Technical What are all the Small Block Chevy Cubic Inch Combonations? And Which is your Favorite?

DDDENNY , my profile page is Boring !!
Just by the CID & the Intake Design , I was thinking about 950-1150 Cfm's ,
The SBC that in my 30 has 1,000 cfm's No power adder & a little less cub's then you ,
It over power the car , I pull 1st then 3/4 of Secound & lift, about 90mph
No cage short wheel base , Hand Full ( That what Hot Rod R About )
DANGEROUS

 

Stock 80k mile '55 265 4bbl and Power Pack heads (not called that in '55 though) in my '32 pickup.
I like the staggered bolt valve covers and the use of '55 Canadian Pontiac covers......just to be different!
Early 350 going in my 1919 Dort.

 

As boring as it sounds, I've seen many a 355 lay waste to much more exotic or small CID high RPM versions. Simple parts and a "blue bottle tune up" would net frightening numbers.

 

I'm partial to the 327, just because it was somewhat of a giant killer in it's day, especially in a light car. Owning the venerable little 302 going on 40 yrs, I gotta say Chevy got it right for it's intended use. Amazing little mouse. Gotta song all it's own when it hits it's octave. Kinda reminds me of the old 125 cc two-stroke dirt bikes. Keep it up on the pipe & hold on!

 

My favorites have always been the 283,301(2) and 327 engines.I have a home made 327(350 4 bolt block,307 crank, Gmpp aluminum vortec heads,edelbrock rpm air gap ,10.2-1 cr in my Ot glass T right now,works pretty well in a 1400 lb car.But then I have a 406 in my OT chevelle and it has worked well for years.Guys laugh at 307s but when the 327 was new a 327 crank in a 283 block wasnt uncommon,anything for more displacement! I think any SBC will make good power for its displacement given decent heads and the usual mods.

 

I like the 350, but years ago I took a 400 block and put a 350 crank in it with bearing spacers with flat top pistons, man that was a great combo.

 

definitely the 327 for me such a nice all around motor pulls hard and will rev till its outa cam but have heard some cool stories about 301's from back in the day I have been collecting 283's for a few years in hopes to build one. can't decide to put the 65 corvette 327 (yes a real #'s motor) or build a 301 for the 53 as either one will be fun but only in front of a 4 speed.

 

Dddenny, do you have a peak power manifold vacuum number from the dyno test? maybe pm? Depends a bit on the "750" too, if it has slabbed throttle shafts, slicked up boosters and a well shaped entry, its probably more like 1000+ @ 1.5 hg. My 3bbl comment on another thread was no joke, just so you know...

 

I always wanted to do a Grumpy inspired 331 with a short tunnel ram and a monster cam. He was at over .700 lift at the valve in those small motor pro stock Vegas. Too young to have heard one live but I'd bet it was really amazing.

 

265 in Kent Onlan's '40 coupe, McBar adaptor, 1956; my first intro to Chevy V8s.
Chevy fit better than if we planted the flattie back in there! Not 'fast', but smooooth...
Bored a 283 to 292, Power Pak heads, DeLong solid cam, cast intake with Carter WCFB. Solid little RPM engine.
301s were the hot ticket around San Jose in the early '60s. (younger guys will 'correct' us, touting '302'; we just didn't round the last number 'up'...)

327s were the 'new rulers' in the shoebox 'street gasser' category, one fastie was a S.J. State engineering student, Schwartz; '55 Chev 210, light blue, black wheels/tires, traction masters. 3" higher than stock, no front bumper. Said it was to look 'businesslike'.Schwartz ran a hydraulic cam with solid lifters...flattened one every week/10 days or so. Screamer with Muncie M20, 5.14 rear. In 2+ years, never saw him get beat.

I assembled a 377 for a young customer, 400 block with spacers...after much detailing, road tested it (O.T. Camero) It got loose, got my attention... That was an impressive package.
Just some musings from the old days, lately a 383 blew my mind! I'd heard lots about them, but underestimated the chatter. Lotta torque there...
The shop kept me busy, or I would have been deeper into the combos, and all the experimenting...

 

My favorite big inch motor is a destroked 400 either 377 or a 350 depending on what cranks I have available at the time. LOL

There are two or 3 short stroke motors that I like the common 301/302. Or once I had access to a 272 built out of a stock bore 283. it was built the hard way before off the shelf cranks, steel crank welded and destroked. I have no idea what it was built for originally, a friend picked it up at a machine shop auction, had me pull it apart to verify that it really was a destroked 283, it was. It would not pull stumps but @ full sing it sounded like a 400 husky going down the road. I have no idea who built it but if I had the opportunity I would build one for myself or have someone else do it for me.

 

wasn't there a weird little 245[?] built in the early to mid eighties? that would be cool to stroke.

 

I've had several engines in my 38 Chevy Coupe. The 327 is the best.
My son and I also have a 68 Chevy 3/4 ton Camper Special truck and the 350 4 bolt main engine works best in that big ass heavy vehicle.

 

They built A 262 in the mid '70s and a 267 in the '80s that I know of I would have to dig to find bore and stroke on them. They would not have a very good crank to start with but I'll bet you could buy an after market crank the correct stroke and put it in a 4" block and come up with something weird that would rev until it cam apart.

Well found it the 262 was a 3.7 bore and the 267 was a 3.5 bore. the 267 used a 3.48" stroke same as a 350 and the 262 used a 3" stroke same as a 283.

