I am posting this just as information. I bought one from a drag racer. So a lot of things had already been taken care of or simplified.

These engines in 358 form only make around 575 ft lbs of torque. If the cam is big you are going to want a lot of gear and converter. My combination was a lot of gear a 6,800 converter and a powerglide trans. My car has plenty of tire and bite. It's 60 ft pretty weak. The MPH and ET not bad. 5.82@118 at 3,000 lbs in good air. A car with small tires and a torqueflite can really do well with these engines. A stick car would do very well also. There were some 3.5" cranks made for these engines outside of NASCAR. If you are lucky enough to find one with this stroke or buy a crank you have a great engine no matter what you put behind it.

Putting a Dominator on these engines is great for top end power. Most like myself would benefit by leaving a 4150 carb on it. A simple change to a front drive distributor like what was done with mine allows the engine to be set back nicely.

The adapter plates are expensive as advertised. The one I have is a nicer one from BOBSPROFAB but, I still made some improvements that were allowed with my JW Ultrabell. I would recommend if running an aftermarket bell to check on getting it plugged and redrilled to fit the bolt pattern of the R5. Have not been able to talk Reid into making a run of bells with the bolt pattern different than the standard small block. The material is there for the change. ATI also makes an adapter that allows one of their bells to bolt up. I would not get too caught up in the bolt pattern.

The flat bottom dry sump pans do not work in stock style front suspensions without running the engine high in the car. I have a Charlies pan that works nice. If I were to do one of these engines from scratch I would buy a single stage pump and build a wet sump pan. The only changes necessary is to drill oil passages in the cam tunnel for drainage. If you are a novice racer who wants simple oil system. A drysump is not what you want. There is little about this engine that makes it a requirement. From what I see a couple plugs and a few new holes in the block and a belt driven wet sump engine is fairly simple. While changing pans if you were buying a new drysump pump you could get by with a four stage instead of the six.

I have yet to see any advertisement for one of these engines that did not claim to make over 800 HP. The one I have has some very big heads and domed pistons. I have talked with many who built these engines for a living and say that there are a lot of happy dynos just like other engine's numbers. I would say 800+ is fairly common but the number 830+ I would say is suspect.

All in all you buy one of these engines after getting around the oil pan and mating it with your transmission you will be happy with it. They scream and make lots of power. They are not a torque monster but neither is Mopar's 340. HP wise the R5P7 is light years ahead. You can't be bashful, you have to turn it 8K or better.

I believe if the guys trying to get $950 for adapter plates would come down to earth and people realized the potential you would see these things running everywhere.

I am looking to go with a taller aluminum block with 340 mains and more stroke. The block is fair priced at $7,500 ready to assemble with the latest .937 keyway bushing and everything, the Bryant crank is $3,200 and custom. A real ring package so it is cold running temperature friendly. 467CID is possible with the aluminum block. Also looking to use some other more common parts that will make something that can stand a lot of power adder.

Everyone ran out and bought P7 heads and are all sitting on their hands over the XR2 blocks. EEi was having the aluminum blocks made in R5. It is a proven piece. You spend the extra $$ and get a block ready to use actually saving money if you stop and think about it. The custom crank is expensive but an extremely reputable company. For those who are still waiting on the XR2 I figure a couple thousand in extra cost tops to go the EEI route. Then you have a proven piece for racing. I have heard nothing but good things from those who have ran them. Just something to consider.

A local shop has built three SB2 400+ engines. The customers love them and they were not cheap. I talked with the shop about the matter. They said the P7 had more potential. So why are the chevy guys so more willing to build engines like this?