Hey Everyone, Im building a 454 stroker and was looking for some advice on how I should build it, what I'm looking for is to build it on the cheap, have it be reilable, run on pump gas, and have as much HP as i can get out of it, without adding any power adder. So far I've got a virigin 454 high perf. stamped block, a 4.25 stroker crank, and a set of merlin 269cc oval port heads. I think I have a pretty good start but not sure if I should build a 489 or 496 out of it. I was thinking a 489 so I can rebuild it latter down the road. Should I run stock length rods or longer ones? Any advice or in put would be greatly valued. Thanx everyone
Longer rods are "usually" better but it wipes out two of your wishes: 'what I'm looking for is to build it on the cheap, have it be reilable'. Longer rods stroker crank pistons will not be cheap and it will also move the piston pin up in the area of where the rings normall live maybe effecting reliability. It's doable but probably not as inexpensive as you're hoping.
If you are going cheap, keep the stock rods. A lot of the other answers depend on what you ultimately want to do with it. Boat engine = torque needs. Hot Rod= chrome. Drag race = RPM. An engine this big will hurtle any old iron down the track or road pretty fast. The downside is that it still looks like any other big block, 366, 396, 502, all the same. Save as much of your big inch money as you can for the vehicle to put it in.
496 kits are readily available cost the same as a 489,and more cubes=more torque.I know Eagle specialties makes a decent stroker kit,around 600hp on pump gas.Like Snot says depending on what your plans are for it make the decision easier also,Street,Show or Race changes ALOT of factors where you wanna put you peak torque and HP.JMHO
The crank you have will determine the rod length. Most of the budget cranks require a .250" longer rod. Most of the better pistons are available for tha longer rod . I build quite a few of these motors. The bore size is up to you as pistons are commonly available up to .125" oversize and a bit bigger in custom order pistons$$$$$. For budget. Use Speed Pro or KB pistons with 1/8" dome with your heads. Usually just a bit over 10-1 compression. That and a high lift moderate duration roller cam will make gobs of horsepower and torque. I do not use flat tappet cams anymore. Oil is junk and available budget hyd or solid flat tappet lifters don't last. Big blocks like lots of lift and fast rates. I usually build budget hot street motors with .660 solid rollers. Easy on parts and good street habits. Howard makes a couple of good ones. In my own Gasser type car I have a +.125, 4.250 stroke block. Probe .125" domes, with oval port heads. lots of port/valve work and a .685 Howards roller. Can't wait to get it out of the barn..
the longer rod improves the piston to rod ratio....496 stuff should be fairly common and half way cheap if your not doing h beams and j&e style pistons... how much block work has to be done to clear rods? might think of a custom hyd roller cam if you can
how much block work has to be done to clear rods? Usually not much. It depends on the rods. Sometimes a change to the smaller 12 point nuts will help the cheap rods clear. Cap screw and H-beams swing clear. Taiwan oil pans will hit, big time!.
Thanx for all the input guys. Im going for more of a street/strip motor, but still want as much power as I can get. Im not looking to scrimp on the build but I dont want 10 grand in it either. how much power can stock rods handle?
There are sever different styles of stock rods. The best 3/8 bolt rods are the rare "dimple" rods or the HD. "thumb" rods. These, with ARP bolts, will handle 500 hp. in short bursts. The problem with stock rods is. By the time you have them magged, prepped, bolted and resized. You can buy better aftermkt rods that don't have a zillion cycles on them.
Advice is don't waste your money on these over rated poorly designed unreliable engines. You can make serious horse power, torque and build huge cubic inches reliably and affordably, but not with a GM engine. .
I know of a couple motors in the 12/13 to one range running in the 6.20/30 range ...with recon'd stock rods....and have been together for years (like 4 to5 years)
Just because GM was too cheap to update or throw away a poorly designed block after even a few years does not mean that it is anything more than poorly designed, so poor in fact that the aftermarket had to come in and address all it's short comings. And it's the after market blocks, pistons, rods, cranks, cams, intakes, exhaust and even the bolts that hold it together that have addressed all the short comings of GM's blunder and won races, Not the poorly designed stuff made by GM. .
