I was not assuming anything I was just using that as an example of bigger everything is best. Dual 750's would be a really thirsty engine and it would take alot of engine to swallow that much air and fuel. There are 450 and 500 CFM carbs out there that work much better in a dual quad setup than the big ones. During my time in school (both HS and Autobody College) I would run into guys that knew little about building engines and would throw all the biggest numbers out to sound impressive. Yea... could you come in to reality here... mkay?

My X wife brought some guy from work home to meet me one day and when he found out that I was a car nut he started talking about all this stuff he has built. Now we are talking thousands of dollars of stuff, superchargers, nitrous, Chevelles and Nova's and even a 1000HP Gen 3 Camaro that could pull 4's in the 1320. I called BS on him when that came up. I had a nice little 305 sitting in my garage at the time and I asked him if he could tell me what kind of engine it was since he was so good at building cars. Well he told me that he didn't know much about ford engines...(I had bowtie valve covers on it at the time). I kindly asked him to leave, I was not impressed about him making up stories to impress me and that I was not interested in his company. Oh yea another thing that made his stories unbelievable was that his income was around $12/hr, and of course every car that he talked about got wrecked.

So here I am reading a post about someone who wants to put 500HP down using a grease ball engine, a flex fan, and says he is only going to put heads and a cam in it, I get very skeptical. Now the story is this build can take a long time and what have you, OK that is good I can understand that it took my Dad and I about 2 years to build his truck body, paint, engine and interior. If you are going to do this you may want to sit down and get a little reading in, figure out what is needed to make the HP you want, how to properly prepare the car for that much power (you will need to beef up the chassis a bit for 500hp) and then plan how to get the job done.

Now to chip in with some helpful advise. Most chevy 4 bold blocks will handle 500HP with only minor issues needing to be addressed. First ditch the head bolts and main cap bolts for high quality studs. A stud will disburse the torque on them more evenly than a bolt will. If you block is a 2 bolt main dont lose faith, have your mains "splayed" This is a method of turning a standard 2 bold block and making it into a 4 bolt. The 3 center main caps are replaced with a newly made cap that has the outer bolt holes about 45degrees from the inner bolt. The new caps will be machined just for your block and will give your more strength even over a 4 bolt standard block

Massey

 

Its a 4 bolt mian btw and I was going to go with edelbrocks nitrous setup. Comes with everything you need for 531 bucks. But before I put it in I was either going to take the crankshaft and have it balanced or buy a new already balanced one. And get new forged steel piston that way it could handle the nitrous. Cuz I think if I were to just throw it in right now ide probably get 2 or 3 trys with it and then throw a piston or break my crank.

And on the tranny thing I was thinking a 4 or 5 speed manuel tranny. After I save up enough money to buy a brand new one. Does the th350 have more or less loss than the 700r4? Cuz the only reason I bought the th350 was cuz I was told it had less hp loss thru it than any other auto tranny? One of my mechanic friends told me? Is he wrong? Should I go with a different tranny?

 

you will notice i deleted a post. not sure what spurred that type of reaction but i deemed it unnecessary and deleted it.

i'm reading a lot of good advice in this thread and am learning a lot myself.

also, just because some "reputable" people have made over 500hp with a small block doesn't mean these guys don't know what they're talking about. seems like they are really trying to get you there safely without massive headaches

 

here is a curve ball for you

what are your intentions for the car?

Is it stright up drag racing?

Do you plan on driving it daily? If not, do you plan on highway trips with it at all?

Will it see the occasional visit to the track?

If you plan on driving it, then an overdrive tranny will be best unless you want to run 2.73's in the rear end (which defeats the purposes)

So, it appears that you are coming around to understanding the theme

first and foremost, you must identify the application of the vehicle be it straight up bracket car (then use an automatic tranny) or it will see highway use and be driven regularly then get a tranny with overdrive be it auto or manny.

then, you need to decide just how much power you wish to put out and match the drivetrain to that. if auto tranny, then you will need to vist the torque converter.

Again, you are putting the cart before the horse

have you ridden in or driven a bolt on LT1 or LS1 4th gen?

were you satisfied? Maybe 300-350HP is more than enough for your requirements.

You need to write down what you want to have at the end and keep in mind that a 10 second normally aspirated vehicle is not a very nice daily driver.

then, once you review your requirements, start shopping prices. And, how do you know it's a 4 bolt? Do you know the origin of the engine?

If this is fantasy, (and don't be offended by that comment), I beg of you not to waste the time of machine shops, speed shops and other vendors asking for quotes etc.

You can search through this forum and a host of others and get ideas on costs.

One more thing, if you plan on using this vehicle for both street and strip, why not check out which types of vehicles are easier to change a tune and dial in when you leave the street, pull into the strip and slap on the drag radials. Check around if old school or computer controlled with fuel injection is simpler to change tunes.

 

OK if you want the skinny on the least amount of loss through a tranny then go with the TH200 series transmissions. They have the least amount of HP loss but they are also the weakest in the case, and they require a computer to assist with the lock up converter. As for the best bang for the buck and strength I would use a 4L60 or 4L60E. They both require a computer, and sensors on the engine to function properly, they have about the same loss as the 700R4 (the 4L60 is a computer controlled 700R4 the 4L60E has elecronic shifting) These would be ideal for a LT1 or LS1 engine but you are not going there.

Torque is Good has the best post in this whole thing to date. You need to consider the whole car before the engine. 500HP is ALOT and it can get to be a pain in the a$$ to maintain and just drive. The truck my dad and I built was fun to drive, pulled away from just about anything, but it was loud, the throttle was touchy, it got loose easy, the shifts were kinda hard even when you were not on it, and that was 450hp at the crank no assesories running not even the water pump.

Forged steel pistons? WTF. I though steel/iron pistons went away back in the 1800's as being too heavy and not worth a crap. Good luck with that one buddy. Oh and you dont balance just a crank. Go ahead if you want to but it dont work that way. You can buy all the blueprints and balanced parts you want but if you dont know how to assemble the engine correctly it will not matter at all. Oh and the way you are talking you are just going to send a poor Camaro to the scrapper for no reason. If ya want to know how to properly balance the engine there are many ways to do it and I will clue you in to the method I have used in the past which works quite well if you want to learn. If not and you already know what you are doing then great and good luck with that.

Massey

 

In stock form, the T350 and 700R4 are comparable both in their h.p. rating and drag. But both can be built up to take a lot more. When starting out fresh, I would go with the 700R4/4L60 over the 350 for a few reasons....
1) The 700 has a lower first gear than the T350 has, 3.059 vs. 2.52. So right off the bat, the car is going to jump out of the hole better.
2) The .696 overdrive in fourth gear means you can go with a lower gear in the rear for even better launches, and still have a final rpm speed that's lower than what the T350 would give you. It gives you the best of both worlds.
3) Your car is already set up to accommodate the 700's length, and it's mounting of both the crossmember and the torque arm.

 

Well i took some of your guys advice. I took a step back and looked at what I wanted and decided that I was taking the wrong route and wrong car. So I sold the camaro and bought a 1974 chevy nova ss. Clean and clear title no rust no dents but also no motor or tranny but luckily I got both.

 

now THAT will easily handle that small block, lol. whats it got for a rear end? 12 bolt? cause that would be super!

 

I believe those were stock 10 bolts but who knows with a car that old, anything could be in it

 

Its got a 12 bolt... so yeah it was really weird how I came about this deal. On the weekends I work for a towing company driving a big kenworth 10 speed. And we had just got done pulling a truckers load that we picked up and got to the yard to drop it off and I saw the nova sitting there and I went to the boss and asked him about it and jokingly I told him ide trade him my camaro for it and the dude said yes... I was really surprised actually but anyways that's really what sparked the idea of using the nova instead of the camaro. Specially since sitting in that nova are a bunch of aftermarket parts that are for a sbc 350. So I really lucked out actually. So yeah this should be just straight up plug and play build. Specially since I'm going to put this engine back together stock and drop it in so I can drive it around as a daily driver and take it to car shows and what not and at the same time build up a performance engine for it. That way I can take all the time in the world to fininsh it. So what kind of engine should I builf up? I was going to go with just another sbc but I was thinking since this is going to be a very long project engine and performance should I just go with a bbc. I'm going to start out the engine with just the block and build it from scratch. Any ideas on what type of engine. Sbc 350 or bbc 454 or bigger? Which one do u guys think cuz I'm kind of leaning to bbc but I don't know anything about bbc I've never worked on them or anything.