It's strange how this story came to grace the pages of Super Chevy magazine. John Villages has been attending and racing at Super Chevy shows in California since the very first one. We met up at the 2008 show in Fontana, California, after admiring his Camaro and shooting it for a feature in the magazine.
It turns out that John is an engine builder. He told us about this wild motor he was building, dubbed Little Wolf, for a customer named Clif Warren.
The engine in question is built upon an original '69 DZ 302 Z/28 4-bolt main block. The idea behind using a factory 302 block is to build it with a high-quality aftermarket rotating assembly, valvetrain, and cylinder heads while maintaining a period correct cross-ram 302 intake and '60s visage. Basically, the high-tech parts had to be disguised under the garb of Hugger Orange and an OE factory look.
This would be easy enough to do with the rotating assembly and valvetrain, but disguising the AFR heads would be a different story altogether--this is where the story gets interesting. John partnered up with a CNC machinist, Bill Goyett, who figured out a way to whittle away the face of the modern aluminum cylinder heads and visually make them look like the old cast iron heads of yesteryear. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too.
 The custom Airflow Research...  The custom Airflow Research 195cc Eliminator cylinder heads were treated to full competition port upgrades and now feature a 60cc combustion chamber (they come out of the box with either 65 or 75cc chambers). |  The intake and exhaust ports...  The intake and exhaust ports are works of art, as are the exhaust valves... |  ...which have been smoothed...  ...which have been smoothed and rounded for better evacuation of exhaust gasses. |
 The work done to the AFR heads...  The work done to the AFR heads was performed by Bill Goyett of Precision Specialty Service in Palmdale, California. Bill made plaster casts of the stock '69 cylinder heads and from there mapped the contours of the plaster casts into the CNC computer. |  Prior to any CNC machine work,...  Prior to any CNC machine work, the accessory holes are filled in, then the machine takes over and starts milling away. (For more pictures and info on the process, check our web site, superchevy.com. We have an exclusive web story on the machining.) |  The set of cylinder heads...  The set of cylinder heads on top are the original factory cast iron heads, while the set on the bottom are the AFR heads disguised to look like the OE heads. The differences are so subtle it would be hard to tell them apart at first glance. The pair of cast iron heads weighs 94 lbs, while the pair of AFR heads weighs 59 lbs. Any time you take 35 lbs off the nose of a car it's a good thing. |
 As mentioned earlier in the...  As mentioned earlier in the story, the original 302 block has been bored .040-over; the cylinder bores measure 4.040. Also, the block has also been decked .025-inch. The current displacement measures in at 333 ci. |  The connecting rods that were...  The connecting rods that were used are lengthened Oliver 6.250-inch-long parabolic beam with full floater lightweight wrist pins. Compare the length of the Oliver rod with the length of the stock 5.7 rods. |  The pistons being used are...  The pistons being used are SRP/JE forged 12.5:1 compression... |