Torque monster

This term is used a lot,usually for low reving big cube engines or inline 6's.Take your late 50's typical 350-390 cube engines,Chevy 348,Ford 352,Olds ,Pontiac,Caddy,Buick engines and of course various Mopar V-8's.Ignoring the often inflated factory power ratings are any of them really more powerful than the others in stock form?

 

They were made for low end torque for use in pulling big trailers and other heavy loads. They don't do as well at high speeds. Same principle as with big six truck engines.

 

Yes,all of that.But for example,mention a 364 Nail Head and the word torque monster comes next.Mention 348 Chevy for example and no torque monster label.In real life,does the Buick make more mid range power?

 

You can look up torques of just about any engine in an old Motors manual. Take an old Caddy engine for example, many of those were pretty torquey and speed equipment was available at the time. So those were popular transplant candidates if you wanted to go fast on the cheap.

Bob

 

you cant just compare cubic inches- take a good look at how each engine gets those cubes- is it stroke, or bore. Generally speaking, bigger strokes will make much more torque, while limiting hp due to piston speed at rpm.

-rick

 

Could you please explain why this would be so? Seems to me that it's a draw...the more stroke it has, the longer "torque arm". But the larger the bore, the more force it has on the crank to make the torque (since the force on the connecting rod is the result of the combustion pressure pushing a larger piston area).

Some mid-late 50s published torque specs for some engines, from Chilton:

354 chrysler 380
364 buick 384
348 chevy 355
352 Ford 380

I guess chevy lost this one!

 

The bore/stroke ratio has more to do with what rpm the engine will make the torque or hp peak. Not the cubic inch size. An engine that makes low rpm power is said to be a torque engine and a higher rpm engine is said to not be. They may both have the same torque, but since one is lower rpm, it *feels* like it is stronger. Torque and hp are related, torque is twisting force and hp is twisting force over time. It is the basic definitions that define it. Think of hp as work being done and torque is work available to be done.

Typically a longer stroke and smaller bore make lower rpm peak numbers. Larger bore and shorter stroke make higher rpm peaks. Smaller bore means you can't have as large of valve sizes and so it tends to limit the higher rpm breathing. So it becomes sort of a self-fulfilling design solution.