N/A or Blower/Supercharger

[mechanic350]

Im currently in the middle of trying to figure out what direction to take with the motor in my '72 Chevy C10 when the time comes. right now im honestly not too sure how much power she is putting down or what all she has inside. mainly because they guy i bought it from did all the work. Im thinking that 500HP and about the same in torque isnt a bad goal. She has a 350 with a 4 bolt main and 1970 LT1 heads right now. and a cam on top of that. Any suggestions or ideas on which way to go?

[slow-1]

What is your vision for your truck? Daily driver, show truck that drives, show truck thats a trailer queen, 1/4 mile king?

[brad_man_72]

It might be cheaper to do a turbo ls swap if you're starting with a stock 350 especially if you want to drive it.

After buying forged rotating assembly, machine work, really good heads, nasty cam, 13:1 comp ratio, intake, really good induction, tuning. I've heard that buying race gas gets old pretty quick.

You will aslo need a stout transmission.

[mechanic350]

I'm looking at making a good daily driver that can get up and move if I put my foot down. I'm already looking at matching up a tremec T56 6- speed manual transmission. I agree with the race gas concern. Which is why I want to keep it running on pump gas.

[brad_man_72]

http://www.badasscars.com/index.cfm/...d=45/prd45.htm
You probably want to read this page and watch the 2 videos.
Then drop an ls engine in your truck. Lol

[69SWB4X4]

I make my living with a company called V8 Choppers. We are a V8 motorcycle manufacturer. My bike is running a small block 427. We use Dart heads and blocks with all forged internals with roller cam and rockers. Mine made 594 hp. and 580 Lb Ft torque. This is from a naturally aspirated with 10.1 compression so pump gas is ok. Just a thought... keep it simple.. carbed chevy small block can make good numbers and still be reliable.

[davepl]

Originally Posted by 69SWB4X4

Mine made 594 hp. and 580 Lb Ft torque.

I thought you said 850, not 580! So I was calling BS and then read it properly, hence the edit :-)

[zeldman]

Originally Posted by 69SWB4X4

I make my living with a company called V8 Choppers. We are a V8 motorcycle manufacturer. My bike is running a small block 427. We use Dart heads and blocks with all forged internals with roller cam and rockers. Mine made 594 hp. and 580 Lb Ft torque. This is from a naturally aspirated with 10.1 compression so pump gas is ok. Just a thought... keep it simple.. carbed chevy small block can make good numbers and still be reliable.

So what is the estimated top speed, and how fast have you had it?

[mechanic350]

Yeah I agree that keeping it simple is the best bet.

[burnin oil]

I would lower your power goal to a true 400HP and you will be much happier for a daily driver. I am more tolerant of a nasty cam than the average guy and I had to tame my DD down a little. Even with 4.10s I was using granny gear on the 4spd alot when in traffic. Think driving miles each day! I sure do miss the power of that Isky circle track cam and the brutal idle. Now I am running a nice mild Lunati vodoo, the second largest. Just a little bigger than a 350 HP 327 cam. Even in a 400sb the power off idle aint the best.

As far as supercharging goes forget the roots style. They are sexy and make killer power but you would be better served with a centrifical charger. They don't make power off idle so you have a chance to get moving before the hides get boiled off the tires. Another thing that has come around is E85. The milage sucks but it has a really good octane rating and alot of guys tune their forced induction rides to burn it. Much easier to find than race gas and doesn't kill O2 sensors as fast if you have an AFR meter.

[Longhorn 70]

500 hp is attainable for reasonable work and money. You can make a 383 put out 500 at the flywheel with great reliability AND drivability too. With the 17% loss for the drive train, that gives you over 400RWHP. C10s are lightweight as far as trucks go…. Next thing you’ll want to have is STOPPING power.

If you really want to do power adders, Nitrous ??

[burnin oil]

Originally Posted by Longhorn 70

500 hp is attainable for reasonable work and money. You can make a 383 put out 500 at the flywheel with great reliability AND drivability too. With the 17% loss for the drive train, that gives you over 400RWHP. C10s are lightweight as far as trucks go…. Next thing you’ll want to have is STOPPING power.

If you really want to do power adders, Nitrous ??

Jus curious what your recipe is for 500 street friendly HP. Unless it includes a 2500 RPM stall I think it would be a little difficult. I don't see reliable as a problem.

[Longhorn 70]

The LT4 in the Vette in my signature does over 375 at 6150 RPM to the ground on a chassis dino. That calculates out to 450 at the flywheel if you allow 16-17% drivetrain loss.

It has 383 forged bottom with cleaned up LT4 heads, a bit higher lift than the LT4 HotCam, PM HBeam Rods, roller rockers and lifters, extrude honed intake with injectors and computer tuning. It is a bit lumpy on the bottom end but with balancing you really don't feel it.

As this is a 6 speed, what the OP said he was going to use, it does make it more comfortable on the street. Lingenfelter and others build harder running small blocks than I have that work well on the street.