The absolute neatest thing about the era that we live in is that cubic inch numbers are limitless for a small block Chevy. Custom cranks don't cost nearly as much as they used to, so in the whole scheme of things if you have a moderate budget you are only limited by your imagination when it comes to building a small block Chevy.

 

I saw, heard, and have first hand experience with the "Grump" of Bill Jenkins.
I posted this on the Grumps thread early last year.

I was lucky enough to watch Bill run his Pro Stock Vega at Portland International Raceway about 1971-72, and IIRC it was his first Vega, I was still in high school so I thought I had hit the big time.
Due to old age and CRS I don't recall the details of the race, but I do remember this vividly; as he was waiting in the staging lane, I was standing near the rear of the car and noticed one of the rear deck pin clips was not in place so I walked up to get a closer look and Bill noticed me looking and came from the front of the car, I told him about the pin and all he said was DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT KID.
Boy did I feel special.

 

I had a 267 c.i. in a 1979 El Camino. It wouldn't spin the tires. Real Dog . Bill

 

it was probably choked to death, those cars were still early emissions cars and the engineers could only think of one way to make them comply and that was to detune them.

The 267 also had the bore working against it. It has long stroke and small bore to work with and that is not necessarily a good combo when it comes to performance.

 

The 377 I built for my dirt modified. 14.5 to one, alky motor. 400 block with deck plugs. 461x heads (had to run iron)ran it between 6800 and 7000 rpm, 7500 redline
517 HP on the dyno. On the street it was a 366 I put in a Vega for a friend. this had an offset ground large journal crank with small journal rods (6in) out of a dirt late model.

 

377 is definitely a magic number when it comes to sbcs. Some good aluminum heads (painted Chevy orange so they fit in with HAMB thinking) and a decent cam/carb/manifold combination and they're quite impressive.

 

I like 377s real well, it is a good bore to stroke ratio I think. But I like a 400 punched enough to clean it up with a large journal 327 crank too.

my problem is that while I run what I just happen to have at the time I am partial to motors that are bore heavy as opposed to stroke heavy.

 

The baddest one I ever built was a 310. 327 small main block, bored .060". 283 crank with the counterweights turned down. Chevrolet off road solid cam (can't remember the number) with BBC 1.75 rockers, tunnel ram w/ twin 660s.

Screamed so loud that I was scared to find out just how far it would rev. Had it in a '55 Gasser with 5.13 gears. With a wide ratio Muncie, let's say first gear was very short.

Built a 415" stroker for my son's OT S10. That one will put you back in the seat any time you push the foot feed.

 

I always wanted to try a 267 block with a 400 crank. Maybe even offset grind it for even a more under square combination. The idea would be a low rpm long legged unit to optimize fuel economy. A two barrel with really long runners and 40+" headers. Never could justify the cost of that experiment.

 

QC
My 72 book says #3927140, IIRC this is referred to as first design.
The #3965754 requires aftermarket valve springs, both are listed as off road/service package camshafts.
Some years later I acquired a full set of factory NOS valve springs, retainers and keepers for this cam, they came with a pair of NOS "291" heads. Sold them because I had planned on using the l79 hydraulic cam.
Probably worth a lot of money now.

 

Yep, 140 was the last 3 digits. If we only had back all the stuff we had.

 

Still got a new "140" in the tube, under the bench. Think it was around $50 over the counter, mid 70s.

 

We took a late model 5.7 and used the crank and rods out of a late 4.3 v8 the rods are 5.940 with flat top 350 pistons zero deck with vortec heads and a 350 lt1 hot cam kit 302 late model with a twist long rod motor it screams and still has a little tourqe put valve cover adapters on it and swear its a 283 !

 

For a while now, I have't been able to find a decent 56 or 57 265 block, still can't, so the plan was to use a 305 block and bore it .014 to standard 265 bore size, use my 1178 302 large journal crank, large journal rods, and some standard bore, forged, 265 pistons I've had for a while. Balance it, and have a stronger bottom end "265". I had a guy offering to sell me a Canadian 305, 4 bolt block, that was supposed to be in "excellent" condition. I was pretty excited about getting that. When I got there, almost to B.C., Canada, it was missing the main caps, and had been left outside, so it was a rusted up POS. Guy said to just hot tank it and the rust would be gone; he needed to be hot tanked. I have the entire top end for a 225HP 265; the heads, dual quad intake and carbs. I "donated" the 56 dual point distributor to "Tokyo Rose", but I have a dual point, dual windowed, externally adjustable Delco distributor to use (just price out one of those caps!). The idea was to build my Delivery into a Pseudo-Junior Stocker, with an aluminum Powerglide. It may happen still, after some of this other stuff gets done. I do have a friend with an original 56 265 still sitting in a Bel Air hardtop a tree fell on (across the trunk area); he just has't confirmed the engine turns over, and I seriously don't need any more junk. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

As far as "near stock" engines go, I've always liked 350 hp 327s and 370 hp 350s.

But, after watching some Outlaw sprint cars run, I decided short stroke engines might be overrated. So I'm working on a "junk" 388 for my Anglia project right now. It would be a 406, but I can't justify an aftermarket block and I'm a little leery of the "thin wall" stockers.

 

305. There, I said it.

The '87-on roller cam 305, so long as it still has a fuel pump boss and pushrod hole.

Put in a nice cam, then throw on a swap meet manifold, pump, carb, and distributor (with proper gear), and you can have about 250HP, for at or under $500 (people keep giving me good 305's). Plenty for a T, A, or other early car, and even some bigger ones.

If you are embarrassed, spend and hour with a grinder and remove the casting marks. Nobody will notice, and you don't have to tell them.