Hands down, the greatest automotive engine ever built. My all time favorite, it’s what I raced, learn to modify, and had the most fun with. Not that all the others weren’t good engines, but to me, it will always be the Small Block Chevrolet. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I was always a Ford guy. In 74 I bought my first sprint car. I always thought the small block Chevy lacked low end torque until I saw the car pull the front wheels coming off corners. My driver liked to use the torque so we picked tires and gears to peak at about 4500 rpm at the end of the straight. He won a lot using that setup. I was also amazed at how cheap it was to build a competitive SBC, and that was using all new parts. I fact you could buy an LTI/Z28 short block from your Chevy dealer for around $1200.00 back in the 70's.
I always dug the sound of the exhaust with a pair of good glass packs, Porters with a full exhaust system make them sound soo nice!!
Weight a 550lb. vs 700lb. and a guy named Duntov. You could get good stuff at the parts counter cheap. It wasn't until the 302 Fox body Mustang and the after market made good heads cheap did the 302 take off. Ford made stuff for the race teams Chevy made stuff you could buy.
Unlike today, back in the 60s a $20 price difference for an intake manifold was a big deal to a lot of us..........
They were fast for the time. In 58-61 you could buy a decent 55-56 2 dr with a 265 or maybe 57 with a 283. Go to the dealer and get an 097 cam and lifters and scrounge up a 4 bbl intake and some duals. Then to the junk yard for some 4;11's and you were now pretty quick on the street. And some Atlas Bucrons too
Rev potential and cost (new) should be added to this ^^^ the 265 would out rev any of the other options of the day stock out of the box and was affordable.
I would love to pick up a set of Walker Continentals they were metallic dark blue and sounded great!!!! I laugh at how these new cars sound like there taking a $hit.... Those old motors sounded so cool with those old mufflers... Even a set of Tigers sounded cool, do you see how much money there getting for them!!!!!! They used to be $7 each LOL..
The Ford flathead had a pretty good run of 20 plus years until a better design came along and then it was the sbc for another 14 years. I guess it goes in cycles.
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