You can also look at it from another perspective.....
You can run pretty fast with run of mill heads and cams if you know what to do with them.
As I remember it, there was an article in Car Craft..... 1984 I think ....... Pump gas 440 build done by Steve Bagwell.
6bbl pistons, pocket ported big valve 906's, Holley sd intake, 750 Holley....... Made right about 500hp.
It ended up being put in some pro street-ish Duster and ran 10's.
That was pretty fast for a build like that back then.
Good memory. It was 1984. I bought that issue at my first job(grocery store)shortly before I bought my first car(71 RR). Back when Car Craft was "Chevy Craft". Mopar articles were very rare at that time. Pretty sure the motor in that article had a 509 in it too. Ran 10.90s in that duster IIRC. One thing I remember is that they claimed blocking the heat crossover with the Fel-pro valley pan gasket was worth 22(!)hp. I may have that issue boxed up somewhere. Sorry to go offtopic.
