Getting a 408 to produce real power looks like the demanding side of this project, and Erik met it with a fully forged bottom end. Up top sit AFR 205 cc heads, and the valvetrain runs a Comp hydraulic cam with 244 intake and 254 exhaust duration at .050. For my money, that much duration on a hydraulic profile is a bold spec, and backing it with a forged short block is exactly the pairing I would want under it.
On the dyno with a carburetor, the motor made 500 hp and 500 tq, and it now runs fuel injection. The exhaust flows through an X pipe into 3 inch piping and 40 series Flowmasters, with dual outlets leaving under both sides of the chassis. At idle the engine delivers a loud, steady rumble, and Erik describes the sound as mean. That rumble alone would sell me on this build.
Standout details include the woodgrain instrument cluster holding three analog circular gauges, plus a 120 mph speedometer reading roughly 18,737 miles. The metallic blue paint suits the era of the car nicely, in my view.
Some of the interior remains open: the driver door card is missing and the inner door frame sits in bare metal, while the cabin shows a bare floorpan and a partially disassembled steering column. A fresh dyno session is planned after the switch to fuel injection, and better recording gear is meant to follow. Seeing the injected numbers next to the carb pull will be the interesting part.
Project by Erik. Watch it on their YouTube channel: