[Ronbo]

Since we're talking about "period corectness"...

Let's take example from the "period".

The small block cars won all the races, because they handled better. The big block cars were in essence an "attempt" to get the car past the 160MPH "air wall" on long runs, at the sacrifice of handling. (IE: "the turd")

Drop the weight and keep the power of the BB? = Priceless.

And to address the comments that 100lbs on a 2300lb car makes no difference, B.S. that's 100lbs off the front end weight of ~1150lbs. Handling is just as important on the street as the track.

And to think in the "period" they shifted the motor off-center, mounted the batteries opposite the driver. The old man himself only sells aluminum block 427's and now 351's. Wonder what he'd have wished for back then.

As far as over-kill for the 600hp build, well yes, but it's relative: in the "period" production 427's were 450hp (max), the Shelby engines 480hp. A 1500hp rated block is not very stressed which means (hopefully) it's that much longer before stuff starts cracking. A vintage block in the same scenario is definitely "stressed".

From what I've heard the side oiler did little if anything to effect main bearing failure rates except in the most severe racing applications. (quite possibly a fix for a non-existant problem)

Ernie, I think the OP made up his mind about eight pages ago...

"And God looked down from the heavens and saw the Iron man Cobra sporting a nice new CSX alloy block and said "It is good".