Longevity & Reliability vs. Power

[Barry_R]

A 6000 RPM FE that will live a very long time and deliver 500 HP is pretty much "boilerplate" these days. A basic 390/445 stroker with a decent set of heads and a solid or hydraulic roller cam will do this with ease.

I've built and dyno'd a lot of these 390 based combinations - probably dozens this year that meet your goals. And many, many others that are 427 or 428 based where the reliability is the same but the power level is comensurately higher. As the cubes go up the strain on parts at any given power level goes down as a function of RPM.

Reliability comes from a conservative approach to cam and compression. When you do that, the power peak drops into a safe RPM range and other valvetrain and bottom end related issues take care of themselves. Assembly is one of those things where the true benefit lies more in the process than in the absolute numbers. Checking every bearing is more important than the variance between .0024 or .0028. Same holds true for every other item in the engine.


Everybody has a different definition of streetworthy. Some customers want to go down the freeway at 1800RPM, cold start like their new BMW, and idle smoothly at 600 in gear. Others are not happy unless every car alarm withing a mile goes off when they fire up, really enjoy a 1200 RPM idle that sounds like a Top Fuel car, and will shift at 8500 while going to Wal-Mart for a gallon of milk...