Spent the last couple days reading about 572" combos and it seems pretty universal at that point they need to go to external oiling, even found a couple instances where windage with the 4.5 stroke and a conventional center sump pan was bad enough engines would start to lose oil pressure above 5000 rpm.

I'll check under the car again tomorrow, but the C body has surprisingly little room around the oil pan and oil pump, standard pans that work on B/E's end up getting hit by the steering linkage and the subframe is bigger than the k-frame on a normal unibody Mopar.

The 540, 2.2 journal, 1/2" pickup sounds like the most straightforward and safest combo to build but it also is a struggle to not go bigger when it's a clean slate for parts!

Thinking I'll do the induction side in 2 stages. To get it running next year I can use the old school large bore 850 DP I have on my current motor, and put that on either a 440-2 or regular TF 4150 intake, port match it to the 270's, and use my cheater kit that's limited to 250 hp. Honestly that alone should get it to bottom 10's.

Stage 2 would be a proper 4500 intake, a new plate kit (great suggestion Tony!) so I could run 2 stages on 1 plate, and EFI. I can't bring myself to buy a new carburetor so that would be the perfect time to switch to EFI. Would do the Dominator sized Terminator X 4500, could use the Dominator to control the nitrous stages and provide the fuel enrichment, and also put a flex fuel sensor on it so it could run E85 too.

11.5 CR with a large enough cam should be ok for the 93 octane pump gas we have here. I don't care about idle quality at all, it has a 4500 rpm stall converter already with 4.10's, and there is a vacuum pump for the power brakes, so only real constraint for the cam is the lobes have to have milder ramps to keep from beating the valvetrain up on drag and drives.

Greg- thank you! Back in the mid 90's Nick Scavo had a black '65 Impala that used to run in all of the fastest street car classes, it still had a column shifter and bench seat. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, having a 4000# tank pulling wheelies back then.grabbing gears on the column. I know Tony did too with his Dart! It's fun building something different and comfy.

Thanks Chip - that's definitely where it's going to end up. With a decent block and rotating assembly I'm not going to be afraid of putting the man jets in it!