There are still some of us around that do a boat load of reading conflicting info all over the inter web then come here to see how it applies to "my" build. Keep the good info coming, I hope to someday be able to provide the same to others. Sounds cheesy I know but I for sure am very appreciative of all the help I've gathered from here. I'm out.

I think you guys do a great job and service to this website with sharing your info on here...I enjoy the reads that you guys post.

Ten years ago, I needed some heads for my old 565cid engines. I think I was Bob Madara's first customer....near the end of 2004, I was looking for some new heads...I needed new heads. This is after some guy had sold me into bringing my engines and a buddy's 540cid engines down to him in the deep southern states...hind sight is usually 20/20...not a good idea. I ended up having to go rescue my engines---long long really bad story!

Anyway, after all of that, Bob Madara told me that the AFR 315cc CNC ported heads would really work well on my 565cid N/A engines....and I remember responding to Bob; "Are you sure, Bob???" He also did the cam specs as Dave Wesseldyke re-machined and assembled my engines. I remember Dave being very impressed with Bob's head/cam combination for my engines as Dave ran them on the dyno. It was from that point on that Dave began to use Bob's cam profiles for his customer's engine builds....and now we're using Bob's head/ cam profiles again on my next set of engines that Dave is building.

So, yeah....Bob may be old.....I...I mean the "Old wise Owl"...but he knows a bit about those head and cam profile combinations!

The differences in my build vs your build are as follows

Bore - 4.280
Compression - 8.68:1
Cam isn't done yet but Bob ran some numbers by me that it would be - 654/63? lift, 231-235 duration on a 112LSA
Heads - 265 oval port with CNC chambers

As far as the intake goes I have a rectangular intake as well, not even sure there is an oval port intake for this as I haven't looked. I was told it won't make any noticeable difference in my particular application by 2 sources, but was told what we can do if I am concerned with it.

Usually a non matter. In fact, on a few NA 454 builds, matching the rect intake to the oval heads lost power.

Sound/look weird ? Sure does. But there is a lot of things that don't look correct on paper that actually work in the real world.

If you aren't building this like a "blower motor" then why in the world would you only have 8.68:1 compression with the 177 blower?

We are building the motor to make good power on motor alone, and not be blower reliant. The 525sc in stock form is blower reliant, and shows it in its performance. You can't rely on a 177 to make your power like you can with a larger blower, and that's what i meant by that statement. And just a question for Black Baja what would you run compression wise in this particular application?

Your build is .030 bigger bore.do you believe that would make a hp&torque difference?.your compression ratio is almost the same and your cam is very close.other than the heads these engines are almost identical.you did not say what size carb you will be useing .my build has a 1025 cfm barry grant.

9.5:1 3lbs boost and you aren't gonna melt it. 8.5:1 454 is a blower reliant motor. I would have to do some figuring on the 9.5 3lbs but that's gonna be a better combination than relying on the 177. As soon as that thing heat soaks your gonna be in trouble. I've ran 9.5:1 5.5lbs inter cooled and that baby was like a rocket. At 7lbs it would detonate. Bobs cam will definitely help the motor out.

No I don't think that the bore and compression will make any real difference, I am using the stock Holley 1050 dominator that has been set up, flowed, and boost referenced through AED. Dyno sheets from 2 separate builders, seperate dyno's even if the same brand, seperate dyno operators, and in 2 different parts of the country are not comparable to say that the 305 made/didnt make/or is the same power as the 265. What correction factor was the dyno set up at? Is the Dyno calibrated? How often is it calibrated? Looks like your dyno doesn't use a water break for load? If my guy ran mine and it made 650 and I said pull it again and make it show 690 it would be no problem. We could pull it and make X, let everything cool down while keeping the oil temp hot, and do a quick blast and I promise you it will make more power then the pull before where we let everything get up to temp. The only real data in this thread is Haxby's post where he has literally tested back to back all the same and just changed the 1 component. Your dyno sheet isn't real data, its a reference, but its not data. If you ran that exact motor with no changes its HIGHLY unlikely that you would get the same numbers dyno to dyno with all these different variables.

Ask any of the builders here and they will all tell you that in a blower application 8.7-8.8 is the ideal compression number and to stay 9:1 or under in a marine application. You are from maryland, call Tony at CMS or Dave Govatus, actually call Eddie Young too. This information was the same between all 3 of them for this application.