Clarification on some old hot rod axioms....

Many self-proclaimed "experts" spout stuff they've read in the buff magazines or on the internet, but they have no practical experience. They've never built or rebuilt an engine, never built and maintained a race car or swapped engines or trannys or gear ratios. They don't know what their talking about, and they often give people terrible advice. It's funny, how some people will listen to some idiot, but disregard the advice of someone with many years of experience. Anyhow I want to dispel some misconceptions that are perpetuated and help people with potential projects save time and money, and get the most value for the money they do invest.  # 1. "Always build the biggest engine you can afford". This is generally good advice, but the key word is "Afford". For example-a 350 Chevy costs no more to buy or build than a 305, yet makes substantially more power and torque with the same equipment. Anyone with common sense would go with a 350. Now let's say the 350 you have in the car or have just bought from a buddy or a junkyard has a spun crank bearing and needs to be rebuilt. Since your going to have to buy a new crank anyway, and probably have to have the block bored .030 over anyway, and since 383 stroker crank rod and piston kits with rings and bearings and oil pump are as low as $399 in PAW or Summitt-The wise man would build a 383-which is going to have even more power and torque than the 350.  Now-for argument's sake let say you've got a 400 Pontiac. You should buy a stroker crank kit and make it a 461, right?  Wrong!!  Here's why. Here's why-the stroker crank, rod and piston kits for Pontiacs that are sold by Kauffman and Butler Performance start at $1699. $1700 will buy you an Edelbrock carb and intake a cam kit, a set of headers, a set of gears for the rear end and still leave about $400 for any minor machine work-like having the crank turned .010 under or grinding the valves in the heads. You could build your whole engine for that and with the right combination of parts easily have 400 hp and 450 lbs of torque. I know-the 400 in my brother's GTO cost $1900 to build and dyno'd at 381 hp and 430 lbs of torque, and he has a cam that idles glass-smooth and makes 15 inches of vacuum at idle. If he went with a slightly hotter cam-he'd have easily been over the 400 hp mark, and not really lost any drivability. A magazine re-built a junkyard 455 Pontiac that made 440 hp and they bragged that it cost "only" $4,400 to build. So you can see-in this case-the larger engine isn't really a bargain. It would double the cost to build a 455 / 461 from a 400, and the slight power gain wouldn't be worth the dollar outlay. Here's a couple more examples showing both ways. Let's say you have a '70's Duster / Dart or  Challenger / Barracuda with a dying 318. You know your going to have to rebuild or replace it. You'd like to have some serious power, but don't have the time or money to invest in a 440 or a Crate Hemi, and swap the crossmember, transmission,radiator, torsion bars etc that a big-block swap would entail. What to do? Go to a junkyard and get a 360 Magnum out of late-model Dodge truck or van or Jeep Grand Cherokee. There's millions of them. But get the 360-not the 318. In modern speak a 318 is a 5.2 liter V8, a 360 is a 5.9 liter V8. I know-I priced them when my mom blew the engine in her Cherokee. The "Magnum" engines are all about the same price in boneyards regardless of size. And parts to rebuild them if necessary-i.e.-rings, bearings, cam and lifters etc-are the same price for either engine. But the 360's make way more power. You'll need a "Magnum" compatible intake but Edelbrock sells them for about $200. In this case-like with the small-block Chevys-the bigger engine makes substantially more power,but costs no more to buy or build than the smaller one. Now let's say you have a late 60's or early '70's Mustang or Cougar with a 302. Everyone tells you how "easy" it would be to swap in a  351C. Not true. 1st off-you'd have to buy the 351, and Fords are all different-the oil pans don't interchange,the accesories-power steering pump,water pump, alternator, and the attending brackets are all different. The bellhousing bolt-pattern is different on 302 and 351C Ford engines so you'd need a new tranny as well. Especially since there's more speed equipment for a small-block Ford than anything else on the planet except a Small-block Chevy-you can see that the easiest and most cost-effective way to increasing power would be to hop up the 302. See what I'm saying? Here's yet another scenario. Don't throw away a perfectly good 396 Chevy or 383 Mopar and spend thousands you don't need to buying a building a 440 or 454!!   