If you want to drive it like you stole it....Crate it!!....or get a "Junkyard Jewel"

I speak to a lot of people that want to race their musclecars but are afraid of blowing a rod out the side of a rare, numbers-matching block. If that's the case, I offer two viable solutions. # 1. Get a Crate engine. GM Performance, Mopar Performance, and Ford Racing all offer awesome high-performance crate engines at reasonable prices, as do companies like Edelbrock, Smeding, and Blueprint engines. If you have say an SS396 Chevelle-GMPP's 454HO may be just the ticket. At 425 hp and 500 lbs ft of torque, that's way more power than even the vaunted solid-lifter L78 396 had ( They were rated at 375hp ). With the right style air cleaner and valve covers it would look stock, and with forged crank, rods and pistons, could even withstand a big shot of nitrous. Want to be King Kong? How about 572 inches of Chevrolet and 720 hp?!!  Don't want to risk the 440 in your Charger or Road Runner? Mopar performance offers a 505 inch ( 440 based ) wedge engine with 500 hp. Ford racing offers 351W crate motors with 385 hp-a big step up from the 290 hp that a stock '69 Mustang carries. 429 SCJ Torino? They offer a 460 based 514 stroker with 600 hp. These hi-po crate engines often come with a 3 year 50,000 mile warranty!!  # 2. The other solution is to find a similar engine in a junkyard. I wouldn't want to risk grenading a for-real Ram Air III or Ram Air IV Pontiac in my Judge or Trans-Am if I had one. However, since the 400 was used in practically every Pontiac model made from 1967-78, finding a rebuildable core shouldn't be like finding a moon rock. Take this junkyard motor from a '74 Bonneville or whatever and put a stroker crank in it to make it a 455, add some Edelbrock heads, a hot cam and some headers, and you'll have even more power than your stock engine, and you won't have an anxiety attack every time you run it over 5,000 rpm!!  If you've got an AMX you may not be able to find a 390 or 401 AMC engine to play with, but their are millions of 360s in junkyards in Jeep Grand Waggoneers.  You might not find a 327 for your '60s Corvette or Impala, but 350s are a dime a dozen, you could stroke it to 383, and really have a rockin' small-block. Having a 2nd engine isn't cheap, but if you want to race your car without the fear of grenading an irreplaceable block, it's really the only solution. And you can "downgrade" and still have racing fun. If you've got a Hemi 'Cuda, you might not want to spend another $15,000 on a Mopar Performance Crate Hemi to play at the drags, but you could build a pretty strong 360 or 383 / 400 for a couple grand that would be big fun at the track, and you wouldn't care if you missed a shift and blew it all to hell!! Ditto for a Boss 302 Mustang. You can buy or build a 302 based 347 stroker with 400 hp pretty cheap,go faster than you would have with the original engine, and keep the "Moon Rock" in a plastic bag in your garage to re-install for concours shows or when you sell it. The 455 out of my Hurst /Olds is on an engine stand right now, while I abuse the hell out of the GMPP ZZ4 crate 350 Chevy that's in the car. Changing it back to Olds power would only take about 8 hours. So stop lamenting that you can't race, and go buy or build a second motor that you don't care about blowing up!!  Mastermind