getting a grip on the concepts

[grumpyvette]

New to the forums. First post.

Long story short, I planned on turbocharging a 400 for my 69 longhorn (the 396 is long gone, I currently have a 307 with different heads) but I hear that's not really possible with the design of the 400. So I'm giving the block to "64 pancake hood"

Then I found out today that my wife and I are having our first baby! So I'm changing plans from a built Turbo small block, to a cheaper hot n/a engine to save money.

I have a 2 bolt 350 out of my uncles 74 truck. So I'm thinking 10:1cast pistons, assault aluminum 200cc heads, 625 Carter 4bbl, Edelbrock torker 2 intake, 2" carb spacer and possibly a 2100 stall.

I'm stuck on a cam decision. I'll be running 93 octane, and I'll drive it half the time. Freeway, in town, drag races on the weekends, towing a camper.. I use it for everything.

I want a Clappy lopey idle, but I'm aware that to get that, it shifts your power band up to around 4000 rpm. So I'm trying to find the middle ground between midrange power and good sound So I'm stuck between these 2 cam specs;

277/277 223@ .50 .450 lift, 108 lsa they claim 2200-6200 rpm
-or-
295/295 241@ .50 .470 lift 108 lsa they claim 2800-7000 rpm


Questions;

1) will the decrease in cam performance between the 2 cams be enough to offset my desire for a violent lope? Or is it minor?
2)what will a 2 bolt main with the above safely Rev to
3)what are my horsepower limits
4)are rods/crank worth the money knowing I won'tbe boosting/spraying
5)will stock heads work for a while (either 400 or 350 heads)

Buying the cam tomorrow so this isn't dream questioning.

unless you sit back and think things thru,and make a logical assessment of your skills, budget, and goals, your doomed to spending far too much time and money to get decent results by making many COMMON mistakes, keep in mind your hardly the first guy to want to build a killer combo on a limited budget with out a full understanding of how to correctly match components ... WELL WE ALL..... ALL STARTED THAT WAY, but the smarter guys, in any group learn from other guys mistakes , and try too avoid making as many as they can themselves. .... please under stand I,m trying to help and save you a great deal of time and wasted cash, you need to do some research before throwing cash at the potential engine build problem,I don,t think your getting much of a response for the simple reason the way the question was asked and the suggested parts list displays a good deal of rather obvious lack of understanding of what factors like duration, lift LSA, and basic suitability of a cam design has on how it will effect the car or trucks engine and how gear ratio compression ratio and displacement and converter stall speed all must be matched to the application to build the engine correctly, now I,m sure you can go out and buy a cam, anyone with money can, but youll be very unlikely to select the correct cam for any application without a great deal more research, yeah you can ignore this advise and think I'm F.O.S. here but in the long term youll see I'm right , simply slowing down and doing a week or two of serious research into whats required,and the cost involved and having a realistic assessment of what you can afford to do, and have the skill too accomplish will save you a ton of cash and months of wasted effort.
always, if you deal with any machine shop, assume your dealing with a guy who really doesn,t give a crap,
and print out in fine detail , what you want done ,,EXACTLY....with specific dimensions and a diagram,
with ALL those dimensions printed boldly , try hard to get both a firm delivery date and a agreed upon total price
IN WRITING WITH HIS SIGNATURE, and several pictures of the parts and him holding the parts and a receipt
that the parts listed individually, to be worked on are in what ever condition they were in, TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES
this will be a minor P.I.T.A. but it will save you a whole lot of misunderstandings and arguments
never deal with any shop that says things like,
"come back next week I should get too it by then"
or "stuff like that generally costs about$300-$400, but I won,t know until I get into the project"
or won,t give a firm delivery date, price or sign a
receipt, or agree to a firm price... youll see why if you ignore this advice in spades
start by buying these books and watching the video

http://www.themotorbookstore.com/resmchstvi.html

http://garage.grumpysperformance.com/index.php?threads/finding-a-machine-shop.321/

http://garage.grumpysperformance.co...d-what-goes-in-the-dumpster.13135/#post-68515

HOW TO BUILD MAX PERFORMANCE CHEVY SMALL BLOCKS ON A BUDGET by DAVID VIZARD

.
JOHN LINGENFELTER on modifying small-block chevy engines

READ THRU THESE LINKS, AND SUB LINKED INFO.....yes it will take some time, but it will save your thousands of dollars and weeks of work and give you a good basic back ground knowledge
http://www.rpmrons.com/Rebuild.html

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/tech/ ... index.html

http://www.racingheadservice.com/Inform ... 1160755224

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=46&p=55&hilit=+software+books#p55

viewtopic.php?f=53&t=509

viewtopic.php?f=52&t=10705

viewtopic.php?f=87&t=10415&p=43240&hilit=what+makes+good+engine#p43240

viewtopic.php?f=50&t=10363&p=42683&hilit=what+makes+good+engine#p42683

viewtopic.php?f=71&t=741&p=39629&hilit=what+makes+good+engine#p39629

viewtopic.php?f=69&t=9930&p=38054&hilit=what+makes+good+engine#p38054

http://www.speedomotive.com/t-faq.aspx

http://www.mre-books.com/sa21/sa21_10.html

 

[87vette81big]

If its a daily driver I say it must run on 87 octane pee water gas.
89 octane OK too.
93 octane gas has been .30 cents higher per gallon than 87 for a long time.
Heads have to large of runners for low speed off idle torque to 3,500.
Towing power band.
170-180 CC Runner SBC Volume work best.

