10:1 comp, with Eddy heads, a .580" hyd. roller cam, SFT preferred by me, an air gap or similar intake =430>440hp and thats whats needed to go 11.6>7's@3550lbs, Min 3500 stall, 4200TA even better. Eddy heads only flow around 250cfm@.600 lift so you need that bigger cam to get the flow.

Porting your J's is expensive and not worth it in my opinion with big chamber cc. Best if money allowed would be TF190 heads that flow 280@just .500" so you can use a low street lift cam, something like a comp XE275HL and have more power.

Its all doable with 3.55's however your trap rpm will be in the 5500 range with 26" slicks which is ok for a mild cam. A 4.10 gear and 28" slicks would get you trapping around 6000 rpm with slip and pick up your 60 and ET and would be a better way forward and use a big enough carb, the standard 750DP may run good but a 950 should make more hp especially with TF heads.

You will need about 450HP to run high 11's...maybe even 475HP. And lower gears with no stroker, or leave the gears and put a 4" crank in it.

I'm having a hard time thinking why a 408 with 240-250 cfm j heads can't get this done.

Years ago I knew a guy that had a dart sport with a 408 and edelbrocks with a .557 solid purple shaft ...It went high 10's.

Yep, I just went 10.77 with Eddie’s and a 565 gross lift flat tappet cam, 1 5/8 street headers, and the car is 3300 +
Big issue is gear, 3.55 will make it a good bit more difficult.

as gears have been mentioned, how would a 10.80 combo using 4:30 gears be affected using 3:91's or 3:55's ?
using the lower [numerically] gears would affect the converter stall, correct ? if so, by how much ?
i will be guessing the gears mentioned will possibly raise the stall speed a small amount [of course depending upon weight] ?

Got a guy here running a street/strip 340/416 Demon in our NSS class, TR with 2 x 650's, mild hyd.cam .463/.494", around 10:1, stock J heads weighs around 3250@the line with just a 3500stall, 3.91/28" tyre and has been a best of 11.23@118, SS springs, around 445 fwhp. shifts@5500, traps@5800.

Probably not as much as we think, mopars like to grunt. If you can hook it.

You don't need a stroker, my Duster ran 10.60s with a 360 J heads and .510 lift cam, get your car set up good and should be able to run 11s, but you will need more gear and convertor.

My dakota isn't that fast but it's got a build the op might be interested in. I a 2000 360 magnum engine in my 91/96 dakota race truck. I call it my projunk yard dakota.lol any way the magnum block is stock bore and stroke. Has stock rods and stock crank. Has
KB107 pistions
Comp cams 550 soild lift cam
PRW 1.6 Roller Rockers.
Mike at B3 racing rocker arm ration correction kit.
Smith Brothers 3/8 push rods
Out of the box Trickflow 190 cc
Ported indy single plane intake
Holley 650DP ported to flow around 800cfm
2 inch super sucker carb spacer
Hooker 1-5/8 headers. 18 inch header exstions
Turbo action built 904 transmission
8 inch 5500 stall coan converter
Ford 8.8 with full spool and 4.30 gears
Hozers 28x9x15 slicks.
With a sliping converter, which wasn't built for my build. Came with the transmission. Best pas has been 11.24 at 116.8 in the 1/4 and 7.15 at 96.7 in the 1/8. , i guessing the dakota with me in it weighes around 3300/3400 pounds. All passes are made on 93 pump gas. Forgot to add that the compression is right around 11.1. I think with the converter built to my engine specks thst the truck has a low 11 hi 10 second pass in it. At least I hope it does.lol

Looks like a good setup mopar65! The Magnum 360s make a good base for a small block build, I ran my present 360 Magnum short block as fast as 10.70s before having to upgrade the crank and rods from stock to aftermarket after doing that I went as fast as 10.40 , now running 11.00s with lower compression with a little tuning it would run 10.80s as a matter of fact it just went 11.12 at 119 ( deep staging so minus a tenth for that would make it 11.02 ) yesterday at partial throttle stop only shifting at 6,000 , the air was really good with a tail wind.

Wow sounds like you have a great running engine. I was going to build a 13.1 compression 360 stroked to 426 cubic inches. But huges engines said they didn't know when they were going to get more cranks in. So I ended up buying a 397 stroker gen3 hemi engine kit. Now just need about $3000 to get it built.lol i think I picked the wrong time to build a engine. Lol I need to get the torque converter pulled out and sent off to get redone.

The most compression I was at was 11.5 to 1 when I ran the 10.40s same motor is at 10 to 1 now for pump gas using W2 heads . I also have a 408 inch stroker 9.8 compression , R3 block , Indy heads but the crank cracked

Wow very nice. Wish my dakota was that fast

It’s been a 40 year thrash 318s ,340s , a 360 and a 408… I’ve always liked the Dakotas ! If I haven’t had my 92 D150 since new I would build one

The dakota is my first if you woukd call it race small block. My 65 plymouth B body and my 73 dart swinger were big block 440. My 65 ran 10.50 in the 1/4 and my 73 dart ran 10.40 in the 1/4. But because of health issues I havent got to race my dakota in over 2 years now . I have a 692 lift solid roller I bought for the 425 I was going to build. I thought about putting it in my 360. But not sure if it woukd be to big for it.