Building a real or clone musclecar to drive or race on a budget....

Since we've recently discussed cloning your dream car and possibly racing it at the Pure Stock drags, a fair number of people have asked for advice on how to do this without spending a mint. Here's some good advice on how to do that, regardless of make or model that your building . # 1. Don't spend money on beefy, premium parts that you don't need. In other words, if your building a NASCAR Nextel Cup engine that has to turn 7,800 rpm for 500 miles at Daytona, then yes, you need 4-bolt mains, a steel crank, forged pistons, screw-in studs in the heads,a double roller timing chain, a rocker arm stud girdle, etc.  However, if your building a street / strip engine that will never see the high side of 6,000 rpm, then you can get years of trouble-free service from two-bolt main blocks, cast cranks, cast pistons, and stock heads. This applies to drivetrain components as well. Yes, if your putting a 720 hp 572 inch Rat in your Chevelle, and plan on using an automatic transmission then yes, you definitely need a professionally prepped Turbo 400. However, for anything else GM makes- a Turbo 350 will stand up to 500 hp easily. Ditto for a Ford C4. Even if your running later-model stuff- Buick Grand National racers run in the 10s with 200R4 trannys, and 5.0 Mustang racers run in the 11s with T5 manuals that are only supposed to handle 300 lbs ft of torque!  The same goes for rear ends-I've touched on this before-GM 10 bolts, Ford 8 inch and Chrysler 8.75 inch rears are incredibly tough. Unless you have a 600 hp engine and plan on running wrinklewall slicks bolted to the rims and dropping the clutch at 5,000 rpm, you don't really need a GM 12 bolt, or a Ford 9 inch, or a Dana 60 rear end.  # 2. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If your engine has good oil pressure, good compression, doesn't smoke, doesn't use oil, and runs fine, then why would you need to re-build it?  Go ahead and add an aftermarket carb and intake or headers and a cam. You'll get the benefit of the added power without the expense of a complete overhaul. If your cardiologist said your heart and arteries were in good shape, would you have open-heart surgery or a by-pass anyway?  Of course not!  # 3. Get the most bang for your bucks. For example if you have a '77 Trans-Am with a 400 Pontiac or a 403 Olds V8, a Turbo 350 and 2.56:1 rear end gears, the first thing I'd do is swap that salt-flats gearing for some 3.23:1 or 3.42:1 gears, and put a B&M or TransGo shift kit in the trans. These mods will drop as much as a full second off your 0-60 and 1/4 mile time without noticeably affecting driveability or gas mileage. That's a much bigger performance gain than you'd get by adding a cam or a Flowmaster exhaust. Carefully weigh cost vs benefit. For example-a magazine ran an article on a 400 Pontiac build a few months back. They were proud of the fact that it made 440 hp and 460 lbs ft of torque, and cost "Only" $4,400 to build, including the Edelbrock aluminum heads. The iron-head 400 in my brother's GTO cost $1,900 to build and it made 381 hp and 428 lbs ft of torque on our local dyno. Is 59 hp and 32 lbs of torque worth $2,500 MORE bucks?  See what I'm saying?  # 4. Always use the biggest motor you can afford. Often the bigger engine costs no more to buy or build, yet makes substantially more power and torque with the same equipment.  For example a 350 Chevy makes way more power than a 305. A 360 Mopar makes way more power than a 318. A 400 Pontiac makes substantially more power than a 350.  On the other hand, I said biggest motor you can AFFORD.  Don't pull a perfectly good 383 out of your Road Runner and then spend another 4 grand that you don't really have buying and re-building a junk 440. The horsepower difference between a 396 Chevy and a 454 is about 40 hp, if both engines have the same equipment. And, if you do have to rebuild your engine-here's where you may be able to go bigger ( via a stroker crank kit ) at no additional cost. For example-a small-block Chevy 383 stroker rotation assembly doesn't cost any more than a standard 350 setup, yet the extra cubes will make a big difference in power. Ditto for making a 302 Ford into a 347, or a 400 Pontiac into a 455 or a 360 Mopar into a 410. # 5. Unless you absolutely have to have a certain bodystyle, ( or already own it ) always build the lightest car that you can. For example, a Nova weighs about 600 lbs less than a Chevelle. A Duster / Dart weighs about 800 lbs less than a Charger / Road Runner.  Hope this helps out. Mastermind