I have a 351w that's in need of a rebuild. I want to build a good motor hoping to get it in the 12's ...11's wouldn't hurt either. I dont know if I can achieve my goals with a GOOD rebuild and some great after-market heads or do I "need" to go stroker? If I could I would go a spend 6gs on a motor, but since I am only 19 I have somewhat of a limit. My dad will be helping out a'lil. This will be my daily driver, but will see the track once in a while so pump gas is a must. My dad will be helping me out getting a 9" posi rear, but what gears would you guys suggest I get? I have a C-4 right now and can get it built almost for free all I need to buy are the parts since my dads friend owns his own tranny shop. As for suspension, I have new upper & lower control arms, new (620)springs with half coil cut, 1" sway bar, New 5 leaf mid-eye springs, monte carlo bar, export brace, and 17x8's rollin my car.
- Hope I dont sound dumb about my situation/goals, so what do you guys have to say?...

 

I think with the right combo of heads, cam, and induction your goal is quite realistic....

To reach your goals, I would think 3.73 gears would work well...

 

3.55-3.73 would work great, provided you don't do a lot of highway driving. A 351W with good heads, like AFR 185s, RHS 180s etc, a good cam, and some decent pistons/rods and you can easily run 12's on street tires. There are guys running into the 11's on 302's with sticky tires and pump fuel, that drive them every day. 12's is very realistic for a 302/351, and a decent 351 can get into the 11's with tires without too much difficulty, and still have good street manners

 

You won't have problems getting enough power, but you've chosen a suspension that looks to be more for handling than launching, so you will lose some time there. M&F magazine did a suspension-only upgrade on a New Edge Mustang GT and dropped over 1 second from the quarter mile time. Food for thought...

 

Yeah, some of the newer Stangs with suspension only mods pick up .5-1 sec in the 1/4. Which says something about the factory suspension....

 

Damn!! just curious, what kind of suspension would be good for launching?..for a '65.
Other than that, Im kinda happy to hear that I dont have to spend a whole lot to get some good times. Does anyone know the diffrence between a rebuild and a stroker? $money$ wise.(rough estimate)

 

4-link and a panhard bar. You can adjust it one way for street driving(and contrary to popular belief, 4-links CAN handle very well if set up for it, quite a few Audis in recent years have had 4-link front and rear suspension) and adjust it differently for the track. Or set up a midpoint adjustment, so you have good off the line acceleration, and good handling, but excel at neither. Barring that, leaf springs with some good traction bars like Slide-A-links, but not necessarily something lowered with a tight front end, since you want rapid front end lift for quick weight transfer

 

Panhard seems something I would go for, but the 4-ling is way outta my budget
Im lookin into getting some AFR 185's. Any suggestions on what pistons/rods that arent very expensive and would work well with these heads?