But has it been? Not can be, but has been?
I've got pictures from back in '04 in Seattle of what appears to be an ex-factory drag truck with a 5.9 and even the beer barrel intake. Unfortunately I didn't grab any info on what time he ran. I remember I was pretty impressed.
Might be worth noting that the 5.7 truck in the video did it with ported stock heads. Seems unfair to use the same restriction on the 5.9 though.
Honestly, I think it would be cool to build an LA based motor that ran as well as a G3 on the street and met my needs. I was even planning to go down that road, but kept tripping over the fact that I can get a G3 into my car for similar money as some off the shelf heads for an LA. I just don't have the time or money to re-invent the wheel.
And when I say "run as well", I don't mean ultimate HP. Needs to cruise on the highway at 1500 or so RPM pulling 6th gear on the hills at 65 mph, get good mileage and be in the 450 HP range. No argument that you could get an LA based motor to do 2 of those, but 3 becomes hard. There are a couple of guys on here that have some of the aspects covered, but not all. And I couldn't afford their motors.
Can you build me an LA that makes 450 HP, runs happily at 1500 at 65 mph and get's 22+ mpg? For $4000? I think I will be under $3K for my motor and the parts to get it installed, but I'm not there yet so I figure there should be some wiggle room.