I have a bone stock 1971 455 with a performer intake and TH350 to put in a 1965 cutlass with 3.08 gears. I would like to shift at or below 5,000 RPM. Headers are likely. Mostly a cruzer with drag strip use 8 to 10 times a year. I would like to run solid 13's. Is anybody running anything like this?
If so what cam?

Thanks for your advice!

 

I don't know much about racing; however, wouldn't 3.08 gears be better for the highway than the drag strip? If you wanted to drive solid 13s I would think you would want to go to 3.42 or 3.73. At least go to 3.23 gears.

 

I ran a stock 72 455 motor, in a 3700lb car with 3.08 gears, th350, and open small block headers. It went best of 14.698 in 4 passes.
To run a 13 flat, You'll need to do some modifications. I spun a rod bearing on the 4th pass and the motor never went over 5200 rpm.
I don't think I'll dare spin a stocker up that high ever again.

 

Can't do it with the stock motor. As stated 3.08 gears are hi-way gears. Need to build the engine up. Read the posts under big blocks. There are several builds to compare too.

Good luck.

 

its not really plausable, but close.
it all depends how much money you want to dump into your car, there are other ways to get your car quicker down the drag strip without highly modifying your engine.
you can start with a good posi differential with gears, a set of tires that wont let all that torque spin your tires and kill your launches. also lighten your car as much as you are comfortable with. they say that for every 100 lbs reduced you can gain 1/10sec in the quarter mile. and old car of mine i had, i reduced the weight by nearly 250lbs by taking out the ac,heater,powersteering, and removing two of the three layers of steel on the hood. and it all cost nothing, and unless your too sensitive to heat/cold, the ride quality didnt suffer.
another thing you can do is suspension, look at drag cars, alot of thier tuning is just in adjusting suspension and linkage.
make sure that your transmition is in good shape, shifts firm and fast, sometimes you can do this by just adding high-quality additives with a flush, or a shift kit.
of course theres alot more, but it all depends how much money and time you want to spend.

with a 455, and a powerban below 5000rpms, your gonna have lots of low end torque, which means if you put a numerically high gear ratio, your just gonna burn tires and lose that time, as well as hurt daily driving with a 3-speed, and fuel econemy and top speed.

i had 3.23 gears in my cutlass with a 350, edelbrock performer intake and 600cfm carb and a mild cam, that didnt like to go past 5000rpmsand some basic porting with headers, and that car would just touch the 13's in the quarter. (had the weight reduced)
my cam by the way was a lunati and had .472"/.496" lift, 214/224deg @ .050" and 280/290adv duration and i had roller rockers. i would reccommend a similar setup with no more gears than 3.55:1 posi

port a good set of iron heads, portmatch to aluminum intake. i would highly reccomend that camshaft, or something with more lift but no more duration. get headers. free flowing airfilter, good ignition, HEI works great for those rpms. and top it with a good carburator. and MAKE SURE ITS TUNED. a tuned 650 is far better than an out of tune 750. i would stay away from edelbrock carburators. get a holley 750 or 770. put this engine in a car with the above mentioned non-engine tuning, and youll have an everyday driver with solid 13's timeslips.

 

I like most of what 350 OO said.
Get this car to hook, you have a bunch of torque.
Posi, traction aids, sticky tires, no hop bars.
Get the axle to plant the tires hard.
36-38 degrees timing fully advanced, no more.
Insulate the fuel line on the engine (use a wrap). Cool the fuel.
Amazing what clothespins can do. No joke.
Block heat risers...
Carb spacers.
Cold air induction.
I like q-jets. Play with secondary opening, secondary rods.
Totally possible.
Jim

 

BTW-Carcraft did a similar story on a guy from SanDiego who did basically that. Lowcomp smog 455 with a 3.08 single legger in a 65 that ran 13.60's with a funky homemade box hoodscoop. Engine was stock, 75 98 engine.
***Look for the Feb 1999 back issue.***
Articl was titled "The Old man from SanDiego", see page 41.
This was the guy they purchased the Buick wagon from.

Innovate-or Vegitate.