Backup motor build under way...soon as the snow clears

Hi All - So I'm here to increase my engine knowledge for my drag racing addiction. I currently have an 89 notchback with a 521, apparently built by Evans Racing Engines, Owensboro KY (sticker on the cylinder head). I purchased the car and engine from the same guy but at different times. Car was previously wrecked. Got the car track ready, saved up more money and went back and purchased the engine that came out of it. It's a 10.3:1 521 with Trickflow heads, scat 9000 cast crank and came with a 1050 dominator. Couldn't ever get the dominator to work right so threw a 1250 dominator on it that was meant for my Chevelle. Don't panic, I'm a Ford guy at heart. The Chevelle was my father in law's drag car for the last 40ish years and he sold it about 5 years ago when he had medical issues from agent orange exposure in Nam. He got the car when he got back. It was gone about 5 years and came up for sale, so I went and bought it back and gave it to him this past fathers day and he wouldn't accept it, so now it's mine apparently. Anyway, back to the build.

The 521 runs like a scalded dog in my opinion for what it is and I sure don't want to build anything slower. Last time out I went 5.98 @ 115 on footbrake with the way oversized 1250 gas dominator. I've since had competition carburation in Nevada build me an alky carb for it, as it was terrible about overheating. I don't know if it has a problem or if it is just an insufficient cooling system problem yet. Just put a new water pump on and may have to get a bigger radiator as well. Either way, I want a backup in case it goes down. Haven't got to run it on the alky carb yet. Just came across a 460 block already prepped and machined for a new build so I'm picking that up this week if the snow subsides. It's .030 over, so figured I'd go 521 or 545. The plan was to go at least 13:1 on the compression this time around and also build it with alky in mind to power it. I'm dying to put the SR71 heads on this build. No complaints about the trickflows, just really want to try out the SR71's. My research says I'm gonna need Kaase to change valves for the .030 bore size. I'm looking for a balanced rotating assembly and the pistons will have to work with the SR71's. If any of the vendors on here want a shot at outfitting the build I'm all ears. If not, I'm just gonna order everything from Kaase, which may be the better idea just because I'm going with his heads and want to be sure everything is in harmony. I just can't see how the 545 would slow me down but I hate to move away from what seems to be working with the 521. I figure the alky carb and getting my tranny brake hooked up gets me close to 5.70's or 8's on motor and that's my overall goal. That said, I just bracket race, but gotta be faster than my Nova racing buddies! Anyone know if any of the "Evans" on this site are the same as the sticker on my engine? Address is on "upper trace" and phone ends in "4654", I've never tried calling as the paperwork that came with the motor showed a build date of 1/27/07.

sweet , i had a 521 in my notch and it would run 5.80 on motor , edelbrock heads !! loved it , then went to a 562 with the same cylinder heads and would run 5.30 on the spray

Wow, great numbers. Love to hear more aboit your combo. I thought my 521 was extraordinary, the ones I could find on youtube were slower than I expected so I was pleasantly surprised with mine. I think the best I found was a fox running 11's. Mine came with a fogger but I removed it, no need for bracket racing and the scat 9000 cast crank seemed like a bad idea for spraying. Im weighing in at 2650 with a .674 .685 lift cam. Completely relying on the paperwork I was given, haven't had it apart as it was freshened before I bought it by a guy I'm familiar with locally.

Sorry, looked again and cam is .692 .705

here is a little write up on the cylinder heads ,

https://www.429-460.com/t134-bruno-s-edelbrock-s?highlight=bruno

Interesting. Truth be told, I dont know exactly which trickflow heads I have or if they have any work done. The paperwork says they are the 290's. Ive always been a fan of their stuff, just usually on the small block 302's! Had Vic Jr's on my 393 and it was a runner so I'm a fan of whatever works. My Chevelle has a 565 with AFR 357's. I dont discriminate. Lol

understand , these cylinder heads were on the car when i purchased it t/k. When i was doing this deal i would have started with a different cylinder head no doubt. The build was a forge RPM crank, R and R aluminum rods, Wiesco pistons, Eddy CJ heads, yella terra rockers !! i fought this suspension with this car the whole time i owned it ( old school ladder bar). the second go around on the build we went with diamond pistons , A460 block 562" , could remember the cam ..... but it was making enough power to run low 5's ... i just could never get it to run faster then 5.30s.....

If I ran low 5's I'd still be smiling...someday I hope. Wanted to do an A460 block 598 but there just isnt any point for bracket racing and I'm not willing to spend the money to be competitive running heads up classes. My Wife's uncle has his car for sale now that ran low-mid 4's and it wasn't near competitive enough. He's selling for over 100k and that's half what he spent. Too rich for my blood!

if you are going to run the stock block with .030 bore,you could do well with the p51 heads.many builds here at 1,000 or more with compression.the sr-71 heads are a real deal for the money,but not sure how they would work on a small bore.call kaase and ask him.

Thanks for the info. I guess bigger isn't always better. Finally got the block picked up yesterday so hope to start buying parts soon.

So is this a backup engine or a new bullet for the car?

It's both really! I want to have a backup in case I go down mid season, don't want to be down rest of season if that happens. The current engine has a weird problem heating up we haven't figured out yet so who knows how long it will last. I want this build to be as fast or faster. May put it in the car either way so I can tear down the 521 and figure out what's causing the excessive heat. We suspect the cooling system is insufficient. Just put new water pump on and its clearly moving more water and getting the water out of the block. We think the old one wasn't. Other possibility is guy who freshened it put head gaskets on backward with large holes to the front. Regardless, switched it to alcohol to help cool it so we'll see how it likes it next month.

So if you want them to be remotely interchangeable then watch out for things like raised exhaust ports and intake heights. Just my $.02

For sure! These damn custom headers cost me $4500.

521Notch wrote:For sure! These damn custom headers cost me $4500.

Are they made of unborn panda? $4500 is nuts!

Nuts is right. I was less than happy about the price and the fact they put bullhorns coming out my front fender when I specifically said absolutely not!  I'm not gonna call out the shop publicly. They are racers and not small ones who have been around for some time.  It was frustrating to say the least.

bruno wrote:here is a little write up on the cylinder heads ,

https://www.429-460.com/t134-bruno-s-edelbrock-s?highlight=bruno

Who did the cnc porting on your eddy heads ? im thinking of having mine ported after the 2021 season

So we spent the last 2 days trying to figure out my overheating problem on the current 521 in the car. After losing our minds with frustration we decided to remove the carb spacer and throw more timing at it and add a new carb gasket just in case, before pulling the motor to tear it down. All of a sudden it started acting right, quit overheating and ran like a raped ape. Heading to the track to test and tune on the 20th. Hoping to go 5.80's after the way she felt up the driveway today. Fingers crossed.