[El Campo]

Under the hood (cowl in the pics but I did not like it so will be going back with a stocker)is a 535 cubic inch BB. The only GM product in the engine is the 427T block. Every bolt is ARP, Rotating assembly is all forged with JE pistons. 10.5:1. Dart single plane intake. Air Flow Research 325 partly CNC'd heads. Comp Cam 292 Xtreme Energy mechanical roller cam with all matching Comp cam hardware. Went out on a limb and tried one of those Proform 950 carbs and per the dyno the fuel and air mix was damn near perfect straight out of the box. This is a street truck and not a race only truck so relatively mild cam and compression (for pump gas) was a MUST. Behaves very nicely on the street. What I can not figure out is how Car Craft built a 496 with the SAME parts as this except one size smaller heads and made 707 HP and yet mine only makes 633HP/666TQ! Any ideas?? I am running 32 degrees of total timing (doesnt seem like enough really does it but when it was on the dyno we tried everything and this was the best according to the numbers)
The only thing I will be changing on the engine is I am putting a serpentine belt system on the front unless you all tell me some other things I need to do. Since these pictures were taken I threw that POS HEI away and have upgraded to a complete MSD 6A system.
(P.S the first picture makes me cringe too building this outside. Even though I was super careful about not getting dirt in it I am sure that I got some ) Good thing we have a big AND clean shop to work in now!!!