Update if anyone cares, I've got a few hundred miles or so on the engine. It's more than enough power to smoke the 245 BFG tires thought 1st and into 2nd if I let it. I had put a new street demon 625 CFM carb on it the day the stock engine blew up. I really like the carb and it runs clean, idles great, sweet throttle response, etc. But I think there might be more power with a bigger carb. I'll pick up a 675 hopefully pretty reasonable to play with, maybe a 750 if its cheap. Ended up using the stock push rods and rockers for now with the Hughes EQ iron ram heads and Hughes .539/.549 cam. The idle is addicting and I kind of wish I went for a bigger cam just for the sound.
Converted from points to electronic distributor and HEI module after a few miles. That made a pretty big difference in driveability. Points are cool and SO simple but I'm convinced they're not ideal for a performance engine. I've been slowly upping the timing and listening for detonation in different conditions. Pretty good so far, I'm up at 11° base timing and 28° or so all in. I'll wait till summer and dial it in and hopefully by then have funds for wheels and tires. Then see what she does at the track.
