good morning all.
Seeking opinions from some of you heavy hitters out there who have been racing mopars for a while.
After being out of drag racing for 24 years I decided to dive back in late this summer. After a little bit of searching, I decided on a 72 Dodge Dart that was already built and turn key.
Specs on the car (as supplied by the previous owner):
360 block bored .070 over
custom 3.685 offset ground crank, internally balanced with 6" SBC small journal rods
Ross custom pistons with 13.8 compression
W2 race ported heads with 2.08 intake and 1.65 exh Manley valves. Norris stainless steel 1.6 ratio roller rockers.
Competition Cams full roller cam .646 lift @ 105, 106 centerline.
Victor intake with Holley 1050 Dominator.
MSD 7AL with crank trigger.
Hedman Husler 1 7/8 race headers
LT 727 TF with Cheetah manual reverse pattern valve body.
Turbo Action 4400 converter (allegedly, not flashing at that RPM)
Dana 60 with 5.13 gear
ladder bar rear with older Comp Engineering single adjustable coil overs ( which I have no idea how to adjust and can find no info on Comp Engineering website). Ladder bars are set on the top hole in the front brackets, which sets bottom bar of ladder bars parallel to the ground.
stock front suspension. Neither of us have any idea what shocks are on the front as there are no markings of any kind on them.
He told me engine should be producing around 600hp. He said to shift at 6800 rpm, but I'm shifting at 6500, with 7000 going through the traps on the 1/4 mile.
no idea what the car weighs, has fiberglass front fenders, hood, doors and trunk lid, all windows are lexan. I'm guessing maybe around 2200-2500.
running 32X14X15 rear slicks.
60 foot times average between 1.52 to 1.55
best 1/4 ET has been 10.62 at 124 and change.
I feel there is a lot more in this combo, he says it should be running in the 10.20s with 60 foot times in the 1.30s. We both seem to agree that the torque converter is the bad actor and it's too tight.
My question to you is do you think the converter is the issue here or perhaps something else? I haven't made any adjustments to the ladder bars or coil overs cause, frankly, I don't know where to begin with those, as I have never run that type suspension before.
Any constructive suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Planning on doing some test/tune runs next weekend before the tracks close for the season.
