Cascade Crew

[Wolffy]

calling all fellow crewbies I need your input, guidance, suggestions, experience (both good & bad) & your opinion (please keep this one nice ) & for you that have already done some engine builds (like schulzy & Paul or B who has lots of exp) what you would do diff this time

with my tax return im seriously thinking of replacing my motor & trans.
and heres what id like from you all, im debating whether to go with a tried & tested 350, a 383 (my preference) or a 400 (prolly last option) (due to thin walls)

now what i am wanting my car to do or not do.
this is a street rod first, the occasional drag on the strip, no autocross or such
i want to acheive as much HP within reason & budget (I realize the engine may not get completed all at once) but im looking around 2-3k budget for the motor, maybe more depending on what else I do to the car, im figuring a built up bullet proff 700r4 is gonna cost me about 1k (waiting to here back on that) & im not going with a stick (a bad left knee)

now what i do have already & my setup
305 no idea abou internals, but runs pretty good (some of you have seen)
24lb injectors
Holley StealthRam
58mm Throttle Body
150 shot of Nitrous
4 wheel disc, eaton posi w/ 3:73 gears

now what im thinking/wanting to add (not sure the budget will allow or not
950 commander (best price i have saw new was $866)
wide band o2 sensor around $400 Schultzy suggested
MSD 6AL (got one coming for $200 shipped)
Jacobs lazyr ultra coil $68
debating on the McCord Power Plate, I know Paul just sold his (i know they used to have a problem with rattling, but they now weld the butterfly)
im getting my headers ceramic coated & putting my 2 1/2 inch exhaust on with a flowmaster 80 series (also considering going true dual, i want to hear what you all think)
gonna do subframe connectors (so i can join the stiffy club) & get my roll bar finished

i want aluminum heads, no idea on what size or cam specs
what style of rockers should i go with & why?
other ideas/suggestions ?
im also wanting to do some type of serious power adder later, like twin superchargers or a procharger or such, ideas ???? suggestions
twin turbos arent very viable due to the lack of exhaust manifolds that are affordable

thanxs, Shawn

[Twilightoptics]

Power Plates still rattle. It's not the way the butterfly is attached, its that the motor doesn't securely hold the butterfly against the plate for very long.

[chevymad]

Myself.. I'd do a 383.. buy a balanced scat rotating assembly.. all forged. Then use either brodix IK200's or AFR's new ones. Shoot for 11:1 compression, or close to it. Best to have a machinist set up the heads.. and use the beehives if they're in the budget. Have the block align bored and 0 decked. Then either a large Voodoo flat tappet hydro, or a mechanical flat tappet cam. Stealth ram, commander, and a 250 shot. Most likely all this will be more then you're 700 will handle. Anyway, if I had the money thats the setup i've been thinking of.

Exhaust wise, either go with a single 3 or dual exhaust. Duals will be loud. I think Rod's been using a banks single 3" exhaust system and it actually showed more hp with it on then through the cutout this time on the dyno.

[rjmcgee]

I'm thinking about alot of the same things right now. I know I want a good after market crank so 383 is kind of a no brainer over a 350. Only differance is I have no plans for any sort of forced induction.

For you engine though it will be hard to build it to put boost on it later without changing pistons down the road. How soon would you do a charger? To make it run right NA the compression will be too high to just put a blower on it later. Maybe a head change would be enough but I kinda doubt it.

Also the power plate is great for a little while then it gets way to annoying to live with. The trip to Portland this weekend was the last straw. It may end up on my lawn tractor now.

[Wolffy]

oh i forgot to ask would i be better going with a 2 or 4 bolt block? i was thinking 2 bolt & splay the mains ? id heard that is stronger than a 4 bolt

any other block considerations?
if i recall correctly a 383 has to be bored at least .30 over
id rather spend a little extra time & find a good block now
what about casting #'s ?

Hey B what are "beehives" ?
which would be better hydro or mechanical ?

Rod if i go with a procharger, at least year prolly, as they arent cheap & iv heard from a few that the power gain isnt worth it, but then ive heard the opposite of it too
if i do like the lama and go with twin superchargers, maybe alot sooner, a rough guess-tamate cost wise will run prolly around 1k

[rjmcgee]

This second block I have is 4 bolt so I'm gonna stick with that. The .030 overbore is only if it needs bored because of wear. You don't want to bore a perfect 4" bore just to gain those 3 or 4 inches. Of course most 350 blocks you find will need to be rebuilt.

The bee hives are a differant style of valve spring, they work very well. Don't make the same mistakes I made, put good springs on it. Valve springs own me.

[Twilightoptics]

Head change would be enough if he ran the right pistons and milled 76cc heads down to around 66 or lower. Then he could sell the milled ones and go with 76cc again and be around 9:1 or lower depending.

[Schultzy89GTA]

Wolfy,
Here is a recent article on beehive springs that Chevy High Performance ran:

http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/tech/engines_drivetrain/cams_heads_valvetrain/0703ch_valve_spring_tech/

This spring design showed up in the LS6 engines. They have been applied to standard BBC and SBC engines as well. There are a few brands that sell them with Comp cams being the one most often talked about. I am running Isky beehive springs but was told that they are made by the same outfit that makes the comp springs. I think there are only 2 mfg's that actually make them but they sell to the big name companies.

Another advantage that I don't remember seeing in this article is that the retainers for the beehives are about half of the size of the standard dual springs. You can see the difference in the pic of my install below:



-Schultzy

[90droptoproc]

nice pic.
that shure is a purdy motor you got there mister

[Nathan J]

ok Howard Green is a great guy to do your machine work but is kinda slow thats where i got my engine done.
i would get a 4 bolt 350 block he had one for 125bucks i bought.
no need to splain the mains on a 350 block at the power you want.
cnc-motorsports.com is where i got all my engine stuff.
I got a 4340 eagle crank cut .010 on the mains from eagle. got that for 345bucks or so
eagle 4340 H beam rods 325bucks no blems
probe forged nitrous pistons 10.75 to 1 with rings for $400 bucks.
thats a fully forged bottem end. then he charged me 650 for the machine work with bearings. building a 383 is the same price as a 350 if buying new rods and not usen factory stuff. but i would look at a cast eagle crank if you want to go a little cheaper. I will not run scat stuff howard has a pile of there junk cranks that either broke or waiting to be returned since they are so far out of spec its not even funny. I could tell ya more on the phone about some places for parts if you want im tired of typeing.
Nathan

[izcain]

If you shop around you should be able to find most all of the parts you need to build yourself a VERY respectable 383 for not a lot of coin. I would not go with the splayed mains, It is added expense and machine work and is overkill for what your going for I think. If your wanting to make a boosted motor later I would try to build something in the 9:1-9:5:1 compression range so that you can run a little boost thru it later. An intercooled procharger setup would work fine that something like that. I would spend most of my coin on bottom end though if you plan on boosting it. Most all the aluminum cylinder heads flow great and will make super power if your looking for all around range I would stay around 195-200cc runners. The procharger will help to mask any poor flowing cylinder head anyways. Engine builds are hard since everyone has their own perception of what they would think ideal. Nobody is wrong or right when it comes to that. I would just study up and make logical choices that will fit both your budget and what you are looking to do with the motor!

[Twilightoptics]

Brandon, Why the IK 200 and not the Race Rite 200?

[chevymad]

Paul, its basically the same head without the options. Unless the IK isnt optioned the way you need it, no reason to go to the Race Rite. By options I mean plug angle, chamber size etc. Rumor is they're lighter castings then the race rite, but last I saw wolfplace thought they were the same.

[Twilightoptics]

I love my angle plugs!