Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I finally decided which engine I'm going with.

2 bolt main small block Chevy 350 and 400's are supposed to be good to about 500 HP with ARP bolts/main studs according to the books I've read (the before mentioned David Vizard).

I'm looking to make an honest 350 HP and 425 FT. LBS. of torque on 89 to 91 octane fuel and won't turn it past 5800 RPM. When I get my MSD6AL box, I'll chip it at 6000 RPM. From what I've read in the same books, factory 4 bolt main block are good for another 50 HP or so. One book actually said to be very careful when looking at factory 4 bolt main block because they came in performance cars and trucks and have probably seen rough usage.

It not so much the HP that would concern me.It's the low end torque were things might get sporty.

Been on that site for a while. Talked about my build there and I made some changes per some of their recommendations. I also belong to grumpyvette's site. He has given me a lot of advise.

Good luck with your build; it brings back memories. The wife had a 78 Camaro-(she bought in '79). That car saw a built vette motor with an s/c in it before it was sold for a TA.
There's a lot of suspension upgrades you can do for those cars as well. I recommend the rear disc brake kit when you can afford it.
Fun drivers.

That sure sounds like a stock 1970 455 Buick.....for 1/3rd the money of a stroker SBC you could have a torque monster.

One of the best deals out there, assembled crate motor, is the chevy fast burn 385. Swap out the cam and you have a solid 430 hp for just a tad over $4k. No worries about part interferences or whether the shop is an engine assembler vs. an engine builder.

I would like to go to disc brakes on the rear some day. That won't happen for a while though. Great advice my friend!

Sorry I am late, but ya can't go wrong with a 4 bolt main SB Chevy.

Let me clear this up, I'M NOT PUTTING A BUICK ENGINE IN MY CAR.

I like Buick's don't get me wrong. My friend had a Grand Sport that was bad @ss. The Buick 455 will have to wait until/if I get a Buick. I like Pontiac's too. Actually I like most brands. They all have a few models I like.

My motor is going to cost me � $3000, minus the carb, air cleaner, valve covers and plumbing for the fuel system.
$980- stroker kit
$140- balancing, I want to have it balanced locally after I clearance the rods for cam/rod clearance.
$535- block and machine work.
$500- Complete Vortec heads set up for my cam.
I need my cam, lifters, timing chain, rocker arms, push rods (after I check what length I need) ARP head bolts, RPM intake manifold, oil pan, pump, pick up tube, rear pan baffle, gaskets. I'm sure I missed a few things.

I have to have my TH350 gone through too. There is a guy locally that's really good at setting up rear ends. He put a Auburn LSD unit in a F150 I had. He does really good work.

I know you can't go wrong with them, but I don't need it for what I'm going to do.

$4k from your dealer, 385 hp, add one of there hot cams for 430 hp

I don't want to buy a crate motor. I like building my own motors, I really enjoy it. My 8 year old son likes it too. It gives us something to do together. Plus I know a few guys that have had problems with GMPP crate motors. My best friend's ZZ4 has been nothing but a headache. Our local Chevy dealers weren't to helpful either. He ended up using the block and rebuilding it the way he wanted it. He's a lot happier now.

A guy on another forum bought a GMPP 454 HO. It didn't run right from day one. He tore it down and some of the push rods were the wrong length.

I know a few guys that have use Mopar crate motors with really good luck.

I'll stick to building my own motors though.

After high school for a few years I built engines with a partner for drag racing up to and including comp eliminator - before bracket racing killed off drag racing - ooops I meant the competitive part of drag racing.

Like someone said earlier check out the circle track rags/websites. We used to pick up some stuff for pennies on the dollar from them and they change hands much more often than street/drag equipment because guys come in/out and move up/down classes etc...We even picked up some ex-cup stuff on occasions 3rd and 4th hand.

I measured my pistons yesterday at room temperature (70�). They measured 4.036" � .0002". The smallest one was 4.0358" and the largest was 4.0362".

My father and I measured the cylinder bores tonight. He set the temperature in the garage at 68� this morning before he went to work so everything would warm up by the time he got out of work tonight. They measured 4.040" � .0003". The smallest was 4.0397" and the largest was 4.0403". I'm putting the smallest piston in the smallest cylinder and the largest piston in the largest cylinder. That gives me a piston to wall clearance of .004" � .0001".

Keith Black's recommended piston to wall clearances for their FHR forged pistons as follows-
Street Normally Aspirated .0025" to .0035"
Street Towing .003" to .004"
Street Nitrous or Super Charged .0035" to .0045"

I'm glad my clearances are .004". Now I can put a 75 or 100 horse hitter on it down the road. I'll file fit the ring end gaps for this as well.

When I mocked the engine up with rod and pistons I had no contact with the crank, rods and block. I could completely rotate it over. However, I didn't have the .060" clearance between the rods and bottom of the cylinder on #2, 4, 6 and 8 cylinders. I only had to grind a tad off to get the clearance I needed. My crank and rods were nowhere near the oil pan rails so that was good.

I was reading a lot of negative things about Comp Cams Extreme Energy series cams. I heard that they make a lot of noise and Comp Cams has had higher then usual warranty issues with them. I went with a flat tappet Lunati Voodoo 262/268 cam instead. The specs are 219/227 dur. @.050", .468"/.489" valve lift, 112� LSA, 1400-5800 RPM range. Lunati said being it's going in a 385 instead of a 350 my RPM range will be off idle to 55-5600 RPM's. That's right where I want it. I put the cam in when I mocked it up the other day and have no crank/rod/cam lobe clearance issues. I have more then enough room between everything.

I'm going to check my rod and main bearing clearances and then clean the block completely. My father and I removed the cam bearing tonight so I can clean behind them and make sure nothing was there from the grinding I had to do for the rod/block clearance.

So far so good!

You can't go wrong with a Lunati cam. Never had an issue with them, however that's all I've ever put in an engine so....

Sounds like you are progressing well on a fun father-son project.
My last go-around with Chevy engines (about a decade ago, now) looked like this when done....strokers sound pretty too.

I've used Crane Cams in the past with really good luck. However they're just getting back in business. They told me they weren't going to start grinding flat tappet cams until late in March. I didn't really feel comfortable using them until they're back in business for a while.

I've heard a lot of really good stuff about Lunati so I wanted to give them a try. I really like the specs on the Voodoo 262/268 cam too.

A set of twins...nice!

Forgot to mention, I checked my deck height on every cylinder too. I checked them at each side of the piston in the same direction as the wrist pin go's (front to rear) to minimize piston rocking, which I didn't eliminate completely. The deck heights were .008" to .012". Again, I had a little piston rocking. I'm thinking a .032" thick heads gasket will give me the quench area I need.