Just wondering if anyone here is into drag racing? I just started this year and love it! I've been racing my street car this year, but my dad and I are building a real race car for next season. The car we are building is a '74 AMC Javelin. I built the BB Mopar engine, manual shift-only automatic trans and spool rear end myself. Like every project, this project is taking forever, but it should be neat when its finally rolling down the strip come spring!

 

Awesome! Which big block Mopar are you using? 383/413/426 or 440? Maybe a 426 hemi?

 

The engine is a 400. Just a mild build with a good cam, aluminum dual plane intake, 750 dp Holley and hv mechanical fuel pump and open headers. We are going to use the car for nostalgia class racing, so we are limited to no fancy electronics. The ignition is total loss, so no alternator. In the future we'll put a 440 crank in the 400 to make a 451 stroker out of it. But for now it should run plenty strong.

Transmission is a 727 with a reverse-patten manual valve body and a 3500rpm torque converter, shifted with a B&M ratchet shifter. Rear end is 8.75 Chrysler with a spool and 4:56 gears.

Mostly we've been carving weight from the car and adding frame connectors and bead rolled interior sheet metal to stiffen the chassis--all up it should be in the 2500lb range. So it's super light.

Battery and a small 5gal fuel cell are in the trunk, and the rear suspension is modified with different leaf springs, poly bushings and adjustable drag shocks. There is also an adjustable pinion snubber on the differential. Everything remotely street legal or for creature comfort has been removed to save weight--that worked out well because I was able to sell that stuff to Javelin restorers who needed the parts for their street cars. Windows will be lexan, again to save weight. We figure the less the car weighs the less power we'll need and the less likely we will be to break parts.

Anyway, building this Javelin has been a learning experience, much different than dirt bikes, but fun! Hopefully the thing actually runs strong and consistent this spring.

 

Sounds like you guys know what you're doing. The 440 crank is a good idea too. A lot of folks didn't really like the 400, but I'm pretty sure it was more of an emissions problem for the most part than anything else. I have a buddy that dropped one in a 71 Challenger he had and he did some mods to it and that sucker twisted so hard on launch, it cracked the body under the back windshield. He forgot to chain the engine down to prevent so much torque. But it would haul some major butt!

 

Yes, when we decided on the 400 (which is a smogger engine so most people dismiss it) it was because of the high rpm potential due to the big bore, short stroke and large valve sizes. Hopefully with the mods we've done the engine will live up to its true potential compared to its emission-neutered original state. From what I've read a 400 with a 440 crank the bore/stroke relationship is about optimum...so once we kill the crank in this engine we'll be rebuilding it again with a 440 crank. Anyway, we're learning as we go, the race car stuff is new to us. We will be using solid engine mounts; actually my dad is finishing work on those as we speak. The engine will also be as far back in the chassis as we can get it without modifying the firewall to help with weight distribution. We actually had it cobbled together with the stock 400 mopar drivetrain a year ago, before we gutted all the street stuff, and drove it around a bit with a trip permit...that was pretty fun! Once the Javelin is finished it will be a trailer only car though.

 

I'm guessing you guys will be using a forged crank instead of a cast one?