This started out as a beat up old '75 Mustang II Ghia with a 140 cubic inch inline four cylinder and a tiny little four-speed manual trans with a teeny little some kind of rear-end (I forget which kinds) I picked up for $250. I brought it home and promptly tore everything off and out (wow, did my land lady love ME. This car is why I bought a house, WITH a garage). I originally put in a near-stock 429, which was transformed into the 557 mauler when I threw a rod out the oil pan. The block was completely undamaged!
I built the engine with a SCAT steel crank and H-beam rods, with JE flat-top pistons so I could run 91 octane with only 10.6:1 compression . The engine has been changed a lot since these pictures, but this is what it first looked like. Since, it's got an Edelbrock aluminum water pump; MSD pro billet distributor, underdrive billet pulleys, and some other stuff.

Here's the Tunnel Ram all set to go, except for putting 45-degree AN fittings on the fuel line so's I can put on a part-of-a-hood.

The Cobra Jet intake ports are about the size of some Import's Cylinders!

I had to push all the inner fender steel as far out as I could, along with tapering the front frame rails where the headers go. Pics are BEFORES and AFTERS.

The headers were simply the BIGGEST pain in the butt-hole thing to EVER do on this thing, and I made TWO sets; first one was 1-7/8" primaries, (before pics) which choked the snot outa it. The new ones are 2-1/4" long-tubes into four-inch collectors. Of COURSE the steering link had to be double-floppied with a carrier bearing. FORD sure didn't plan these very well for Big Blocks! To make room for the BOTTOM of the headers, the whole lower control arm brace had to be removed and new lower braces fabbed up. I put steel mesh where I cut to help get rid of some of the heat. I also pushed the firewall back six inches and reshaped the trans tunnel to fit around the C6 tranny, which has a 3600 stall Monster torque converter and a TCI manual valve body with a trans brake. I had to move the radiator support forward another four inches, using 1X1 steel tube...
for the Griffin aluminum radiator, and put on a Black Max electric fan and shroud. ALSO, to clear the cross member and manual steering rack, as the power steering rack was too big to let the headers fit. Steering this thing is a Mother! I had to modify the oil pan about two inches. Forget any type of normal engine mounts, it needs engine plates. Of course, even with the oil pan modified, the carburetor STILL pokes clear through the hood, so a hood scoop is required. It STILL don't fit all the way, and I hadda raise the back part of the hood two inches, which helps get heat out of the engine compartment. EVERY brace and bracket on this thing I had to make, as nothing stock would even come CLOSE to fitting. All this so a 557 cid could be crammed between the rails... Power brakes??? HA!!! Not a chance in heck of making ANY type of booster fit! The heads are Edelbrock Performer RPM 460 Cobra Jet heads. A CRANE roller cam kit with .671 and .678 lift moves the Harland Sharp full-roller rockers. Intake is an Edelbrock Victor 460 CJ. The Barry Grant Mighty Demon carb now has a Proform 950 CFM body, and I don't think it's big enough yet.

I just bought another Mighty Demon 850 AND a Weiand dual-quad Tunnel Ram. Swapped out the 950 Proform body back to the Demon 850. Flowing 1700 CFM, I think it WILL be big enough now. WOOHOO! Now I just gotta get it tuned.
Makin' it RUN is taking FOREVER. It's got GOBS o' power, but it won't idle yet. ***UPDATE*** I just figured out my brand new Demon carb is emptying the primary fuel bowl down the butterflies at idle, which is why I can't get it to idle below two grand. Now I gotta rebuild a brand new carb. Oh well.

That's not my scoop, a buddy stuck his scoop on there just to see what it would look like.

MSD Pro Billet distributor and 6AL box zaps through an Accel coil and 8.8 wires.

To put some fat Mickey-Ts put in the back, the whole floor from behind the front seats to the rear bumper was cut out. 2 X 3 frame rails were fabbed and welded to the front sub frame. Three cross members were also added, with one of 'em used as an upper shock mount for the Koni coil-overs.
I built some custom adjustable bottom shock mounts with 1/8-inch plate, and welded 'em to the narrowed Ford nine-inch which holds a Detroit Locker with 4.86 gears. Welded some ladder bars directly to the housing with the pinion angle at zero degrees, and it tracks and launches nearly perfectly! The Summit wheel tubs got way in the way of the gas filler neck and the side marker lights, so those had to go bye-bye. The trunk hinges also hit the tubs, so the deck is hood-pinned down. With all the heat from the 557, the biggest radiator with the best fan I could find STILL didn't cool near enough, so I put a radiator and fan in the trunk which blows up through slots in the trunk lid. The heater fittings from the water pump and intake run all the way back to the trunk's radiator. NOW the thing stays nice and cool. This was at the Cache Valley Cruise-In, 2006. Interior has some fun stuff also, custom dash panel, the glove box holds all the fuses an' such. Racing seats with a five-point harness for the driver and a four-point for the passenger. A B&M Mega shifter has a button near the handle which controls the trans-brake. All rocker switches on the dash looks kinda cool, but now I wish I'da used all toggle switches. An eight-point rollbar is tied into the frame rails and the front subframe. Everything is upholstered and carpeted to make it at least a LITTLE bit comfortable. It has the battery in the trunk area, of course. I modified a two-pole battery disconnect switch so's it would disconnect the alternator and stop the engine, in accordance with NHRA requirements.
The tranny I built with B&M parts. I gotta find some pictures somewhere of all this stuff. 15 X 14 Weld Draglites holdin' Mickey T Sportsman Pro 31 X 18.5s with sorta-skinnies on the front.
This was at a car show in 2006. The shifter switch for the reverse-lights was not adjusted right, I saw after this was filmed. The Jump in the video was on the one-two shift, when the front tires lifted off the ground. I had to buy new tires afterward, it cost me over $700. NEVER AGAIN!
I'm not even gonna TRY to take this off. It's over a quarter-inch thick.