408 or gen 3 hemi
Easy? 550 to the wheels with a 408 and be reliable?
A gen3 can do it and live.
What makes it unreliable? Fix that. OIl pump mods, McCandless/ Guitar Jones oiling mods. Hyd. roller lifters (bushed LA or go Magnum). Good clearances.
The real money on the LA 500+ build is going to be in the heads & valvetrain. Something like T&D with Indy's, Hughes bigmouth Edelbrock's with CNC porting, Edelbrock Victor head, Trick Flow,..... plenty of option$.
550 at the rear wheels with a n/a small block isn't going to be a cheap endeavor either. Especially if you have nothing to start with.
I'd like to do a boosted Gen III but at this point I'm invested too deep in small blocks.
Gen III can get very expensive too but I agree, the ceiling is higher with Gen III than with LA.
Someone said an LA isn't "happy" at these HP levels. That is comedy. When you take all the components off the block it is just iron and geometry. Metallurgy and geometry are there for a "happy" block at those levels. If the machining is good and the block is not damaged and is a good core it can go. The deck height is good on the LA, 360 bores are 4" and 340's 4.080"! The block has good clearance for stroker cranks. It's a good design that was hamstrung with shitty factory heads and low compression! Fix all that and it's happy times.
I get it. The Gen III has more potential and the cores are getting really cheap. It still costs money to machine and build. It can still cost 10-12-14K, which is about what it takes to get an LA to 500+ (happily).
You can argue parts, costs and HP potential but we're talking about a power level that is well within the possibilities for an LA. Nobody needs to discount the LA's reliability or limitations here.
