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Given the choose between the two, which would you rather have in your c3 and why? I figure it would cost roughly the same to convert my 350 4bolt truck engine to blown 350 as it would to go get a junkyard 454 and rebuild it to the hilt. What do you think?
A built to the hilt 454 would have less down low torque then the blown 350. With the big heads on the 454 it would give up drivability on the street where the blown and not supercharged 350 would have alot of grunt down low. Go for a blower which is not rpm dependant for boost over the rpm dependant supercharger. Superchargers only come on after say 3000 to redline where the blower from idle on up can make almost it's maximum boost anytime without any lag.
Norval
old school says "There are no substitutions for cubic inches" :crazy: :smash:
I agree !! And to go one step further, how about one of those old aluminum 427's stroked and bored out to 484 cubic inches and then a custom fabricated efi intake in a C4..... I just described Larry Hofers (The owner of the Corvette Shop in San Diego) daily driven 86 vette. He was aiming for 488 cubic inches... I wonder why. :D
The beauty of the aluminum block, his motor weighs about 10 lbs "less" than the stock TPI motor, thus no major suspension modifications were necessary. A lot of scooting things around in the engine compartment obviously were though.
Now if only I could find a Aluminum Big Block I could afford.... anybody know how much they go for ??
Why not a blown 454 :) for when too much is just right!
Not in my Vette however - it will go into my '67 ElCamino. In my infinite craziness a formerly 8-71 blown 468 landed in my garage. But instead of putting another 8-71 back on top, instead I am going to use a properly sized centrifugal supercharger. Should give me half a chance of getting it off the line with a great top end charge.
Go with the blower...as mentioned above blown cars are fairly rare and a blown streetable corvette is even rarer. You can run 500 HP out of a blown small block and still run 92 octane pump fuel if you keep your boost under 6 PSI and run under 8.5 comp. ratio. Even with my automatic (T-400) the car will go "sideways" on both gear changes in street trim but still turns a respectable 11.60's with slicks at the track. And let me tell you...there is nothing quite as distinctive as "blower whine" wether your crusin or racing...it will "turn heads". Deen
I don't believe that it would cost much more to have a blown big block over a blown small block. I'm currently working on a blowin 454 for my 73 shark.
The blown small block would be lighter and therefore handle better in the car. Besides, a Vortech Superchardged 355 with a good electronic fuel injection would be reliable, and make as much or more power as NA 454. It may cost more though. So I vote for the 350. For drag racing buy a 502 short block, Brodix heads etc. and go to town.
I like the blower. Nothing attracts more attention then the whine of a blower. It also has alot of low end grunt. I have gone with a built to the hilt 454 and it didn't idle well in traffic, get descent mileage and you were forever reving the ? out of it. I had a 5000 stall convertor and regularly turned 7500rpm.
I went to a 8-71 blower and those same heads that didn't run below 5000 now worked at 1500. My car will idle all day in traffic and gets 12 mpg in town. I will also effortlessly spin the tires and any of the first 3 gears without any warning.