I was a strictly sbc guy until a few yrs ago.then I got my 352 galaxie.then my flathead ford.god I love them all.i don't care if they are ford chevy hell even old mopars will do.lol but its got to be American and its got to be a v8. I just cant stand to hear sixes or 4 bangers. ive owned a hopped up 6 and it just didn't have the rumble sound that I crave so much. now I have a floor full of bbf.352s to 460s.to me its still v8s all the way.but im old and set in my ways.dont believe me just ask my wife.she says its not 1970 anymore. well she s wrong.because im still there! I drive my gas guzzling cars everywhere every day.it just cost me more.alot more...lol
I had a 350 in a Camaro that I owned for years and everyone that heard it run thought it was a big block engine. Shows you what the right cam will do for an engine. I prefer small blocks that are built the right way to a big block. Jimbo
I agree with loving all engines; big and small. But I've always loved performance, regardless of cubic inches. Had a little 283 powered '55 Chevy 2 dr sdn around 1971 that terrorized the local streets, and whipped up on many 396 Chevelles and Camaros. But after it got stolen I purchased a Camaro with a dealer installed 427, and loved it almost as much! Now I have one of each SBC and BBC powered hotrods. I love the 327 powered Austin sedan, but the 464 powered '63 Falcon is making me just as happy!
I think the Car,Year,And Engine should kinda match like a Falcon,1960 with a 289 for the street as far as the track is concerned anything goes
I suffered thru that bullshit and i even went thru 4 different engines in one summer, each one more radical and bigger that the others until a dipshit was looking at my engine - sometime back in the 70's - and it was a smallblock on my '67 Nova, it had all the shit and ran 7.40's in the 1/8th, street legal - this guy looks it all over, the crossram with 2 4's, fenderwell headers, mallory dual point and big coil, 461X heads converted to angleplug, big mechanical cam, ported to the max and this dipshit looks it all over and says 'you need angle plug heads on this!' He didn't even know he was looking at angleplug heads! And that is what did it for me. These dipshits don't have a clue what they are looking at and they want to bring you down to thier level by telling you what to do or how big it should be or what needs chrome plating. The guys that are smart enough to be on your level know appreciate what you have and be very sensitive to your feelings. these guys offer advice about yaddayaddayadda and i smile and nod my head.
Well in 1977 and 1978 we ran a blown alcohol mouse. It was a 350 and we raced it as a blown alcohol dragster (BAD back then). It was serious quick for the era. Obviously we raced aganist bunches of hemi's and rats. We won several AHRA nationals and Divison points meets. We qualified # 2 @ Gainsville and in the top two or three at that years Cajun nationals. I can safely say that everyone that we raced was @ least 75 cubic inches bigger and many were 150 inches bigger. Not really how big the motor is... Just saying, g
What was that again about motion in the ocean? I'm looking to build a pontiac OHC 6. It's 230 inches. I like my modern daily driver with a 2.5l engine because I can floor it all the way up to 6500 rpm without any concerns of blowing up.
The law has a bit to do with it too. Around here 20 MPH over the speed limit and you are walking for a month, and 40 gets you 3 months. The other thing I have realised is that it's more fun to drive a slow car fast, than a fast car slow.
These are usually the guys with Harley stickers on the back window of their $50k pickup that has never seen a day of work. You think it's bad with rods, don't get a bike. It seems that people compensate for their lack of knowledge by spewing out the opinion of the biggest ego they have talked to. It's usually the quiet ones that have a comprehensive understanding of what is going on, and don't feel the need to validate themselves to the world.
Well I never have been quiet but I am not groupee either. While I have made a good living working on BB mopar and others I find the challenge of a 6 cyl very rewarding. Kinda of a no lose deal. If you wack Big block car in a race that's a huge bonus. If you lose it was to be expected. Occasionally I pull the rabbit out of the hat and go home smiling. Towing my six rail with a 426max wedge so I guess I love both. I am not afraid of big cubes in the other lane though. Twice last week though I heard myself say "8 cylinders are for folks who cant make horsepower" I may however have been goaded some to come up with that. The comment above though about 7000 RPM short block with 5000 RPM heads was very astute. Don
I must have a " less than 300 cid limit " 221 - 276 - 289 - 292 - My 289 has whooped a lot of 350,s and a couple big blocks....
