Hi all! New Guy here, Low Buck Comp build, E/ED

[MICROMACHINE72]

Trust me, I didn't either.. And until actually racing again, that will remain questionable, but I'm dumb enough to believe this may be possible.. I looked at every class in comp. Dragster & Altered classes very close, and being a V8 Chevy guy by nature. It was a tough question to figure. I have raced door cars and altereds in the past, before taking about 10 yrs. off form the sport. Now, nothing against the bracket and .90 racers but its just not my cup of tea. I'd honestly rather do something else if that's what I had to do. But that's just me.. Again, on a low budget, I looked at all the comp classes, and naturally any class you could run a door car was out, do to the great expense of what a good used roller would cost. Of course building a chassis from ground out was out, because that would cost twice the money.. Its the right way for a competitive build, but I'm not kidding myself to start on an optimum build that I will just run out of cash less than half way through, and never see my goal of racing again! Starting looking at altereds, but again, your subject in racing against half million dollar ex-pro-stocks, maybe even in your same class! So dragster decision it was! Now to pick the class.. I mulled over a C/ED, was my first choice, I love a 10k rpm small CID SBC!! But damn.. With the record near 6.90, and the index pretty much slammed, you would need I est. around 25K for a engine build. Thought about just doing an old school stock block 283 punched +125 for an old 301, some good alumn. 23deg heads, prob. a little over 500hp, yeah I would be racing, but the car would not even crack nowhere's near the index.. (I had some parts lying around, and through together last year just to get a feel for the car, see pic below) I knew we had to go (econo) even though nothing is really econo, but wanted to run a glide, so regular gas dragster classes were out. Looked at the V6 classes, Whoa!! Those engines cost more to build than a V8!! And the 4-banger classes.. well new millennium technology has taken that over that pretty good too.. I also wanted something on the slower side, let them run me down, and with E/ED inline 6, my chassis doesn't need no more than a sportsman tag. Low buck again. I picked E/ED because right now I feel the index is manageable. Just hope it stays that way until I get there! And its the last class where you still need to run stock production style cylinder head. (non-cross flow) After looking over every convievable 6-in-a-row core, I felt the 240 Ford, at a cool 4" bore-3" stroke, was by far the best choice than any other stock junk yard core- inline engines. So, fast forward to now, I have about 5k in the roller, complete with shorty glide. I'm halfway through the first engine, and have not spent 2k in it yet.. We shall see, If I can finish it and at least crack the index with the first engine, it will be under 10k spent, and maybe, just maybe be "econo" after all telling me there is no such thing anymore!