I need schooling - old vs. new engines

AAndrews said
Personally, I feel the Gen 3 Hemi is the "Chevy smallblock" of Mopars.

You will soon find them in everything . They are readily available at reasonable prices as millions were built and there are dozens of manufacturers catering to it as far as parts , plug and play wiring harnesses etc and it will get cheaper as time goes on.

I think it represents the best bang for buck you can get these days as the early LA and Magnum engine supply starts to dry up and they get more and more expensive to build.

As I heard someone say on a popular resto TV series "the juice just ain't worth the squeeze!! "

I can see that, to a point. But until the LA/Magnums dry up I can see a threshold where the wedge head motor makes more sense.

For the guy that just wants to get his rig on the road with a V8, a 5.2 or 5.9 Magnum just makes way more sense. Same for a guy that has a bit more money but is perfectly happy with 300-350 hp and just wants to cruise. Even at the 450 hp threshold, it's kind of hard to say a BP crate motor isn't a fine path to take, unless you want both the power and drivability that a G3 with EFI can give. Above that it almost comes down to only what the guys wants out of the car. Certainly a stroker LA, or even better a BB, can give you 600 hp and do the job just fine, but if you want 600 hp and decent mileage and a smoother idle then it seems like the G3 is the way to go.

For me, I want more power than my current setup has but it can't come at the expense of drivability. And a 5.7 with a 6.4 cam and intake should make significantly better horsepower than I do right now for a lot less money than a crate 408 would cost me, and I get a huge bump in mileage as a bonus.

I am a year or so away from making the swap, and just buying parts while I wait, so final numbers are just a guess. But I am pretty sure I can get close to the BP 408 crate motor power, and do a 6 speed swap at the same time, for less than the 408 would cost me. And the result is a much better package than the 408 with my worn out A833OD would be.