More expert advice on building your Musclecar engine

"Man's got to know his limitations." Clint Eastwood said that in the "Dirty Harry" flick "Magnum Force." Good advice. If you are not a professional mechanic, or even if you are-  say your a Toyota mechanic by trade, you may need some professional advice when restoring a musclecar for the first time.  Most machine shops or repair shops do general maintenance and repair work.  Engine building or restoration is not their specialty.  Tire stores sell tires, and want to do brakes, shocks, struts,radiator flushes, etc. You wouldn't have your dentist attempt open-heart surgery, so why would you have a guy who does mufflers and brakes for a living rebuild your prized engine?  And there are engine remanufacturers who sell rebuilt engines through places like Kragen, Pep Boys, Autozone etc, Napa, etc.  Again, these companies rebuild everything from Mazda Rotarys, to Hyundais, to Ford Diesels. They are not going to be concerned with how to build the ultimate 440 Mopar, or 428 Ford.  However, I'm here to give the best advice you'll ever get that will save you a ton of money and grief.  The #1 thing to remember is that for 50 years the default test-bed for any performance part has been the small-block Chevy. Even so-called "Performance" shops that claim to have built successful racing engines for local circle-track or drag racers, aren't really "Experts".  Why? Think. What is the powerplant that 99% of "Street Stock" or "Hobby Stock", or even "Super Stock" local racers run?  A small-block Chevy. If you need a Pontiac, Mopar, Buick, Olds, Ford or AMC engine built, chances are these guys aren't going to know anything about the idiosyncrasies or nuances of these engines. They might as well be working on a Ferarri Formula One car, or an Air Force F14 fighter plane.  In short-they don't know squat about what your asking them to work on.  If you can afford it-the best way is to find a recognized expert and trust him-I.E. -Nunzi Romano or Jim Butler for Pontiacs, Dick Landy for Mopars, John Lingenfelter for Chevys, Kenne-Bell or T/A performance for Buicks, Mondello Performance for Olds engines, and so on. These guys are awesome, and their engines will have awesome power and reliability-but you may have to get on a waiting list and pay 10 grand for the motor. The next thing is find a local expert in your area-you want a Ford built, talk to local Mustang club members, a Mopar, hit Mopar club meetings. If you want to build it yourself then buy several books and study yourself. Summitt Racing has an excellent selection of "How To" books on building Small and big block Chevys, Fords, Mopars, Pontiacs, Buicks or AMCs.  These books can give you invaluable information on getting maximum performance for minimum bucks. And they''l tell you tuning tricks that you'd have never thought of that are specific to each engine line. For example-Pontiacs love a lot of timing and a lot of fuel. I know a guy that has a GTO with a stout 421 in it. His induction system is an Edelbrock dual-quad manifold with TWO 750 cfm Edelbrock carbs on it, and he runs 40 degrees of timing. It starts and runs like a dream, and if not for the lumpy cam, you'd think it was bone-stock until you hit the loud pedal. It runs high 10s on drag radials. Even an Edelbrock/Musi built 555 Chevy rated at 650 hp, only has an 800cfm single 4-barrel on it. The 720 hp GMPP 572 inch Rat only has a 1050 dominator. Yet, anyone who has driven or rode in, or raced against my friends Poncho, will swear that it's NOT over-carburated!!  These are the little tricks you'll learn, that will make your car stand out from the rest performance wise-even if your doing a stock-type rebuild.  Mastermind