This is my Keith Black aluminum BB in it's now short block form. It's going into my 1970. The crank and H beam rods are from Callies . The crank and rods are 100% US made.....US forged and machined. I didn't want anything Chinese so the crank was expensive at about $2300 and I had to wait about 6 months for it. Looks like the engine is 494 cubic inches; 4.28 inch bore and 4.30 inch stroke. I bought the Keith Black block in about 1989 and it's been in storage since then. The sleeves are apparently not that thick and I was advised, at the time, to not go over 0.050 on over bore. So for this build, we went .030 over. The short block is internally balanced. Since the stock GM 454's are externally balanced, I assumed my crank would need uranium/tungsten plugs added for internal balance.....I was surprised, they weren't required! Those H beam rods and my pistons are really light.

The Keith Black block was intended to survive in boosted applications so it's pretty beefy. Notice the gussets cast into the block valley. This means that for any intake manifold with a hot exhaust air chamber under the intake manifold, the chamber has to be milled away. I'm going to use a Edelbrock RPM Performer Air Gap manifold...it doesn't have a hot air chamber and fits as is.

The heads are aluminum Brodix "Big Broddy" rectangular port heads. Bought them in 1992 and have been in storage up til last year. Sent them back to Brodie last March for some CNC modernization. $1700. Also had the holes for rocker arm studs and exhaust mounting holes all helicoiled. The heads are open chamber with polished domes. Think they are 110 cc..? Cam is 243/255 at 0.050 lift. I was thinking of about 10 degrees more for intake and exhaust, but the cam grinder insisted 243/255 was what I really wanted. Lift, I forgot, something over 0.6 inches. Compression ratio is 11.15:1. A little high but that's what I wanted. I told the builder Steph Rossi, I'm OK with always having to add some racing fuel to goose up the 91 octane California stuff. Years ago, with my L88 clone BB, I always used 5 gallons of Av Gas and 15 gallons of pump gas. It had 11.5:1 achieved by taking 0.100 off the otherwise 12.5:1 L88 piston domes.

The engine is being built by Stephan Rossi of Ace Engines in Torrance Ca. A specialty is building turbocharged LS/LT engines. Really impressive. And also, surprisingly he has a following of people ordering forced induction and NA heritage VW/Porsche 4 cylinder boxer engines, with all new technology innards.

 

Very nice !! Is it @ 9.8" deck height ? What length rod is being used ?

 

It's not the tall block, so it's standard size which I believe is 9.8 inches. I'll have to check on rod length. I'm not 100% sure on the stroke I stated. The builder talked of so many combinations of bore and stroke, I'll have to make sure. I was hoping to get to 502 on displacement, but the 0.050 limitation on overboring just wouldn't allow that. So I'm a few cubic inches short.

 

Wow! looking great!

 

You will be breaking tires loose at 60 mph just by mashing the gas. Fantastic!

 

You're building a killer engine there with really good parts.

JIM

 

Nice looking build, will be sweet for sure!

 

That is going to be a killer engine!
Cam should be fairly mild on a 494. Nicely streetable anyway.
Anyone want to make some SWAG HP predictions???

My data bank says a BBC Al block alone should save you around 70# over an iron one.
Gotta love aluminum!
I'm willing to make a weight prediction. Around 484# w/oil, carb & distrib!

 

Thanks for all the great comments. Been planning on this engine for a long time. Keith Black basically went out of business and the name's new owners are selling his hemi aluminum blocks for the boat guys. I'll crisp up the engine dimensions later. I think the rods are 6.385 inches. I would have liked about 10 more degrees of intake and exhaust duration, but the cam builder was adamantly against this much so I yielded. I drove a BB on the street for years with a L88 cam and it was OK for me. No low rpm performance but high rpms were a lot of fun.