The Muth'a Thump'a cams or similar with E-Force heads are a great start for the top. Forged stroked bottom with proper block prep and assembly will get you close.

[burnin oil]

Originally Posted by Longhorn 70

The LT4 in the Vette in my signature does over 375 at 6150 RPM to the ground on a chassis dino. That calculates out to 450 at the flywheel if you allow 16-17% drivetrain loss.

It has 383 forged bottom with cleaned up LT4 heads, a bit higher lift than the LT4 HotCam, PM HBeam Rods, roller rockers and lifters, extrude honed intake with injectors and computer tuning. It is a bit lumpy on the bottom end but with balancing you really don't feel it.

As this is a 6 speed, what the OP said he was going to use, it does make it more comfortable on the street. Lingenfelter and others build harder running small blocks than I have that work well on the street.

The Muth'a Thump'a cams or similar with E-Force heads are a great start for the top. Forged stroked bottom with proper block prep and assembly will get you close.

I should dyno my setup. Maybe I am making more power than I thought. My 400 has everything you said but a little more cam and better heads. Its fun but It always feels sluggish after my old standard cab diesel truck that had 700 RWHP tied to a 6spd. Totally differnt animals to drive and give smiles in different ways.

[Longhorn 70]

Originally Posted by burnin oil

I should dyno my setup. Maybe I am making more power than I thought. My 400 has everything you said but a little more cam and better heads. Its fun but It always feels sluggish after my old standard cab diesel truck that had 700 RWHP tied to a 6spd. Totally differnt animals to drive and give smiles in different ways.

Not to steal the post but I know what you mean. I had a mildly built Olds BB in the 70... I really miss it. I keep feeling that my SBC just isn't running right. It's smooth and will chirp 2nd gear but it isn't the tire boiling truck I used to have.

mechanic350: Power adders like blowers, turbos and NOx are great and becoming very reliable and streetable. They do add more things to break and maintain.

in³=rwhp³=$³

[Longhorn 70]

Originally Posted by Longhorn 70

in³=rwhp³=$³

Should have been in³+$³=rwhp

[SactoJim]

I think the key question here is what is your budget? There's a few different directions you can go.....just depends what you wanna spend. Seems it's pretty easy to get 500 streetable HP out of 6.0 LS motors these days, but if you're set on your small block I would build it to give you low end grunt....that's what makes a driver fun. Think extra cubic inches, like stroking your 350 to 383.....or finding a 400 and building it. Put a good set of heads on it and a healthy hydraulic roller cam and you will be smiling every time you push the go pedal! Again.....all depends how deep you pockets are.

Mines a 383 with a little weiand 142 on it that maybe makes only 5lbs of boost, but talk about a fun street motor....and it all fits under my stock hood. I don't have to, but I wouldn't hesitate to drive it everyday if needed. I have a 700r4 trans as well which I would highly recommend for any old school type of daily driver given what gas costs these days. I'm currently finishing up with putting a new hyd roller cam in it as well as porting the Eldy heads and will have it on the engine dyno later this month....should be 525-550hp and a real broad 500 ft lb torque band.

Like someone said above.....roots blowers aren't the best choice and they are the least efficient of all forced induction, but like all positive displacement blowers, they start to develop boost right off idle where as centrifugals and turbos typically build boost higher in the RPM band. A nice little roots (or screw drive type blower) setup will make a 350 feel more like a 500 cu in motor.

There's alot more that can be said about all this as I only scratched the surface.....a few wisely worded Google searches will give you days of reading!

[pritch]

Injection is nice, but I'd rather be blown...

[mechanic350]

well I dont have bottomless pockets thats for sure. but my main reason for wanting to keep with the SB 350 is that its a 350 with a 4 bolt main. so its got a strong bottom end to start with. Like SactoJim i have a 700R4 in my 72 right now. and it is great on the street. Gotta say I do love driving it. I have thought about building a 427 or 454 on the side to keep the daily driver going until i want to do the motor and tranny swap out. In regards to stopping power im going to swap my stock front disc's and rear drums out in Jan/Feb for Wilwood 13" Rotors with 6 piston calipers up front and 4 pistons out back. which should help the stopping power issue.

[GASoline71]

The 700R4 will be your weak link if you start building any kind of engine that makes a lot of TQ. You'll need to drop some serious coin to get a 700R4 to handle above 400 pounds of TQ.

Gary

[mechanic350]

I agree with the 700R4 being the weak link. Hence why i plan on swapping out to the Tremec T56 6 Speed which can handle the power i want.

[sublime1996525]

If you want higher horsepower from a sb 350 I'd say do an LS swap. My 02 Z06, LS6 engine, made 456rwhp and 400rwtq with a decent cam 232-234 duration, 595-598 lift, some good TFS heads and a FAST 90 intake. It was reliable, fun, and only had mild surging in stop and go traffic.