only 7 HP

 

It's fun! The more power you have the better driver you will become. It's lots of fun to take off and have to learn to let off the gas to get going or even stay in your lane. The local freeways have lots of 270 degree freeway on ramps. some are even two lane. It's always a good time to take them as fast as you can. But the skill is how much throttle can you give it. Every time I push down on the gas petal the car starts flat tracking with the rear end coming around. So your on and off the gas putting on a good show for all those poor working stiffs driving the family car. I've driven dirt track sprint cars where you learn to hang the rear end out most of the way around the track.

If your wanting to go road racing in your vette it's going to take all 600 hp. Have you seen any of the videos here on the forum of his black Vette just smoking by the brand new Z-06's with his 434 with 600 at the crank.

 

It is a blast and has not broke parts with street tires. First gear is worthless but to put it in perspective, my 71 pulls almost as hard in third as my 2004 pulls in first.

 

Witz,
Here's my experience with a Motown 434. Stock from Tremec trannie to the wheels.(I do have a rear end cooler and hardened axle stubs)
On the road course with race tires I use all of my motor and sometimes wish I had more. I had it built specifically for the road course and some street. I was more intersted in the torque pulling me out of a corner than in the H.P. number. In fact I have never had my engine on a dyno but it works just like I planed as my video's show. For auto cross it's a handfull. If I only did autocross I would have designed it differently. Less torque and more smooth.
In the 1/8 mile on street tires I have fun but forget about traction in 1st and 2nd. I beat a viper soo that was cool. You really need to beef up the running gear for serious traction in Drag racing.
These motors can make serious H.P. so you really need to think about what you really want to do. I found a good engine builder, sat down and used his knowledge and my desires to come up with the best package and got it done. The money is well spent if you acomplish your goal.

Good Luck

P.S. no matter what you do you will love a monster motor. The power at your finger tips is an awsome feeling.

 

72 Ray/ZL1 Power/gkull - Thanks for the excellent feedback!


72 Ray - I have watched your roadracing videos... very impressive - looks like you have a blast! I plan to start with autocrossing then work my way up to mild road racing. What RPM do you turn your motor?

What do you guys think about going with an oversize bore (4.125) but using a shorter stroke. More horsepower, more manageable torque??

 

Smoked Tires has a big bore short stroke 388 ci. I think that it's 4.155 X 3.5 or 3.480 inches like a 350ci chevy. He has a very expensive Bryant crank shaft.

Your 3.750 stroke and 4.125 bore gives you the 400-406 ci motors
your 3.875 stroke gives you the 415-421ci
the 4 inch stroke gives you 427-434

If I was going to do it over I would use the 4.125 stroker crank with the 350 main journal size. I presently have the 4 inch crank with the 350 smaller main journal size.

 

Witz,
My engine is a solid roller, rev limiter is set to 6800rpm. The cam is advertized to 7000rpm but it quits at about 6600rpm. On most of my runs my tach shows a max of 6500rpm. A couple of times I've hit 6700rpm. Third gear is my most used gear. I max out at about 115 mph in third. Only at California Speedway do I max out 4th at about 155 to 160mph (with race gas). I have never used 1st or 5th on the track. The engine works very well from 3000 to 6500rpm. It pulls all the way to max rpm. This is what I wanted was to be able to run cars down at the exit of a corner and pass them early so I wouldn't have to worry about out braking someone into a corner. So far so good!

If you don't mind a little advice.
If you are going to start out in autocross. IMO I would concentrate more on the weight, suspension and handling than on Monster Power. In my experience Autocross is all about being smooth not so much about power. There are alot of other forum members who have much more experience than me at autocross. I have only tried it a couple of times and was all over the place. It was more like a drifting event for me. It was fun but I was not competative. I hate when miatas and civics post better times than me. So I pretty much stay on the road courses.
Anyway if you start some threads on the autocross stuff I'm sure you will get a ton of useful info.
My only thought is you might get a better bang for your buck if you put money into the handling instead of a motor. Then when you are as smooth as glass in autocross, you step up to the Road course and a Monster motor and look out I've got some competition.
Later!

 

From Sallee Chevy good 383 crate motor
SCZZ38350TH Performance Engine SC, 6.2L 383ci V8 Gas Engine - Sallee Chevrolet's ZZ383-500 "383 Stroker" 500 Horsepower SBC 50th Anniversary Addition Engine.
This will only be available for year 2005. SBC crate engine. $7900.00

 

Link please

 

same here

 

These are video's I have posted on the c-3 forum.
Enjoy!
Buttonwillow CA. Video
Calif. Speedway
Calif. Speedway passing (this one is passing two corvette c-5's!)
Calif. Speedway passing in-car (this is the same pass inside car!)
Infineon lap 1
Infineon lap 2
Infineon lap 3
Willow ca. Practice race start

 

All the torque from a big ci stroker is amazing and lots of fun I had traction problems with my old 355 so I went the opposite direction and destroked a 400 down to a 388 sacrificing some torque down low compared to the big ci sbc that are out today. Like others have stated, the HP doesn't change much as the displacement changes, it just has more affect on the torque placement compared to the rpms. I enjoy autocrossing my vette so I wanted an engine that allows me to keep it a certain gear without worry of too many rpms at a certain point on the course. If I was building a drag engine then a stroker would have been a better choice

My engine is a 4.125 bore with a 3.625 stroke. This is similar to the Nascar engines being built today, but larger because I'm not restricted by engine size

 

SmokedTires -

Your engine strategy is a possibility my engine builder mentioned. What is your peak horsepower and torque? What's your max RPM? And, what block did you use?

Thanks!

 

SmokedTires

I do not mean to hijack this thread. But what where the specs of your 355. thanks

 

That's cool Witz, there are so many different combos available today. Go with the one that seems to fit your needs best I haven't had my combo dyno'd yet, but DD2000 puts torque at 442@2500, 487@3500, 532@4500 and peak torque at 540@5000 rpms and peak HP is at 595@6500 rpms. All the bearing sizes in my engine are small similar to what Gkull mentions above for less contact (Frictional) area and with the longer rods (6.0") and shorter stroke, I get less side thrust into the cylinder bore for less drag as the piston travels up and down withn the cylinder all to help eliminate drag. The block is a Dart Little M.

 

My 355 basically was a flat top 10.25:1 compression engine with Sportman II heads and the Edelbrock RPM cam and intake. I also had the Crane gold roller rockers but nothing exotic. I did use all ARP quality bolts to help keep it together. I replaced all the bearings, pistons and rings along with lots of block work done by my machinist. Many people recommend a differnet cam than the RPM but with the 4spd transmission and 3.90 gear ratio, it worked out good and had a great sound