So weigh the options carefully-and remember the "Afford" part of the saying.  # 2. "A single 4bbl on a dual-plane intake is the only way to fly". This is magazine writers trying to protect idiots from themselves. Whether it's 3-2bbls or dual quads-on a 283 or 409 Chevy or 389 / 421 Pontiac or a 440 / Hemi Mopar or 427 Ford whatever-multiple carb setups can really rock if their set up right. For years-import sports cars like Datsun 240Z's, Porsche 911s, Jaguar XKEs, Triumph TR6s, and  Ferarris and Lamborginis all used multi-carb setups. The manufacturers both foriegn and domestic started switching to single carbs and later fuel-injection because of ever-tightening emission standards, not lack of  performance!!  I've said it before-but I see it all the time with Six-Pack Mopars, 427 'Vettes, Tri-power GTOs etc. They drive the car like grandma on prozac and the second it fouls a spark plug, they start screwing around with the carbs. Pretty soon it won't even start, much less run properly. It would be better to go a range or two hotter on the plugs if your going to idle around, and then change to the standard heat range if you decide to go to the drags or take a road trip! And the dual-plane vs single-plane argument is again magazine writers and parts suppliers trying to protect idiots from themselves. Here's why. Moron reads an intake manifold "shootout" in a magazine. The test mule is a small-block Chevy. The "winner" that makes the most hp and torque is a 750 Double-pumper Holley carb mounted on a Holley / Keith Dorton single-plane that barely edged the Edelbrock Victor Jr. Said moron races down to local speed shop and buys this combo and puts it on his '78 Camaro. He's aghast. It runs like shit, stumbles, and doesn't even have the power it did stock. That's because the Dorton / Victor Jr intakes are designed for NASCAR racing and make power from 4,000-8,500 rpm. And he forgot or didn't read that the test mule was an 11.4:1 406 with 215cc Dart Heads and a .600 lift cam that made 500 hp and 460 lbs of torque!!!  So putting this NASCAR induction on his stock 8.5:1 350 that has stock 153cc heads, a .390 lift cam, makes 170 hp and 280 lbs of torque at the PEAK, has a TH350 and 2.73:1 gears and is all done in by 5,000 rpm is  just killed by it!!  He'd have been way better off with an Edelbrock Performer and a vacuum-secondary 600 cfm carb. Now if he'd had an L82 Corvette with a 4-speed and 3.70:1 gears he would really rock from about 2,500 rpm on up with a single-plane Torker II and a 750 double-pumper, or even the Victor Jr because it has the heads and the cam and the valve springs and the gearing to rev to 6.500 and beyond. My 442 really rocked with an original Torker, as did my brother's GTO and a buddy's SS396 Chevelle. The reason was the 396, the 400 and the 455 had massive torque to start with, so losing a little on the bottom-end actually helped the cars launch better by reducing wheelspin, and the powerband "hit" like "gangbusters" at 2,800 and pulled hard to 6,000+. Even my 8:1, 2.56:1 geared 403 Olds powered '77 T/A showed a noticeable increase in performance with a single-plane Holley Street Dominator. It made 325 lbs of torque at 1,600 rpm-right off idle-and I din't notice any low-speed loss. I did notice a HUGE diference from 3,000-5,400!! I personally love single-planes, on the right combo. But the mags are trying to protect idiots like the one mentioned.  # 3. Gears Make it Go. To an extent. If you have a disco era T/A with 2.56:1 gears switching to 3.23:1 or 3.42:1 gears will cut 1/2 a second or more off your 0-60 and 1/4 mile time and not hurt drivability too much. If 3.42:1s are great, wouldn't 4.33:1s be totally awesome? No! Because the engine-that's all done in by 5,200-5,500 rpm would run out of rpm before the end of the 1/4 and the engine buzzing at 4,000 rpm on the freeway wouldn't make for a pleasant driving experience!! See what I'm saying? Remember the 454 Chevelle I talked about that ran 12.80's with 2.73:1 gears and only 12.40's with 4.10:1s? The gearing has to be matched to the engine's powerband. A Boss 302 runs great with 3,91:1 or 4.30:1 gears, because the motor has the ability to rev to 7,000+ rpm!  A 351W would run out of rpm with those gears, and probably do better with 3.25:1 or 3.50:1 gears. Hope this helps people build the right combinations. Mastermind