Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

really its a crap shoot its really down to throttle control but the 355 in my car has some angry neighbors down stairs and i got a 400 block given to me so.... but there is a wide range of motors that have been winning 355/331/383/406/377/361/400/327 lol

Thinking out loud, how about 4.155 x 3.25" ?
355 cubes using a 327 crank.

Do the rules say anything about traction control ?

YEP No traction control devices allowed. Detection of traction control will result in being barred for life from all MSPA tracks.

I missed that part.

so it looks like the 406 is my better choice

reamracing#08 wrote:so it looks like the 406 is my better choice

Since the track gets real slick, I'd go with the 377

I was "barred for life" from Ted Drew's Custard stand, but I still go there. Sometimes, people forget who they barred after 45 years. John Goodman was also "barred for life" by Ted, so I'm not in an exclusive club.

The carb needs to be altered in some way for a high performance engine, especially the larger the displacement. I would not read the rules to say you can't change the tune. I'd want to know EXACTLY what is checked.

Displacement 377 or 400, depends on the specs.

Troy Patterson blog tmpcarbs.blogspot website TMPCarbs.net Engine Professionals Magazine's TMP Tuning article, pg. 44

kirkwoodken wrote:I was "barred for life" from Ted Drew's Custard stand, but I still go there. Sometimes, people forget who they barred after 45 years. John Goodman was also "barred for life" by Ted, so I'm not in an exclusive club.

Ted Drew's? I think there are only a very small handful of people on here who even know what/where that is. May as well be talking about Imo's, bbq'd pork steak sandwiches, provel cheese, toasted ravioli, or Crown Candy.

When you say dry slick track it just makes me ask how dry? Locally that is all that are here are dry slick tracks, so dry slick to us here is about the same as racing on glass with baby powder spread accross the track. We have raced in other states where they are supposed to be dry slick conditions only to find out that the track has alot of bite in it for us. Could you tell us what track you are racing at so that I can look it up and see what the track looks like maybe on someone's youtube video. For versitility I like to use a 3.5" stroke crank in a 400 block and tailor the cam profile so that it has a smooth throttle transition that can be used for both dry slick and on a tacky track. What gear ratio are you useing? Are you limited by a "stock" valve spring diameter of 1.25"/1.26"? What kind of suspension are you useing on your car? What kind of tires do they require you to use? Do you have to use a factory type shock on this car? What is the race weight with driver for your car? Now then as long as it has a 0-4412 Holley list number stamped in the main body of the choke horn do they still gauge the venturi sizes?

There is a vortec q jet intake out there, low riser appears to be a stock manifold when looking.There is one on our generator at work that uses a 350 on lp gas for building power.Shocked me when I saw it.Qjet is still the winner for carb in my book. Secondary spring tension can be adjusted for track conditions if needed. However these carbs are pretty much self sizing as the secondary doors only open enough to provide the air the engine is demanding based on load.
I.E. tacky track with bite they will go wide open but with no traction and thus lower load on the engine they won't open nearly as far.That is why GM could use this carb on everything from a 231 v6 to a 501 caddy and everything in between.

search for "madcowl" on youtube he records alot of our races and the track is winston speedway

1997bird wrote:When you say dry slick track it just makes me ask how dry? Locally that is all that are here are dry slick tracks, so dry slick to us here is about the same as racing on glass with baby powder spread accross the track. We have raced in other states where they are supposed to be dry slick conditions only to find out that the track has alot of bite in it for us. Could you tell us what track you are racing at so that I can look it up and see what the track looks like maybe on someone's youtube video. For versitility I like to use a 3.5" stroke crank in a 400 block and tailor the cam profile so that it has a smooth throttle transition that can be used for both dry slick and on a tacky track. What gear ratio are you useing? Are you limited by a "stock" valve spring diameter of 1.25"/1.26"? What kind of suspension are you useing on your car? What kind of tires do they require you to use? Do you have to use a factory type shock on this car? What is the race weight with driver for your car? Now then as long as it has a 0-4412 Holley list number stamped in the main body of the choke horn do they still gauge the venturi sizes?

yes they gauge check the 4412's 3.50 gear powerglide in low (6.16 final glide is a 1.76) stock shocks racing springs car weighs 3250 with driver

Ok after looking at the track from various youtube video's I would use the destroked engine depending on your budget. I would use a GM 461,186,291, 292, etc type head if this were my engine, the 305 heads are a very bad idea and the 441's are not a whole lot better. I would use a Scat lightweight cast steel crankshaft, their I-beam rods with the 7/16" capscrew, and a Mahle 11cc dome piston. I would use a fuel like the Sunoco 110 race fuel for your endurance application. I would also use the Comp Cams brand rocker arms with some Cool Nuts by Crane for logevity of the rocker fulcrum. I use Erson Cams or Crane cams for my custom grind camshafts but I would use a cam like this one 254/250 @.050" duration on a 109 LSA with 5 degrees of advance ground into it (104 ICL), Erson has a great .375" lobe that will give you .600" lift with 1.6 rocker arms (make sure that the heads can use that much lift first tho). I use a reverse split camshaft so that you can fill the cylinder better for your 2 bbl carb application. Make sure to spend the money and have the block bored, TQ plate honed with a 280 grit stone and then final hone with a 400 grit plateau hone with 8 strokes per cylinder, and have the block decked to square all 4 corners and then have them place the piston to where it is .010" above the deck surface. Also make sure to have them put the piston to cylinder wall clearance at .006" as when the outside temp is cold in the spring and fall part of the season the piston's have enough clearance so that it doesn't try to gauld a piston in the block. When you do this you need to make sure that the car is no less than 170 degrees water temp before going out on the track that way you don't scar the cylinder wall surface with piston rock.