There's enough drama on the hamb already without you creating it. You've been here way too long to be targeting chevy threads just to spout you anti-G.M hate. Now if you have something worth saying about a stroked big chevy(which I highly doubt) then post it, otherwise start your own thread on flathead power and economic superiority and leave this thread alone. "MELTDOWN DRAGS" July 20, 21 2013 at Byron Dragway Byron Ill. www.meltdowndrags.com
Not a Chevy fan myself, but I have seen you can make some good power for a lower price with a BBC, and enough guys have done it to let you know how far you can take it and what will break. Go start another thread and tell us what is wrong with them, this guy is building one and will probably produce a pretty ass kicking big block without your input.
What is it going in? The stock 454 with a decent cam and serious porting on the heads make good power. I ran one in a '65 Chevelle and '68 Vette. I just added nitrous for the moments when I needed it.
I found some scat rods for around $350 Im thinking of getting those to run. What kind of intake/carb set up you running on your motor?
I took a 2 bolt mains 454 with cast crank, stock rods added a blower cam, a set of TRW/SpeedPro 8.0:1 blower pistons and a set of very secondhand alloy Bowtie heads, then fitted a 671 and a pair of 750 Edelbrocks and an Accel ignition. Made 627 hp at 5800 revs and was very streetable. Ran probably 60 odd quarter mile runs at best of 10.2 in the Bucket. Rods never complained once, so I would say they are good for at least 628hp.
Stock rods in a 454 is the 6.135, which wont work with your stroker crank without custom pistons. Cheapest and best option is to look at a complete stroker kit which will come with crank rods and pistons to suit and then either buy the whole kit, or buy the kit less the crank if you really want to use the crank that you already have.
For break in, a Holley strip dominator with a 850 vac secondary Holley carb. Also have an old Weiand tunnel ram with two 750's for some 1/4 mile runs, for later..
Just buy mine- It's never been fired. 502 block at 4.560 bore, 4.25 Eagle crank (555"), Merlin heads, .640 hydraulic roller, electronic fuel injection. Built to make 650-700 HP on pump gas. I have no use for it, and will take a loss to get it sold. PM me if interested.
Not sure if my input will help or not but here it is.... I have a 496 bbc in my 70 c10 panel truck. It was built in 1996, the truck is a toy, so not an every day driver. Have driven it to many events from tennesee to michigan to ohio to illinois and a lot of places in between. So it is reliable for street driving.I run premium gas in it. It runs a scat stroker crank,gm truck rods and keith black hyperutectic pistons. The pistons have a wrist pin placement that allows them to work with the gm truck rods. It runs gm iron heads,can't remember which ones,and a factory hi-rise intake,and a holley 750 double pumper. Has a custom ground cam from lazer cams,and crane roller rockers. Have never had it on a dyno,never felt the need,but it pulls hard thru the entire rmp range and has more than enough torque to fry the 31/16.5 mickey thompsons at will,was told buy the engine builder,who is the local bbc guru, to expect approx. 1 1/2 horse per cubic inch. The guy who built it,actually built 4 all at the same time, one was mine, two are street/strip cars and one is in a competition pulling truck. All are still alive and well from the original builds. When they were built, it was about $5k per motor,which was about half of what he had in his personal 496, running a bowtie block,eagle stroker rotating assembly ,aluminum heads,etc.
Good info guys I just got into BBCs a couple years ago Currently rolling up a 489 run two years hyd flat tappet never wiped lobes but always used zinc additive and diesel oil . any one used lunati 50520 300/310- 242/252 ordered pro comp heads 300cc intake shop milling to get 10.5 -1 range on cam 2500- 6500 in a 55 chevy 150 3.23 gears cruiser more then a drag racer any feed back would be great
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