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I have built Mopar engines every day for over 25 years--that means a lot of them. Some wonders --that won championships and some turds that well...were just that but...98% were just fine , however
I am always surprised when one I built 7 years ago-- finally gives up at the race track- and I get a call --'what am I going to do about it?"
then..a dear friend that has built engines for over 40 years says to me
If they can't afford to blow one up every now and then NO matter who or what was at fault --then...this ain't the hobby for them.
It is tougher every day that passes to justify doing more--with parts quality what it is and budgets way less than it really takes to cover all the bases
When I really think it over --I know we were better off sticking a 509 cam in a junk yard 440 stuffing that into a $700 Duster and having FUN.
Way better than where we are now with a $15K build being pretty normal.
I sinned and built myself a 350 small block Chevy for my Nostalgia dragster--a nice 200 inch old school looking fun machine--well after doing all that "sinning" without doing all that much spending I can say that it is the best bang for the buck since those .509 in a old 440 days
Bash if you must --I do not care but I am racing--going fast as I need to--and doing it on the cheap which...

Makes it FUN AGAIN!!! and if it blows all to pieces --well..it was just a friggin SBC--who gives a damn.

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Exactly.

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Didn't see this but I agree. Again I'm not a racer, but 509 cammed junk yard engines are what got me into Mopars. Unfortunately I was born about 20 years too late for that. When I rebuilt my engine I thought it'd be great to have a fresh engine exactly the way I wanted it, and once it was done and I figured what I have into it (not including time), I probably could be almost as fast if I just re-rung and bearinged the engine and shoved some more cheap 70s tech into it with a 509 cam and let it burn some oil. And my car would be painted.

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So you guys are missing the OP's original point. If a 509 cam and a junkyard 440 flips your beenie then good on you. I sold my car in 2007 and don't miss it a single bit. I now have a mid 12 second daily driver that I will put into the mid 11's over the winter and I will do it on passenger car heads. But I will use a custom SFT cam. I could go HRT but that is so common now that it bores me. 340 CID. I could make it faster but I don't want to have a roll bar.

So again, if you are happy running junkyard garbage and it's fun to YOU, good on ya. But there should be some backlash from all of us about the horrible RACE parts deficiency and piss poor race support that we get from MoPar and the aftermarket.

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My Duster ran 10.60's with a .509 on kerosine (9.5-1)