Greetings Boy1duh & all; Ok I'm in this debate. I look at the whole car as the team & the various parts as the team members. Please keep in mind that one player shouldn't over or under whelm the others So if your going drag racing, the most cubes (inches-big block), of course with aluminum heads. Your enemy is weight on the nose weather it is a drag car or street car. But on the street you won't need more than 450 Lbs Ft of torque & once you exceed 450 Lbs Ft of torque you'll start twisting the car. I know as I'm dealing with 500 Lbs Ft & it's just exceeded the limit of our stock frames. So that being said any LIGHT weight engine that makes 400 -500 Lbs Ft of torque will be a fun car. You can make those #'s with a 383 or 406 SBC & have a well behaved street able engine all at a modest costs. But you will still have an iron block! Nose weight is NOT your friend! So that brings us to the Ls series engines. Don't even consider an iron Ls engine unless you plan to boost it (supercharge-turbo) as you would be giving up one of the main advantages of the Ls series. Be warned that entering the Ls ring will be costly as every thing costs more than an old SBC. A friend of mine just put together a 1965 Chevelle with a Ls-2 - L65-E combo & it's just a fantastically balanced automobile, 400 Lbs Ft, 400 + HP & a 3.7 gear. It's quick, handles well, comfortable (AC) & will get good mileage. To define me I'm an ol'e big block fan that couldn't afford an aluminum big block, so I went large SB with as much aluminum as I could afford. Look at the Ls this way, it has an FE (Ford side oiler) bottom end, BB Chevy rocker ratio (similar), some of the best flowing ports modern flow programs can give us & the compactness of a SB Chevy all in one lite powerful package. I should also mention that the Ls series engines don't oil as well as previous big & small Chevy's, so be careful if you hot rod an Ls series engine, they can hurt them selfs easy. Did I help?? Bob Jr.
