I need to spank my Uncles 442, he has a 455 he has totaly redone and will be doing about 450hp so i need to top that. I see that i am lighter and i have a small block as compared to him. I currently have a 355 that is doing somewhere in the neighborhood of 300. I have a 700R4 that has been built to handle around the 600 mark so the tranny is ok. I will have a locker in the rear end soon, but my suspension will have to wait a bit. I plan on doing a turbo but i dont know exactly if my idea is suited for a turbo or if i should just go NA.

I am thinking of doing the following. 350 crank, GM Perf 5.7 connecting rods, SpeedPro forged pistons with a D-Cup for th e turbo application that way i have about a 8.5 CR. The heads are from a 90's model Camaro TPI 350, P&P or get something else? If so what? The fuel will prolly come from the holley 1,000cfm throttle body with the injectors and a MegasquirtII v3.0. I dont know how much boost i will be able to run on this or if it would just be easier to build a 383 NA.

Please give me some guidance as i am really picky and i need to have reasoning for something before i do it. Someone point me in the right direction. Thiss 442 is all badass needs to stop.....

 

buy a weiand 142

 

I have already thought about that. Im more interested in the turbo because i can up the boost to what my engine can handle and crank it down when i dont need the power. This is also a daily driver and i really dont want to have to fill up every other day due to gas consumption that cant be controlled with a supercharger, where as i can change that with a turbo. I guess its still an option if all else fails.

 

More Spec on the motor?

Rear Gear?

Stall Converter?

I don’t think you should wait on the suspension...What good is power if you can’t use it

Depending on what’s done to the motor (heads, cam..etc) you might just be better off doing suspension..etc

The car that get from point A to point B First wins....regardless of power

 

I'd suggest, forget all the "turbo" monkey-spank. These are V8 cars, not little 4-cylinders with less displacement than a pop bottle; they don't need a turbo to make lots of power.

Of course, I'm assuming that you don't have several years for a devlopment project, lots of money for dyno time, and experience with turbos in the first place. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. Everybody seems to think that they're going to go to the junkyard and grab a couple of snails off of Chrysler minivans, slap em off onto their smogger turd (after all, it's already "set up" for a turbo, with its low compression, right?), and later that afternoon, they'll be making 750 HP. Well, just how many people do you know, that have actually DONE THAT? You think maybe there might possibly be some kind of a reason? Do you know what the reason is? Not saying that it's impossible, or that YOU can't do it, or anything like that; all I'm telling you is, if it was that easy, you'd see em at every stoplight. But you don't, at least not on any planet I've been on lately; so there should be a clue in there somewhere. Until you figure out why they're not so common, and figure out how you're going to overcome whatever the hurdle is that everybody else can't seem to get over, I'd advise not parking your money on that, in some way you can't get it back.

Not to mention the cost and difficulty of tuning. You sound to me like you're less than 20, and while some people that age have lots of disposable income, it's not the general rule. Again, not saying you can't do it; but, how realistic is dyno time at $75-100 an hour, when you're having cooling system difficulties and have to let the car cool for 20 minutes between pulls? Make a change, one at a time ... do a pull ..... wait for it to cool .... make a change ... do a pull ...... wait for it to cool ..... make a change ..... another $100 please .... do a pull ..... not getting it like I want it .... research a little bit while it cools ..... another $100 please ...... That's the real world. If you've never done it before, it can be a bit of a sticker shock.

You have a 350, which is a good start. Get yourself a good set of heads, good headers, a good intake, and a good cam. A known good cheap combo is a set of Vortecs worked up for higher lift, a Comp XE274, and Edelbrock RPM Air Gap. A 750 carb is fine. Alternatively, there are LOTS of good aftermarket heads that will make more power than the Vortecs, for not alot more money. But the Vortecs are pretty easy and straightforward. You don't need huge bucks, like a turbo will run up before it finally works long enough for one full pass without something breaking, to get this to work right and go fast.

That combo I listed will make 425-435 HP. If you can HOOK IT UP, you'll win; especially if he doesn't get his to hook (which if it's still got the stock rear suspension, he'll have trouble with that... ALOT of trouble in fact). Remember, races are almost always won by the car with the best traction and the best driver, not necessarily the one with the most motor. Plan to spend some money and effort on your rear suspension. That's going to be your key to beating him.

 

Incidentally, here's a GREAT example of what happens when somebody bites off on a high-$$$$$ project without an adequate sense of the full effort and resources required to complete it. This one looks like it has about 3 years of dust on it so far; no new handprints; probably won't beat a 442 yet either.

 

OOOoooopppppsssss, how about a pic......

 

stick with the turbo idea. you'll be happy with it as long as you can tune it in. the megasquirt will certainly be nice for that. you can do it all without having to buy a kit. here's a friends setup going in the shop truck S10 this year.

 

Zippy:

How much money is sitting on that engine stand? Honestly now, and none of "well he paid x, but somebody was getting out of a project like this and was dumping all his stuff so he could have got it for y if he could have waited", or "well he bought x but it turned out he really need y, so I'm going to leave the cost of x out"?

