It is great to buy it all built, it is great to pay someone to build it, if you built it yourself, why did you build it the way you did? Explain your approach or planned approach to your engine build. Example: Bowtie Aluminum Block needs tighter bearing clearances so I am using a 4340 crank turned to 327 stroke because I want the vintage sized engine. This Bowtie crank I figure will flex less and give more bottom end strength which is important on startup. I am using crank scraper, milodon windage tray, accusump 3qt. and a oil preheater, etc. if I can plug in at home prior to an outing and start the engine warmed up. I am running 6 inch Carrillo's with a true flat top piston for better flame travel without a dome. I also like long rod because of less angularity and better rpm capability. I also like a heavy flywheel for inertia. I like 23 degree because I am old fashion with the small combustion chambers so I build compression using the Bowtie Phase 6 heads with minimum quench???? (spelling????) area. I bought the heads undrilled so I widened the ports and run offset rockers so I gain back some that I lose to these new 18 degree and super high tech heads. I am worried about the lack of rotation on the lifters using offset rockers. I would like it to last but I have thrown new lifters on an older cam with these new synthetic oils with new pushrods. I also have stud girdles, I run the rev kit to keep the lifter in the bore if I break the valve train so I don't lose all of my oil. I am super lite on the valvetrain with Cutdown stemmed 2.05 intakes, and sodium filled exhausts for better heat handling characteristics, Stainless steel rockers and titanium keepers 10 degree, dual springs to run it up to 8000rpms. I like to stay GM Bowtie so I run their single plane with matched gaskets and a Road Race Demon carb set up to about 775cfms. I am old fashion so I am running the 140 cam which has alot of duration. It seems to scavenge the flow thru the 1-7/8 hooker headers with 4" collectors. I have Bolaw timing chain 3piece cover with Coleman Gilmer belts on Bowtie Water Pump. I think it is perfectly streetable (but alot would disagree) with a nasty disposition when I need it that can pull out of the lower rpm range and keep going. Balanced blueprinted etc.. Because of the Corvette rear end not being known for drag racing (I do have Tom's 30spline posi and KA axles), I like Canyon racing not drag racing so this horsepower blends well with the overall handling of the car.
I like to hear your theory/approach to what makes you happy, why did you build it the way you did and what are you using it for? No insulting each other! No bench racing each other! I would like to gain the respect that your engine build deserves!

 

I want it fast and get 40mpg

other than that, I am still workin in suspension, engine is next year

this should be a good thread now that I got the smart azz thing out of the way

 

Very nice parts should be a tough engine, I'am wondering why you
went with the 6 inch rod, with the 3.25 crank you have room for a
6.125 rod without having to use an oil ring support ??

 

Good post, I picked every part for mine. I wanted a 406ci that would rev to 7000RPM and still have lots of torque at low RPM for cruising around. I first picked the compression ratio cam and heads.

The cam was going to be a solid roller and I went with CC XR280R street roller ( specs in sig ) . It would be a good match for the 220cc Vic Jr. heads I was going to use because the Vic Jr's shine at higher lifts. The cam would pull to 7000RPM and more no problems. A CLoyes timing cover was used because it has an adjustable cam button that makes it easy to set endplay. Next was the correct compression ratio and I picked 11:1 speedpro flat tops as you did for better flame travel across the top.

The valve train consists of SS Ferrea valves 2.08" intakes with CC double springs and .080" wall CC Hi Tech pushrods and CC Stainless Steel HiTech roller rockers, 7/16" ARP rocker studs and Crane Gold stud girdle.

The block is stock GM 400 2 bolt and I used ARP main studs. After much discussion with my machinist friend I decided to go with a Scat 9000 crank for three reasons. Number one is they are good cranks, nodular iron can withstand alot. Second my friend told me he considers street/strip motors to be "premoddonas", what he meant was the motors are blipped up to 6500RPM a few times a month, no big deal you don't need an expensive forged crank for that. He went on to say there's probably alot more cast cranks at the track than forged and you don't see them falling out of the oil pans every weekend. And the third reason for buying the Scat 9000 was if it blew up I wasn't out a boatload of money.

