So I was talking to this guy at one of the local hangouts who has a 427 powered 69 camaro. I had mentioned I had a 402 big block well .30 over 396 to be exact, and he told me for my 55 chevy since its a heavy car i should go big block and be done with it due to all the torque they produce, now this 402 has steel crank, speed pro forged pistons, pink rods, and has been recently machined. The heads are 325hp heads i think they have also been recently redone. I don't know a thing about big blocks, but is it worth the swap? Or should i stay small block, i know i can put that bbc together real cheap.
iv been lookin for a bbc to swap in my 41 coupe. I have a real beast of a 327 but i could get the same hp and more torque from a mild bbc, and it would actually idle under 1200 rpm
I had a 402 in my '70 SS Chevelle and they make plenty of power. Even though the Chevelle was heavy it still gave the Mustang and Camaro guys plenty of grief, especially after I rebuilt it. There is no substitute for cubic inches, except when it comes to women.
Didn't you have a 283 in your car that you blew up lol? Yeah man i was thinking with a big block i dont have to do much and it will run strong and ill have so much more torque, but i have a ton of sbc parts to play with, but really all that big block needs is a rebuild kit which is like 135 on enginekits.com and a cam and intake.
Use the 402. A little better heads and cam and you'll have a nice running, performing motor. What did the guy think the 402" was a sbc? What kind of hp are you looking for? The first motor I had in my cpe was a conservative 396" bored to 415". It now has a 454". I just put a new motor in my new tow rig, a 454" bored and stroked to 489". I like BBC
a small block can make just as much power as a big block does-once. If you want to lean on it a bit and NEVER worry about it coming apart, then do the big block with a somewhat mean recipe (cam, heads, induction). It'll be so understressed, you wont have to worry about it. -rick
I know a small block can, but like you said under stressed. Im thinking use the heads i got, throw a nice solid lift cam and intake, and maybe if i really want to i can throw some spray at it, i know nitrous is untraditional, but this is going to be a street/strip car, i gotta keep up with all the supercharged mustangs rollin around
Im big block fan , had a 468 that litterally ate 3 trucks and the motor was never hurt , the ot 4WD trucks would just eventually fall apart around the motor so it would get transplanted into something else ha ha The motivation for my 55 is a 396 ran out to a 408 , solid isky cam , nice set of heads and a 6-71
I'm getting ready to put a BBC in my 1934 Ford Truck. There is something about the sound of a BBC that set it apart from the other motors. Like a flathead Ford theres nothing like the sound. Just plain cool.
I have a very mild 454 in my 53. It problaly makes about 400 hp with a very smooth idle. The drivabilty it great and goes like hell.
You could run it on squeeze but you could also methane spray it and be different. Here's my thoughts on it, if you got the big block and it is basically ready to go run the big block. I have the same type of deal recently on a project. I have at my disposal a healthy small block with about 130K on the clock so it needs freshening. It till runs fine but its time before it gets itself wore out. I also have a pretty hot olds motor that was said to have been freshened prior to being out away. I tore the olds down for inspection because no one was absolutely sure if it had been freshened 40 years ago or not. It indeed was fresh. It is going to cost me less to run the olds than the small block. No brainer. You got a 402 nearly together that is fresh. Unless you got a pretty hot small block that is fresh you are in cheaper with the big block and it will produce more torque out of the box than the small block. No brainer.
I had a 402 in a 72 Chevelle that I put on 325 HP heads, torker intake, 650 DP and the 1st design L-88 cam, headers with 3.73 gears, 4 speed trans.....A lot of power for the street, ran 12.05 with street tires.
Sound great to me! exactly what i want to do, i have the torker, but i figured that it wasnt a good intake.
Well the small block i have is a 350 stock bottom end with cast everything flat tops, i was going to put a small solid roller in it, with camel hump 291 heads and a edelbrock xc-8 ram log, but im sure the 402 would run a lot stronger and it is needs the same work as the 350.
the 325 h.p heaads and the 350 h.p. heads are one and the same. the oval port heads are good to about 6500 rpm with a little port work and a good 5 angle valve job use the L88 springs a c396 intake and a 600 cfm holley with vacum seconderies. run the 350 h.p hyd. cam it will work to 6500. set timing that it starts to come in at 1500. and all in at 2800 28 deg. total. use the small tube headers with long collecters. 2 1/2" pipes. in the 55 use the short water pump for no other reason then it looks better. for hard lanchs use the 168 tooth flywheel. now you have to find out what pistons you have open chamber or closed. same for the heads you can run closed chamber heads and pistons. you can run open chamber pistons and heads. the best with todays gas is closed chamber pistons and open chamber heads. get the compression down to 9.8 to 1. now you can not run open chamber pistons with closed chamber heads it will not work. one other thing make shure you have a 396-402 crank not a 427. they are not the same the third counter weight on the 396 is 5/8" wide the 427 is 3/4" wide. to make it live get it balanced after you polish the rod beams and check the big ends for size. also don't trust the old rod bolts.
[. set timing that it starts to come in at 1500. and all in at 2800 28 deg. total. use the small tube If your running closed chamber hesds you had better set the total at 36 to 40 if you want it to go.
We own a 70 chevelle and once owned a 70 camaro the chevelle only weighed 50 pounds more then the camaro. By the time they get all that sheet metal folded and braced enough to hold a bolt on subframe their isnt any weight savings. Any way I have a 366 steel crank shaft a 396 block and a set of factory 402 pistons. Ive figured that with the block boring crank balancing and cost of parts it will cost me about a grand to build it. nothing wrong with a heavy duty beauty when it comes to women especially if they have tig biddies!! OldWolf
Had a beautiful 66 El Camino with a 350hp/327 in it (4spd). I love that engine...and the cam is not only perfect for performance, but has a neat idle. But...I wanted more power, and installed a 454 (lumpy cam, 3310 Holley, good headers). No other changes. Took it down to my secret rubber laying place (Pier 90) and the difference was amazing - while the sbc would most assuredly get out of the hole and wind up quicker, the new engine (BBC) just put down tracks all the way through 2nd gear (I ran out of room - the pier is not endless). Most of the GM "muscle cars" that were successfully raced used big block engines - using the "no substitute.." maxim. There is a good reason Shelby went to FE engines for the later Cobras. The sbfs were maxed out at 375hp or so and had endurance issues on longer races. The BBFs started there (375+) and had much more potential. dj
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