Now things are getting REAL interesting

You have no idea what an awesome day today was. It began with a trip to my office for a few hours work before driving over to pick up a complete new posi-traction rear-end with axles and the whole enchilada. Then I drove to my engine builder's shop to watch a few dyno runs on Lucky's new power plant. Keep in mind I have been waiting for this day for almost a year now since the engine was literally one of the first things I began researching when this whole adventure began.

When I got to the engine builders place they had already made quite a few break-in runs and inspections before actually performing some dyno testing. I stayed out of the road (as best I could) while they continued testing the engine with various racing fuels and then some additive and octane boosters. The bottom line results were an accumulation of many many hours of research, questions answered by some of the biggest names in the racing world, some trial and error, a little luck and lots of prayers not to mention a lot of experience from one of the best engine builders in the U.S.

Keep in mind this IS NOT A STROKER and even more amazing is per the rules it has cast iron heads and a 500 CFM carb. If I had not seen it on the dyno with my own eyes I would not believe anyone telling me what an amazing power plant it is. If anyone were to tell me 10 years ago that a 289 could produce over 500 horsepower I would think they were drinking too much. But the bottom line is this engine has 503 horsepower with 385.2 foot pounds of torque at 6713 RPM. Even though we will not be pushing it that hard since it has so much low end torque which is the way I wanted it, my engine builder tells me it will run at 7000 RPM all day long.

On the hour drive home I was so excited as I was day dreaming about what had just taken place that when I looked down at the speedo on my truck I was being a very bad boy. And for the record, some of the items you see in the photos (like the crummy plug wires for example) are for the dyno run only. But check out those trick rocker arms and shafts complete with ceramic bushings instead of needle bearings the very same ones used in today's NASCAR engines.