IT'S BUILD UP TIME, ANY HELPFULL MINDS COME IN

Gearbanger gave you some pretty good advice. I think with your budget, you would probably be pretty happy with the Mongoose kit. It's a pretty good bang for the buck charger kit.

As far as your heads, the porting is a good idea, but hardly anybody will actually polish the intake runner or exhaust port on a fuel injected head. Polishing is just a marketing gimmick that is tossed around much like blueprinting is today. Back in the carbureter days, guys would polish the exhaust ports just to keep carbon deposits to a minimum. But there is no performance gain to be had by polishing the exhaust port. And in fact, if you were to have someone polish your intake runner, you would lose power.

You might want to also consider gears if you don't already have them, and maybe a few suspension/chassis upgrades to help put the extra power to the ground.

You should have enough $$ left to get some decent rims and tires if you dont already have them. You will need a good rear tire. Expect to replace often.
And start saving for a differential. The stock one wears quickly.

If you want to get a forged block and blower that will pertty much drain your budget. If you dont get the block youll have plenty left over.

The mongoose kit is from MPH: www.modularpowerhouse.com
Tim is a great guy and his tune that comes with the kit is almost dead on.

kj99 said:

I'm just trying to get the right set up that will net me the greatest gain in HP. The reason I'm leaning towards forged internals is I want to make sure my bottom end holds up to anything I put at it.

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What 04YellowGT meant to say was shortblock. Both the factory iron and aluminum blocks are cast. Forged or billet racing blocks are rarely used on the street and would just about eat up your budget alone. Do a search for 4.6 forged rotating assemblies. It will be much cheaper and more convenient to have a reputable engine builder (preferably familiar with mod motors) put together a nice forged shortblock, as opposed to buying a pre-assembled shortblock from someone.

At only 380 RWHP, having forged internals is not a necessity, but if you plan on realistically making more than that down the road, then it would be a good idea. There are a ton of companies out there that have stock stroke 4.6 forged rotating assembly packages for around $1500-$2000. Then you are looking at around $800-$1500 to have the shortblock assembled depending on where you take it and all that is involved. Another nice thing about having someone local assemble your shortblock is that if something happens to the shortblock while under warranty, you don’t have to fool around with shipping a 240lb shortblock back and forth.

Though the advice above concerning the supercharger (mongoose) kit was a good idea to boost your over all power level, let's not overlook a few suspension upgrades. No sense in having all of that power if you can't plant it, right ? I think with the money you have to spend, a set of sub-frame connectors and good lower control arms would be a good place to start. As for what company to go with, I would recommend Maximum Motorsports to anyone. I've had their solid lower control arms on my car for about 3 years now, with no problems at all. They reall made a difference in how well the rear of the car behaves. As for upper control arms, if you're just looking to do drag racing, and no road racing, then a set of simple upper control arms, like the FRPP uppers will do fine. If you do decide to get a set of aftermarket upper control arms, I would also recommend having the torque boxes weld up while having the upper control arms installed.

I also strongly agree with the idea of saving up for a stronger rear end. 31 spline axle & differential set up will become a must, and welding up your axle tubes wouldn't be a bad idea either. I know that sounds like a lot of work and expensive, but you'll be better off in the end if you do things right the first time instead of having to make costly repairs down the road.