468 engines with roller cams accelerate quicker due to better cam lobe profiles. I street raced a 468 with a Lunati hyd roller and milled 049 heads with 11.5 to 1 ompression that would pull to 6800 rpm and run 103mph in 1/8 mile street races on pump gas spinning to the 330' before getting good traction

BuzzJones Yes absolutely. The biggest difficulty will be establilshng TDC. The msot common tool used is a spark plug piston stop. The only problem is taht with newer heads and flattop pistons that often the piston stop will not contact the piston. What I've done in tese cases is to use a lever-action, over-center tool that was originally designed to remove/change valvesprings. If you use a flat bar to contact the valvestem insted of the spring retainer, you can use this tool to push down on either the intake or exhaust valve and use it as a piston stop. You must be very careful here not to hit the valve very hard with the piston or it may bend the valve, so approach the top of the travel carefully and slowly and under no circumstance use the starter motor to bump the engine - you must do it by hand wtih all the spark plugs out of the engine. But first, try the spark plug piston stop method and see if that works - its much easier to use and quicker.

Yes you are correct - if the dial indiator is not pependicular to the surface, it will affect the reading but sometimes it's just too time consuming to get it square. I've checked it both ways and frankly can't see a significant difference - perhaps 0.001-inch. If you are concerned with total accuracy - then yes it's important- but with a spec range of 0.000 to 0.005-inch - an error of 0.001 isn't that critical.

As mentioned in the video, this simplified HP estimator is just that - an estimate that assumes (there's that word again) several things like a really good camshaft that is likely a roller with more lift than a flat tappet. Plus as mentioned several other variables. I ran the numbers to get your 551 hp at 6,000 rpm. The Ford numbers of 450 lb-ft of torque and 375 hp is using a stock and very mild flat tappet cam with a stock intake and cast iron exhaust. If you put headers, a better intake, a nice hydraulic roller cam, and enough carburetor it would probably make 530 lb-ft of torque and somewhere around 550 hp. If you tested a bone stock 429 - it will probably make more than the factory numbers - the OE's often under-rated their engines in order to pass through car inssurance regulations back in the day. Plus, the Boss 429 was rated at 5,200 rpm peak hp - way short of what you plugged into it at 6,000 rpm - do the math - with 1.25 x 429 and then peak hp at 5,200 - it comes to 475 . So it should be obvious that rpmplays a big part in this estimate. We are working with 20 to 30 variables here and yet estimating power to come up with a single number as the result. These are just estimates - it's possible that the Boss 429 isn't capable of 1.25 lb-ft per cubic inch. But I think it probably is - again assuming everythign else. Also consider that this 1.25 lb-ft/ci is based on using modern combustion chambers - which is what establishes combustion efficiency. A Boss 429 chamber may not be that good. But then again - it might be capable of actuall more since its close to a hemi chamber.