On the contrary.... I love this shit! So much more interesting with factory iron heads. Anyone can go fast with an all aftermarket engine.
I agree. I had a 440ci mopar myself years ago. I think i paid under 1k for it with 727 as a good runner. Factory forged steel crank 1968 motor. I had the block dipped and the bores were so good i just had it honed 5 thousands and i reused the stock pistons that the machine shop cut valve reliefs in for me. New rings and i had the stock rods prepped and resized with arp bolts fitted. I drilled the mains oil feed holes larger. I assembled it myself with new bearings, machined stock steel crank and reused the stock balancer. Fitted 590' mopar purple solid cam. Max ported 906's (no welding or epoxy) with big milodon valves. Crane gold rockers and 3/8 pushrods. 850 holley dp, ported team g intake. Custom 2" headers. 7AL2 igniton. Most of the money i spent on it was outside of the engine. It was a very cheap build by today's standards. I kept the 727 as it was and just fitted a turbo action rmvb and new filter, adjusted the band. It worked like a champ.
I had it crammed it in a mini-tubbed early a-body with an 8 3/4 rear axle. It also had a glass hood and lightweight seats. I never raced it but it had to be 600hp and it was a light car and i remember it would just eat an entire stretch of road like a mofo and i didn't have one car beat me on the street at the time. It also sounded mean as hell and the torque from a roll was a blast.
If i had that car back today as it was i'd definitely keep it. Might not be that fast by todays standards with all the turbo cars going around, but it was a fun car for cheap 20 years ago. I sold the engine and he went high 8's with it in a rail car. And i put a stock 318 back in the car and sold it for 5k and at the time i thought it was good money.
If LS's hadn't come along where you can make 550hp from a simple cam and cnc heads SBE 5.7 ls1, and much more from the LS3 and then the LS7, and 800+hp with a single turbo, those old mopars were hard to beat for using mostly standard parts. The small block Mopars were definitely no slouch either but the 440ci was definitely more fun on the street from a roll and they didn't need as much converter to get moving. All i had was a tci streetfighter and wherever you hit the throttle from the car would just disappear. Mopar knew what they were doing with those little wedge ports for a street car. Less is sometimes more.
To the Ford nut huggers on here who think a 351c is all that and the mopars couldn't get out of their own way with OEM heads.. you are delusional
