sb2.2 conversion

Word to the wise on the SB2.2 setup....its no cheaper than the Arao. My builder just finished up a motor for a friend of mine and it was a basketcase. Made the Arao stuff look easy...

Originally posted by The Big Show
Word to the wise on the SB2.2 setup....its no cheaper than the Arao. My builder just finished up a motor for a friend of mine and it was a basketcase. Made the Arao stuff look easy...

The finished build was a basketcase or just getting everything together?

I have performed an sb2.2 conversion on the LT1 block. Yeah, there is quite a bit of work involved. The best advice I could give if anyone is interested in something of that caliber is to ditch the block and go with an sb2 block. It will save you a good deal of headaches. But if building a streetable (of course a relative word) 700hp+ 3.75/3.875 stroke engine is your thing then it's the only way to fly in my opinion.

Take care

Chuck,

The finished motor was absolutely sick. Running low 5's in the 1/8 without the vehicle being fully dialed in. The big block guys couldn't figure out how the small block was keeping up :D

But...as with any high horsepower buildup, if you skimp where you can't skimp you will pay. Heck, I think when you reach this stage of the game there is no such thing as skimping anymore. You just try and get good deals on the good parts. Well, my friend decided to use lunati pro mod rods in a motor that was making close to 700 hp on motor alone not to mention the 500 shot of dual stage nastiness that was to follow. He ran the low 5's on the first stage but the motor came apart when he finally activated the second stage. The rods made a quick exit through the block.

This was a bowtie block with SB2.2 heads on it. The basketcase part came with having to track down parts needed for the build that one would assume were readily available, but were not. Not to mention the special wrench needed to get to the head bolts as well.

So can anyone give me a price on these heads? Also are these pretty much set out of the box or should they like (most heads) have more work done to them?

Ken,

Expect to pay in the 8k range for an all new fresh porting SB2.2 top end . You can find them for 1/2 or less used though, basically NASCAR take-off stuff (Hendricks, DEI, etc). (Top end being Heads, Ti Valves, Intake, Shaft Rockers, etc, etc)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33617&item=2420850883

I don't foresee these things being feasible in an LT1 application for so many reasons, especially on a car expected to keep its street manners.

As 'game mentioned, just adapting them to any standard SBC is a PITA, let alone going through all the work on an engine that is limited to a such a small bore. :irk:

Good luck!

Hmm but there again i am not the normal person now am I :) I am a nut and like harshness on the street.

But damn $2,200 buy it now and it comes with all the hardware... seems like a much better deal than the $6000+ for a set of doms, well that is if you could contact Areo and get a set but no one can EVER get a hold of that company :rolleyes:

Darren Hardin from Indianapolis adapted a set of SB2.2s onto his LT1. 410ci, 16:1, EFI, 2 stage nitrous setup. hopefully he will see this and chime in. i have a whole SB2.2 top end sitting in my basement. for a short time thought of putting them on my LT1, but for me the best route looks to be to just build an aftermarket block 427/434 with them and quit playing games

D.H.'s motor (http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu/pictures/chevyguy3/sb2lt1.jpg)

As Chevyguy said I did the SB2.2 conversion on my car. It really wasn't a difficult conversion other than being hard on the wallet... I think by the time I bought everything to do it (heads, intake, valley cover, rockers, valve covers, camshaft, headers, pushrods, ect...) I ended up having around 12k in the conversion from 23* to 11* :D

But if someone is looking for absolutely insane amounts of power out of a small block these are definantly a good option. Im looking at around 720 rwhp n/a out of my combo but its not really what you could consider street friendly. A basic rundown of what it is...

410ci, 4.040 bore 4" stroke
1994 LT1 block spayed and filled
6" oliver billet rods
Diamond pistons, coated and gas ported
16:1 compression
>.730 lift
>290 duration @ .050
295cc intake runners, 46cc chambers
new head castings ported by Petty, 415 cfm @ .750 lift
T&D 1.7 shaft rockers
2.15 titanium intake valves, 1.625 exhaust valves
FAST efi w/ 75lb/hr injectors
2000cfm throttle body
Lemons Headers 2-2 1/8 w/ 4" collectors

Nothing too special there but it should get the job done ;)

Im hoping the car will go low 140's on motor and on both stages i'd like to see high 160's and a new stock suspension 4th gen f-body record :D

here is a more recent pic of the engine sitting in the car..

http://www.hardenmotorsports.com/images/engine6.jpg

Let me know if anyone has any more questions

Thanks
Darren

Darren,

Flat out impressive. You running gas or alky?

