Reply to "New engine/low HP"

Art,
Was reading your efforts to resolve your issue with power drop off, I came across your thread as I am in the process of doing more or less the same combo as your self,
I could not help but notice the part on the ignition, I have a fairly new ignition system in the Pantera now that is giving me the same problems you are having, the difference is, before I changed to this system I had a duraspark system that would let my 351C rev till it floated the valves at 7000rpm, That system developed a problem so I changed it out to a Mallory Mechanical Unilight, Petronix Flame Thrower Coil and a matching ballast resistor, It all worked great but as of 1000mi back it started to act like the problem you described! I believebecause parts changing can be so costly that a good dyno operator would be the answer as George has stated.

I to am looking at a 800-850 cfm carb,
Was just thinking back to 1983, had an 82 GT mustang "new" that I had pulled the little 302 out and built it to cobra specs with an off road cam & a holley 750 vaccume secondary's, met up with a beautiful yellow Pantera on the 91 freeway at Yorba Linda heading east, we got into it and reached 150+ when I started pulling ahead,not by much but the look on there faces was worth a million bucks and I still vividly remember to this day, the reason I say this is that carb on that motor was to big by popular opinion. You have built a respectable motor that will probably out perform the bigger cube builds but that 1 nagging issue needs to be resolved.
I have a specially ground cam from Crower that is good to 7500rpm that is not much different than your other than a dual pattern.
I personally don't think your cam is the problem.
I tend to be more of a chevy builder than the Fords and use alot of the info relating to chevy's to do my engine builds & tuneups, Very good success.
I am going to copy a build by "Joe Sherman, Engine Masters Champ" for a stroked 350 Chevy and apply it to my 351C to 377 stroker build, One of the things I really liked that he uses on a 600hp pump gas economy build, was a Crane Ignition system on crane's website.
Wish I was closer to give you a hand trouble shooting this.
My main plan is not to have more horse power but just be faster with a synconized combo of parts that work well together.

Mark