I bought the bearings with the crank, which was a mistake because the crank was for some reason undersized a bit so I had to get another set of main bearing to get an oil clearance I was comfortable with. THe oil pump is the Z28 pump and has performed perfect for me.

I used forged Eagle rods 5.7" and Speedpro flattops, quench was not a big issue with me as I couldn't find a gasket to get it to the "optimal" distance anyway. Intake was a Vic Jr. port matched to 1206 gasket and the heads. Carb is 825 Race Demon which according to Barry Grant flow 975CFM.

Wow this got long, anyway I didn't know if I was going to meet my goals but I was very happy the first time I took it for spin. I hit the gas at about 45mph in second and the tires broke loose and I knew I had made some power here. Around town with 3.08 rear gear it has enough torque to go down to 1400RPM and you step on the gas and it just goes, no stumble, no hesitation. I put the motor on a engine dyno and it made 546HP and 510TQ with an untuned carb that was running 16:1 A/F. I have since tuned the carb and would think it should be closer to 600HP now. The motor doesn't burn oil and has been completey trouble free 15,000 miles now

 

i think i'll keep my mouth shut on this one

 

My thoughts EXACTLY!!

 

I am looking for a reliable street performance engine.I am also old school. 411 HD rear, Auto Gear M22, Centerforce Dual friction 11" clutch, 15 LB flywheel for quicker revs. Engine 1973 L82 Block, .30 over zero deck. Fully studded ARP. Cometic .041 head gaskets for good quench and Nitrous. 3.75 4340 Eagle forged crank, Lightened, knife edged Machined by AMS for quick revs. King Bearings, Callies Comp Star H beam 6" rods W 7/16 Cap screws to reduce side loading on cylinder walls, Lightweight and strong can run standard base circle cam. Mahle Forged flat top pistons with Mahle rings. They are lightweight, and a low expansion high silicon alloy. No piston slap. AFR 190 74 CC heads. 10.2 to 1 compression. Comp Retro Hydraulic roller cam for low maintainance.520 intake 236 duration @ .50 .540 exhaust 244 duration @ .50 114 LSA. For nitrous, better idle and flatter torque curve, less overlap, better dynamic compression. AFR rev kit to keep lifters in bore and help power over 6000 RPM. Comp Retro pushrods, Comp pro magnum roller rockers, Stud girdles to stabilize valvetrain. Miloden single idler Gear drive to stabilize valve train, can degree cam without removing timing cover, comes with cam button and shims. Custom Large Base Rochester Tripower With plate nitrous system. Adjusted CFM 816. 150 nitrous shot.. MSD Pro Billet Tach drive distributor. MSD 6 ALN ignition, works with my nitrous well and very adaptable to future upgrades, accepts MSD window switch for nitrous and has a built in rev limiter. I want power at 2500 to 6500 RPM. on pump gas. Don't want to have to pull 7000 as I can't afford to build it again. If I need more power, hit the juice. A 150 nitrous shot is the Max. recommended safe shot. Chrome Hooker sidepipes with MaxFlows. Hoping for 500 HP and 500 TQ plus 150 NOS if needed. Tried to stay lightweight on rotating mass to get into my working RPM range quicker and reduce driveline shock. GOOD POST!

 

[QUOTE=MotorHead] I picked every part for mine.

Me too. I was huntin around for weeks lookin for the best place and best prices. Wont b long till the motors done now....

 

[QUOTE=slowup]
I got most of mine on the internet, ebay and the likes, saved a bundle, gotta know exactly what you want though, I collected parts for over a year

 

I originally had a different concept for my motor than what I ended up building, but then friends of mine will tell you that I rarely can make up my mind about much of anything until a few moments before I execute. Owning a 78 I am hamstrung in some ways by the necessity of running functional emissions gear and the factory 2-1-2 exhaust. However what I am capable of doing is taking full advantage of the advances made in the years since 1978.

therefore I decided I would build another 350, but in this case I decided from the get-go that I would use a roller cam, the thought being that the advantages of the high lift - fast opening cam profiles of a roller would give me some gains over a similar flat tappet cam. For reliability I opted to get a factory rollercam block from a dismantler and use all OEM valvetrain componantry. The cam I had custom ground by Jerry at Schneider Racing Cams in San Diego, after he and I sat down and went over the car/engine specs.

I purchased a SCAT crankshaft with lightened rod throws and knife edged couterweights, and a set of profiled 6" rods using ARP cap screws from SCAT as well. Sealed power lightweight flat tops fitted with plasma moly rings sit atop the rods. the reciprocating assembly is lighter than the original by intent to aid in revving. A crank scraper, milodon windage tray were fitted, as was a Blueprinted milodon oil pump with anti-cavitation modifcations.

Since I am forced to have functioning emissions gear this means I am stuck with the need for a heat crossover between the heads, which reduces my choice in aftermarket heads. I ended up with the newer Edelbrock performers with the newer combustion chamber design. I significantly reduced combustion chamber volumn to up the CR as much as possible. The block was Zero-decked to ensure proper squish.

The valve train was finished off with Harland sharpe roller rockers. Since I wanted to keep the factory L-82 valve covers - I had them plated and then fit a pair of B&B 1" spacers between the head and valve covers to provide adequate room for the rockers.

I run an edelbrock performer intake, again because this particular manifold has EGR fitting and fits under the hood, as well as having the requisite E.O. number required in Kalifornia. I have the Qjet as well as a holley carb set up for this engine...

Overall this engine is a series of compromises so that I have increased performace yet still can pass smog. It passed its first smog last year just fine and hopefully will do so for years to come...

Follow the link below if you want to see some shots of the engine

http://earchitect.50megs.com/slide_s...ow=Engine_Show

 

I had to look up Phase 6 heads so I would understand more what you were talking about. 180cc and 55 cc chamber. I don't understand this statement: I am worried about the lack of rotation on the lifters using offset rockers. For two reasons. One being why did you need offset rockers unless your running an altered valve arrangement like my Dart 227cc heads? The second is why would offset rockers that correct or eliminate the pushrod angularity cause a problem with whether the lifters are rotating in the lifter bore?

Years ago I built a 4.060 X 3.25 screamer with the rev limiter set to 8000. Only i used the biggest cheapest heads which were the then brand new Sportsman II's 200cc which I had ported an set up with 2.055/1.60 manley proflow valves.

Over the years my ci continued to get bigger and the rpms have come down to 7000 rpm for longevity. If you think that 327 ci is fun for canyon carving just wait till you get behind mid 500 - 600 hp and = foot pounds of TQ.

The only things that I would have suggested to you is modern roller cam or even solid and since your an all aluminum motor i would have had all kinds of thermal coatings to keep the heat in the chambers

 

I was going to build my 350 into a 383,I was shooting for 500+ hp then I said f it bought a 427 sb shortblock,I was thinking I could do better than Bill Mitchell they claim 520 hp out of there 427 complete motor,but I think there heads don't flow that well and bought some Dart Pro 1 230cc and a bigger roller cam than what they use.
The car runs pretty good ,don't know if I met my goal ,haven't dynoed yet.

 

well I build engines,on the side and mine is nothing real special.i was going to build the orignal engine but decided to leave it alone,because the #'s all match.anyway.the motor

orig 427 block,crank,rods,short block is basiclly a stock l-88.all balanced,etc
brodix heads,big solid roller.edelbrock victor intake,850 holley dp.if I decide to keep this car i may,fuel inject it.

 

Little Mouse- I want 6 inch because I took them off of my old 350 I previously built. Carrillos are about $1600 with good special bolts. Since I had them, I planned everything around rod length. I thought about longer rods but the piston pin would have been in the ring set I thought. I do see this being done, but I am not comfortable with that. Thinner rings, less reliability even though the materials are so much better now with the special coatings etc..
Motorhead- You did the smart thing- I started with the rods and then block and built it out. I think an engine builder should always put the heads together first #1, #1 performance item in an engine. I would in an ideal world buy like the Brodix ported $2200 apiece heads, but I have money but not no where near that kind of money. Both of my heads were a $1000 for the pair, then I have a $1000 bill into the porting etc.. In an ideal world I would buy the tall deck block to fit more rod and stroke into it. The hp would be out of this world and realistically a little too much seriously. Completely probably couldn't drive it on the street! I originally counted my money and settled on what I did so I could spend and address other parts of the car and actually realistically get it on the road. . Yes I was thinking about going big cube small block. Then the nostalgic bug hit with the 327 in a 1960's vette so I stayed what I thought was the best parts in the 23 degree sold by Chevrolet and targeted everything that had a Bowtie. You see that I mix aftermarket, but mostly internally. The engine is showy enough being aluminum and it makes me feel that it is exotic. I had Ross custom make pistons to my specs with their help to be as flat as possible, with siamese to the cylinder head combustion chamber. I wanted to eliminate any hiding places for unburned fuel in the combustion chamber and eliminated quench hiding places that would cause detonation and this allows me to run closer to pump grade gases when just cruising and up the octane if I plan on hard usage. I also don't want to blow unburned fuel out the exhausts.
Your motor looks like a monster! Looks great. Sounds great! I am looking to figure out my people bought this or that and married this with that or that etc. for learning. Hot Rod, car craft etc.. never talk bad about any part. Do they really give you the good build or is it all hype. A custom engine builder has his preferences, and I am not OK with that. Just as you can never find the perfect wife or girlfriend. You might get 8 of 10 good traits, but you disagree on 2. I don't think I can find another person that thinks exactly like I do and to hand them big time money to build it for you, you really have to be trusting! And I would hate for the builder to tell me that I must of blown it up. Too bad. I built it and I can only blame myself.
Motorhead- continued- I see all of the Ford, Mopar crate engines with cast cranks??? I have wondered. I like everything you did except the cast has me worried because of experience. I had one snap on me and it cost me money when younger I didn't have. Therefore I have overkill and I even thought of Billet, but I wanted mostly GM part #'s for the majority of my major components. I would pull those main bearings at a certain point to check for scuffing or how they are wearing or imbedding with material etc... Also does the 2.08 limit the bottom end punch? What type of exhausts?

 

63 Mako- I can tell you put research into your build. It reads like a who who of parts. If you were to leave the line at what rpm would you launch? Is the nitrous tuned to spray at rpm's or do you spray on request as needed when street jousting? I've had limited exposure to actually running NOS- I tried it on an engine with a dual point Dist. and the second point set signal confused the electronics I had with the NOS. My old school limitations. I now run MSD everything so I would and am thinking about hiding a bottle. I also have a 4 speed **** on my 6 speed transmission shifter.
Honestly I hate, I hate, I hate to get beat by NOS- but it is a real threat to be seriously considered. With a blown car, you know approximately where you stand.

FAUXRSZ- Building a sleeper? I would try to judge your potential by what I think limits your Ultimate HP. Whether it be your exhausts, your tires, your carb, etc.. You have it all on the internal. Your appreciation would be more knowing what you have inside. I have always wondered about Custom cam grinding. I would like to look over their shoulder at the computer program. How does it work? Black magic!

The other issue I have and struggle with is lightening everything up! Does lightening everything up (cranks, rods, flywheel, etc.) move you thru the RPM Band range so quickly that you don't fully utilize the torque or is the torque benefits negated? Would the tires just be breaking loose? I have always favored heavy flywheels because you get the inertia benefit. I think for me it makes me a better driver by the aid of having a heavy flywheel! I think for me it makes me more able to stabilize at a particular RPM- so I can apex a corner consistently. The lite weight components- I would think would benefit in point it, then go point it and go- like stop light to stop light?
I also know the emission thing is a pain! Been there done that! If I had to do it, I would just change it all over- entire engine just for the smog check then back out or PAY someone to run another car through in place of mine for cash!

