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Originally Posted by JacobSchni
So with everyone suggesting a ls or 496. What would I be spending on either
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I touched on LS expenditures in an earlier post so I won't go into details, but I do them fairly often and to do one right you are going to be in it well over the cost of an engine build alone. Not to mention I wouldn't even look at any LS for a big truck that is less than a 5.7, and preferably a 6.0. Just the cost of everything will put you past a 454 rebuild and the 6.0 would still be stock and not make anywhere near the power you are looking for. The LS engine would then need to be opened up, heads, cam etc...and that's even more money.
Personally for your budget and what you want to do with the truck, I'd completely forget about any form of an LS swap just looking at it from a financial standpoint.
If you're still needing parts for your big block, namely a decent set of used heads, your swap meets may be your best bet. I doubt that any of the "pick-your-parts" yards are going to have anything old enough to consider.
Again, your best bet is to talk to a well known machine shop and get an idea of an engine package that will put out numbers you're happy with and do some number crunching.
Peanut port heads actually work very well, they have just been misunderstood by many. Lingenfelter proved years ago they were worthy heads on some of his 454 and 496 builds, making silly power, a real eye opener.
However keep in mind, any oval port head you do, if you want to upgrade the valve size (which most do) you are quickly going to get into $1,000 worth of parts and machine work on a set of 40+ year old heads. In my opinion it may not be worth the money with so many good aftermarket castings on the market that are reasonably priced. Stick with iron to keep costs down. There are new iron castings out there still offered. Check out Merlin, World Products, RHS, Dart. Shucks even RHS has some reasonable aluminum offerings as well as Top Line and some lesser known brands. You'll be money ahead and it makes your power goal much easier to obtain.
Again I can't stress enough, talk to a good machine shop that has a reputation for building quality power and ask them what they like to use and why. We've used Tony Bischoff at BES (one of the best in the country) as well as Koerner Racing Engines and Zimmerman Racing, they all have a little different theory on how they want to reach a power goal. Camshaft selection is just as, if not more important than cylinder heads.
I currently have my little DZ motor at Zimmermans working his magic. He just finished a Windsor build for a customer of mine, he does fantastic work. Koerner did the 454 in my 79 1 ton pickup I mentioned earlier, again top notch machine work and a whiz with camshaft selection using a lot of Howards knowledge on lobe design. You'll have to do your research to reach big power goals and do it reliably.