Sometimes it's better and more cost-effective to just "Run What You Brung"....

"Bigger is better" is certainly all the rage these days. Every buff magazine features cars and drag and dyno tests of cars with 572 inch Chevy Rat Motors, 514 inch Boss-Nine Fords, and 528 inch Chrysler Hemis all with 600 or even 700 hp. It's cool to read about them and maybe even dream about having a 10 second ride, but honestly, if your going to drive the car at all- ( Meaning it's not a race car or show car that only goes on and off the trailer or down the 1/4 ) a 572 inch, 12:1 compression, solid roller cammed 700 hp monster that idles at 1,500 rpm, requires 105 octane race gas and a 3 grand converter and 4.11 or 4.56 gears to run properly, and buzzes at 4,000 rpm on the freeway does not make for a pleasant driving experience. I mean wouldn't you be much happier with a 9.5:1 compression, hydraulic cammed, 450 hp 454 that idles at 800 rpm, runs on 91 octane pump gas, uses a stock converter and even with highway friendly 3.08:1 or 3.42:1 gears still runs in the high 12s?  Or the 11s with a little shot of nitrous?  Outside of the more-money-than-brains crowd who always have to have the biggest and best of everything, who NEEDS a 700 hp street car? The big cube, big buck crate motors may be a niche market, but it's infected everything else. There's stroker kits out there to turn a 400 Pontiac into a 455, a 400 Chrysler into a 451, a 440 into a 505, and a 454 Chevy into a 496. It's even pervaded the small-block crowd-there's crate engines and blocks and rotating assemblys for sale to make 427 and 454 inch small-block Chevys, to turn 351W Fords into 427s, and 360 Mopars into 410s. Why? 1st off, most of  these engines cost over 10 grand. If you want a mega-hp 427 or 454 Chevy, you can easily buy or build a big-block for a lot less than 10 grand. Ditto for the Fords. You can build a ground-pounding 429 or 460 for a lot less than the $12,000 Ford SVT wants for the 351-based 427 stroker. Now some people will say "What about applications where a big-block won't fit?"  Now your just playing "Devil's Advocate". Really. Think about it. Chevrolet built Rat-Motored Novas from 1968-70 and Rat-motored Camaros from 1967-72. This means that you can stuff a Rat motor into any Nova built from 1968-79 and any Camaro built from 1967-81 using off the shelf parts ( motor mounts, bigger radiator ) that you can buy at Autozone or any junkyard. Hooker and other companies sell motor mounts and headers to install a 396 / 454 into a 1982-92 Camaro / Firebird, and the '88 and later "G" bodies. Mopar Performane and other companies offer kits to put a 440 into a Duster / Dart. Ford SVT offers a kit to put a 460 into a 1979-93 Mustang. Pontiacs are externally identical from a 326 to a 455, and the motor mounts and oil pan even interchange with the little 301s. So you could literally bolt a 455 Pontiac into anything from a 1963 Tempest, to an '81 Grand Prix, and anything else in between. AMCs are also externally identical from the 290-401. A guy I knew swapped a 401 out of a Matador Police car into his 304 Gremlin and surprised a ton of people in "Faster" cars-i.e. 383 Road Runners, 396 Chevelles, etc. So the only application where a big-block physically wouldn't fit would be something like a '63 Nova, '32 Ford, or a '23 T-Bucket, or a Cobra Replica, or a Datsun 240Z or Austin-Healey. If your building one of those, their going to weigh less than 2,600 lbs. You can get 450 hp out of a 350 Chevy or 302 Ford very easily. In a 2,600 lb car-that's going to give you 0-60 times in the 4-second range and 1/4 mile times in the 11s provided you can get traction. A little nitrous would get you into the 10's and kicked off most tracks-( NHRA rules require any car that runs faster than 11.50 to have an 8-point roll cage and a driveshaft safety loop ). If you can keep a straight face and say that you NEED to go faster than that, then you need a Top Fuel Dragster, a competent therapist, or a cage. Even if you want or need 500+ hp in one of these applications you can get that out of a 350 Chevy or 351 Ford or 360 Mopar either with or without a blower. You don't need a $15,000 454 inch Dart stroker. If you can afford one of these megabuck engines and want one, by all means buy one. I'm just saying you can go plenty fast without spending 10 or 15 grand on an engine. Especially if your restifying a musclecar. The adage is "Always build the bigget engine you can afford." The key word is "AFFORD". Don't throw away a perfectly good 383 Mopar and then spend an extra $5,000 buying and building a junk 440. Instead of spending $2,000 for a 455 stroker rotating assembly for your 400 Pontiac, you'd be better off spending that money on carb and intake, headers,cams, ignition, gears, converter, and tires to put all that power to the ground. That's all I'm saying. Mastermind