And put a boring run of the mill motor in, just to have more time enjoying driving the car vs. all the maintenance and bad manners?

Been trying to find a happy medium on the Hemi for years. Looking to make ok power, but still be able to drive it all over...I have to say, its been a fight. Still not sure I found it since the wiring burned up the day we got the new Hemi in the car, and I haven't put a single mile on it this year...

In a roundabout way I did this. I took a 2550
Car and turned it into a 2880 car. Of course 80 pounds of that was booting my son into his own car. But I removed the fiberglass doors and went back to stock doors with wind up windows, bigger fuel cell, alternator, and a few other old guy mods. I love running low 6.0’s and not having to do one thing but add fuel. I have a mid 8 second car that’s almost finished sitting 8 feet away that I have almost zero interest in. But I don’t want to sell it.

Yeah, I like going fast, but running around the car all day just to make a couple passes....When I can mild it up a little, and put fuel in it ever couple rounds, and street it....

Have you considered a milder motor with a power adder? I never wanted a high maintenance motor because I wanted to drive mine on the street a lot, so I built my motor pretty mild but have a turbo to make as much power as would ever want when racing.

Maybe relative, more than a decade back I bought sight unseen a 1962 Polara 500 that came with a 361 4bbl/727, the biggest offering at the time in that body style.
As best as I can tell from receipts that came with the car, during the second gas "crisis" around 1980, the owner installed a 273 with a mild Competiton Cams cam and a 4 speed.
I think that decreased the resale value/desirability of the car and it was no problem for me as I was intending to go with a 440+ motor ASAP anyway.
Upon receiving the car, I was shocked how peppy it was, decided to add a few upgrades, and make and keep it a fun docile cruiser, and just buy another Polara 500 to hotrod.
I am very happy with my decision.

I sure as heck didn’t do this so I could street it. I love full time racing to much and I’m not the car show type. I’d rather scrape paint.

Power adder is where it is these days. I am happy with my Hemi on the street cruisinaroundon motor. The neighbors and the general public may not be, but I am. Then just spray the snot out of it at the track.

This is what I enjoy!

Power on demand only when you need/want it.

Mine is a mild hydraulic roller engine that is really easy to live with and gets driven at least once a week to work in the summer and quite a bit on weekends.

A couple of friends have turbo LS cars and they are lots of fun, too! Easy to putt around with on the street and then turn the power up at the track. We are all running easy 10's (I'm almost into the 9's)with excellent reliability, low maintenance and comfort.

My junk is not really all that radical, 512 cid, 255,258 @.050 cam when I had a single plane intake carbed, it had a pretty rough idle,low vacuum , not terrible to drive on the street but not really pleasant to drive in traffic, car has AC & OD auto trans, when I went to Hilborn 8 Stack EFI it will idle @ 650 rpm in gear now sounds like a stock 440 mag & drives like one until you hit it hard, it is a DREAM to drive on the street now, except for the hood clearance problems LOL, so far runs high 10's in street trim.

Build it to do the job you want, with the behavior and reliability you want……..and it’ll make whatever it makes…….and that’ll yield a given level of performance.

I've said it many times before, but your combo shouldn't be giving you the reliability problems that it does. I think there is an oiling issue and a valvetrain stability issue that needs sorted out. Get those 2 issues fixed, and you will have exactly what you want.

I am kinda thinking that way...My engine builder has a newly built 440/543 with TF270 heads on it he offered to me. Its low enough compression to put a Torque Storm on it. With my 3.73 gears and the mild manners, I think it would still make the same HP & Torque as the big Hemi.

Outlawd here has a turbo fox body and it's solidly sub 8.50's, he literally drives it everywhere. If you're willing to take the plunge on EFI, a transbrake, and a turbo kit, there is no easier way to make power and have it be streetable.

I'm trying to get my car into the mid 10's and am struggling with spending the money to do it since I don't want to lose the reliability. If it breaks all the time, or needs valvetrain parts, it takes the fun out of owning it in a hurry.

Mine has run 9.85 or 9.89 NA on 93 octane....Not sure how the 440/543 would hold up, but I had one before and it was pretty fast.

Cars should be an enjoyable hobby, when the enjoyment isn't' there, change is needed. As with most things in life can't usually have everything, so some compromises will have to be made. I'd mild your combo back so it requires little to no maintenance. Although it will be slower, I think the less maintenance will make it more fun overall.

Judging from the initial fire up 4-26-2020, I'm expecting my 572 to be pretty tame compared to the 451, which is the direction I wanted to go.