This isn't so much about the size of an engine but rather the specific dislacement. Not to take anything away from a SBC but I'm still amazed at the "mystique" that surrounds a 327 Chevy. A fine engine, but those who aren't so mechanically inclined still tend to get all moist at the sound of those three digits just because they're arranged in that particular order. Some years ago when Chevy came out with their new generation V8s one of them happened to be 5.3 litres. Do a little math and that comes out close to 327 cu. inches. We had customers come into the dealership all excited when they found out that Chevrolet was "bringing back" the 327! I'm sure some of them bought new trucks thinking they were getting the same basic "magic" engine they had in their '67 Nova. But I don't think there's a single part that interchanges between the old and new style engines. The old 327s were a fine motor, but it wasn't anything magical because the digits "3", "2" and "7" were arranged in that order.
I love big blocks for the violence and the mystique that surrounds them,but there has always been an attraction for me to being the underdog. Running your well built 289 against a fairly stock 396 or 383 and having the guy just shake his head in disbelief as he says "I didn't think it would be that fast..." is worth the price of admission.
As a spin on this,I've always liked disguising a stroked,cammed,ported motor with every trick in the book as a stocker and watching them scratch their heads when "only a 289" had them chasing tail lights all night long....lol Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
6inarow:I saw an O/T Dart at the track a Few yrs ago with a slant six,and the guy was laying a beating on many v8 cars with his 13.80 ET.It was a sight to see! Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Depends , Are we racing or cruising. Lifes experience tells me, Hard to beat cubic inches, sbc man, have had bbc, love bbc, but, I have a speed shop crate 355 sbc in my 32 / cruiser, thumps good and to my surprize, gets near 20 mpg on highway. John
I used to Love pulling up to some clown with a Huge Ass big Block in his Camaro with my little built Pinto motor and challenge him to a street race. While he is sitting there smoking the tires because the pile won't hook up, I am banging the gears at 8,000 RPM and leaving him behind. Ah good times
I found that running open headers on a lil ol 289 with a bit of a lumpy cam will really throw em off their game too....The first night I had my o/t '66 coupe out I pulled the caps off the pipes before I even rolled outta the garage...it was only about a 300hp motor thrown together from whatever parts I had laying around,with whatever speed tricks I could think of. So I pull in for gas,fill up,pay,start the car,and three guys in another o/t '67 musclecar pull in. I leave mine idling with the parking brake on while I go over to check out buddy's clean looking car.He's pretty cool about it,but his buddies are a bit chirpy,bragging like they built it or something:"It's got a 468" BBC and 3.73 posi,blah,blah,blah..." So I figured what the hell and said "Sounds pretty tough...you wanna run 'em or what...?" Suddenly there was a lot of whispering between the buddies: "I dunno man...","I think that things got a Cobra Jet in it","He wouldn't wanna race if it wasn't fast...listen to that thing...!" and so on... As it turns out,apparently there was some kind of "transmission trouble" with the big Chevy that would have prevented him from running it....lol I was having a good laugh on the way home thinking how that car probably would have spanked mine....lol Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
You know I have discovered what I really don't like is big $$$$$$$$$. I can appreciate any size motor if the owner has built it best he could but chequebook racing or hotrodding makes me sick to my stomach almost. Like at a recent car show the guy was excited because he had just bought the car the week before and won a first his first time showing it. Or we go to the track and our fellow competitors in the same class running for the same $500 are running ATCh.....something motors costing between 25 and 35 thousand dollars and they use at least a couple per year. They have to phone Atch to find out which way to turn the oil plug on the pan to change the oil. Then they look with distain on homebrew stuff which just as often as not goes home with the gold. I did however hear myself say twice in the last month during some heavy discussions the "Eight cylinders are only for folks who don't know how to make HP" I don't really believe that of course but sometimes I have had enuf baloney and spew this stuff out sort of in defense.. Really I believe anyone is entitled to what turns their crank so to speak. I can respect anyone's choices who can respect mine. Don
I ran a solid lifter 327/4 speed and 4:11s in my Vette for years, back in my street racing days. Got tired of always winding the thing out and adjusting lifters. Dropped in a hydraulic lifter 454/TH400 and 3:08s. Mash the pedal and go, loaf down the highway. But that was decades ago. My new rod has a whopping 136 inch V8. No more of these.
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