Well, Long story short:

I have a 1978 C-10, 175k original miles.......hard miles. Headers, Intake, Carb, Cam, 3.73 posi, 1992 700r4, wide band, vette servo, B&M strip kit, custom lock up.

She's been smoking for a while, recently started knocking, so I parked it, yet again. I had just started driving it again after yanking out the TH350, finding, building, and installing the 700R4.

So, I want to build a motor. I have a spare motor left over from another job I did, 350 GM Crate Motor, 4 bolt mains. I took apart, no visible problems, it was running good, just tired and burning oil.....valve guides.

Anyhow, The block, crank, rods are making their way to the machine shop this weekend, and I am looking to build myself a stout motor worth about 400 Ft LBs of TQ and not afraid to spin 6k rpm once in a while.

Since I am looking to do so as inexpensivly as possible,

Questions:

Will stock crank and Rods handle this?

Can I do this with Cast Iron Vortech Heads, with not porting or polishing? (Like $500 for the pair, complete, ready to bolt on.)??

What compression ratio should I shoot for?

Some parts I have on hand:

600 cfm Edelbrock
Performer Intake
Crane 260H cam


Other than the cam, will the rest still work for me?

Basically, I am looking for a good Recipe for a dependable street motor I can drive in town, occasionally tow, abuse on the weekends, smoke any newer truck, and break the bank to do so.

Any input will be greatly appreciated.

 

Hey Will! It's Mike.
What machine shop are you using?
I'm shopping around for a build myself

 

Crank will for sure, rods... not quite so sure.

Most Vortech heads you will find need some type of rebuild, so take the $500 + a valve job = around $12-1300 for the pair, you might as well buy a nice set of aluminum heads for that price. Plus you'll need a special intake and valve covers, which are kinda spendy.

9.5:1 is a good compression ratio.
The performer intake wont work with Vortech heads, all the rest should work fine.

 

[QUOTE=wwarnke]Questions:

Will stock crank and Rods handle this?
Assuming there's nothing wrong with them, yes. Just recondition. If you need to buy new stuff, you can easily use a Scat9000 cast crank.

Can I do this with Cast Iron Vortech Heads, with not porting or polishing? (Like $500 for the pair, complete, ready to bolt on.)??
I dunno... I don't know which Vortech heads you have, nor what they flow. It's usually worth spending a bit more on heads because they are so key to power.

What compression ratio should I shoot for?
I assume you mean static compression...
Depends what kind of pump gas you have available or want to run it on, plus what kind of cam. Good gas of 93 octane, cool thermostat and the right cam, you might could push it to 10:1 on iron heads, but 9.5 would probably be safer. Aluminum heads; 10:1 is more doable. Again, this depends on several factors.

Some parts I have on hand:

600 cfm Edelbrock
Performer Intake
Crane 260H cam
Thats actually a nice match, but I don't see you getting 400lb.ft. out of it.
You need something more on the order of a Performer RPM, a 750cfm vacuum carb and a 280H. Even better, use a more modern grind. I have personally used the 280H and it's a nice cam, but it's an older design. And frankly... you should give serious consideration to bucking up for a hydraulic roller. It's worth the extra money for the extra area under the curve.




Basically, I am looking for a good Recipe for a dependable street motor I can drive in town, occasionally tow, abuse on the weekends, smoke any newer truck, and break the bank to do so.
Actually, your 600/performer/260 is a perfectly reasonable combo for a truck, and will idle nice, have plenty of low end grunt and even return decent mileage, relatively speaking. I just don't see you getting 400lb.ft.
You MIGHT want to consider a low end 383 kit. Eagle has a nice kit in the summit catalogue for just over 900. That might be out of your budget, but I'd advise you to at least THINK about it.

 

If you want to tow w/ it,and still have good power,a 383 would work great for you.

Vortec heads are GREAT street heads. You need to get the spring perch ground bigger so you can use bigger Z28 style springs for more lift. Also screw in studs and guide plates are good too,I have them on my heads.

Vortec intakes are available anywhere. Im thinking you need a Performer RPM instead of that regular Performer. If I remember correctly,the RPM range of that performer intake stops at 5500.

Throw in a mild cam w/ that stroker and I think you'll have what your looking for,maybe without even spinning it to 6k RPM's.

 

So, Looks like:

9.5:1 CR
Vortech Heads, with bigger springs, screw in studs, guide plates
400 crank
mild cam
Performer RPM intake (for vortech heads)


When you say mild cam, what are you talking, performer rpm as well? flat tappet?

Is the 600 cfm carb enough?

Would it be cost effective to just buy another set of heads instead of having the vortech heads machined to fit the bigger springs and guide plates?

What would it take to convert to a roller cam?

What do you think about the stock rods, or should i find some LT1 rods?

I want this to tolerate my abusing it once in a while, but I do not want to break the bank if you know what i mean.

 

I have a 4-bolt 357 with stock crank and rods that runs 12s shifting at 6400rpm.
041 heads: pocket ported, bowl blended, and gasket-matched
About 10:1 with 4-valve-relief flat top pistons (chambers are about 62cc)
Cam: hydraulic flat-tappet, 234°/244° @ 0.050" and 0.488"/0.510" lift, 114° LSA
Edelbrock C26 low-rise dual quad intake with two 600cfm Edelbrock carbs, 1:1 linkage
Even with a 3800rpm converter and 4.10 gears, it's pretty streetable considering it's in a chassis set up for drag racing.

With a single-carb dual plane and more modern heads and cam, you should be able to come up with my performance results with alot more streetability. If you want Vortec heads, you might consider GM's new Bowtie Vortecs (25534421), or Scoggin-Dickey has some nice looking Vortec kits that have almost everything you'd need.

 

Thanks everyone for you info. I am headed to the machine shop tomorrow to get the block gone through. I have done some calling around here, and I can get a 400 crank turned down, and ready to put in my 350 block for $100 + my 350 crank. So, looks like I am going with the 383.

I will look into the heads you mentioned.

Nice to hear that I won't have to buy new, or better rods. I am trying to build this motor on a budget. Hopefully, I can get the short block finished, and then save up for the heads.

When the machine shop is finished with the block, they should be able to tell me what pistons i need to get the desired compression ratio, right?

Thanks again.

 

I can tell you right now, but we'll need to know your deck height, head gasket thickness, and combustion chamber volume.


BTW, do you guys suppose polishing cast rods would be beneficial to them like it is to forged rods? I don't see why it wouldn't...

 

OK, got the block, crank and rods back from the machine shop.....383 here I come. Still need pistons before I can start checking clearances though.

Cast or Hypereuctectics? Will most likely never see NOS, or FI. But, I do want to be able to abuse this thing once in a while.

Decided on either Dart Iron Eagles, Performer RPM, or Sportsman II heads, not sure which one though.