Here’s a sneak peak at our Laguna’s new engine, and it promises to be a killer on the street.

When we first heard about how T&L Engine Development had started building 408-cube stroker motors out of ordinary 350 small-block cores, we had to know more. With freelancer David Vizard on the case, we sent him out to T&L to get the scoop. The result was a story on T&L’s 408, called “Stretching The Limits.” Check in our "Technical" section for a look back.

It made 448hp with a dual-plane air gap intake, a solid street roller, Holley 750 HP, and some AFR 195cc Eliminator heads. When it came time for us to choose an engine for our ’75 Laguna project, T&L’s 408 small-block was the first engine that came to mind. The engine we profiled back in the May issue was nearly perfect, but Vizard thought he could improve on the numbers with better-flowing CNC-ported AFR heads. Combined with a new (read: less lift) street roller grind from COMP, slightly less compression (10.5:1 instead of 11:1), the same Air Gap intake, another 750cfm double pumper (this one prepped by AED), a scienced-out set of 1 ¾-inch diameter dyno headers, and going through the mufflers (the other 408 was straight pipes), we made an astounding 560 hp on pump gas.

You can check out the full results and the rest of the details in the April 2009 issue of PHR. Until then, you can call T&L engines at 704-888-8111, or log on to www.tandlengines.com to get more info and pricing on this affordable dynamo.