I've ordered a Holley XFlo EFI throttle body. 900 cfm.. and their companion Hyperspark distributor. I've already mounted an Aeromotive A1000 fuel pump and filters to a panel attached to the frame bolt holes for the rear sway bar which I won't be installing....don't need anything to counter understeer. I didn't know how physically large the pump is when I ordered it...it's big. I have an Aeromotive speed controller to run the pump at slow speeds at low rpm. The frame is plumbed with AN 8 fuel lines past the tranny crossmember...need to put the body on the frame to complete the plumbing. I have a rolling frame now which will be complete when I get the engine.

 

Only 900 cfm ..? Realize that's the same as using a 650 on a 355 !

 

Holley sells a 1000 cfm throttle body, but it requires sequential port injection. This is a big jump in cost. Maybe I should have gone with the Holley 1000+ cfm Dominator carburetor, but I wanted go with FI.

I am having my 3X2 intake manifold machined to get rid of the hot air box under the center carb so it'll fit on the KB BB. The idea wås to be able run the engine with 3X2's every now and then. That was part of the reason to not go with sequential part injection.

 

I like the cam duration for a street engine. About the same duration as the 30-30 SBC cam. Ran one of those in my 350 for 30 yrs. Rev'd well to near 7000. But not much TQ til 3300. Your 500 cubes should take care of that issue with no problem.
Solid, S.R. or H.R. cam?
Once you take the valve lash into consideration your intake duration should be just a little more than the 30-30, and the exhaust 10 more.
It should feel pretty rowdy and rev very well.
You are only a couple degrees smaller than an L88/ZL1 cam, maybe 6, at net lash. I doubt you will notice too much difference.
If it is a newer S.R. you are probably gonna run tight lash anyway, right? like 10 thou?
Put a big intake and exhaust on it!

Can't wait to hear some numbers!!!
700? 750? more?
I'd guess 700 is probably a minimum.

 

It's a hydraulic roller. I bought a Brodix stud girdle for the heads. Maybe it's overkill, but I thought high spring pressures on studs in relatively soft aluminum castings might be a problem. The heads were helicoiled for the studs. Have a CNC milled valve cover to fit over the stud girdle. Have already removed the PB vacuum canister to make room for the tall valve covers. Power brakes are now via Hydroboost. My L88 clone had solid tappets. I had rocker arm and valve adjustment problems until I went with polylocks for the studs and a stud girdle.

 

A hydraulic roller can work in your application, but make sure you get very good lifters that will not pump up. Do some research. And get the spring pressures right.
My LS6 cam is about 12-14 degrees shorter than yours, and I went with solid roller lifters, on a HR cam, because I want it to rev well and cleanly to 65-6800. My cam should peak around 6000 in a much smaller 468! LOL Yours should rev better and higher and probably peak around 6800.

 

Nice build.
I remember when KB was the king.
Sounds like you are planning a very nice build.
If you need any additional clearance for tall valve covers, check out the tall valve covers from Teague Marine.
They are designed for big block MercCruiser 502’s with upswept exhaust manifolds.
I’m running them on my 496 roller and they provide plenty of clearance for the power brake booster and ac.

 

Since you are up for perhaps switching intakes occasionally , take your maiden cruises with the dual plane RPM and down the road use a single plane to see the difference in all driving ranges.You can add a 1/2" or 1" or larger spacer on the DP to test the effect of more plenum volume, if there's space.
One builder claims DP are only a benefit if you never go above 3,000 rpm (Bill Travato of BTR), and he wasn't referencing a stroker engine either. He also added that none of the builders entered into the Engine Masters Challenge used a dual plane intake in the street engine class.
You will have plenty of torque for sure, and a light car. Your 900 cfm will feed it fine on a single plane, (edit: actually even it may pull a too high vacuum at hi rpm). With a dual plane with the size and excellent breathing of the rest of the components I'd want more cfm.
An Olds 455 performs best with an 850 and their heads are closer to small block size and you're sporting Big Brodie rec ports. My bet is you'd be set on kill with the dual four RPM intake and 2 -700 cfm throttle bodies.
Please ask others to form a consensus .