jsquared94

hey all,

I have been paying attention to everyone talking about stroker motors. the heart of a stroker is a different crank, eh? one post recently said a 350 and 400 block are the same, so put in a 400 crank, and you got a 383. isnt a 327 a 350 with a (correct me here) 305 crank?

everything i have heard about the classic factory 327 is of legendary proportions. what would be the benefits on a 350 of destroking to a 327? disadvantages? I just wanna try something different! :crazy:

scorp508

De-stroking yields more RPM and faster wind ups. You could probably push out some more HP, but lose a little bit of torque as a trade off.

dgoodhue

No, the 305 uses the same 3.48" as the 350 it just has smaller bores. The 327 is destroked 350, it has a 3.25" stroke. (A 302 chevy is also has the 4" bore with a 3" stroke)

jsquared94

hmm...im confused . what would realistic HP/TQ be with a 327 destroker? I kinda get what you are saying, Scorp, about it reving faster, but what would be the byproduct of faster revs? What kind of driving would one do to benefit from faster revs? Has anyone destroked their engine? Back in the day, when chevy produced the 327, im told it was a better engine than the 350 of the same time. Would a destroked 327 be any better better than the 350 it used to be?

lots of craziness in me today... :D

65Z01

The General quit putting the 327 in Corvette in '69. My feeling is the higher torque down low makes for a better street driver. Maybe the 327 would be better on the Autobaun (sp). The motor alone might rev faster but you need torque to get a heavy car started when the light changes.

The trend today is to stroke (no pun please). Some guys stroke the F-Body LB9 to 327 but still has the smaller bore so not as good as the old 327s.

LPDesRoche

If thats really what you want to do is destroke a motor, do it to a 400. A 400 with a 350 crank is a 377. A very nice motor I might add. I had one in my 55 Chevy drag car and it got me into the 9's. But then again I was spinning it over 8000RPM's. So be prepared to pay out the butt to get all the lightweight components you will need to make this happen safely and reliably.

No Go

Unless you are doing it for nostalga or for a specific reason...cubic inches is the best way for more power, especially on the street.

To go from a 350 to a 327 would be like giving up ~25 hp just due to smaller engine...you would have to make this up somehow (generally more rpm).

Chevrolet used a destroked LT1 and a LS1 in the 302 range for show Camaros. It was done for nostalga-67 Z28=302.

:)

85 Dave

There is no substitue for cubic inches. :smash:

C4396roadster

2nd that, no substitutions for cubic inches!

M2001

I've seen some nice 327 and 307 motors from the 60's. Those motors do like to rev.

jburnett

Corvettes are not light vehicles and as such you want a motor with an excellent torque curve to get it moving. 327's are great high rpm motors but don't make much torque and the curve is fairly peaky. Same with a 302 which is essentially a destroked 327... Now I agree with the above, if you want to destroke something use a 400. The 400's bigger bore really improves airflow and peak power potential and still has decent torque. But, you will have to wind it to the moon! Another option is a 352"; this is a 400 with a 3.25" 327 crank. You can use an extremely long rod with this combination and it will both give you a very flat torque curve and a very good reduction in octane sensitivity due to the long rods dwelling at TDC much longer. Hot Rod Magazine built one of these about 6 years ago and called it the "350 Chevy Should've Built". It had 4.155" bore, 3.25" stroke, and 6.28" rods from a Ford I-6 converted to work with a SBC, and custom JE pistons. This motor had a slightly larger than stock OEM 95 LT1 F-body hydraulic roller, the little 180cc AFR heads, and 11.00:1 compression. It made 408 hp and 443 lb/ft of torque (over a wide rpm range) on 87 octane gas!!!!! I built one shortly afterwards and used it in a 4x4...Killer little motor...I'm building another for a customer right now that will have more cam and better breathing heads...We'll see how it turns out.
-Jeb Burnett

85 Dave

Just curious. Since you are starting out with a 400 block, why not build a 400? This combination seems interesting if you are in a race class that limits displacement to 350, but for a street motor the 400 would give more torque and HP at the same rpms.

Zora

No replacement for Displacement :smash:

SkarodoM

big bore, short stroke
big bore, short stroke
big bore, short stroke

:D

Do i think you should drop to a 327... nah. If you really want to make power.. do like the other gentleman mentioned. Find yourself a 400sbc, or just drop the $ on a bowtie block... cnc'd i think i saw them for around $1500. 4.125+bore = goodness :)

jburnett

Given my "druthers" I'd do a 400+ motor everytime for max output. But I was curious about the 352" after reading the magazine article and I decided to build it. It would be highly impractical to use the length rod as called for in the 352 in a longer stroke motor without seriously getting the pinbore into the ring lands. Not to mention the whole theory behind this motor was the improved rod/stroke ratio and its ability to kill octane sensitivity (which is what big bores do by unshrouding the flamefront and long rods do by increased TDC dwell). Now, on a big block I REALLY LIKE big bore/short stroke combos!! Particularly on cars that must use narrow tires in their class (ie., NMCA/NSCA 10.5 cars). Kill the bottom end for a good launch and then zing it up high with a buttload of horsepower!!!!!
:yesnod:
-Jeb Burnett

BlackRocket

I feel that the 327 was a good motor for it's time, but with the newer developements in long rod to crank ratio stroker motors there are a multitude of ways to get great HP and tons of Torque. A lot of mechanics feel that GM should have never built the 350 and should have just built a 383 from the onset. A lot of folks also feel that if you are going to stroke a motor you may as well start off with a 400 block. Keep in mind that for every cubic inch and each pound of torque the cost really jumps considerably and the reliability goes way down. Crossing the 500 HP threshold is approximately where the costs start to double and the regular driveability/reliability diminishes. :D

jsquared94

thanks everyone for the replies. now i understand! :yesnod: