Well then I guess I need to go out and break it to Vixen that she's all smoke and mirrors and fakery. I built her on less than a 1985 budget, so I guess she doesn't count.
If it makes you happy that’s all that counts. Again, as someone else posted 318WR started this thread to make himself look smart, not to have a discussion about a platform and what it really costs do build a street engine. Let’s face it. This stuff is all 40-50 or more years old. The decks aren’t flat. The main line is marginal at best. The bores are straight or round. You can eat up 2k just in machine work for the engine. And that’s not buying a part. I never build an engine where the block doesn’t get at least a surface. I’d rather square deck it. No one on here would buy core heads and not surface them, but they do that with blocks. Cheap and smart aren’t close friends. As I said before, I don’t have an issue with a budget. I have an issue with threads like this where someone puts constraints on a build most reasonable people would never consider. One guy wants to keep his 3k budget but run a roller cam set up. That’s 1200 bucks right there. That shoots a 3k budget right in the wallet. At least let’s be reasonable about the costs.