 

Good reason it would be expensive for you to buy new rods, you can
run a 6.125 rod with a 3.250 stroke and the pin not be up under the
oil ring. you just buy off the shelf 23 degree pistons that are ment to
be run with a 3.50 stroke and 6 inch rod, instead you use a 6.125
rod on the 3.250 stroke crank. JE has a lightwheight 23 degree piston
and pin that uses the .043 comp. rings and thinner oil ring that
allows a 6.125 rod to be used with a 3.50 stroke and the pin is still not under the oil ring, if you had that piston setup you could run a 6.250
rod with a 3.250 stroke crank and still not have the piston pin under
the oil ring ( no oil ring suppots ) They claim that 70 percent of friction
in an engine is caused by the rings ( makes sense to me ) modern cars
have thin rings to reduce friction. but I see your reasoning a new set
of carrilo rods would not be cheap to buy. Have fun with your engine.

 

Torque is there, no problems 460 ft/lbs @ 2000RPM's , as a matter of fact the big torque allowed the dyno operator to go WOT and start the pull at such a low RPM. I have Hooker Super Comp 1 3/4 in primary headers into 3 inch mandrell bent stainless steel pipes with an X pipe to 3 in ( internal ) Dynomax Super Turbo muffles

Here's the engine dyno graph, HP is still climbing at 6500 RPM where it was shut down

 

GKull- I do want people to poke holes in my engine. I do truly thank you! I do want to learn. Thank you!
The 180cc is old school 23 degree, best 23 degree head ever produced my GM Bowtie. Nostalgic! So I ported them out to about 290-295 flow by removing material also in the width. I could only get that big by removing material by widening with this piece. They sold these PHase 6 heads without the pushrods holes drilled just for this purpose. You could carve out more but had to use offset rockers that swing the push rod out and away from the widened area on the intake side only naturally. The exhaust in a Chevy is nice- easy to get proper flow ratio on the exhaust side. Fords have an advantage in exhaust port- I run exhaust plates to extend the port and match and marry ports to headers. I didn't want to go radical in angularity and didn't want to make the walls too thin! Because pushrods seat in lifters is offset- I feel that my old school nostalgic solid lifter non-roller cam etc.. prevents the lifter from rotating (based on the pushrod not being centered on the lifter and the lash allows it a moment to rotate?- thus limiting life expectancy of that aspect of engine is what I believe but maybe I am worried over nothing. You have to talk to the valve train guys at Crane, Crower, CC, etc.. for these because I don't see them in the summit or Jeg's catalogs.
Regarding HP- there are many places that I would like just a little more HP. I have a G-analyst and map to computer. I have a 22 turn 2mile road course with every turn and straight named (Pitlane, sandtrap, Indianapolis, G-force, velocity, vertigo, hairpin, etc.. It makes race conversations more interesting when discussing afterwards than trying to describe what happened at the turn with the big tree. My test track is up in the whittier hills (no driveways, no side streets). I run and improve and improve, improve, map with G-analyst and compare runs.

