Thanks, Joe, for lots of stuff.
Thank you for your service to our country. Mrs.-C too.
Thanks for having me and Mrs.-T for dinner in your home while traveling through Texas and showing me where the magic happens in your shop. Mrs.-C is quite the cook!
Thanks for selling me the ported Edelbrock heads.
Thanks for posting about the wonderful vacations you and Mrs.-C have taken in the grad ol' US of A. Mrs.-T and I have done a couple of those.
And thanks for sharing the knowledge learned from years of experience.
Hope you just have fun from here on out.

A couple of thoughts to the original posters question

While the 429SCJ did use a solid lifter grind as opposed to the hydraulic stick used in the 429CJ, it was marginally better than the CJ juice grind. Not FE, but a general comparison.

The 428CJ cam is not really a "bad" grind, especially for 1966 or so. Case in point, around 1980 a friend had a stock 1969 Mach I 428CJ automatic that he street raced here in the San Fernando Valley. He wanted to go faster, but didn't want to take the motor apart. There was a company named Motion that had a "tune-up" and performance guide that could be followed for quite a performance upgrade. We followed it to a "T". The kit included shims that go under the stock non-adjustable rockers shafts. Keep adding shims until a lifter starts to tick and then take one out. It was supposed to add a few RPM before the hydraulic lifters "pump-up". It came with light springs for the distributor mechanical advance and instructions on how to put the advance in the shorter advance slot. This was the hardest of the modifications, and pretty scary doing it with the distributor installed. Instructions on setting timing for best performance too. Four sets of jets for the factory 735.
The instructions called for 1 3/4" Hooker headers and a good 2 1/2" exhaust, 4.57 gears and TracLok, and 9" slicks.

The results were mid-12's. Very quick on the street in 1980 AND we never went deeper in the motor than remove the valve covers. Granted, the motor did not want to be revved up to 6K, but it didn't need to.

I have but one suggestion.
In years past, when we were running minimal accessories, running a battery in the trunk involved welding a bung to the chassis next to the battery and bolting the ground from the battery to the chassis at the rear. Then, at the engine running a cable from the block to the chassis by the motor. It worked fine for what we all were doing.

Now, many of our hot rods are running sophisticated electronics, like fuel injection that also runs our ignition systems, that we never dreamed of before. And that's a good thing as time does not stand still.

These electronics are very sensitive to grounds and electrical "noise". The battery can and does serve as a "buffer" to this noise. What I'm getting at is it may be beneficial to run a battery cable from your engine block directly to the ground post ON THE BATTERY.

It is surprising how poor a conductor of electricity steel is as compared to copper or aluminum. You don't need those problems when wiring up a fuel injection system. I know it's a hassle and heavy to run a 2ga. cable the length of your car along with your positive cable, but you may find it worthwhile in the long run. 

Please help me with my perpetual ignorance.

Why not install a 351W instead of a 302 stroker.

If the answer is that the engine is slightly wider and you don't want to "notch" anything for the install into your 64.5...that's silly.

Anything near an actual 500hp motor is going to twist that 1965 Mustang like the proverbial pretzel. I'm ass-u-me there's going to be subframe connectors, a 9" install with all the goodies to hook 500hp and so on.

Sooo...I say cut away...and make that a 393 or 408W stroker.

Danny "on the gas" was by a wide margin my favorite Ford racer.

In 1969, NHRA recognized Funny Car as a professional class. That year the cammer powered, Ongias driven, blue Mickey Thompson Mach I funny car amassed a 42-2 win-loss record. The 2 losses were from when the 427 SOHC engine blocks relented to nitromethane fuel abuse.

Whenever the blue car was in town my dad would load up the family wagon with me, my brother, my Uncle Leon, and of course, himself. We saw the Mickey Thompson Mustang run at Irwindale, Lions, and Orange County. There were lots of funny car racers in SoCal at that time, and racers came from all over the country to match race the MachI.

That Ongias driven car made me want to have a Ford hot rod more than any other influence.

Godspeed Danny O

On Edit: He also dated, and nearly married, Linda Vaughn

The Cragar custom shop will make you pretty much whatever back space and offset you want.

I have 15x12 Cragars with 3.5" backspace S/S wheels on the back of my Comet from the custom shop. You can even arrange your custom S/S wheels through Summit.

The last time I walked into a Ford stealership was in December 1997 when I bought the last V8 "NASCAR" Thunderbird in stock.

Surprised it took you guys this long to learn.

We've had a few Toyota's in the meantime.

Mrs.-T wanted a Buick so I bought her one. She likes it and it's like driving your cushy couch down the highway. I guess we're the age.

We'll probably buy a used Toyota next time around.

My hot rods are all Fords, but I couldn't give a crap what my driver is as long as it has an auto trans, power steering and brakes, cold A/C, and a working radio.

Every hot rodder should got to Bonneville Speed Week at least one time in their life.

You never know what kind of madness you'll find on the salt!