Hey guys I'm going to be building a car for a rich friend of mine. He's giving me 30 grand to play with but here is the hard part. It's a 1975 caprice 4 door. It was his grandmothers car and he wants it to be a pro-touring beast. The car weighs 5,000 lbs.

He wants a very streetable 500 rwhp small block chevy. Here are my thoughts

383 Small Block Chevy, Prob a roller cam block
weiland vortech stealth ram intake
vortech heads
Custom made single turbo kit
Mega Squirt II V3.0 ECM

Now here is the hard part. I would like to build the engine and turbo kit for around 7 grand. Is this possible? Will it be reliable? What parts would best suit this application?

Are the vortec heads a good idea? They were prototype heads made for mercury marine by John Lingenfelter before he died. The don't seem to have much port work done. But they have comp valve springs, screw in studs, and manly race flow valves installed. I figured these heads would still make good torque when the engine is not in boost yet.

Thanks!

 

not on topic, but can I come see your Studebaker, or could you at least PM me about some Pics with some info

thanks

 

In the situation you describe I would talk to World about one of their large displacement small blocks in low compression and drop a 6-71 Roots on top of it.

If you're not limited to small blocks, the GMPP 454HO with the rectangle port iron heads and an 8-71 roots would be an excellent value.

Back to the small block and going over budget, you can get the naturally aspirated 600hp 454 small block from World for right about 10 grand. That's WITH a warranty.

 

What happened to the other 23 grand?

 

Master: The studebaker is in rough shape right now but i can send pics if you want.

Lame: He wants to achieve 15-20 mpg out of this car. I don't think that will be easy with any of those other engine combinations.

Blown: The other 23 grand is going into the suspension, body & paint, wheels and tires, HVAC, stero and interior..... Not into a offshore account;-)

 

If you happen to have some please send them, dont go out of your way to take some though

thanks

 

Observation: your rich friend won't be for long if he drops $30k on this car. He is liable to make other questionable decisions along the way.

Ok, that being said trying to move 5000 lbs with a small block and have it appear to be powerful is going to be difficult. Consider installing a 454HO crate motor from GM and a 700R4. The 700R4 will increase low end torque with its low first gear and allow him to cruise in overdrive. Check the rear end gears as it may have some obscenely high gears, such as 2:41 or some crap. Replace those with 3:42 or similar. It probably has an 8.5" diff.
You can always talk him into a megasquirt conversion with an edelbrock intake and rails, or the similar holley manifold setup which is quite good out of the box. Expect to spend $1500 or better on the efi conversion all said and done.

Buy the Hotchkis B-body suspension components.

 

[QUOTE=OldSchoolSS]
Lame: He wants to achieve 15-20 mpg out of this car. I don't think that will be easy with any of those other engine combinations.
QUOTE]


His goals may be mutually incompatible.

However, if i were trying to hit that goal I would use a 454, either a small or big block version, relatively mild, with a 6-71 or 8-71 pullied for 6lbs.
I would use an overdrive tranny with as many gears as possible and gear the vehicle overall so that in top overdrive gear the RPMS were in the 2000-2200 rpm area.

That's just me.