i think i've decided against this route. nobody has yet addressed piston velocity and the high rev reliability of a 434 yet. maybe thats something else to consider here.

 

Piston velocity... reliability?

What exactly are you planning to do with this 434? The whole point in going that route is to make the big hp/torque numbers without too many revs. 600 rwhp with a 434 is a piece of cake, and it'll never need to see anything over 6500 rpm to get there.

Worry about the valvetrain... that's where stuff breaks.

-Mindgame

 

That's the best thing I've heard on this thread yet!

 

Wow, thats really impressive. And Motivating . Im really starting to get exccited about this now. What kind of clearancing did you have to have done? And about how much did the machine work cost you. Not counting any machining done to the heads. Just block and rotating assembly.

About the Aftermarket block Im not concerned about it. If I took the time to save for the block it would just take longer for me to get the rotating assembly and heads bought. Plus like I said the motor wont see many miles and if this guy says he can run 10.5 in a natrually aspirated 3rd gen I can hold off on the No2. If it breaks it breaks. Im only 19 there will be many more motors to come As for right now if it only last a year of putting out big numbers and good times for me so I can have fun for a while Ill be happy.

 

Used a small base circle cam, but had a .630 lift cam, and had to clearance 4 of the rods. Took about 4 grams off each rod. The machinist had never had any cam clearance problems on anything under a .600 lift cam. Didnt have to do any clearancing on the block. It was all the std. machine work; bore & hone cylinders, align hone the main bearings, etc. Nothing special. This thing revs strong to 7500 rpm. have a 5k stall convertor. I have my rev limiter set at 8k. The rotating assy was $1700.00. The used block cost $300.00. The machine work and forged steel main brg caps added about another $1000.00

 

Your logic escapes me.

At least you'll keep the parts guys in business.

 

I just look at it as if something does break it by far wont be the first thing Ive ever broken, and Im not ignorant enought to think nothing will ever break again. Plus whos to say even if I spent the $ on the world products block that it would stay together. Last time I rebuilt my 305 I made sure I had forged pistons so it would last me a while. I finnaly got it running well after about two months of havng it back together and craked two pistons.

All Im saying is theres no use dreading what may happen. Just take good care of it, try to do everything right and hope for the best.

Away from philosophy and back to the project at hand...

What about the oil pan, Ive heard that with strokers the pan often has to be clearanced. I take it your using an aftermarket deep sump pan on that monster of a motor, if a buy a milodon one of something is it likely to be clearanced out of the box?

 

The 400 block is already clearanced a little bit from the factory, at the pan rails. And that was sufficient to clear the Eagle 4" crank. I used an aftermarket pan, but I think a stock pan would haved cleared o.k.

 

I'll probably use an aftermaket pan too with a deep sump and all just to be sure the motor gets enough oil. I was just curious.

 

I'm having a real hard time with this one....

I have never seen a 4" stroke crank "drop into" a factory 400 block and rotate 360* without hitting a few things.
1) the cam (although this can be fixed in the grind)
2) the pan rails
3) the cylinder bores

How did you manage it?

There was a guy some years back by the name of Jack Conely (Conely Speed Shop) who built stroker 400's at displacements of anywhere from 427 ci to 482. Needless to say, Conely knew his **** cause he was also dominating the Super Modified circuit.
Not that we should get into all that but it just goes to show that you can build a powerful engine on the factory block.

Fast forward to the year 2003.......
With all the better blocks out there and considering the extensive machine work required to make one of these engines work $$..... why in the hell would you want to? Also worth mentioning.... JC was going through a couple of engines a season!

OS is right, you can buy the right block for this build and you spend a bit more for a superior foundation..... or you can go the ultra cheapo route and spend the money on rebuilds.

-Mindgame

 

We did have cam lobe clearance problems, and had to do some relieving of the con rod shoulders. I cant say why we didnt have block clearance issues with the stock 400 block. I just know that we did not have to do any clearancing of the block for the Eagle 4 inch crank.........
I dont know how long I will stick with the 434, before moving onto a big block in the car, hence, I wasnt interested in spending $2k on an aftermarket SBC block. This 434 will prolly end up slightly de-cammed, and into a street car before too long.

 

Im going to pick up my 400 block in a few days. I will see and report when I get it back if I have clearance problems. After I buy my crank anyway. I havent quite decided which to go with yet. That set-up SStrokerAce looked awesome, but its hard to get $2200+ together at one time workin part time. I may buy a Rod and piston kit first then buy a crank separate.


If it doesnt hold long. Then Im out a block. Not the end of the world. Lesson learned next time listen to the Advanced tech guys. For now Im gonna see how it works with the stock block. If it holds a year then by then I will have probbaly set my eyes on somehting new by then anyway

 

The big advantage of the aftermarket blocks is thicker cylinder walls, decks and main bulkheads. Why is this important, because you can put all the 4340 forged internals in a stock block you want but as your hp rises then your stock block will start moving around ( cylinder walls, decks and mains) costing at a minimum hp at max a blown engine. And depending on what moves you may be out more than just a block, if the mains move you could lose the block and the crank. I can understand trying to build on a budget as long as you understand the limitations of the parts you are working with. If it were me I'd buy the 4340 crank and rods as well as forged pistons then I'd buy a Motown, Dart or Bowtie block and go from there cause there's nothing worse than spending twice the money more than once.

 

For a mild build, the passenger block is okay. If you're out for some real power then you're gonna need alot of professional machine work on that block to keep it together and reliable.... drilled deck plugs, adding a coolant hole in the block between the center bore-pair, studs throughout, lots of attention to details. Before all the aftermarket blocks became available, we were using oem stuff in drag race cars. So the tricks to making one work aren't exactly black magic to an experienced builder. The reason no-one uses the oem blocks any more for these types of builds...... because by the time the builder finishes machining the block to handle the stress, you've spent close to what you would have spent on an aftermarket casting and still have an inferior engine block.
A 400, 427 whatever... they can be made to work on the oem castings. I just wouldn't waste my time if the goal was to build anything more than a 500 hp street engine.

Good luck.

-Mindgame

 

Well if I bought a world products block or something, would it still need to be clearanced or could I drop a 4.00 in crank in there as is?