Alright, bringing this back up! *wall of text incoming*

I didn't get into Roadkill Nights this year and was honestly a bit salty about it, lol. Have definitely been bitten by the drag and drive bug though, and also have ambitions of not being in the slowest run group moving forward. Definitely want to do one of Tom Bailey's events again and/or Drag Week, depending on the tracks.

Have been reconsidering what direction I want the final goal of the car to be, and think I've come to the conclusion that it's time to take the plunge on a rollbar. It's already quicker than the safety equipment allows, and it's not the wisest thing to be attempting to run in the 10's @ 125+ on stock 55 year old lap belts. To be legal to 10.0 it would need the rollbar, harnesses, an SFI damper, an SFI flexplate, and a trans shield. That seems doable and worth the investment. However, if it gets a rollbar, I'm going to want to get as close to 10 flat as possible. The suspension, tires and axle should already be capable. Whatever direction it goes I'll upgrade the trans and fuel system.

Using the typical Wallace Racing calculators for the Fury's weight, plus adding in another 10% of losses for a less than optimal street/strip engine install, means it would need to make a bit over 900 hp to get there.

Am totally willing to live with a ridiculous cam, the 4.10 gears and a 4500 rpm stall converter, but a 440 with a head swap is not going to get there safely, no matter how much I spray it. As long as the cam has gentle ramps so it can survive drag and drives, I'm ok with lots of overlap and degraded idle quality.

Spent some time measuring, based on hood clearance and the available parts for the car, the tallest/largest intake I can run is the 4150 based Trick Flow RB intake- could at least port match this to the Trick Flow 270 opening, and possibly have Wilson hog out the plenum as well. From what I understand, the 270 port size is a tiny bit less than a true max wedge intake port. Any of the usual single planes with a dominator won't fit once I put a nitrous plate underneath the carb and also try to fit an air filter on it. It won't fit the Indy 440-3X, and it won't fit the 4500 version of the same TF intake either because of the increased height of the intake, a dominator itself, and the lack of drop base air cleaners for dominators. The TF 4150 intake would leave 1/2" of space between the scoop and the top of the air cleaner lid.

The other restriction is the 1 7/8" headers, with a 3" collector. There isn't anything bigger for a C body because the subframe puts the torsion bars in a weird spot compared to a B/E body. I would run it with cutouts as close as possible to the collectors though and open them up for any passes.

Have 2 trains of thought for the motor:

1: find a late 440 block with the thicker main webbing, and hope it sonic checks ok. Build a 505 or 512 with the TF270 heads I have now, a solid roller cam with bushed rollers, and either Molnar or Callies Compstar crank/rods + Mahle pistons. This should make a realistic 650-700 hp, and then can spray a 250 shot on my current plate kit to get it to the goal. My concern here is the stock block- have heard lots of horror stories about how the blocks won't live at that power level. On motor it would live, but add a 200 shot on top of that and I think it's on borrowed time. At the current usage, it likely would get 15 passes and about 1500 street miles per year. Will it last with the limited usage?

2: save up for another year or so and buy a Bill Mitchell aluminum RB block, build a 540 or 572 with similar Molnar or Callies components, custom pistons since Mahle doesn't have a 4.5 bore shelf piston, and top it with the same TF270's that have already been purchased. The block should at least live indefinitely at the 900-1000 hp level in this case, but am also concerned a 4150 based intake and 1 7/8" headers are too restrictive for a 572, regardless of how much it gets sprayed. I don't know if this can be compensated for by increasing exhaust duration and widening the LSA a little to make up for the exhaust. Since the heads aren't any different than what I'd put on the 512 I don't think the power would be substantially greater, it would just happen at a lower rpm and potentially be easier on parts.

Thoughts? Are those headers and a 4150 based intake/carb too much of a choke point for a 572? Will a 512 live with nitrous use? It really seems like a roll of the dice.