It depends on what SBF you start with. A 550 horse bolt on Cleveland or 400M is easily attainable if you start with a high compression motor (no need on a 400) to boot and just as reliable as stock. But then again I'm one of those guys that usually tends to keep engines with the cars they came with a few exceptions.
Also, mechanical injection over EFI is usually much cheaper.
I'd argue about it not being as responsive to bolt ons...that really depends soley on the year of the engine you are starting with. We all know that a lot of Ford engines had performance versions and the pig versions which started with the same block, take the 390 for example.
Exactly, it depends on what you start with. As in the cheapest stuff won't hold up to 450 hp without breakig in half or having an aftermarket crank and internals and stuff, and having a Cleve or 400M reach those power levels reliably is not exactly "easily" attainable, and I'm willing to bet it'll be expensive as hell and difficult because you know, everyone and their mother makes parts for Cleves and 400Ms (I know there are plenty of parts, but can't be compared to the ammount of parts and development for the LS engine), and expensive because there will be machining work involved for sure, and parts for obscure obsolete engines, surprisingly, can get quite pricy.
They're great engines and I love Fords, don't take me wrong, but I'd still say the LS engine would be a better choice for a powerful engine. At least financially (I won't talk about how I could never find a Cleve or FE or M in here as we all live in different parts of the world, but yeah, in Mexico those don't even exist).
How unless you go brand new aftermarket stuff? Junkyard source it from any Mass air EFI 5.0 or 5.8....
Yeah, and be saddled with anemic factory parts and having to cobble together a system that'll provide enough air to a high-HP engine. I'm all for the junkyard aproach and I think cobbling together stuff that works from trash is awesome, but I'm still talking about a truly high-performance engine, 500 horses or higher, and tuneable and stuff. You'd still need to update half of the stuff from the junkyard or be limited by throttle-body size and the sensors and what not. The LS stuff will be much more modern even in stock form and will maybe hold up fine, or at least better, than the old Ford stuff. I thik they might be comparable and more or less equivalent, stock-vs-stock form, in that they'd need to be updated a bit, so the induction part might be moot, but when we go into block, heads and other stuff, the LS do makes sense. Technology will do that.
'Sides, you can't deny the cool factor of opening up your hood and pissing Slash off. Priceless (:
, sold in the HSV Clubsport here in Australia a while back, 07 VE commodre I believe?
