. Pump gas works pretty good with spray to a point. Also the cheapest option.

More compression would help too, at least at the track where the motor will be working in higher rpms. The cheapo 93 pump with 10 percent ethanol works better than straight gas high test

I'm curious about the prices you were quoted for porting your heads, what the quotes included, and why you think they were "pretty high".

But if you go to a 50/50 mix it won't be a pump gas combo anymore. All those years of insisting on being pump gas and you probably could have ran a 5 five years ago if you weren't so stubborn. LOL. But then again aren't we all Stubborn in our own ways. I know I am.

Well stubborn, and cheap at times....At least I got rid of the purple cam...

New valve train solved a lot of my push rod issues....So hopefully we will have a much better race season. The rockers I had were ok on a 440 block, but on a 400, the push rods were rubbing. Also switched to a Flow cooler mechanical water pump over the Mopar one, a new Milidon oil pump, and a few other small things...

Now with new Comp Cams rockers, and Manton push rods, life is good again. Ready for race season.... Had to lathe some material off all the spacers and the top hold downs to fit, but once I clearanced all of them, it went together perfectly. Car goes for paint work next..

WHY are you still running a mechanical water pump? With an ET goal in mind, that ought to be the first thing to go.

what was the difference between the flowcooler and mopar water pump ?

Those comp cams rockers, are they bushed? If not I would not run them. Steel on steel will gaul with roller cam spring pressures. Without thinking I ran a set years ago, comp cams. only .625 lift. Got one pass and several of the rockers were gauled. You might want to think about it!

Flo-Kooler pumps have the anti cavitation plate on the impeller and move more water. I ran one for a while, nice piece.

Porting your heads will probably get you to your goal. You can try tightening the lash also, that might be worth something if the cam duration is less than 280 @ .050. Any place to scrub a pound or two off? Every pound is worth about .001 ET.

Cause it fits, and when I upgrade the electric 35gpm one on the Hemi this year with a 55gpm pump, I will have one...I can put on there. I am sure I will have to make all special spacers to make it all fit though. Winter has been too cold to do it now.



Rockers are bushed....I like them a lot so far. Wouldn't use them if they weren't bushed.



We will be looking in to it next year. Heads are fresh and ready to go.....Prices for porting were pretty high I thought, only so much money to go around.....

I understand on the money thing. The mrs just bought furniture, so my budget is shot!

Use a "drop-in" style pump that fits in the factory housing, then all you'll need is a short belt.

My old pump gas Duster ran 10.69 ET at 124. MPH with the original set of ported big valve 906 heads, swapping the heads to a set of MCH CNC ported Eddy RPM heads picked it up to 10.40s at 127.MPH. I ended up swapping out the 4.250 stroke crank to a 4.300 to raise the compression ratio from 9.25 to 1 to 10.3 to 1 and that help it run in the 10.30s, the final change to that motor was changing the heads again to a set of Indy SR M.W. ports with a single Indy 400-3 with Holley 1050 CFM Dominator. The heads where 9.0 CC smaller than the Eddy RPM so that raised the compression ratio up to 10.8 to 1.
Those changes ended up with a best of 9.993 at 134.8 MPH with the air cleaner and full exhaust system on and hooked up

one more point of compression and a nice solid roller.....

Well first two outings and car is working and running great....I have not hit my goal of running 5's, but I have not had to pull the valve covers even once...That means the new valve train is holding up really well.

So far fastest pass is a 6.13...No where near 5.99 I want, but its a work in progress. Was hoping for a little quicker out of the gate, but it will get faster. 60ft is now down to a 1.34 consistently.

Things I have learned is the new combo likes more rear tire pressure and more fuel. So I am homing in on both right now. Still tinkering with the timing and carb fuel pressure too....

And its not currently on pump gas, but in the future, I will be going back to 93, but with water/meth injection....So right now I am running C12/108 and when I get back to work somewhere, I will spring for the Snow kit...

And here is a more up to date picture...

6.17 Pass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfyZYITsKNA&t=22s
6.18 Pass 1st round loss -.038 red
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZAorsZxu0Q