Squig, here's a thread that may interest you: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=164740&highlight=402 You asked if a 550 hp 402 would be a pig....depends on how you define that, I guess. Mine is/was fairly snotty to drive with the roller...not really an A/C capable car for certain, though power brakes worked with a reserve canister. As mentioned in that thread I was running a very streetable compression ratio and Chevrolet heads, though they were ported. If I was to build the same engine today & had the necessary funds I would use either TFS PowerOval heads or the Brodix Race-Rite 110cc/270cc heads rather than porting & working my cast-iron heads, because it's more cost-effective, and both the TFS & Brodix heads come with good valvetrain pieces...IF you get them assembled from TFS or Brodix*. I would use a touch more compression, given aluminum heads, and, probably, use an Erson roller that made virtually the same power with less lift- the Crane roller was an off-the-shelf deal that I got cheap, but the borrowed Erson dynoed very, very close to it, close enough to require multiple pulls to see any difference at all. As long as money was no object, I would also use different pistons- Diamond, JE, something lighter than the TRWs and with a better dome- but I got the TRWs for $200 brand new & it was what I had at the time, so I lightened & reworked the dome. To be perfectly honest, if I was starting from scratch, I'd run a larger engine- it's just about the same cost to build a 454 or 482. But, I've owned this 402 since 1981 or 1982, it's served me well, and I'm a little sentimental about it. *If you buy them as assembled elsewhere, you may or may not get quality pieces- there are some builders who will use cheap hardware, do their own machine work on bare heads, & claim they are "straight from the manufacturer".
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