I hear you but my combo has always been happy on 87E10, at up to185psi, since 1999 and well over 100,000 miles.
Some guys here on FABO have reported running as high as 205psi with aluminum heads, (strokers IIRC), still on pump gas.It would be pretty expensive to run 205psi, and I expect those guys are diligent.185psi with aluminum heads,IMO, is no big thing.
But I do agree with you as to heat. To that end I built a rock-solid cooling system, and run fresh-cold air to the carb. A 433hp street engine is a fairly serious effort, and to make it a DD as I did, yeah, you gotta pay attention. You will never ever see an electric fan under my hood;ever. Old-school just flat works, and gives me tremendous peace of mind. I haven't given it a thought since about 2001.
I can't speak to convertors cuz I'm a stick guy since 1970, almost exclusively.
So why did I say what I did about TCs? Cuz that's how confident I am that my combo has the bottom end goods. I have never ever waited to a certain rpm to floor it. I have never ever had a bog or a hesitation. I have never ever babied the secondaries in to avoid detonation.
I have a starter gear of 10.97(3.09x3.55) which is a blip it,dump it, and go, deal. I can put the line-loc on, rev it to maybe 1500 guessing, and feed it clutch and throttle til the 295s break loose, then reduce the throttle to maybe 1200/1000 and just let the 295s roll over in a heap of howling. That's always a big hit for my local fans. That little 223 cam used to bust the tires loose in second gear at any speed up to 50/55 with just a foot stomp, with those same 3.55s. And of course once spinning, they are gonna continue until I shift into third. Around town,I pretty much never look at the tach, and stomp it whenever I feel like it.
If you don't know this; a 1969 440 Magnum calculates to a VP of 156.
My little 223 cam calculated to 162. With a handle like "forphorty", I'm guessing you know all about how hard that 440 Magnum mighta pulled back in the day, down below 3500 say. Now try to imagine a 367 pulling 4% harder, also below 3500.
The current 230* cam calculates to 153; this with the only change being a 3* later ICA; 3 measly degrees. But this is still 98% as hard as that BB
The first cam I had was the 292/108 and it VP'd at 143 even at 11.3Scr, and I thought that was just too doughy for me. I pulled that out almost as fast as I could. Yet 143 is nearly 12% higher than a factory 1969 340(128), and 19% higher than a factory 360 2bbl(120).
Like I said;
