[Zooguy]

I have a 1966 Star Chief executive it and it came with the two barrel 389 high compression engine. I know if I wanted to run a Roots blower lots of things would have to be changed. But how strong is the factory bottom end? I'm wanting to build a street cruiser so I'm probably going to be doing less than 5 lb of boost on whatever motor... Mainly I just want to cover the parasitic losses the blower creates so if I can do that with 3 lb of boost that's all I'm going to run.

I've been told the 1965 and 1966 389 engine blocks are substantially weaker than the other year 389s. Everybody keeps telling me go with a Pontiac 400 or 455 from the early 70s. I understand those in engine blocks are much stronger but if I'm just wanting to build a cruiser with minimal boost do I really need to have the strongest factory blocks the racers desire?

If I changed cylinder heads and ran a slightly thicker head gasket to help bring down compression with the factory bottom end last?

I already have an early '80s 454 Big block Chevy with peanut Port heads torn apart in the garage. If this 1966 389 is super fragile I might wind up swapping this big block into it.