hey there fella's, new to the site old hand with the wrenches. did a big block swap (454) with an 86 monte ss once, pretty straight forward.

now i got the 89 rs car with the six beater and t5 (wich i needd to sell by the way) I'm in mid swap with the 396/th350 and just wondering if anyone has used a set of shorty headers and tried to heat and beat them to fit? (as i am married and not approved to purchase the super comp headers!)

well in classic new guy form i posted with out reading, duh! newver mind i just read booboosean's account with this very thing! EXCELLENT information!

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

You found what I was going to point you to.

Any details on the 396? You can read about my slug by clicking on my vBGarage icon or the link below.

hey thanks boss! we'll it's mostly stock other than the forged bottom end which i believe is also standard with the 69 block. bored thirty over as mentioned, oval heads for now, the lunati's voodoo 60204 cam and lifter set,noisy gear, summit valve spring kit,crane energizer 1.7 roller rockers, crane pushrods, arp bolts, holley 750 vaccume second (double duty car) sitting on a victor junior "R" manifold.

behind that sits the 22-2800 stall converter and turbo 350.

still looking at an ignition box and header set, considering either msd's streefire box or mallory 6al.

it's a real "REAL TIGHT" budget car so i had to do a lot of ebaying. and a lot of the grunt work had to be done in house. bought the motor after a recent build but was left to sit in a garage for a few years. so a small ball hone and new rings and bearings we're done by yours truely. crank was sent out for a polish at the local shop. heads were completely reworked (new guides and valves) prior to purchace so other than the springs they were just "WD-40'd" and bagged.

pics to come asap! very informational site here thanks for the welcome!

All 3.76" stroke factory cranks were steel. Nice touch.

Any particular reason for the gear drive? I'm just running a plain ol' double roller, never had a lick of trouble with it.

Your cam is similar to mine (albeit mine is solid) with a little less lift. You're going to find you'll need more stall to get the intake and cam into the powerband. But, it'll be okay on the street.

wow...i'm betting that the 396 probably makes some intense power... any horsepower figures?

well i originally put a gear in the 454 monte, just cause i was told i might stretch the chain with the power. (listened to a magazine mechanic as we call them. real bench racer) i liked the sound more than anything. really pissed off the neighbors. lol. so in all honesty its just vanity really.

yes i noticed on the monte the converter was far to small for the dart and 4150 750cfm hp. with 15 degrees of advance i could not get it to idle lower that 1100 rpm and it had a slight hesitation. thanks for the advice, what stall would you think sould be a better fit?

as for projected horsepower figures the "EZ" online dyno i have been using (if my max head flow figures are correct) is estimating somewhere around 515hp at the crank and some 420hp to the ground at sea level with 18% drive train loss. i'm not certain how accurate that system is. but i have read many good reviews. it's definatly helpful for a novice builder to use, in as far as "over cam-ing" and engine.

here are a few pics of the car as the project starts.

couple more, will post as we move along.
comments and advice welcome

ended up getting ahold of another crane hi6 ignition box. had one on the 454.

just found out the intake is called a "TORKER R" looks like a knock off though. no name on it anywhere.

I had a gear drive in my car for a day before ripping it out and putting a chain back in and that's in a noisy race car. If HP is stretching your chain, you have more serious issues. A factory style chain isn't very good in a high HP engine but a double roller is the way to go.

OK guys ( & gals?)--I'm droolin' & jelous...<in a good way.> I'm a new-b myself and I thought a big block would be great and different because there are none around here.So I am glad to see you guys were able to do it and postup VERY HELPFUL info and photos.How long would the stock 700r4 last behind a mild big 1? Thanks for the pointers,warings,lookouts,etc.HMMM-spring is here and I have one sittin' in the garage<<<< ps- how's it going madmux? Almost got it in?

I'm trying to figure out some things, mostly exhaust related, with a BBC swap on my '83 as well. I don't have my engine yet though.

It would be a HUGE help to me if you could take a couple pics for me once the motor is in. What I'm looking for specifically, are pics of the side of the engine, so I can see the exhaust ports and where they sit compared to the frame/firewall - or even better, with exhaust manifolds bolted on.

What I'm trying to find out, is if any of the factory iron manifolds will work, or if headers are a total necessity just to do the swap.

You'd be doing me a HUGE favor if you could do this at some point.

madmux-the photo of the piston in the block looks like a +.125 dome! Are the heads you want to use iron or aluminum? Open or closed chamber? Hope this is going good for you.

A BBC can handle a dome piston much easier than a SBC because of the canted valves and spark plug position. You don't want to use a smaller combustion chamber because it shrouds the huge valves so to increase the compression ratio, a dome piston is used.

This is the size of the dome on my pistons. The dome height is .650" and 44cc. It puts my compression ratio around 14:1 with my 119cc heads. All the sharp edges have been knocked down after the picture was taken.

Alchohol & that much compression!You mainly race it I guess? I was wondering if madmux would have around 11-1 w/closedchambers or 9.8-10.2 w/open chambers.I'm GUESSING I'll have 9.8-10 with 118cc .250 dome on a +.030 454 oval int. Mine will be a good weather driver only. I'm saving for a Doug Herbert top end kit and a 425 stroke/6.385 rod motor. P.S.-madmux-yours a daily driver?