Sounds to me like he got the pushrod length wrong. That and probably too high compression with the RA IV heads on a 455 so it was probably detonating/pinging to death.
I'm running a 1970 455 in my TA with 6x-4 heads, custom ground cam, edelbrock performer RPM intake, etc. Stock valve train other than the Comp Cams roller tip 1.52:1 rockers.
Runs like a bat out of hell with 3.42:1 gearing out back. Really haven't tried roasting the tires because, quite frankly, I spent WAY too much getting the car on the road to lose it doing something incredibly stupid.