I am new to the board, but I've been asking a lot of questions, and basically have been told you can't get there from here, but nobody has been able to tell me why.

I have an '85 Camaro. It is a 5-speed now, and will be upgraded to a 6-speed later.

My purpose for the car is general introduction to the sports car game. I'm not looking to race in any specific class, or any specific type of racing, just and all around really fun car.

It came with a 305 with oil leaks. Genral consensus at the time was that you don't rebuild 305s. If you're gonna get a 350 you might as well do a 383. And if you're lucky you may find a 400 block. That is just what I did. It is bored .040 over and sitting in my living room waiting for parts to fill it.

I want to be able to pass the sniffer at the testing facility. The numbers I have to beat are below:

HC CO NOx
Standards: 2.00 30.00 3.00
Readings: 1.72 19.50 0.77
Results: PASS PASS N/A

I intend to replace the rotted out emissions stuff and install some shorty headers.

My ideal driving situation is that I'm in 5th at about 28-2900 rpm and floor it and get nailed to the seat back. If I'm in 3rd around 3500 rpm I want to shift at 6500 rpm and get a big grin in 4th. If given enough real estate to do 6500 in 5th I would like to pull 6th gear. All of this on a 3.45 gear ratio.

The thought is to put in an eagle crank and rods on top of Mahle pistons. I want a hydraulic roller cam with roller rockers. It will start with a carb, and then be converted to EFI, probably SuperRam.

The idea is to throw $20k at the whole car and scare any stock street car short of a Viper or Z06. I would like to be able to drive it to road courses, drag strips, and autocross within a 200 mile radius and enjoy my self at the event with the car. I probably won't win anything as the car will not be optimized for any specific venue, but I will have fun.

It has to run on 91 octane gas and run the A/C when its over 80 outside.

Helps' appreciated,
Jason

 

I'm no expert on 400 smallblocks but I do know they don't like running over 5000 rpm, and 5500 tops. I think it requires some pretty fancy work on the main caps to improve on this and the factory four bolt mains are NOT the ones to work with.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But they do rip and snort right on up to 5000 rpm, so there is some consolation anyway

 

That's only with the terrible factory cam and restricted heads. A good cam and some good heads will make any 400 block run where ever you want it to. I agree on the 4 bolt blocks. The web is too thin with a 400 block for 4 bolts. A 2 bolt block with studs is stronger.

As for passing a sniffer test it doesn't matter what size the engine is. It's all about how well the engine burns the fuel. A well tuned engine should easily pass any sniffer test no matter if it's a tiny 4 cylinder or a massive big block.

 

i typed a REALLY long post on this and the forum ate it,im tired so ill redo it tomorrow.But ive built many hipo camaros here in cali and youre prospects arent looking good,at least smog wise.ill elaborate tomorrow.

 

Indiana is not Cali - no visual, just have a cat and the hoses go over the exhaust pipes and the wheels go on the rollers. Beat the numbers and you pass.

The block is a two bolt, which is allegedly stronger.

The local guy seems to think that 475 isn't not impossible, and that was with world castings heads. Every build I've seen with AFRs of at least 383 has been at or over 500 in torque and horsepower with 9-10:1 compression. The big question never answered in those buildups is how would they perform with Hooker 2055s, a y-pipe, and cats.

It would be interesting to see a build with Dart Pro 1 heads or E-tec 200s. Most folks locally are trying to push me into the GM Vortecs, but with no heat riser thing it may be more difficult to tune for both power and emissions - I don't know.

Jason

 

Glad that you have a 2 bolt, but make sure that you have good cooling system in that car. 0.040 over in a 400 is getting a bit thin, you may have some overheating issues (some blocks are better than others). Mine is still a stock bore with 80k miles on it, looked real clean when i got it, that's why i didn't bother replacing the bottom end yet. I dropped the 58cc L98's on it and I'm getting ready to take the car out and rip it up on the street and strip.

Enjoy the torque when you get it running

- Justin

 

I guess the first part is what is required of the shortblock to reliably run up to 6500 rpm? How light can it be and still not flex/break itself up? DO I have to buy American forged pieces at a 50% premium to have quality?

Thanks,
Jason

 

I see no problems with the rpm you are looking at, even with a cast crank. And if your getting an Eagle forged crank you could go higher.
I do think your asking to much by expecting to be pushed back in the seat in 5th no matter what the rpm is. At 2900rpm in 5th you will already be at or dam near triple digits. Also if you search the open road forums you find that almost all the cars are faster in 5th. Few have the ponies to pull 6th gear.

 

Best heads at $1500 or less ready to install?

Jason

 

I turn my 406 to 6300, I have a stock crank, stock rods w/ARP bolts and KB pistons, it has been balanced. I am running protopline 220 iron heads w/ 2.05/1.60 valves and a comp cams 288XR roller cam. The car went 7.8's in the 1/8 at almost 91mph. Thats with the second ring installed upside down too.

 

LilJayV10

What's your comp. ratio, and did you buy bare heads or assembled? What would ou do different?

Thanks,
Jason

 

My compression ratio is about 10:1, I bought the heads assembled from my local machine shop. Really there's nothing I would do different, besides install the rings correctly If I had the money, I would have put good rods and forged pistons in it and sprayed it. Besides that nothing, the car runs great and is just as drivable as my stock 305 TBI car.

 

if its good power in a wide range of rpms why not take that 400 block and throw in a good forged 350 crank and make a destroked 377 out of it. you can turn massive rpms with that, as long as you have an exhaust system that will let you. a friend of mine has a built up 377 in his 69z and he doesn't even shift till 8k. he's got a rev limiter at 8500 on the motor i believe, so they can spin like hell and take it. but spinning rpms like that, a good flowing exhaust is a MUST otherwise the backpressure at that rate is like stickin a cork in the pipes... but yeah, if i get ahold of a good 400 block i'm gonna throw a good forged 350 crank and a set of 6 inch rods in it. just a thought.

 

If I was going racing in a displacement limited class that might be the thing to do. But since I'm not almost any heads and cam I use will make more power with a 400. I am just trying to get this one done now. I'll save the big time stuff for the next one.

I thought you couldn't run iron heads at 10:1 compression without detonation?!

 

About 10.5:1 is the max you want to run on iron heads. Anything more than that and you are asking for trouble.