Gear
Watching them top fuel mechanics overhaul a motor is more exciting to me than watching them things jump down the drag strip.
From your rules book I would ass>ume that you are using stock internals right. When we strike out for that magical 400hp mark the internals will improve substantially and help add to the engine life span. The week link in the modern Midget "Clone" race motor seems to be in the head, if I am not mistaken. If the bottom end if machined and assembled correctly it is pretty much bullet proof. The 4 valve overhead cam design seems to have cured a lot of problems associated with Push Rod single valve head designs of the 1950's.
I dislike the EPA with a passion but had it not been for them we would probably be driving around in reconstituted Edsel's today. They forced action on the manufactures and true to form you engineer types met that challenge.
Now if the EPA would also come down on the modern race sanctioning bodies we might see change.
I doubt if we consumers have enough clout to bring about much change by ourselves.
Honest Dad himself