I also have had to engineer what I have done to the rest of the car, so at a certain point I cut my losses and settled on this spec or that part or that theory. I have a good solid engine- I play with the suspension, tires, etc.. for the fun factor!. Yes I feel that I am going fast. Pretty fast!- I am also getting older and doing this canyon thing a little less and less and thinking about going VARA mod, HSR mod, TCRA or on track activity. Corvette's are powerful cars, and I am sure there are alot of Jimmy Clark's on this site, Ayrton Senna's who can handle any level of HP in any vette. But I am a good solid driver and I have a respectful couple of cars. I have swapped ends, I have broken parts so I wasn't going for the ultimate, ultimate everything that might be too much. Corvette's are a handful, I have no power steering, running 12:1 ratio steering box (aftermarket), spherical joints, heim joints, Borgeson Joints, solid bushings have del-um in my other car, and all of the other corvette suspension goodies and even J-56 with coleman rotors.
Regarding the aluminum! I figure loses heat but weight reduction good, bias to back good (as long as I don't lift off pedal, but plant it if in trouble) and it I believe allows me to run higher compression ratios without detonation- usually alum cylinder heads alone allow about 1 extra compression point. Detonation, when not warmed up- could happen. It is a fine balance. I have read up on coatings but hate to take it all apart. I run the synthetic oils and I have been happy. I cut my oil filter apart in the old days. Now I have an Oberg unit, an Derale Cooler on a thermostat opening valve. Which is closed on startup but opens when getting hot.
No truly, thank you! I do want to learn. I also like to stop at some guys car that looks interesting and ask questions. Sometimes the questions can embarrass the person if they don't know one single spec about their engine or they pull it out of their you know what! Usually if I walk up and talk to someone, I hope they feel good because I am usually truly interested in what I think I see. Thus this forum, gives me the down and dirty as to why or how a guy chooses to build the dream! Thank you again! I have read your posts over time and you always have intelligent feedback, constructive points. And it is appreciated. I rarely go on this forum. I used to find myself qualifying my car in defense. My car is not the greatest Corvette in the world. It is a solid respectful car which I would like to make better and better!

 

I know one day it will die (my engine) and I have already started designing my next engine. I have seen some articles on what you are saying and I am interested. Because the engine is together, I haven't dug into this particular area deeply or thought it out. It makes sense, and thank you! The one thing that I do want to avoid is expense. I bought the Phase 6 like I said above for about $1100 for the pair and have $1000 misc into the porting etc.. if I built the dream engine it would have the Brodix $2200 apiece heads, with a Tall Deck Bowtie block for longer rod and stroke etc.. But I have some money but there is the difference in my budget and the guy that does buy the Brodix and if I had Jay Leno money or 2% of his money. I would probably have someone build it for me. My wallet has limitations and I completely respect the guy who shops ebay, or the swap meets and has an eye for a quality good usuable part. I tend to get a new part, not the best ultimate part but I have looked over things laying in the swap meets. I picked up my stud girdles at a swap meet, etc. The rotating piece would make me nervous unless I could xray, or dye penetrant the part etc.. I have a few other things like one set of my hooker headers on my other car from the swap meet. I do want to win the lottery. I think we should all thrown in and buy a lotto ticket together because at least the money would be well spent. Ultimate engines for all!

 

I need to go down and do a dyno run. I think I have an idea of what HP I have. My engine makes me happy for now. But it is cool to see it graphed out. I have never done a dyno! I see these chassis ones which would be good because I don't want to pull and reinstall. The g-analyst is fun but how accurate are those things. I like it because I can lay a graph from run to run. It would be great to see the real output. My father's 1968 Blue T-top out at Route 66, we have put it in the open header contest for three years and pull some numbers get standing ovations etc.. He is really old old school, and I bench race against him. He won't buy nothing new. No MSD, No lite weight nothing, but he loves his car and will brag it up. I like his car. He is always bad mouthing my aluminum, my 6 speed, etc. Since I bought a second Corvette my 1968 along with my 1964. He now thinks I do truly appreciate his 1968 all along because I now have one like him but without the flares and the lemans lite lenses etc.. I do want to talk him into a dyno for sure. I look at these graphs and that would be fun. To know that it runs so well is well worth it!

Your pull is even and steady on your engine. Nice pull. I remember the older injectors on the Can Am cars in the 1966-1974. The tubes used to be all the same height, then they staggered them to get what you have a nice even steady pull! Nice!

I am not going to be on the computer all weekend. I am putting the DTM primer on my Elco! I will look at the thread Monday. It is fun to talk to knowledge people! Very interesting!