whats up guys im tyler i have a 92 camaro rs it currently has a 305 tbi but of course it aint enough my buddy has an old 400 smallblock that i can get for 50 bucks i want to swap out my 305 with it but i just want to build a beastly motor to show everyone what these 3rdgens can do i know i want to go carburated and i want to make like crazy power not just the average 350 to 400 hp or even the occasional 500 i want to shut down every mustang gt or shelby around my town and im not really sure how to build my motor like i said i want to go carbueated i heared the holley 750 double pumper is supposed to be the baddest carb on the market but that is just what ive heared but what im asking of you guys is like what heads crank intake etc. i need to build a very very high horsepower motor that will stand up to nitrious maybe and any help and info at all will be aprreciated thanks guys THIRD GENS RULE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You might want to consider saving the $50 and put it toward buying a 500 HP turn-key crate engine.

 

well i want to show all the rich kids that there daddys money doesnt mean fast im not rich and just wanna build something that will dust all these rich kids if i wanted a 500 horsepower turn key i would have went and got a mustang gt or a new camaro i want to build my own motor and put it in my 3rd gen and i thought the reason for this site was for people who love old camaros and firebirds to come together and help each other not just say go buy a crate motor i really expected more help fron you guys i wasnt expecting a build sheet just a few suggestions or myabe links to go to or ideas sumthin besides nuthin and go buy a crate motor come on guys really?

 

Understood. But, you've got a lot of hits against you. First is going from 170 HP to 500 - huge jump, requires as much to be spent on the car to handle the power as you spend making the power, and the driving experience factor is no small concern.

Specifically:
The cost of the core is pretty much meaningless. Factory 400 blocks can be built to make and handle 500 HP, but they are failure prone. It isn't unusual for a builder to go through 5 or more factory 400 blocks before finding one suitable to build to that power level. Knowing where one cheap block is doesn't mean a lot.

That worries me right there. See "driving experience factor" above.

I'm not inclined to be enthusiastic about providing advice when talk like this is going on. See "driving experience factor" above. Plus, I give no quarter whatsoever for street racing. If you were talking about the track, that would be one thing. Even if that were the case, going from 170 HP to 500 HP is too big of a step (I spend enough time at the track to know what I'm talking about here).
This isn't an "add water and stir" recipe.
That's just a silly statement. A 750 DP might be the right carb, but it isn't some sort of magic carb that makes 500 HP just because it's a 750 DP.
You either build the engine to make the power without nitrous, or make it to make the power with nitrous. You can't have it both ways.

Have you ever heard of Hard Blok? If not, try searching TGO for it, or Googling it. I would never recommend building a 400 for high power without at least a street fill. Regardless, the first step is to take the block to a competent machine shop and have them check it over for suitability for this project.

I would suggest you build the engine for less power, but capable of handling a 100-150 shot of nitrous later - basically, use forged pistons, good rods, good crank, and keep the compression reasonable. Heads - there are plenty of choices, but start by looking at AFR. Cam - decide on the rest of the combo and call different cam company tech departments for recommendations.

You disparage "daddy's money" - fine. Understand that by the time you have your $50 engine built, you will probably have spent as much as if you had called a crate engine outfit, spec'd out an engine with them, and have them deliver it to you - most likely with a warranty, which you won't get with one built from a core you provide. How much of this work did you think you'd do yourself? If you've never built an engine before, building a 500 HP version as your first probably isn't going to produce lasting results.

I'd be more inclined toward enthusiasm if you had done a bunch of research and came up with a combo that you had then come here and asked about. There is a lot more "braggin' rights" to that than there is coming here and asking us to tell you how to what to use in an engine to beat the "rich kids".

Understand I'm not trying to put you down or chase you off. Just trying to inject a dose of reality.

And don't forget - your exhaust, transmission, rear end, and chassis are not capable of handling that much power. You must upgrade all of those as well, which will cost a lot of money.

 

thanks for the honest advice and like i said to begin with i wasnt really lookin for a buildsheet and i know its goin to be expensive to build on this and the reason i said the 50 dollar block at hand was it seem liked a good deal to start off with and ive had very fast cars before just not a camaro with a bullt motor and ive always heared that a 400 with the right internals is a very strong motor? and im already in he process now of having my car setup with a four link set up and i have built a motor before it was a 2J inline 6 for my twin turbod 89 supra and i know theres a huge difference btween those and a sbc and im not rich but i know how to save money and this camaro is just a project for me and no it WILL NOT be street raced my couisin lost his life in a street race and im totally against it, and im wanting to build a motor not a bottle sucker and im just sayin that i want to build a strong motor that could be able to handle nitrious and i have a powerglide trans bein built now at K n R transmission shop as of now ive taken all this into consideration im not stupid i was just lookin for suggestions and maybe ideas of what people on here may have done and found to work for them

