Prior to the head swap, there was a lot of talk about retarding the cam.

I wonder if that plan got implemented with the new head install.

I wish he would just post the sheet over there. Hard to analyze it really without seeing a few of the numbers, curves, etc.
His words "waaay less"........ How much less is that? 5hp?10hp?25hp?

When it was apparent that the numbers werent going to come around....... Was any type of troubleshooting done while it was on the dyno?
Play with the lash, cranking compression, try a dominator on it, etc

We did a street/strip 408 last year. Pretty mild pump gas deal...... Owner wanted "500hp+".

10.5cr, .600 roller, bowl blended RPM's, std victor, QFT 850.
Made 540hp.

So, the question in my mind is....... On a mild build like that...... If you just swapped out the heads for the BPE 205's....... Would it pick up?
Or, does it need to be "more" of a motor to make them work?

Anyone know what the intake runner volume is for the Hughes full CNC non-big mouth?
The guy who did the head swap had the Hughes heads flowed and they made it to 300cfm.
If the BPE's flow similarly, but have a larger cross section and runner volume, might be a situation where they're "too big" for the application.
Although I doubt this is really the case. A 205cc head is still pretty small on a 400+ cube build.
I'm just "thinking out loud".