Oh man, how embarrasing. (Uncle Tony/Nick's Garage)

I used to read Tony's ramblings when he was a writer. Good entertainment, like his UTG shows are now. Have done budget MoPar builds myself since 1985, and also some pretty expensive/detailed ones. Some of the BB ones include: a '75 Imperial motor (440) that was run so hot the pistons "shrunk" and the tops were eroded away. I was between high school and college (no money), but I worked at the Chry/Ply dealer, and they were closing out the B/RB parts at Chrysler. Remember the 452 heads everyone was selling new and touting as the "best" head available for like $500 in the late '80s? They were $30 each, 440 cast cranks: $30, 400 cast cranks: $15, std. 440 pistons: $2 dealer cost to clear them out. I bought as much of these goodies as I could, and used the 8 pistons and 1 crank in the '75 440. Used it with a .455" Purple Shaft in my first truck, a '70 Camper Special D200. Then later when I got a '86 D250, I sold the '70 and kept the motor. Put a 302H Crane Commander in it with some 915 heads and stuck it in a (5300lb NHRA scales with me inside) '76 Gran Fury wagon, and it ran low 15s (3.21 gears) in the 1/4mi, never shifting to high gear. BUT it was spotlessly cleaned and had new cam bearings and verified lifter preload. Took another Imperial motor (1971) with dished cast pistons and steel crank, and put a new Street Hemi 280/.474" cam in with Crane springs and ran 8.20s in the 1/8mi in a friends '67 Coronet (3.91 gears). All cleaned-up and assembled right, shifting at 5400rpm. Cheap should be parts selection/deals and self-labor, not hurrying and skipping steps. I agree Lunar should have spent that week he had to get ready cleaning the parts instead of hacking at plenum dividers and drooling over LS motors to buy and stuff in GS Buicks and Ram pickups (???)! SMH