Bang for the Buck Thread

You've definitely gotten some very good suggestions here, and I wouldn't argue any of them. There's a lot of solid experience on this board. I'll just relay what I was told many years ago, during several discussions with Ray Barton about rebuilding my ailing/failing daily-driven 440 Six Pack. He stressed repeatedly: "Start with the shortblock you want, and build the best one possible. Do you eventually want a stroker? Then build it now, and build it strong. No shortcuts. Get the best machine work possible. Plan for 'em, but you can worry about heads, cams, all that stuff later as money allows. Build the bottom end to withstand anything you could possibly throw at it and you'll never have to think about it again. You'll always have it to build on. Paying for 'good enough for now' is wasting money."

If you scroll back up and watch the video @rumblefish360 posted, that's kind of what they did. Obviously that combo cries out for a cam and heads at the very least, but methinks playing with 500lb/ft would be a laugh riot whilst saving for those other components. Blow a few doors off, pull people out of ditches, maybe remove a few stumps...

Oh, yeah: I once asked Ray about a cam recommendation. He looked at me like I'd asked him for a plaid cat. "I dunno. I don't spec cams. Do what I do--call a cam company. They do it for a living. They know more about that **** than I ever will."