Alright, so I have the opportunity to buy a '97 454 with 2700 miles on it, all stock except for an Edelbrock carb'd manifold for $1800. It's a stock Vortec motor out of a '97 Silverado which means 9.1:1 compression, a cast crank, and forged rods. Also, stock it's rated 290hp/400ftlbs, so it'd be seriously underpowered in my car. I'm thinking for the price I could pick it up and either replace the heads/cam and run it as a heavy breathing 9.1:1 big block, which might still suck, or leave it bone stock and strap an 8-71 blower on top, which might crack the cast crank. Any opinions? Should I even bother?

 

There is no replacement for displacement. I love BBC!! The real question here is how much you want to spend and what are you looking for... Because at $1800.00 by the time you buy a crank,rods, heads, intake, cam, lifters, rocker arms, Balancer, flywheel, push rods, nuts, bolts, bearings, gaskets, machine work, labor...... You can have one bad azz BBC 600-675 RWHP easy. But you can easily spen $7500.00 plus counting the price of the engine. Then you still need a carb. MSD, etc.
Its been my experience its cheaper to go find you a good block, for a good price. Buy your engine part by part. Thats my opinion anywayz...
The other thought is there are alot of awsome crate engines for a heck of a good price.......
All im saying is do your homework!!