After spending over 2 years building a W9 Ritter block 434 the performance results are a little disappointing. I was expecting this engine combo to easily put the dart in the 9 second zone.Any tuning suggestions greatly appreciated.
Car details:
1972 Dart Bracket car, 3275 lbs w/driver 51/49% wt list
Ritter 48* Block
4.175 bore
4.00" stroke Scat Ultralight
Manley M300 rods w/ CARR 5/16 bolts
Diamond dish pistons 13.25 comp
W9 heads fully CNC ported by Tilburg Racing Engines in Trout Run, PA
2.15 / 1.60 Titanium valves
Mopar "420" 4150 manifold ported by Tilburg
Bullet Roller 275/280 Dur .730/.725 Lift 110 cam
Jesel 1.65 Rockers
950 Promax carb
1" SuperSucker spacer
1 7/8-2" step 3 1/2 collector custom headers
727 race trans
Turbo Action 4600 converter, Flashes 5000
Dana 4.88
12.2 / 31.25 Phoenix slicks
Leaf / Ladder bars
QA1 single adj shocks
36* timing
Foot brake 2500 launch / 7800 shift
Tried a 9375 1050 Dominator on a 1.5" adaptor and it went 0.05 faster on a sketchy track at the end of the season
416 car no. on time slips

W9 head and intake pics

Engine pics

I’m not a W9 guy but your converter stall needs raised bigtime, and I mean bigtime

I talked to Paul at turbo Action yesterday and he suggested rebuilding the converter with 5500-5700 stall. ATI wanted to build one similar to what we have 3000 launch 5000 stall

Still not high enough for a W9 combo. Edelbrock heads like mine A 5800 is ok.

My old 9w 440 with 11-1 pump gas went 9:50. Yor cam is close to the one I had. My converter was 5000 stall, 456 gear, 904 w/ brake. What are your flow numbers? Something’s off.

My converters when I ran my 727 were 5800 and 6200 stall. Not going to pick up the 10+ mph you’re lacking though. Would have been interesting if it were dynoed.

264-272 at .050" 108 LSA .750" lift at retainer is what I’m running for a cam which is smallish in the W8/9 circles. 4.56 gear 29.5x10.5 tire. Been a really reliable set up. Dynoed 773 @7200.

Looks great and I'd say you have all the right parts. Don't get discouraged, you just need to work at it. Do you have a data logger in the car? A data logger can really speed up the learning curve. If it is a new combination then don't be surprised to find several tenths in the details. Shock settings, tire pressure, converter, carb tuning, cam tuning, ignition curve, etc.

It seems to me that the car is very under geared. The motor isn’t getting into its power range to move the car. The most important thing you could do now is take the motor out and dyno it. Then you will know what converter and rear end ratio you need without guessing. When you get that right you will see drastic improvement.

That would be my recommended course of action as well.

Beautiful car, by the way.

I only worked on one 440 ci small block, It had 360-1's on it but I'm pretty sure it wasn't shifted at 7800. If you over rev at shift points It can slow it down pretty good.Converter is way off.Think of it this way the stall/flash should be within 1000 rpm of the shift point. So either you need a 6800-7000 converter, or you need to shift at 6000.

I would be curious what the cranking compression is.

A 440 cube small block with a 275 at .050 should make a lot of down low power.

I agree with others, you need more stall, I think it needs more carb too. Did you dyno the engine? Have you tried less timing? My Indy headed 434 made the most power at 34°, any more and power fell off. I'd talk to your head guy about converting the intake to a dominator flange.

IMHO your 60' and 1/8 mile et and mph are down too. My street/strip Dart has been 6.25 @ 110 and 10.008 @ 134.75 on pump 93 at 3293#, foot braking at 2000 rpms. it went 6.33 @ 109 in street trim last fall. The engine is 4.125" stroke and 4.09" bore R1, 11.2-1, 266/271° @ .050", .711/.719" at the retainers, ported Indy 360-1's and ported Indy intake, a 1050ish Thumper built 4150, 1 7/8" Hedmans. 727, Coan 8" that flashes 5600, Strange S-60 with 4.10 gears, Cal-Tracs, monos and Viking D/A all around. It's currently on a 275 radial, but previously was on a 325 radial. The engine made peak power at 6750 on an engine and chassis dyno, I shift it 68-6900 rpms.

I think my car will run well into the 9.90's in decent conditions. With some tuning you should run a couple tenths faster than mine. Keep after it, you'll get there. Great looking Dart too.

Converter ain't converting

I know they’re all different, but we got better numbers with 31-32 degrees of timing.

i im no expert but i dont know if any of u guys ever seen my cuda run but for what it is shes a nasty bi@!@@## 60foot 127 on a foot brake 418 small motor

200psi cranking compression