I remember the Car Craft article "Junkyard Dog" where they took a 360 from a junkyard, got it runnin threw it in an a body.....I forget which one and put incremental steps of gas on it TRYING to blow it up and never did. They just kept going faster.
Don Garlits once spoke at Mopar Nationals about how when the 413 came out it was supposed to be better than the old 392 Hemi.... He ran one in his rail and it just couldn't run as good...
He decided to put the 392 back in the rail and tried to blow it up by adding more boost and timing... He ended up being the first one to break 220 MPH in the quarter mile trying to blow up the old 392 Hemi and the engine held together...