Quote Originally Posted by josh bichard View Post
I bought a 73 429 for it and found some 1970 dove c heads. I am just curious what kind of potential this combo could have. I plan on cruising it regularly so i would like to have a good powerful engine that will last a while, somewhere between 4 and 500 horsepower. i like a lil lope but would like a valve train that i dont have to adjust all the time. And would hope to achieve this on a "modest" budget. any info would help. thanks for reading!
Hello Josh,

My online access is limted for the time being; I apologize for my tardy reply.

A 1973 429 with a D0VE head swap will net you about 8.7:1 compression ratio, perhaps a little more with a 0.030 overbore and zero-decking the block.

You did not mention whether you intended to rebuild the entire engine or simply do the head swap and run the engine as-is. If running as-is (with a D0VE head swap), you might generate perhaps 300 hp with a free-flowing exhaust and bigger then OEM carburetor such as a Holley 750.

Add a mild camshaft, straight-up double roller timing chain, a distributor with an aggressive advance curve, and then 375 hp is quite possible with excellent reliability.

I suspect that the above is about where you might want to stop budget-wise, but if you port the heads and add more cam then mid-400's is possible. Without porting the heads, the necessary cam is big enough that valve train maintenace can become somewhat regular.

Paul