Need advice from any Big Block guys

[SunSoaked]

I currently have a mild 350 with Edelbrock Pro-flo waiting to drop in the truck and along comes a friend offering me a good low mileage Mark V 454 ($100) minus induction and accessory drive parts.

My first thought was heck ya, I'll just by an EFI BB intake and swap over the FI. NOT so easy (or cheap I should say). $2K to upgrade the Pro-Flow to Pro-Flo 2 and BBC intake.

Plus I1ll have to source the serpentine drive system (again!) for a BB. This would be a great deal if I was already set up for a BB, but I am realizing that I will need motor mounts, headers and everything else that wont interchange with a small block.

Maybe if I could find a BB parts truck it might be worth it.

Anybody been down this road and have any advice?

[ryanroo]

well, my experience has always been, go big block. ive never been disappointed in any GM big block vehicle i've owned. all have been 454s and all were trucks.

it is an investment, but at the end you have a very nice injected big block. that is cool. and trucks are way funner to drive with a big block.

[argonaut]

I would drop in the small block since you have it and it is complete and ready to go. If the big block were complete I would say drop it in.

[SunSoaked]

I just stumbled upon this slick adapter kit from Kwik that adapts the SB system to the BB. Its simple and cheap. That solves the issue of not being able to use my current (and still new) drive system. All I will need is a water pump.

Anybody know if the engine mounts are different from SB vs BB or just mounted differently?

[argonaut]

I will assume that the vehicle is a 67-72 k-series. In this case the big block will mount to the same mounts and cross member brackets. However because it is larger you will either need to notch the firewall to clear valve covers, and possibly the distributor, or shift the power train forward a couple of inches.

[SunSoaked]

Correct, a 69K10 (M1008 hybrid).

As you can see, I moved the whole drivetrain forward 2 inches so that the
NV4500 would sit centered in the trans hump. That opened up some space between the Distributer Cap and firewall as well. Moving it forward was OK since I need new driveshaft's to mate with the Dana 60/14Bolt anyways.

With the serpentine drive and electric fans, it actually works quite well
(we'll see).

[argonaut]

Cool. The big block **should** fit then.

[Redcap]

There is no replacement for displacement. Big block all the way.