Big smallblocks

Jon Connolly · Post by **Jon Connolly** » Wed Jan 04, 12 3:42 pm

Several big smallblocks are now being built and developed in the USA. As well as Nascar derived R5 exotics at circa 850 HP, these have been built and are now available

Ryan at Shadey Dell has recently built a 481" that dynoed at 770 HP + 680 TQ

Hughes have built a 420" that dynoed at 701 HP before they ran out of time on the dyno

http://www.hughesengines.com/TechArticl ... k15461.php

There are also 340 / 360 stroker kits available off the shelf for building 426" / 440" / 472" motors

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Wed Jan 04, 12 3:46 pm

Yes. I decided about 2 years ago that if I ever got another E-body it would be getting a big inch small block around the 7 litre mark.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Jan 04, 12 4:24 pm

I genuinely do not know how long they will hang together at that level, that will be the acid test......

MrNorm · Post by **MrNorm** » Wed Jan 04, 12 10:50 pm

Yes, funnily enough when I planned and bought mine many years ago now there were not that many around - now it is pretty much de rigour, for good reason, and I have yet to get mine on the road

Hard to argue with the extra cubes, with less weight and more compact than BB. With an aftermarket block and built right (=$) I think they will sustain those levels of power pretty well to be honest. Also they don't have to rev as high and RPM is the real killer!

Now Edelbrock have finally got some decent heads to release (SB Victors) I think strokers will continue to proliferate

Ron Silva has a 500ci SB in his Valiant!! (actually 501ci IIRC)

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat Jan 14, 12 3:11 pm

Only prob would be is if you damage any parts, they ain't replaceable in a flash, with spares from over here, and if your in championship racing, it can lose you a season win if your top of the tree, unless you buy plenty of spare parts, or 2 engines..and thats £££££'s!

mopar_mark · Post by **mopar_mark** » Sat Jan 14, 12 4:05 pm

Les Szabo wrote:Only prob would be is if you damage any parts, they ain't replaceable in a flash, with spares from over here, and if your in championship racing, it can lose you a season win if your top of the tree, unless you buy plenty of spare parts, or 2 engines..and thats £££££'s!

I don't think it makes much difference what Mopar motor your running, there is very little choice of spares over here.

Admittedly, a high revving motor has a greater chance of damage.

Spares are always a good idea irellevant of motor combo, if you can stretch that far. For me, 9 times out of 10, I seem to break what I don't have

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat Jan 14, 12 5:14 pm

mopar_mark wrote:
Les Szabo wrote:Only prob would be is if you damage any parts, they ain't replaceable in a flash, with spares from over here, and if your in championship racing, it can lose you a season win if your top of the tree, unless you buy plenty of spare parts, or 2 engines..and thats £££££'s!
I don't think it makes much difference what Mopar motor your running, there is very little choice of spares over here.

Admittedly, a high revving motor has a greater chance of damage.

Spares are always a good idea irellevant of motor combo, if you can stretch that far. For me, 9 times out of 10, I seem to break what I don't have

I have been out of the scene for a long time now so don't know the current level of engines/parts available currently, it has probably diminished some since my time, however, I'm sure you can always still come up with the raw parts that you may need with forward planning at the beginning of your effort on the track in case of damage.

Point I was trying to get across, is, although these strokers sound a good idea, and make a lot of hp and will like N20 extremely well, they are in effect exotic items with special length/size parts/blocks, the parts are only replaceable from overseas at the mo as far as I know, so any damage to parts will take weeks to come and be expensive, if you haven't got the ££'s..or the time, your sunk as far as winning that championship.

This is exactly what happend to me when leading in the Modified championship moons ago, blew the "Dinger" engine bottom end to pieces,
slipped the old 440 slugger back in, and won the championship.

Its just something you need to think of carefully before running in competition for a full season and especially as there's no real data yet of reliabilty of the strokers as far as I know.

Mick · Post by **Mick** » Sat Jan 14, 12 8:41 pm

What you need to understand Les, is that these motors dont always need to be revved really high because of their size, add that, to the small physical size, easy to work on and 150# less in the right place and you have a really good combination.
Perfect motor for a street car as well.
Mick

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Sat Jan 14, 12 9:19 pm

Yes I understand all of their attributes in stock or in big cube form Mick, I think I might just understand a bit more about engines than you might think I do judging by your post....I used to run a small block for years and thought it was better than the RB in many ways.......Still astonished today at the 1.4 sec gain I got with N20 on a not so stock 340......I'm simply on about the availability of parts in a racing envoironment only where points and winning, make the prizes at the end of the year.
Standard block derived strokers are not so bad, its when your talking about special blocks and all the rest that goes with it which is what the thread starter is about, that it gets expensive and exotic for your average racer without a sponsor.

Mick · Post by **Mick** » Sun Jan 15, 12 11:48 pm

I'm sorry Les, i've just reread my last post and it does sound a little condescending, that was not my intention. I was just trying to make what i thought was a valid point, not question your knowledge or experience.
That's the problem with the internet, things said, can be interpreted in different ways.
Mick

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Mon Jan 16, 12 9:27 am

90% of the members of this club have no intention or interest in building a race car or racing in any form of regular competition.

I think some of the part-time and ex-racers on here forget that.

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Mon Jan 16, 12 11:59 am

Mick wrote:I'm sorry Les, i've just reread my last post and it does sound a little condescending, that was not my intention. I was just trying to make what i thought was a valid point, not question your knowledge or experience.
That's the problem with the internet, things said, can be interpreted in different ways.
Mick

No probs Mick

mopar_mark · Post by **mopar_mark** » Mon Jan 16, 12 12:10 pm

Dave wrote:90% of the members of this club have no intention or interest in building a race car or racing in any form of regular competition.

I think some of the part-time and ex-racers on here forget that.

What does that mean, the post should be moved to race only or only talk about such topics in Race only.

The post counts are pretty low as it is . . .

Les Szabo · Post by **Les Szabo** » Mon Jan 16, 12 12:17 pm

Dave wrote:90% of the members of this club have no intention or interest in building a race car or racing in any form of regular competition.

I think some of the part-time and ex-racers on here forget that.

Oh, ok then, I'll shut up then, thanks for letting me know that

Dave-R · Post by **Dave-R** » Mon Jan 16, 12 12:37 pm

Not having a go at anyone.

It is just that the assumption always seems to be that people would want to build an engine for racing. There is thread after thread about building race engines. Not many about building good solid strong street engines. Or tuning for best economy. And lets face it. These days you have to take economy into account. The running costs are forcing many people out of the hobby. Myself included.