The 4 grand converter and 4.10s might not be needed anymore but should be adequate, can mess with all that later, but would love to downgrade to 3.54 at this stage of the game.

Need to find a deal on a transmission jack....

I haven't taken anything out and the plan is to get the 451 running again before I pull it. I really had a great and fun experience with it.

I did. I took my 13.5:1 451 out and put in a 9:5:1 383. I went from 9.80 to 11.20. I put carpet in it, bench seat, a little bit of exhaust and a set of torque thrusts with drag radials. Being able to put pump gas in it is very nice. It is an around town car at best, I still have the 4.56's in it, but I do have a spool and 4:11 sitting under the bench. It lets me go get ice cream plus allows me to run a low key Saturday night program at Beech Bend, which I like a lot. I am using the car more than I was and it is allowing me to hone my mechanic and race skills, without as much time commitment. I will say though, the 451 is in the corner and I just bought a new (bigger) cam for it, so at some point I do plan to fast again--just hoping it is more in a (63-65 post b body) Nostalgia Super Stock format.

That seems to be a problem with alot of my buddies. We continue to build them to go faster and faster. Then we take the so called streetable right out of them, or we get older and start selling them off. Most are now buying newer Challengers, Chargers, Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs etc and selling the old junk for the drivability.

I had a very nice transmission jack that I gave away when I moved. Too bad you're so far away, I would've given it to you.

Appreciate the thought Andy.

I'm looking for one to use with the hoist.

I've been reducing the cam timing in my hot rod every time I build a new motor. I've done several new motor builds for my Coronet over the past 20 years and have gone with a smaller cam each time. What is interesting is that the peak power hasn't gone down, but the idle has improved and drivability has improved each time I reduced cam timing. The trick has been using better cylinder heads and porting the intakes. My current engine is a 496 inch big block with Trick Flow heads and a ported intake. Cam is 239 duration but engine make 600 torque and 600 hp. 20 years ago I was using 20 degrees more duration but making less power and the engine was lumpy at idle and tough to drive at low speeds.

I have to look at the new cam specs I put in the Hemi this year. I can't remember if I lowered the duration. It was around 285, but its a lot of cubes, and seems pretty mild. I did lower lift, which allowed me to go lower in valve spring pressure. I am down to #180 closed from #230. And I found a milder ramp rate with a Comp cam than I had, and a reduction in lash from .024 to .016....I did not get a chance to drive it and let the Sniper 4500 learn it, but it idles real nice.

I like between 250 up to 270 degrees at .050 and closer lobe centers on roller cams than a lot of others advise based on my personnel testing and likes and dislikes on Mopar wedge street motors. .

[quote=Dragula]And put a boring run of the mill motor in, just to have more time enjoying driving the car vs. all the maintenance and bad manners?

Been trying to find a happy medium on the Hemi for years. Looking to make ok power, but still be able to drive it all over...I have to say, its been a fight. Still not sure I found it since the wiring burned up the day we got the new Hemi in the car, and I haven't put a single mile on it this year... [/quote
]my left over parts would build what you want, on steroids. The ported 440-1 heads that made 926 hp, a megablock combo that has 580 cubic inchs, Jesel 1.7 rockers, and two very long duration roller cams i could have reground. With e85 and twelve to one compression, and cammed for max torque at 4,000 to 4500 it should be a brute wanting a 3.55 gear and tight eleven inch converter. Max rpm could be 6200
And maybe make 700 hp?

I took a "streetable" tunnel ram motor out, in exchange for a friendlier and more aesthetic dual quad under a hood scoop. I changed how i was using the car. Enjoyed both equally

It sure seems like at this point, the logical step forward would be to get the wiring done.
Then see if the last round of the changes you made yielded the desired results.

We did something similar with our 64 Savoy. Dad is 75yrs old and is not able to get around in the garage like he used to, so we replaced the 'good motor' that had lots of compression and cam with a stock stroke 440 w/ Indy SR heads, smaller solid flat tappet cam, and the factory Max Wedge intake. It now runs perfectly fine on pump gas, it's low maintenance with a shortblock that was last refreshed in 1995, and he can drive the car whenever he wants. It can run 10.90s when it has to and he races it a couple times a year, but he's done sitting in the heat at the race track, high entry fees, etc...He simply enjoys driving the car, and is not afraid to run it hard.

At some point it will get an updated 'good motor', but he's having too much fun with the current combo for us to take it apart.

Not trying to agitate, just curious, . What’s all the running around the car you have to do just to make a couple of passes ? What about the engine / car is not reliable ?