 

oh yea and im not tryng to earn bragging rights with peote i dont even know i could come on here with some B.S sayin im puttin a 572 in my camaro askin what sticker should i put on my winsheild if i wanted to try and brag and i have done aloooot of researching on summit jegs and countless other sites ive got an idea of what im wanting heads, trick flow aluminum 18 ultras 250 cc intake 100cc exhaust, intake, intake manifold pro comp air gap dual plane and maybe like a 292 cam and the holley 750 doulbe pumper thats what i had in mind just wanted to see what combos other people thought would be a good set up not just for people to think im cool and ive already checked around for the best machine shop in my area seein as how i got my supra motor machined in japan and pretty sure those guys dont know what a sbc is and as far as driver knowledge my supra is putting 647 hp and 687 trq to the ground on street tires i think i know how to drive

 

1st of all, welcome.
My suggestion is if you want to show them what a thirdgen can do, use a thirdgen motor.
Also, to make things easier for us to read and understand your posts, please try to use punctuation marks so we know where one thought ends and the next starts. It will lead to less confusion.

 

thanks, and you say use a thirdgen motor? which motor would you suggest that i start my build with? im not absolutly set on useing the 400 which i believe came out of a 70s model c10. if it were you and you wanted to build a high hp motor, what would you begin wth? and thanks for making a suggestion about my typing and not just being a dick and calling me a retard or bein a smartass ( unlike someone) lol thanks again

 

welcome, well iv forgot all i was gonna say but anyhow if you are really set on making 500+ hp then you defintly want a 350 but thats just if you want a stock size motor, but still get a 350 and stroke it to a 383 if you dont care about it being a stock size motor. also to whoop the shelby's you dont necissarly need 500hp, you can always just have a decent amount of power/torque i would look into weight reductions, major stuff like ac delete, rear seat deletes, stripped carpet, door panels, if you want to go non computer controlled carb engine then having no computer and less wiring will save weight. BUT if you arent totaly set on carb and you want something more for drag racing i would defintly be looking into tpi or like holley stealth ram. a 400 with tpi or tpi alternative will be a absolute tq moster, still a 383 will be nearly as much as a tq beast. good luck.

 

On prep work alone, or better said, on parts alone that you'll need minus the engine you're looking at at least 6K to have a car that will be able to handle this amount of TQ and HP.... then comes the engine and the transmission, you're probably easily looking at another 6K ... then comes the wheels... you can't just drop in a beast of a motor and expect for everything to click... your frame will warp... total investment on a project like the one you're inquiring on will most likely cost you at least 15K if you don't do the labor yourself...

 

I would say more like $15k if you do most of the work yourself. A rear end capable of handling that kind of power will set you back at least $3k just for an assembled rear end, not installed.

The 400 wouldn't be a bad engine to start with. Build it mild, like I suggested, then you can do more later.

As far as sticking with a 3rd gen engine - that's a recipe for remaining slow. I know, plenty of members have built reasonably potent L98 350's (using a butt-load of aftermarket parts), but a heads/cam LS1 will embarrass them.

 

Here's what my 400 is:

Block - 330817 bored 60 over -> 412 ci / 6.75L
Cam - Comp XE284
Forged rods, Hypereu pistons (flat top)
Heads - 333882 (non performance but good for a baseline)

We are estimating 280-300 WHP with another potential 80 with better flowing heads.

I did this build on a budget and did most of the work myself (with help). I know it wont smoke every car I line up with, but there is ALWAYS somebody faster...

 

finally some info i can use , thanks guys for some real info. and like irocstangs said about weight redcution ive already thought about running an underdrive pulley kit to get rid of the a/c and all the crap that comes with that. my interior is just balck carpet without the insulation stuff and sparco seats. ive already ditched the back seats and i havent fully decided on this part cause i know it will increase the weight but i also heared that the bolt it roll cages from hawks will help strentghen my car not just in case of a crash but as for as twisting and another thing i have a T-Top car and i know that makes it weak to begin with and ive already added weld in subframe connectors, bigger sway bars, tubular Aarms, panhard bar and adjustsble torqe arm. i seen a pic on a thread on here where some guy was wantin to trade a car for a thirdgen maro, and in one of the pics of the underside there was some kind of welded in square tubing around the rear end couldnt telll where it connected to. anybody know what this was?? and lastely again to iroc stangs ive always heared TPI setups will choke a 383 at high rpms??? thanks for the advice and answering all my dumb questions guys

 

well a stock tpi system will choke up any engine but they can be made to flow better but thats alot of porting to do nothing easy from what iv heard. but what is common is holley stealth ram. its similar and based off the tpi system but is made to flow MUCH MUCH better and gives a good chuck of more hp/tq. there are other tpi alternatives like accel superram but from what iv read holley stealth ram system is probaly the best.