SB Road Racing/Nascar/Sprint Car/Reving BUDGET BUILD

I think another avenue would be to buy a 5.7 as a temp motor. Leave it stock at first and then throw a cam at it when it is time to upgrade. Should fit your HP limit and sets you up for a 6.4 later.

Honestly though, it kind of seems like you are already set on an LA/Magnum build. Which I can understand.

I agree with junkyardhero, I think the 5.9 is the better path. But here are some thoughts, free of charge. :D

I think your RPM goals are going to cost you, but I can understand the reasoning. My suggestion is maybe an early 318 with a forged crank. Maybe find a 5.2 and swap that forged crank into it. This gives you a forged crank to build on even though you still need better pistons and rods at some point, but you get a cheap and easy path to a roller cam and you start with a better compression ratio. If the roller cam doesn't hold much value, then just stick to the early 318.

The heads are going to be a bottle neck if you end up just buying what is available right now, unless you spring for Edelbrocks or something. If you go aluminum, then I wouldn't even look at Magnum style heads. The idea with a Magnum head is that stock they are better than a junkyard LA head. So the Magnum head gives you a step up, just not as good as when they were new or when the EQ heads were available. So buy some cheap replacements, run them as is (after having them checked) and then port them later.

I would say run the 340 as that will be king in the RPM game, but anymore seems like that is a budget killer. You can find a 5.2 that runs for cheap but a 340 is big dollars even when it is only a block. Maybe your options are different, and if the 340 would pencil out I would be all over that.

I'd run a smaller single plane and the biggest cam that you can depending on valve lift limitations and such. I am sure it will be kind of soft down low, but rev better and it is just a first level setup anyway.

I think you will be down power over a 5.9, but maybe it will rev better and feel like a baby 340 or something.

I do think that comparing this to an air-cooled Porsche is a problem. They need to rev so it makes sense to set it up to be able to use those RPM's. Even a small V8 is going to build gobs more low end torque and you might find that you can use a taller gear and save the downshift because it has the torque to pull you out of the corner. Just a thought.

I've always love the idea of a small cubed Mopar V8 that rev's to the moon. Something like you mentioned with the TransAm cars with their de-stroked motors. But remember they didn't de-stroke them and then rev them to the moon because it was faster that way, they did it because it was the rules and it was what they had to do. Wouldn't be surprised if given the leeway, those teams wouldn't have preferred a larger motor and less RPM's and been faster overall.

All that said, I've never actually done any of this, so take it with a grain of salt.