Here is the infamous 408 Duster engine we installed for a certain customer. It is a Blueprint Engines 450hp LA small block crate engine the customer purchased and brought to us for install into his 70 Duster. We recommended companion parts to complete the install, such as TTI headers, MSD ignition, a TCI Torqueflight with a proper stall converter. The customer supplied all the parts ( we love that, we don’t have to warranty the parts, worry about shipping time or wrong, broken or incomplete parts. Even though he paid more than it would have cost thru us).
The Blueprint stroker was very impressive. Made great power and just ran really well. The stock 6cyl rear end was not going to be happy.
The owner fancies himself as an air/fuel distribution engineer. He has invented a device that goes between the carb and intake manifold that better atomizes the air/fuel mixture. Two weeks after the Duster left, it came back on a roll-back wrecker with a blown-up engine. It seems his device had disassembled itself, allowing copper strips to be ingested into the engine on a W.O.T. test pass.
His test pass gave him the data download of what beat up Edelbrock RPM heads, smashed ring lands and broken cylinders look like. Yes, that is antifreeze dripping out of the header collector.
Blueprint Engines repaired and rebuilt the engine for about $1500. We cannot say enough good things about them! I think they may have had a little pity on the owner...
Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures of the first, but probably not the last Darwin Award!
