[D. Miles]

What do you guys think? A while back, I built a 358 sbc for my uncle (tried to convence him to go Pontiac!) who just got back into drag racing after 20 years. His last car was a back halfed 68 Camaro with a 396, we found him a beautiful back halfed 69 Chevelle rolling chassis. I wanted to build a 406 or at least a 383 stroker but he decided to go 350. So we started with a 2 bolt block, found a set of .040 over 13.5 to 1 pistons for 6" rods on Ebay had the block bored with .004 piston to wall clearance Federal-Mogal chromoly file fit rings 6.0 Eagle steel H-beam rods Scat knife edged steel crank 230 CC Dart Pro-1 heads with 2.08 intakes and 1.625 exhaust PBM 1.55 roller springs with 240 lbs. on the seats @ 2.00 installed height 650 lbs. open Lunati roller 50140 camshaft 276/284 @ .050 .645/.645 106 LSA we had it in anywhere from 96* to 104* (started out with 1.6 roller rockers went to 1.5 shaft rockers) had a Edelbrock Super Victor on it now has a Holley Strip Dominator we tried several differant carbs a regular 750 Holley DP a 750 Proform DP an 850 Holley DP and the 8896 1050 Dominator off my wagon which it ran best with. Fuel system is a 5 gallon cell with an Aeromotive A-2000 350 GPH pump 1/2 line to a Holley Big Port reg. #6 line to each bowl. Ignition timing anywhere from 35* to 42* with MSD 6-AL and crank trigger ignition. Converter is a Trans Specialties 5000 stall trans is a T-400 with a TCI brake rear is a 12 bolt with 5.14's and Goodyear 14 x 32 slicks the car weighs 3200 lbs.

The best E.T. was a 10.49 @ 124 MPH in 40 degree air with my Dominator and cam installed @ 96* (timing set was off, we checked it after the 10.49 pass) the 60' was 1.410 leaving off the brake @ 3000 RPM. For the most part, the car would only run 10.70's and 10.80's. The weirdest thing I realized is the fact that the motor will not make power over 6500 RPM's we built the engine with the intention to shift it @ 7500 (another 350 I built with 12.5 to 1's stock 5.7 rods 220 cc Pro Topline cast iron heads with a solid lift Lunati cam 268/276 @ .050 .576/.586 lift motor pulls hard to 7200 leaves @ 4500 off brake 1.82 glide 5.14 gears 14 x 32 tires in a 2700 lb. car 1.39 60' 10.19 @ 131 MPH) With the 358 we have left as high as 4800 and if you try to push it to 7500 at shift points E.T. falls off to 10.90's. The 10.49 was when I drove it and since I have that feel by the seat of the pants I could feel the power nose over way before the shift light and I pulled shifts @ 6500. Back in my dark days after I graduated high school I tried a couple sbc's a 350 and a 400 and both would make power well into the 7000 range especially the 400 with unported 1970 294 angle plug "new style" camel hump heads (from a 350 Z-28 I was told)

We tried everything! even pulled the motor to check bearings because it almost acted like it was trying seize up. The cam is currently installed @ 100* and the ignition timing is at 40* with the Proform 750 DP and ran a 10.68 @ 125 last weekend. Our goal was 10.00's or 10 teens @ the 130 mark but at this point we'll settle for anything better than 10.50... What do you guys think??? All serious opinions welcome! Thanks D. Miles