Got my junkyard magnum motor in the 11s!

Thanks for all the compliments guys.

The shortblock is stock as I pulled it out of the junkyard. If memory serves its a 2000 motor. As I was going to run it as-is, I wanted low mileage, and this one had under 80K. I've spent so much money in machine shops over the years, and I really wanted a motor I didn't have to worry about blowing up. When I saw how much LA stuff transferred over, and that it came with a hydraulic roller cam, I thought the Magnum had a lot of potential. I'm used to Ford 302s, so a 360 is a gigantic motor to me. LOL

I intended to use the stock heads too, but they were cracked.

The car has Pro Stars on it. I wanted to go with Billet Specialties, but the budget won out on that one.

Compression is a little over 9:1. I'm using the skinny head gaskets, and the pistons are .050 in the hole from the factory. I forget how big the magnum's stock piston dish is. Heads are 58cc.

The big problem with the Magnum is the valvetrain. I've had serious issues with it (though that was a problem in the head rather than the design as it turns out). Hopefuly its fixed but I'm always sure it could go at any moment. I'm running the stock Magnum rockers for right now. There are some other issues with the Magnum too. You can't get a good balancer that I can find, and its a hassle to get the heads drilled for the older intakes (the Eddy Magnum and Crosswind intake SUCK compared to the Eddy Air Gap for the LA bolt pattern).

If you've already got an LA, I too would recommend checking out the LA-X heads. Keeping the proven valvetrain (or at least the one you're familiar with) is probably a good idea.

Stuff I would do differently:
To be honest, this has been a significantly greater challenge than I thought it would, due to bad luck, a lack of car money, and some general ignorance on my part.

If I had it to do over again, I'd go with less lift on the cam. Its got (EDIT:) .544, and that's just too much. It causes valvetrain issues, puts a hurting on the springs, and I cant get the cool Hughes shaft rockers because they're 1.65 ratio. I bet if I had .525 lift the power would be exactly the same.

I would also have the heads machined for better springs than the ones Hughes provides (though to be fair I didn't realize they had to be machined for that when I bought them).

Stay tuned: I'm putting some slicks on the car, and I've got the front suspension working better now too. If the valvetrain will hold together I think there's a significant amount of ET left in it, especially in fall air.