Can a BB 454 be powerful with 9.5:1 CR?

 

Why not? CR makes torque without changing anything else. Camshaft and heads determine how much power it can make.

 

Hell yea.

Put some good oval port heads on it (if its a street car), decent cam without a bunch of overlap and have at it! A good intake and carb will help too.

I had between a 9.5:1-10:1 468 (454 bored .060 over) with factory 781 oval port heads, a Comp Magnum hydraulic 244/244 @ .050 .550/.550 lift cam, Pro Products single plane intake, a flowed Holley 850 in a 79 Z28 that weighed around 3400 and went 11.0's in the 1/4.

With that weight that car needed 500 HP to get that job done...