"Undesirable" engines serve their purpose.....Up to a point!...

After the recent posts about which engines offer the most bang for the buck and which aren't worth messing with I got some questions from people asking "What if your car has one of these engines and your short on cash?" Let me clarify the position I was taking. If your building a car from scratch and you have to go to a junkyard or swap meet and buy a running or at least rebuildable engine-then I would definitely try to get one of the recommended ones. In other words-if your looking for a Pontiac engine-don't buy a 326 or 350 just because it's cheap-400's are widely available, generally cost no more to buy or build and make WAY more power either stock or modified. However-like I said in an earlier post-if you have a 350 in your Firebird or LeMans or Ventura-a factory or aftermarket 4bbl carb and intake, some headers and / or dual exhausts and a shift kit will work wonders for the performance of the car. You could even invest in a mild cam and an axle-ratio change to gain even more performance. A 350 Pontiac can easily make 325 hp and 400 lbs of torque and still have good drivability. And 325 hp may be enough for you-that's 100 more than the last W72 T/A's.  However-if you want 400+hp then your going to have to upgrade to a 400 or 455. Ditto for some others. If you have a 305 Chevy in an '80's Camaro / Firebird or "G" body-( Monte Carlo,Gran Prix, Cutlass ) an Edelbrock Performer intake and matching cam will give them a HUGE torque boost without hurting gas mileage or drivability. You don't have to start looking for a 350 just because you'd like a little more oomph. If your Duster / Dart or Challenger / 'Cuda or even Charger / Satellite has a 318-again-a 4bbl carb and intake, dual exhausts and a shift kit will really "wake up" one of these cars. If your '65 Ford Galaxie 2dr coupe has a 352 in it and after swapping the 2bbl for a Perfromer intake and matching carb and adding some dual exhausts behind the stock manifolds your perfectly happy with how it runs-there's nothing wrong with that. You don't have to go searching for a 390 or 428 because me or some other magazine writer said 352's were heavy and underpowered. If you've got a nice '66 Plymouth Belvedere and your happy with how the 361 runs-fine. Not everyone needs or even wants 400+ hp. On the other hand-if you do want maximum power then I wouldn't waste time and money building a 305 Chevy when 350's are the proverbial dime a dozen and make substantially more power for the same dollar investment. Ditto for a 318 Mopar or 326 / 350 Pontiac-360's and 400's cost no more to buy or build yet make way more power with the same equipment. Now there are some others that really are only good as boat anchors and are only useful if you want to drive the car while your building a proper engine. The 260 / 307 Olds V8's wheeze out 120-140 hp and there is zero aftermarket support. If you want any performance at all-you need a 350 or 403-which luckily is a bolt-in swap. Ditto for the 265 / 301 Pontiac V8's. Nothing interchanges with the bigger engines and even a 350 would be light-years ahead in performance. The 262 / 267 inch Chevys have the double attributes of no power and crappy gas mileage-even a 305 is a powerhouse compared to them. The 255 inch Fords of the early '80's make a 302 look like a Boss 429.  So except for the economy / smog motors / boat anchors I just listed-don't go out and pull your engine just because it's not on the "preferred" list! Mastermind