According to legend and lore, Cheater quickly emerged as a a legend in the quarter mile drag strips of the midwest. From Beardstown to White Hall Drag-a-way, to Cordova, Cheater looked like a run-of-the-mill B Class Street Roadster, but the uncommon level of engineering (and dollars)  stuffed under it's hood made her nearly unbeatable. While Cheater was indeed a legendary beast in it's heyday - winning trophies up and down the Illinois/Missouri circuit - it's original race plant had an inauspicious end. Legend has it, Cheater was out campaigning on a weekend when one of it's siblings was in the throes of the finals and blew a main bearing. Instead of throwing in the towel, they secretly yanked Cheater's powerplant, transplanted it, and soldiered on. From there, no one seems to be quite sure what became of it. In the spirit of this "uncommonly" built beast, we added a vintage powerplant worthy of the legend. Cheater is now powered by a 283 Short block that has been bored and stroked to 316 cubic inches. While not historically accurate, the spirit of this build is inline with the audacity of Cheater. This 283 block has been converted to 4 bolt splayed caps with Manley main bolts.  The Block has been Line Bored and square decked. The Block is cut for Torrington bearing which goes at the front of the cam between the block and the timing gear for the roller cam.  This prevents the cam gear from rubbing the block and putting drag on the cam and gear. The Block is bored and Honed to a .060 over size. The Block was then Epoxyed red in the bottom part of the block and gray in the lifter galley. This is to help oil drain off, and to get the oil back to the oil pan quick. The Engine has new cam Bearings and Brass Freeze Plugs and has been toughly cleaned and rodded out. The Crank Shaft is a 327 Small journal Steel Crank that is Standard on rods and mains with new bearings. The crank has been knife edged on the counter weights, to reduce windage.  All the rotating assembly has been balanced to eliminate vibration. Crank has also been cross Drilled for better oil flow. The Connecting rods are Childs and Albert’s Aluminum 5.7 small journal rods.  The Aluminum Rods reduce the weight and lets the engine Rev quicker. A light weight racing piston was also used to reduce weight.  The pistons are TRW 7667 and 7661 dome pistons according to which side valve relief is on. The light weight pistons are connected to the light Aluminum Rods with lightweight racing wrist pins. The pistons were also lightened and matched in weight.  The Pistons were then Gas Ported. Gas porting is the small holes drilled in the top of the piston. This hole lets compression go to the back of the top ring which is only .043 thick. When the engine is on the compression stroke, the pressure in the cylinder blows the ring out against the wall of the cylinder. Then the ring loosens back to normal.  The Pistons were then fitted with file fit rings. The rings are thin to reduce friction on the cylinder wall. The top ring is only .043 thick the second ring is 1/16 and the oil ring is 1/8. The Cam is Lunati .600 lift roller cam. A new double roller timing chain and oil pump were installed.  The specs on the cam are #284X –B2AC  #BRA-282E-420—Lift =600  Duration= 284 Center line 104 (Builder called Lunati Cams, Olive Branch MS, and talked to Scott Davis, he advised us to degree the cam in at 100 so that is what the cam is degreed in on). Finally, this beast is topped off with vintage Hilborn mechanical injection. (I'll post some photos of the final set up when I get a moment, plus some notes and photos on the transmission, shifter, etc.)