Ok, from reading in the TPI forum, i think my goal would be a 383 or 400 with a StealthRam, nitrous and whatever heads/cam/internals would work out best for me. Iv never build a motor before, other than 2-stroke dirtbikes. Iv never built one YET, Im only 19. I know much of the thoery and mechanics of the motor, getting into the ECM programming, rebuilt Q-jets before, so if i had a lot of good material to research im sure id be capable of building the motor i want with some help from my uncle.

ANYWAY, i want to understand everything, or as much as possible, about small blocks and building them, parts for them, that kind of thing. Things like differences in blocks, heads, cams... Thats the stuff it seems to me that experience brings best, but i can sure learn from experienced people i hope.

I guess instead of asking infinite questions about every little thing, id like to see if someone knows a good sourse to direct me to so that i will answer my own questions.

Thats kinda long, thanks in advance if anyone can give me some direction.


I know someone will tell me to search, and i do, a lot, i just want to see if someone can help me with something the already know of. Articles, books, websites...

thanks

 

I'm like you and do ALOT of research before making any purchases since I hate wasting money and time. Alot of buddies have all these "How to build a small block chevy" books in one form or another. I've never been impresseed with any of them thus far. They all either spend too much time talking about different principals of why things should work the way they work instead of getting to the meat of the situation and doing a step by step.

BUT, and I'll argue this till I'm blue in the face, anybody can read what they want, until they're in the feild doing this hands on...it's a whole nother world. There are soo many thing one needs to check at every stage and every peice to make sure it's all where it's supposed to be, and sadly I dont think theres any one book that covers that since it would be HUGE. I think it'd be fun to build a motor, but for me it's just not a realistic venture since for me time is money and if my car is broken (like it is now finally) it cant make me money.

 

not that i'm an expert or anything, but i have built a engine or two with some degree of sucess. i'll say this as was said above hands on experience is hard to beat. if you run into someone with a trashed or other wise free engine get it and take it apart. think about how the parts interact and how they fit and work together. if you can volenteer to be a helper for someone that knows whats going on you can clean parts and watch. don't skimp on tools, buy what you need and buy the best you can afford. this goes for precession tools as well as wrenches. plasti gage isn't the same as a mic but people try to get by using it as such. read on here what people ask, becasue they often ask after they have a problem and you'll learn what to avoid.

 

Yes, im sure experience is key in the physical building the engine part. Im working in a CNC machine shop right now, so i understand how inportand good acurate tools can be. thier nearly essential.

I want to first understand what parts and why i would be using to build my future motor, the actual hands on building will come after that. say like, i know how cams work, how heads work, how all the valve assembly works, how the crank and pistons work. I dont understand which size cam with which kind of heads ported to mach which kind of intake, making enough power for me to need which kind of crank and which kind of piston to make what kind of compression.

I had a feeling that the how to books would be less helpful than scattered info online.

thanks for replies