Horsepower of original 427

[blykins]

Amen.

That's the biggest thing about "assembly line" engines. They just bolt them together.

I had a buddy that bought a new SS Camaro around 2000-2001. It was supposed to have been 320-330 hp if I remember correctly, but he routinely got his butt dusted by other SS and Z28 Camaros.

You take a bunch of engine parts, throw them together randomly, and sometimes you will get lucky....sometimes you won't. When you take time to degree the cam, make sure it's where it needs to be, make sure all the bearing clearances are right, make sure the quench is right, etc., etc., that's where the success comes from.

[DanEC]

Very true - in 1969 I had a buddy who got a brand new 390/315 hp Mach 1 that ran like a scalded cat but was supposed to be a total dog. He was a typical kid and was boiling tires and winding it past redline the same day it rolled off the dealer lot. He mounted a nice SW tach in it (why - I don't know as it had a factory one) and I sat in the back seat one day on the interstate outside of KC and watched over his shoulder as it register 130 mph on the factory speedo and watched him make shifts at 6,000 rpm to get there. You just weren't supposed to be able to do that with a stock 390. And although it later started floating valves at a little over 5000 rpm, he never blew it up.

I ran him in my 383 Plymouth but after about 25 mph he would just start slowly pulling away from me and keep going. I had another buddy with his parents 390 Cougar GT that I also ran and I walked away from him so bad in first gear that I thought he had killed the engine. Found out otherwisie when he made me promise never to tell anyone we ever raced and I beat him. I couldn't get over how embarassed he was.

A common remark at the time was break it in the way you plan to drive it. Guess it worked for that Mach 1.