Thank you Bobby!

I must run gas for the series we race in up here. I'd like to try alky someday though;)

Wow! I figured it would be tough to control detonation with gas and that much compression. Who does your tuning?

Originally posted by KTamez
As 'game mentioned, just adapting them to any standard SBC is a PITA, let alone going through all the work on an engine that is limited to a such a small bore. :irk:

That's the real stinker.:)

If I were gonna do an sb2 build I'd just do what Chuck mentioned and chunk the block. Then go with a 4.125 bore build.... even if you just drop a 3.5 stroke crank in it you'd be miles ahead because of the bigger bore.
Granted, a canted valve head is more small-bore friendly but then there's the revs....
Most of the sb2 and revised 2.2 stuff is gonna be cnc ported and they'll be built around turning 8500 rpm and up. Expect port volumes in the 280 cc and larger range.... and yeah, the ports are a tad longer but this is still a huge port. My GP Tech 2.2s have a min. cross section area of ~2.8 in^2.... now compare that to a 230 cc port head with the typical 2.2-2.4" cross section area.

Best thing to do is find a virgin casting (~200 ccs) and find someone to work it specifically to what you're doing. Either that or have a race head welded up..... find someone who knows what they're doing though.:)

-Mindgame

How many cc's are the combustion chambers on the sb2.2? Looks like you would need custom dished pistons to run a CR that would deal with 94 octane.

Rob,
It just depends. The as-cast head is pretty much worthless on it's own. The point was to cast a head that could be modified to whatever a porter/engine builder had in mind. I believe the as-cast chamber is 28 ccs. Of course any CNC'ed head is going to usually be anywhere from ~38 cc to some ~53 cc. Weld Tech will open the chamber to as much as 53 cc on any of their program heads for guys wanting a bit lower compression as will other CNC outfits. So, there are all different chamber volumes in the sb2 and sb2.2 heads.

-Mindgame

www.bmrfabrication.com

check out their 8 second turbo build and see how many problems they encountered.....

in all honesty with a FI motor, just convert some 18* heads MUCH easier

As Mindgame said, going with a large bore setup would be much more beneficial if youa re going to do this. The best way to get there is to go with a BowTie, World or Dart SBC block. Those blocks might cost more in initial purchase but.............. Once you 4 bolt a LT1 with Billet Mains, make sure all the lifter bores are in the right place, sonic check it, magnaflux it just to see if it can handle the power a set of SB2's will get you and then on top of that convert the SB2's you made up the cost of the aftermarket block. So now for the same or LESS money you have a stronger block that will require less rebuilds, takes the SB2 heads really easy and on top of that can be made into a 427cube small block or larger. So that 4.125" bore which is what's really going to get those heads to flow what they are supposed to flow is not such a bad idea after all.

Bret

I'm in awe at people who think a sb2.2 head is any better than a 15* or 18* for a drag race application..... I guess if you have the cahunas to spin a engine high enough to benefit go for it.. Personally I'd choose something other than a sb2.2.. and I'd surely swap to a different block all together without having the bore limitation of a lt1...

Cubes and Canted valves would make a SB2 a great street/strip motor under 7000k.

15 or 18 deg heads have nothing on them. A Brodix Neal, GB2000, or a Brodix Canted Valve head all could be better heads than a SB2, but they are not cheap.

Bret

Originally posted by 89ProchargedROC
www.bmrfabrication.com

check out their 8 second turbo build and see how many problems they encountered.....

in all honesty with a FI motor, just convert some 18* heads MUCH easier

Ha. :)

Yeah, it looks like they had more than a few problems putting the thing together. Then again, they had some odd ball stuff going on there with the block... not to mention they're using the original (before revision) sb2's. A guy on this board found a set of "prototype" sb2's for $1800... sent me an e-mail asking about them. I say, "stay away" :). That is... unless you have a machine shop and can make parts for them.... otherwise go sb2.2.

And I'm in agreement on the block thing. I was looking at this swap hard. I already have the heads but after thinking about it and talking about it... decided to forget it. With a decent cam in a 383, you could easily spin 8k with those monstrous ports. Now if you could go to a 4.125 bore block, you could make all the power you'd ever want by 7k-ish. That'd be cool.:)

-Mindgame