How long, from pull-out to now, has it been so far (keeping in mind, that for the original poster of this thread, it smells like this car is his DAILY DRIVER, not a weekend fun toy)? Which means of course, that if it's been, let's say 2 years for your friend, that if the poster took the same amount of time, he'd have been riding the bus for 2 years SO FAR with no guarantees of when he's going to be driving it again.

How much does the owner of that motor have set aside for tuning?

In short, how sure are you, that the advice you are giving is what he should do, as opposed to what seemed appropriate to your friend at the time?

 

What are you talking about sof?

He could probably have that turbo setup installed and tuned in one weekend.

Probaly wouldn't be <i>that</i> expensive either.

I see a setup like that and I wish my pockets were bottomless and my time was free.

 

You certainly don't do a setup like that to beat a 442. That could be done in a weekends work. This guy is on the right path if his goal is just to go fast with going to the turbo. Running the Megasquirt system will help alot in the tuning of it for sure. You could easily have 80% of your tuning done with a few hours of dyno time including cool down. That's about 350 buck's. From headers to turndowns that setup has just over 2k into it, but it's also a twin turbo setup that is ceramic coated from header to turndown. The car was the only other expensive part of the turbo setup which was almost a grand. This guy already plans on building the engine and should already have a sufficient fuel system so from there if he built the turbo system himself he could get away with a grand or so into the turbo system. Is it the right way for this guy, I don't know that, only he know's that. If time or price wasn't a concern I'd assume he'd be talking about nitrous and not a turbo.

 

The engine is originall, no overbore, it only had around 50K miles on it originally. He is all about stock, no aftermarket stuff. He has the E or F heads P&P, i forgot witch heads is witch, the low end ones. He should have a posi in there and the motor will have a mild cam witha stock crank and pistons and the Edelbrock Torqer stuff, top to bottom. I have a a 2800 stall on the tranny. The turbo i am thinking is gonna be a single remote mount. 62-1 compressor wheel A/R.70 compressor housing and "O" trim turbine wheel A/R.68 turbine housing. New i shall say too, not a junkyard one. He should have most stock suspension. I know suspension quite well but i really want to invest into my motor first. I see it this way, as long as i can hook up and go i will smoke him.

Keep askign questions so i can get to the bottom of this please.

 

Answer 3 questions HONESTLY:

What's the budget? (not only to build, but to tune, and to re-build as it is found necessary)
What's the time frame? Got a date you're going to be ready to race him?
Do you have something to drive while you're building and tuning all this? Or have you factored that into your budget?

Anybody can spout off model numbers of parts. Making stuff like that actually work is A WHOLE LOT different. Always keeping in the back of your mind, that the turbo itself, is probably less than 10% of the total cost of the project; and less than 1% of the total engineering. In other words, even if you had that sitting in front of you right now, you wouldn't even really be started yet.

In any case, you don't need a turbo to beat what he's got. All you need is common sense and to get things done in the right order. There is no bottom to get to.

Doesn't sound like I have anything further to add.

 

All I can say is good luck bud because the fastest car ive ever been in in my life was a 70 442. It had a .30 455 race engine with everything u can imagine done to it. Ran a 12 eating the slicks at the track...a low 12. I can only imagine hooking in that thing.

 

I will agree, i go to ride in it when i was younger when he had it stock, that was the first car i was ever in that spun teh tires and sat me back in the seat.

He is still working on it. He has everything he just has to assemble it and acquire some suspension parts. 11" spindles? He said they make the car handle awsome. He is doing nothing besides making everything original. Stock pistons, mild cam, aftermarket intake, and some P&P on the heads. he has a TH-400 that will be built too. This isnt something that has to be done in a month, but something that has to be done in a couple months. Another ride will be from the better half. Budget....well lets say i just got a job that allows me to actually play instead of save.

 

12 is the fastest car you've ever seen in your life? go drag racing and watch the guys pulling wheelies and what not. If you're talking street legal that still isn't that great. A stock z06 will take that nowadays. I did work on a turbo buick v6 in 180z that ran tens all day long and there was about $4000
total put into that car and it was street legal.

Sofacouch: turbos help make power on any car and can be done somewhat inexpensively nowdays so why all the hate?

If you want a turbo go for it they're not as hard to tune as people make them out to be so you should be fine just make sure to get one that flows camparetively to what your engine needs.

 

No I said it ran 12's shredding the slicks the whole way....you do the math for what would happen it it hooked. We are talking about a 1970 car here with the orginal 455 also.

 

seriously turbo cars are quick! doesnt matter what motor its on, it makes serious power.

BBS designs kit for 3300 bucks or w/e it is now. fab up piping for a intercooler and its done.

procharger is 3500-3700 or so nowadays. turbos can be cheap.

now i'm not sure how much a Olds 442 with a 455 wieghs, but i would be willing to bet if your running 425hp or so on that 350 small block, you'll beat him or be even.

you can make 425 on motor naturally aspirated, let alone needing any boost. hell even a bolt on L98 stock TPI with a 150 shot will take down a 400hp muscle car.


that means little.. what did it trap at?

 

I will let you know when i get in contact with my cousin.