Can't wait to see what your able to do with the 434. I may need to change my set up if your able to get to the low 10's. I mean when you get to the low 10's. I wonder if i might need the bigger heads? We'll see good luck and make sure you keep them wifes HAPPY. I had to buy all new furniture for my wife to get my 434.

 

As much as I like big-block Chevys, a big small-block does have a certain appeal. Not to mention weight advantages, internally and externally. These motors should be awesome! I'd think still streetable useing that cam with a 4" stroke.

Hey tjwong, why don't you just pull that LT motor and store it in your garage(# matching). You'd probably end up changeing everything anyway. :lol: :chevy


[Modified by Curveit, 5:43 AM 12/18/2003]

 

Very :cool:

Any thoughts of changing out your rears, ala Dave (hookedup)?

 

i think they will hold up :cheers:

 

Remember I have some plans for the rears. Here is what I am doing. I am going to replace the fragile cast carrier with a specialized spool I am having made from Chromoly. This will eliminate ALL the weak components and ensure perfect side to side traction. Not only will it be MUCH stronger, it will lighten up that heavy azz carrier now 25+ lbs to about 10-15lbs. I will weight the two up and let you all know the savings it will be.

The only obvious down side to this is on the street, or should I say in slow tight turns, like parking. The tires will not turn at different rates, and will cause some sliding. But the way I look at it, the stock carriers, once you start hammering on them, do NOT have a prayer, especially once I saw it apart. Mine last year, nearly all summer long was LOCKED, when slow turns were like a spool anyways. At Least with the Spool I will know its SUPPOSE to be doing it and its not because something malfunctioned.

When my rear diff. was locked up this past summer, on the street it was totally unnoticable, and only barely noticable in tight turns, you would hear it more than feel it. (hear the cinders under the tires if there were any sliding on the pavement). With the slicks on it was MUCH more noticable because of the low air pressure and soft sidewalls.

I think the spool will be a SUPER nice addition to a street/strip car. As it is right now, I could have mine changed back to the carrier in about 2 hours if needed. The rear Differential is one of the easiest thing to take out of these cars. I am confident it will make the rears of these cars vitually unbreakable. 1/2 shafts and spindles etc, are the weak point then. Anyone that has taken one of these carriers apart, KNOWS how weak they are with the small little clips and clutch tabs.

Once I try my spool out, for all you guys that race frequently, I will have my Dads machine shop ready to make some more. I already bought a few, like for Dad's chevelle and just scaled the measurements down to fit into the D44 housing.

One less thing to worry about, and much easier than the 4 link setup that requires much more modding of the car. To hurt this spool you would have to break the ring gear or the pinion, because these spools (NOT MINISPOOLS) are NOT going to break. As I said the spindles are probably the next weakest link after one of these are put in. :cheers:

Let me know what you think. I will have a better idea what the cost of these will be after they fully machine one. The one that is going in my car :D :cheers:

 

"Remember I have some plans for the rears.....I am going to replace the fragile cast carrier with a specialized spool I am having made from Chromoly.....I already bought a few, like for Dad's chevelle and just scaled the measurements down to fit into the D44 housing.
.....Let me know what you think."

BORING!!! :sleep: , wake me when your going to do something original or cool.

J/K, obviously. Sounds like it's going to be quite an interesting winter. :lurk:

PS> You need a good heater in the garage, just don't put it too close to the bed, couch or television your going to need.

 

My winter plans:

DRIVE IT!!!!

Right now is the best time for the Vette, Top down, no rain, no hot muggy days, just cool dry air and 60-75 degrees in the sunshine!!!!

Today was beautiful, I let the wife drive the Rustang with the Top down, and took the Vette with the top off. The car runs sweet with this cool air. The car is clean and there are no chances of rain or puddles on the street to get it dirty.

I think maybe tomorrow night we may drive up to Moroso for Test n Tune.

I think my 3 winter projects are:

1- Fix the left headlight which is getting lazy
2- Fix the stinky gas fumes
3- Install my 150 shot NOS

4- Fill up tank
5- Cruise cruise cruise

There are so many naked women running around on South Beach right now, you guys wouldnt believe it.

Jesse and Cork, dont hate us FL guys too much while you are freezing your butte$ off, you will be laughing at us come spring and you are in the 9's!!!

I have a question:

I know there are many proven packages and methods of building engines, I see you guys are having great success with the big cubes. I wonder if there is a way to reach the 10s with a high revving 350?

What are the advantages of either method? I would think your big cubes are more reliable and produce gobs of torque and can reach a higher potential, but the smaller displacement high-revving engines can be fun too right?
Until they explode!

Just wondering if it can or has been done. I dont ever see myself trying to squeeze a BB in my car, everything would be too tight, not to mention $$$$

 

Nobody is more ready for Cork and Jess to get their stuff going than I am... I believe these two cars (and mine) will be perfect platforms for the single plane EFI stuff; and the fact that they hammer these cars unmercilessly and pay very close attention to the details is just one more step forward.

Nobody loves big blocks more than I do; I've owned MANY of them. But something is to be said of big small blocks. 400+ cubes with the right heads, cam, and induction is the perfect package for C4's that are DRIVEN. I will say this though, when I tire of the new 440 in my '90 I will be installing a big block. But I don't have the limitations Cork and Jesse have set for themselves (ie., full weight, A/C, yada-yada-yada); my engine compartment is basically gutted already so installation of a big block is relatively straight forward. And I do have an aluminum Can-Am block I got in trade for an engine I built... :D
-Jeb

 

i cant wait untill these cars get back out with these new motor combos and jebs custom sp intake setup
i go to bed dreaming of small block chevys dancing in my head
:D :cheers:

 

Gus you are a lucky man to be in FL, but I would definately get divorced if I lived down there. Two reasons, girls show too much, and you can race all year long! :jester

To answer your question in few simple words. You can do anything with anything, but it takes BIG $$ to make a smaller engine make big power. The biggest thing is you need to make a smaller motor, REV, extremely high RPM 8000+. For a motor to take that abuse, you need major money in the shortblock, and more in the valve train. Also, since most of us like to enjoy our cars on the street as well. 8k+ RPMs are not real feasible. With the Larger CI motors while still taking a good amount of money, if built right. Can stay in a lower RPM range to make BIG power. And you do not need big Block CI to make good power. Hell last year Cork and I were making more power than Dad's 509 CI Merlin Motor. Granted, his was extremely tame. So yes there is no substitute for Cubic Inches. More the better, more the lower the RPMs can make power. Trying to get a BB in one of these cars is NOT an easy task. Welding Cutting and Fabricating are all essential. Put all that time and money into a SBC, and you will get into the catagory we are with the motors starting to overwhelm the chassis possibly. A Super build Big Block like we are doing to Dads this year and next, would literally rip one of these cars apart, without MAYOR chassis work.

I want to keep my car as streetable as can be, while making it insane fast. The two contradict themselves, but that is part of the battle. Our 406s, anyone on this forum or the other boards would have been astounded at how streetable they were. And how much power they had on the strip. Hell I gave 572 Hemis a run for their money. :crazy:

SBC in these cars is all you need. If you still need more after they are maxed out, go to the juice on them. You will have your hands completely full :steering: :thumbs:

 

Ski how do you think the 434 will fit in the vette's engine bay, pretty straight forward or would you need some mods to fit it? :cheers:

 

Or .....you can throw in one of those new Gale Banks Twin Turbo kits and really have fun for miles...& miles....& miles :D :D :D :D

 

Damien,

Its not any physically bigger than a 350. So fitting is not a big deal. While the physical outsides of the blocks are not bigger, infastructure varies quite a bit. A 4" stroke would not fit in a standard block very well, hence the reason we went to aftermarket blocks. Corky mocked his up last night while we were on the phone, and it didn't even need clearanced. We expected to have to shave a little here and there.

The internals are though. 4" stroke, and 4.155" bore :cheers:

 

I considered the turbo route too, but it still requires beefed up internals and heavy fabrication to keep your AC, also, theres a lot of heat under that fiberglass hood!

 

Thanks for the reply Ski. I think this engine will be big in terms of hp, how much rwhp will you be making (est.)?
GOOD LUCK SKI!! (i know you won't be needing it cause your one of the best) :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

 

Damien,

We are estimating a min of 630fwhp, but we think conservatively, then we are not disappointed. So that would be about 500-530 rwhp. It take ALOT to get over 500 rwhp....Our 406s were at times struggling to get over 400rwhp, I find it VERY hard to believe that some of these cars on here are making the power they are. Anything over 350rwhp, takes alot of work, and that is ALOT of power for a car.

We may be VERY suprised with the results and they may make much more, lets hope. I am guessing just the step up to an aftermarket block is good for another 25hp, since its well known in the stock 400s you get cylinder wall flex. These aftermarket blocks are beefed up to eliminate that.

Lightweight billet rods, light JE pistons, to cap off the shortblock will surely be a help.

We think of every aspect possible, like Corky's theory of H beams vs I beams. H beams are like spoons or scoops that lap up oil (robs power), that is why we like the I beam design better than H beams.

Good pans to scrape the oil from the crank. I was even thinking of going to roller cam bearing, but they are super expensive and really the more I read about them, they are only popular in endurance type applications.

We both just hope to be pushing 9s or Damn close, you know it will be damn close, so we loose sleep all summer long, racking our minds again on how to gain .1 sec. Never fails. It might all end if we were running 9.8s, with a hopeless, .8 sec to go to the next step, but it will probably be ever so close again, like 10.14@132MPH. Don't get me wrong, I would be VERY pleased with those numbers. I see no reason why we can't get them.

:cheers:

 

LOL, I leave for just a few days to study for finals and when i come back a week later everyone has switched from stock to prostocker!! :eek:

i can't even get my damn engine out :banghead: :cry (it has been 2 months down now...) and ski has already got half a 434 in his car! not to mention getting his heads intake and injectors sent to me, and his old block off to someone else in between time.

Next thing ill be hearing is ski and big jim will be getting together to come up with a street 540 that will hold 12pounds of eletric driven boost just for the strip :lolg: hahahaa oh that is an amusing thought to think about. i can see it now: jet flames kicking out the side of the car from the headers running straight to the side through the fiberglass wall, pre burn session like they do on jet engines, burn outs with a quik-fuel session in between, wheelie bars, parachute sack and all! haha lol that is an amusing thought :lol: :jester :jester

and ill shut up now before i make him mad at me.... :leaving:

 

WoW. Here in Malta if i told somebody that a v8 would do 630fwhp they would laugh at me like i said something impossible. The v8 really is the king of all engines.

 

Ski,

I took you advise and called neverlift. Their appointments are into March :eek: . But that is okay since i can do nothing until after April 15th. So the appointment is for April 17th :cheers: :cheers:

Thanks for the heads up.

 

:cheers: JIm, COrky told me the other day on the phone you called them. Yeah he gets pretty busy, pretty quick. Glad you got a semi early one! :cheers: