[djracer]

If you are dead set on a 540 plus engine I would buy a dart block. I am building a 548 for my truck with a bowtie block. I got this block pretty cheap but I spent a pretty penny on machine work. The 502 blocks are gen 5 and gen 6 and some stuff is not the same. The dart, bowtie, merlin and brodix blocks are based off gen 4 parts.


I also don't agree with only having to do minimal clearancing for a 4.375 stroke crank. I know my aluminum rods causes me to have to do a ton of clearancing but I only have a 4.25 stroke and mine was clearanced on a mill first then touched up by hand. Some of the later 454 blocks have a little more clearance cast into the block than the old stuff. With your power goals you should be able to get those numbers with a 4.25 stroke and a small bore. I would look at a 489 or 496 rotating assembly for your power goals. One other thing if you are gonna drag race this truck sell the merlin heads and intake to someone with a boat and buy aluminum heads the merlins are crazy heavy.