I've had my car for about 3 years now but havent had any time to spend with her until lately(military/deployments). I have a 1986 truck 454 with edlebrock 650cfm carb and performer 2.0 intake that needs some work.
Rebuilding her I would need new heads, intake and carb providing the block and crank are still good. I cant do the rebuild myself(no knowledge or tools) so it would have to be done at a shop so account for the cost of machining.
What would be a good avenue to take to reach the 500hp level on a semi tight budget(4-5000K). Should I use what I have along with new pistons and maybe rods and buy the edlebrock heads, RPM AIR GAP intake with voodoo cam and an 800cfm carb? Maybe go 496 or buy a 502 shortblock(no pistons etc) and build from there with the same top end as previously stated?
At a bare minimum the engine has to be broken down inspected and cleaned up. I would like to up the compression to as close to 10.1 as possible and I would like to overbore it so I need new pistons. I've heard people say the truck rods are good but Im not sure what years or if mine fall into that category.
As you can see Im pretty clueless and could use all the advice I can get.
Thanks,
Shane

I have about 4500 in parts on my engine it'll push more then 500 ;) but machine work would put you over. You can build a beast of an engine with just iron heads and stay within your budget. If your keeping it super budget just do the internals. Buy the intake, carb headers later since everything you have on it now should still work fine.

Thats good advice. I actually already have dynomax headers but there not on the car. Are the truck heads any good? Are they worth porting?
Thanks for posting
Shane

Truck heads aren't worth the porting try selling them on ebay. Look for either 049 or 781 casting numbers