Turbo, Supercharger or NA 302

[GFX2043mtu]

As avalanche said 500 whp in a stock 302 block comes with a broom, dustpan and a mop. The 302 is a thin wall casting like that of the 289. These motors where made to be light and produce reasonable power. With that said I’ve seen my share of split blocks. The problem is there is no stead fast number to where they fail and no stud girdle or hardware change can fix the or reduce the issue. Point blank any thing much over 400whp is starting to be a dice roll. At 500whp your on borrowed time and a block upgrade would be cheap insurance at that point. It may last a couple years it may last a couple of dyno pulls. Be reasonable, if you want 500 hp cheep get a used 351 with a set of heads and a used blower. If your fine with stopping at 400 whp (460 chp) use the 302 and keep the revs 6k and below. As many have said 400 whp is a lot in these 2200-2400 lb cars. I’m running 650 hp and 650 ft-lb at the crank and unless you have some racing time in some very very high power to weight cars with zero aids, the learning curve is that of Mount Everest. when things start to go wrong it goes fast. At that point you have no time to learn you must react. More importantly you need to know how to to feel the car so you know how to approach the limits and stop on that line in a safe environment. That’s what makes a car like these truly fast, as it’s not necessarily the power rather it’s the driver. I built mine for track use and some street use and I’ll tell you my car had no hook up point on the street where you can go full throttle with a reasonable degree of safety. I usually go 25-50% and that’s all it can hook up in the first 3 gears. I’m not sure where your from but if your in Michigan I can give you a ride in the spring and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. I run and race 1000cc modified class sportbikes on the race track in expert and this this car is just as much of a handful.

[johnnybgoode]

IMHO it's torque that makes these cars fun vs HP. A mild 408 is hard to beat and makes the right sounds. Scott