bringing this back to life, whats everyones FAVORITE build? SBC or BBC? post your build sheets and your experiences with this engine. pro's, con's? which do you prefer?

 

i have owned two SBC's and one BBC.

1st sbc: 350, stock heads, stockish edlebrock cam, lasted about 1 week.

2nd sbc: 327, stock "performance" heads (462), 11.7: cr, 256/264 @ .050" solid cam, forged pistons, made a nice sound at 7200rpm, lasted 6 months.

1st BBC: 555 dart block, No stock parts at all, 273/283 @ .050" SR cam, 12.5:1 CR, 1150 dominator... 800ish HP + 250 shot.

currently building a 336 (.060 over 327) for my bother, 7500 rpm power, big SR cam, afr eliminators, should be a nice sounding little motor.

I will take sides with BBC's. No replacement for displacement, not saying that sbc's are bad, but for MAX hp, more CID = more power.

 

If you can afford it big ci stroker sbc or go for the biggest BBC you can afford. A 468 (454 with a small overbore) is the way to go Id say. You can pick up a 2 bolt block on CL, light porting on the heads, truck rods a cast crank, cheap flat tappet cam and make power that will keep you busy a long time without killing your wallet.
Headers accessory drives cooling system needs to be considered also. I LOVE the torque of big blocks. Hunting for big power in a sbc can be frustrating and expensive.

Example of my insanity lol

Number of 355s in my A body typical 9:5-10:1 motor that never really made the power I wanted .Tried every cam intake carb etc in the book. Might have made 430 tops :yawn: Easily spent5k carb to pan plus cost of changing all the parts.

Then built a 6" rod 350..wanted a goal of 550hp on pump. Large heads, good size solid roller, shaft rockers every trick in the book, put 60 miles on it before I crumpled every pushrod on it. Needed a lot of initlal timing and rpm to wake it up. Over 13k carb to pan.

Now its apart...as of last week bumped the compression up a full point, am porting a Team G, considering a hairy cam wont cost but a few hun to do this. Will pull stupid hard from 35-4000 past 7k but will be a little soft down low. Using 6th gear will be a memory

NOW the girlfriend wants to help out and make it a 385, will run me about 2000 without a cam reusing my block and rods. Undecided.....


You can see where this is going and it all costs a bunch of money experimenting.

Probably put it back together max out the 350.....a 400 block is making its way into my hands in a few months. WIll build a budget bomber. Cast crank, worked over GM rods, cheapie forged piston, 6500 rpm limit. Reuse heads probably make more power than all the expensive crap Im putting to this 350 right now.

If I had a few bucks Id toss it all in the trash and build a Big Block the first time around

Cubes buddy....thats where its at. Much cheaper to build torque than hp and a lot more user friendly!!!!!

 

yeah, id say big blocks are the way to go, you get the best of both worlds with a big block, torque and HP. only poor thing is gas mileage. lol.

 

Once you start getting over the 400hp mark with either of them, the gas mileage generally is pretty comparable. At lower power levels, the sbc is generally better than the bbc for fuel economy, but once you get over the 400hp mark, it basically balances out, assuming you have a driveline setup thats roughly "right" for the engine.

I think the BBC is the right way to go with a street or race car. More power, better manners, more torque, and far less tempermental in traffic compared to a high-strung small block. The only downside to using a BBC is the initial cost of it is higher compared to a small block. Once you are over that hit, its pretty comparable as far as upkeep goes.

 

You're underestimating. 550 HP from a 454 is only 1.21 HP per cubic inch, that's pretty much the standard for mild street engines, right around 1 HP per cubic inch.

CME claims they get 500 HP out of their 454 street engine with only 10.5:1 compression, and iron heads.

They claim 800 HP with their 14.5:1 compression 496.

http://www.cmengines.com/Engines/Per...3/Default.aspx

http://www.cmengines.com/Engines/Rac...8/Default.aspx

Not trying to start anything, it's just sort of ridiculous that you think a whole 1.2 HP per cubic inch with anything less than 13:1 compression is completely out of the question.

Engine factory gets 500 HP out of their small block 383 stroker with only 10.4:1 compression, on pump gas, it's a street/strip engine.

http://www.enginefactory.com/500hp.htm

 

Bump. Looks like I came across some extra money after selling an old T-bird and getting rid of some Ford parts. Could be going with a 496 soon since it's only a few hundred bucks more for that than a 383 stroker kit. We'll see. Might just end up selling my smallblock for a few greens and use that to go towards the bigblock when I'm ready to switch them.

 

Building my first project and looking for advice/answers. What kind of numbers would a 454 put up w poweradders like a turbo? I just bought a 454 from an 88 dually n wondering if it would take the the stress of about 10-15lbs? What would b needed internally to make it reliable?

 

Not on a stock motor you won't. I'd be running at minimum forged pistons and rods if I were to do anything like that (and crank if you could afford it, which you should if you're even attempting something like this). You're talking about a very expensive investment with multiple avenues.

 

lol with my iron head 327 and a t-5 i got about 11mgp, 2500 @75mph

now that i have my 555 and a th-400, i get about 10mpg while turning 3200 @75mph. i have more than double the HP but my gas mileage has hardly changed...

at 75mph, it only take X amount of hp to keep you going. doesn't matter if you are making 300 or 800. i think it really matters how efficient the motor put the power down...

 

if you want to leave the motor stock, i would say about 6-7 lbs.

one of my neighbors up hear has a 454 with EFI in a 90's dually. he has a whipple supercharger on a stock bottom end. he is making about 500 hp, idles and sounds like stock.