Need Velocity on the street. Dual Plane Intake best overall.

Gearing correct imperative as Grumpy states.
Camshaft never bought 1st unless all is known & can finance it $$$.

Baby on the way I know all about.
Dampens Race car projects.
#2 child also.
Grumpy has watched them both get older with my posts.
Dedicated Race Engine & Car builds OK. Not going to drive it daily unless your $&$$$ Rich & can spend $500 per week on the Race Car.
Mine are waiting when ready.

Daily driver 455 GP.....I can't wait.
Fit the wifee'& kids in & go anywhere.

 

[philly]

the cam is definitely bought last of the whole combo... if you're working with the heads and intake you've already got... then its pretty simple to choose a cam. all the real specs needed are:

engine displacement

intended use (street, strip, towing, etc)

intake valve size

head flow data easily found online

intake flow data may require some searching

exhaust port flow is also important for choosing a header diameter.

 

[philly]

i guess the header is bought last of all based on exhaust port cfm at the cams exhaust valve lift.

 

[87vette81big]

i guess the header is bought last of all based on exhaust port cfm at the cams exhaust valve lift.

I have been looking at headers much more critical since I came on board with Grumpy's invite years ago Phil.
Daily Driver or mild street performance not so critical.
But at Race Power bands of 4,000- 8,000 RPM If the engine can't breathe or exhaust correct all the top end & bottom end engine parts are wasted money investment .

The Wallace Racing Links Grumpy has for us proved to me.
I entered figures for nights.
Recalled my own experience. & Grumpys lessons here.
Sucks.. ...Most Vette guys get shafted with available small tube headers.
Real difficult to get over 500-550 HP Normally aspirated with bolt in availabe headers.

Pontiac V8 its easy.

Just backwards crap still going on.

 

[87vette81big]

I like talking about Volumetric efficiency of 100% & over Phil.
No one like too still in general otherwise.
Even these 200-250 CC SBC Headed engines are not great.
None can exceed 600 HP Flywheel with standard headers.
So its a waste to me..Race is Race. Less than others you loose still.

We NEED TO START TALKING IN ET & MPH GOALS HERE.
13- SECOND
12-SECOND.
11-SECOND
10-SECOND.
9-SECOND.
8-SECOND.
7-SECOND.

To do so takes more than just Cylinder heads.
Entire drivetrain & Vehicle & chassis involved.

 

[philly]

yea i mean i started using trap speed as my dyno a few years ago when the reality set in that a dyno tune is not as good as a tune on the street or the track. so i know the math and if i have my trap speed i can calculate my ACTUAL horsepower, not what some goofy machine tells me.

as far as headers i dont understand why sbc got the short end of the stick in the industry.... if i had a 86 5.0 mustang i could score 1-3/4 to 1/7/8 stepped tube headers with a trick collector and ceramic coating from hedman for like 700 dollars off the shelf... bigger or smaller sizes too, thats just an example.

the LSx series of engines of course is getting about 80-90% of all the technology and development in the aftermarket right now.. has been for several years. so no big surprise there.but gen i and ii sbc guys are kind of stuck with some crappy headers, unless you really come out of pocket for some. maybe not the classic muscle car guys, but definitely 3rd and 4th gen f body and c4 corvette... for that matter the later g body and b body cars are very limited too.

 

[87vette81big]

Big Block Chevies were a popular swap into GM '78-87 G body cars for a while.
The Olds 455 too.
Also read on Net going back 5-8 years the Olds 425 was too done by a few with decent results.

Like to try building my own headers as Grumpy has done.
Or modify a big tube set from another car.
Future idea when I have the extra funds.

I have a nice set of the 1962-64 Big Pontiac H.O. Long Branch exhaust mainfolds to use on the 1971 GTO 455 in the '63 G.P.
And special 3" inch thick aluminum oil filter adapter block spacer.
Kicks oil filter clear of all obstructions & rotates in a a diffetent plane direction.
Best Pontiac had other than the SD421 Factory aluminum manifold headers 4-2-1.

Nunzi is retired. He made awesome headers for all
Hard to find now used & mint nice.

 

[philly]

funny you mention it... i just saw a big block g body in my buddies shop. set of lemons 2.25" headers with two primaries outside the frame and two inside... looks like a tight squeeze to fit in there.