Hey guys. Im Matt and im 15 going on 16 in Dec. Ive always liked cars, but musclecars in particularly. In fact, almost only musclecars, with the only exceptions being other American high performance cars. Anyway, im going to be looking for a car soon and I have tons of choices, limits though, of course, are money, money, and money. Whatever I have will be driven daily, but that doesnt mean something with driver quality manners. My dad had one engine in one of his Chevelles that he built cheap and it was basically and oval track engine. Tons of work done to a set of double hump heads sitting on top of a 307 block with a forged 327 Vette crank. Anyway, this was back in the '80s, but the cam was, brace yourself, .560 lif t(he cant remember, it was either .560 something or .580 something but .580 seems too much for double hump heads, no matter how much work was done to them) but was about as much duration as could be packed into that lobe. Anyway, the thing used to scream. Ive heard some crazy stories, one involving the destruction of the reputation of a SS396 Nova in which the Nova managed to pull about 3 car lengths of distance between him and my dad and the 307 hit 4 grand and began to head for the 8000 rpm that my dad shifted at like lightning, pulling like a freight train as it screamed by that Nova. Anyway, being much like my dad, im a little on the crazy side. I want a big block that will rev. And what better big block to rev than a real fine 409? With those huge bores they can breath well because the valves are unshrouded I would assume and its relatively short stroke should also allow it to rev easily. Anyway, I want to put it in a bubble top Bel Air with a 4 speed and some 3.70s or 4.11s. However, there isnt much info out there about 409s compared to other BBCs and I notice alot of the parts, almost all, arent interchangeable. How much could I expect to have to pay to build one. I dont know much about 409s compared to other engines. Did the used forged internals stock? Did only certain versions use forged peices? Also, how much should I expect to pay to build an engine? My dad isnt a hot rodder really anymore, and he was a small block Chevy guy. I want to run low to mid 13s once I can get it to launch well with good tires and the gears I mentioned already. I think I can easily do better than that because I want to employ a Z11 spec cam. Im crazy and love to rev things up, nothing sounds better than a brusing V8 taching up 7 grand, am I right? I would want to obviously build it with all forged internals and aluminum pistons. So can anyone give me a price range? The Bel Air would sort of be a stripper, anything I didnt need wouldnt be on there.