How to set up my 318 cuda 1/8 mile car

[RAMDAVE]

I was wanting some input as to what i should
do to my 70 cuda to run good in the 1/8 mile
I have a 78 318 out of a Ramcharger it has
a Holley street Dominator intake and a Holley
Carb size i dont know? as for the rest of the motor i believe its stock. im going to tub the car to the frame so i can get a little wider tire under it.what size slick?
the rear is a 489 8 3/4 with ?? gears. the car is gutted and will run plexiglass windows
except for the front windshield. anyway i would like to know since its a 318 and i don't think im gonna be making like 500 HP! lol i was wanting to know if i should run like 4.86 gears as this car is going to be strip only later on i would like to change over to a 340 or 360. any advice will help!
anything to stomp a chebby or furd!!

[rumblefish360]

I never ran 1/8 mile. But the tall gear you want to use sounds like a good start.
As far as the slick go's, try a 10 wide . Tire height is a little ruff. Mabe about 26-27 inch for a start.
There is a caulculation for this. It has to do with finish line RPM. Tires will effect this.

[451Mopar]

You will want alot of gear, probbly close to 5:1 depeding on tire height and engine RPM.
Next you will want a small very high stall torque converter (depends on engine RPM and gearing), and you may benifit from a race preped 904 transmission with the low gear set.

I don't know why you want to use a 318, but the street dominator is a mild performance single plane suited for the stock 318 engine.
I think the power band of that manifold is 1,200 to 4,500 RPM?

With the deep gears and loose converter you can use a really big cam and get away with it. With the mostly stock 318, you could use something like the inexpensive Mopar 284/0.484" cam. If on a budget you can use the Street dominator intake and try some open spacers under the carb to increase plenum volume.
Obviously you will probbly be using headers, right?

As soon as you have the money, I would get some good cylinder heads. The Edelbrock heads are good for the money and work with most stock parts. There is also the W2, W5, and Brodix B-1 B/A heads.
For a race only car, I don't know if I would mess around with ported 360 heads as they can get pretty expensive rebuilding and porting them, and that is money that could be spent towards the better aftermarket heads.

I din't mention much about the 318 short block, because once the chassis and drivetrain are set-up, you can get decent performance. Adding the Mopar cam with the stock engine and Holley manifold is inexpensive, so you can put money towards the "good" heads. You can use the heads on the 318, and then build a bigger short block with higher compression to replace the 318. At this point you would want to change out the cam with a more aggresive, higher lift one to take advantahe of the new heads and compression. You would also want to go to a high RPM single plane intake and bigger carb at the same time.

[RAMDAVE]

My cousin has a OFFENHAUSER 360 degree Manifold What is it Single or dual plane
is it better than the Holley street dominator
for my application and yes im going to run open headers. as far as where to get the gears i looked in Summit catalog as high as they go are 4.86s who else sells gears in the
5.s oh and should i take the sway bars off
i was told i should take them off since its a
strip only car. And i do have a set of 360
Truck heads i was thinking about running but
several mopar mags have told readers that the
360 heads on a 318 don't do much? thanks
for answers!

[451Mopar]

To figure your gear ratio, you need to know the tire height, max Engine RPM and the Maximum MPH you want to run at the end of the 1/8 mile.

For example, with a 27" tall tire and 5.30:1 gears, the engine will need to rev to about (depending on torque converter slippage) 6,300 RPM to go 90 MPH.

If the engine has the torque to accelerate the car to over 90 MPH, but the engine readlines at 6,300 RPM, then you need to go the a higher gear (lower number), or taller tires.

Example #2, 4.88:1 gears, 27" tires, 6,500 RPM = approximate top speed of 103 MPH.

Now look what tire size can do:
Same setup as #2, but with 30" tall tires.
Top speed will be almost 115 MPH.

Rember this just gives top speed. Depending on the engine power, with a high power to weight ratio you may reach top speed before the 1/8 mile timming lights, or it may take a mile or more to reach the top speed if the engine is low on power compared to the weight of the car.

A good sorce of information is the Mopar "Chassis" speed secrets book sold by Mopar performance.
They also sell the "Engine" speed secrets book for engine building tips.

[Speedy#1]

451 mopar that's a good answer this is a good start RPM=GEAR RATIO X 350 X VEH.SPEED DIVIDED BY TIRE SIZE .I would check your cam specs and get the max tork range then choose a gear that would put you their.