Got two 500s. These engines are also very light for their size, being within 60 Lbs of a small block Chevy, while still being tougher and more wear resistant due to the high quality materials and castings. They have numerous other advantages, including easy access to the distributor and oil pump, dry (no coolant passages) intake, individual ports (not siamesed to lower production costs while hurting flow), conveniently angled spark plugs (easy access in the tightest of installations), and internally balanced, eliminating the need (and inefficiency) of external balancing.
This thing made 512 Lb-Ft and 323 HP (same peak HP as the 2115 with the stock cam, with the torque peak at 2700 RPM) by itself, still idling smoother than most stock 454s
. Plus it is kewl. 454 is probably cheaper to build than the 500.
I guesssince most of my trucks are manual i figure everybody else should be to
