Just picked up a copy and read the article in more detail. Pretty much getting closer to calling this one impossible.
Sucks because we are always looking for greater media visibility for the FE, and an example that looks "wrong" does not do us many favors when we can't honestly meet those kind of targets. It's full of wrong information, incomplete information, and just plain misleading coments. Damn.
The 654 torque at 3000 is well beyond any combination I ever see. We just ran a 465 inch engine yesterday - not an FE, but reasonably similar level of prep to Edelbrock heads - and saw the same 1.2 pounds of torque per cube as we see on the FE strokers. Its not magic, its physics. Stuff can be shifted around, but with street combinations its in increments, not in huge steps. That engine was over 100 pounds lower at peak than the magazine example. Us FE guys are good - but unfortunately we ain't "that good".
The magazine engine is using an electric water pump - adds about 12 HP at peak. The headers they mounted upside down cost about 12 HP at peak. I have tested both of those deals personally.
They quote the Edelbrock flow numbers at 270 @ .600, which is about 15-20 cfm inflated - but the heads could meet that number after the valve work they reference so I will give them a Mulligan there. The Pro-Comp rockers are gonna be short lived with the 165/430 pounds they claim for the chosen springs.
They say the OE windage tray won't clear the stroker - but it does. They reference the 130 psi high pressure pump but don't recognize that the pump is designed to work in concert with the rear mounted bypass to deliver fairly normal oil pressures. They say you need to plug the lifter feeds to run a solid cam - but you don't. They ran at 34 degrees total timing, which seems really short for a normal Edelbrock head package.
A power peak at 5000 seems really short and probably just flat out wrong even for a timid build. The 465 motor I used as an example had a 235@.050 cam and peaked just at/just under 6000. I have probably run a couple hundred FE stroker hydraulic rollers ranging from 218 to huge at .050 and never had one peak that low. A recent 482 with 218@ .050 still peaked at 5500 RPM.
I hate to say it - but I think this is a modest build coupled with a bad dyno. Those guys will probably hate me from now on. I think that on my pump that package would deliver around 475-500 HP at 5500 and 565-580 pounds of torque at around 4000. If they were brave enough to bring it I would dyno it for free just to see. I'd let them calibrate and run the cell and I would just watch....