Do it right the first time......It will be way cheaper in the long run!

I have a lot of people asking me to de-bunk a lot of  "Gotta Haves" that they read in magazine articles. Some of the "Gotta Haves" are valid, some aren't. For example if your building a small-block Chevy-there are "Experts" that will tell you that you "Gotta Have" a 4-bolt main block, a steel crank, forged pistons, aftermarket heads with screw-in studs, roller rockers, etc. Their half-right. If your building an 850 hp NASCAR Nextel Cup engine that has to turn 7,800 rpm for 500 miles at Daytona-Yes, you need all the beef you can get. But if your building a street / strip car or even a weekend "Street Stock" racer that's only going to have 450 hp and never see the high side of 6,500 rpm-you'll be perfectly fine with a two-bolt main block, a cast crank, and cast pistons. I have raced "Hobby Stock" and "Street Stock" circle track cars for over 20 years and I have NEVER seen a stud pull out of a head. I've seen broken rocker arms, broken pushrods, broken valvesprings, jumped timing chains-but I have never, ever seen a stud pull out of a head, in the usage I described.  Here's where you need to be brutally honest with yourself about what your building and how you plan to use it. For example-if your building a Big-Block Chevy for your tow rig or warmed-over street machine motor to put in your Camaro or Chevelle that you use as a weekend cruiser and maybe take it to the drags once every couple months-a 454 "Truck" motor-i.e. something out of a pickup or Suburban etc-will be a fine base. As long as your not constantly running it over 6,000 rpm-a two-bolt main block, cast crank and pistons will be fine, the stock heads will be fine and with the right cam, and carb and intake combo-you can make 450 hp pretty easily and it will have a glass-smooth idle and tons of torque, and probably run 100,000 miles before you need to re-build it again. Which is what makes a great street machine engine. However-if you want a Rat Motor to really beat on-I mean you want 600 normally aspirated horsepower or 800 with a blower or nitrous and your going to run it 7,000 rpm regularly-then step up and buy a GMPP 454 HO short-block. It's a Gen VI 4 bolt-main block with a one-piece rear main seal and it's machined for high-lift roller cams. It also has a forged steel crank, forged rods with 7/16 bolts, and forged pistons. It also comes with the balancer, flywheel, oil pan and timing cover. Now you can put whatever cam, heads, induction or exhaust that you want on it, and it will take any abuse you want to lay on it as long as you keep rpms under 7,200. That's much smarter than trying to slide by with a cheap short-block with a cast crank and 3/8 rods and cast pistons and blowing it up three times before realizing that your overloading the stock bottom-end and you'd have been many dollars ahead if you'd got beefier parts in the first place. Here's a guy I don't understand. He's a Mopar guy that runs a Duster at his local track-in some kind of unlimited class-nitrous is allowed.-Anyway he's got this '73 Duster set up with a great drag-style suspension-90/10 front shocks, a pinion snubber on the rear end, fat drag radials-so it launches great. He's got 4.11 gears in the rear end, and he's got a well-thought-out 400 hp nitrous system-I mean an extra fuel pump to and solenoids to supply extra fuel with the nitrous-two-stage switches, an MSD iginition to adjust the timing from inside the car along with an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and Barry Grant carb that he has to swap every time-all top-notch. For an engine he goes to the junkyard and buys a 318 or 360 out of a Dodge truck or wrecked Jeep Cherokee, slaps it in the car, and runs 10 or 11 second ets with it until it grenades. Then he goes to the junkyard and gets another one. Sometimes these engines last 30 or 60 days, sometimes they don't last one weekend. If he's only paying $300 or $400 for these engines and he does that say 8 times a year-he's invested $2,400-3,200 in engines that are now doorstops or boat anchors. If he had put $3,000 into the first engine-i.e. a high-quality Scat or Eagle crank, forged rods, forged pistons, got a Comp cams or Lunati grind specifically for heavy nitrous use-and o-ringed the heads-He'd have had a reliable engine that would have lasted him all season-and he wouldn't have had to swap the engine out of his car 8 or 10 times, plus the labor for yanking them at the "U-pull-it" Yard. To me that's a lot of un-necessary work, and he's not really saving any money. The other is driveline parts. Yeah, I get sick of every single magazine project car you ever see-has a custom 9-inch Ford rear end. If you have a 70's GM car with an 8.5 inch ring gear 10 bolt rear end or a '70's Mopar with an 8 3/4-your probably ok with all but the most monster combos- unless your running a 700 hp engine backed by a TH400 or 727 with a 4 grand converter and a trans brake and are running wrinklewall slicks bolted to the rims-I don't think you'll break the rear end in daily driving or a weekend trip to the drags. However-if youhave a '78-88 GM "G" body-Monte Carlo, Malibu, Cutlass, Gran Prix, etc- or an '82-92 Camaro or Firebird-the 7.5 inch ring gear axle in those won't even stand up to say a 350 hp small-block. Ditto for the trannys-( unless you have a T/A or Z/28 with an '88 up 700R4 ) the T5 5-speeds only have a 300 lbs ft torque rating. That's why you couldn't get a 5-speed with a 350, only a 305. I know guys that run them behind 350s-but were talking mild 350s-with maybe 325 hp. I wouldn't trust one behind anything with real power-i.e. a ZZ4 or ZZ383 crate engine. If you want a stick behind a powerful small-block or big-block in one of these cars you need a Richmond T10 4-speed or a Richmond or Tremec five-speed conversion.  Ditto for the automatics-the TH200 / 250, and 200R4's that came behind the 231 inch V6's and 305 inch V8s that had maybe 165 hp-and 240 lbs of torque will not stand up to a 450 hp small-block. You need a TH350 / 400, or you need to buy a high-performance 200R4 from TCI or B&M or another reputable builder. Buick Grand National racers run 10s with 200R4s-but they are beefed-up substantially, in stock trim-they won't stand up to something with 400+ hp. See what I'm saying-sometimes spending a little more at the start of a project is better than going through the frustration of multiple parts breakage and laying out the extra bucks anyway. Mastermind