VERY large displacement and enough torque/power to move a small mountain?

 

my question is why are they called BBC and SBC? did GM not own chevy at the time? because these days pontiac and chevy are the same company....why did chevy have the honor of naming the block, why dont' we call them BBP and SBP? (beside the fact it doesn't sound right)

 

Up until the late 70's or early 80's each GM division designed an built its own engines. True, some were interchanged, but basically they were unique. They were painted different colors and there was lots of inter-divisional rivalry. In the mid 60's when Pontiac was third in US sales behind Chevrolet and Ford, Pontiac folks considered their biggest competitor to be Chevrolet, not Ford.

FWIW, the new-in-1955 OHV V-8 Chevrolet probably wasn't referred to as the SBC until about the time the "Mark IV Large Block" (1965?) became available. Well, perhaps some folks did start calling it that during the 348/409 and "Mystery Engine" large block years.

The 1984 5th Edition Chevrolet Power, published by GM still called the BBC the "M4 Large Block". Newest GMPP catalogs have adopted "Chevy Small Block" and "Chevy Big Block" nomenclature.
It's all the rest of us who call them SBC, BBC.

My $.02