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I am getting ready to start a new motor project. I havent bought any parts or even a motor yet. Im looking into a 400 from a guy that lives down the street but havent seen it yet so its a possibility if I dont end up with that it will be a 350. I want to build a motor that makes around 400-450 hp with out nitrous as cheaply as possible. so basically Im just trying to put some combinations together on paper before i start the actuall build and could use any good ideas out there.

Gabe how ya been man? What's this one for?

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Resident lurker

Doin great how have you been? you just missed the big Kool April Nights car show last weekend I think it was rained out again. I sold my LUV 3 or 4 weeks ago I drove it 3 times. I bought my girlfriends dads 78 chevy truck its a nice truck minus the motor. Im building another 327 for smog purposes and now im about ready to start building a good street beater motor for it. Do you ever talk to Toby anymore? I sent him a PM quite a while ago and never heard from him.

cast 6" rod 383 .

Dumb question about 6" rods. I dont have any experiance with 6" rods do you have to use shorter pistons or whats the deal? I was kinda trying to stay with the 400.

The rod pin moves up in the piston and changes the rod angle . Also tdc dwell is longer . Just an option if the 400 does not work out . I think you can buy the whole rotating assembly for around 6 bill on ebay . If you use nitrous shorter rod is better .

If you get the 400, I'd go for torque more than hp. .030 or .040 overbore, depending on where it will clean up, 5.7 or 6.0 rods, since you said no NOS, i'd get some KB Hyperteutic pistons for a max 10.0 compression ratio. Vortec or Fastburn heads modified to accept the adjustable rockers, A nice hydraulic camshaft, (maybe a roller). A Edelbrock rpm airgap intake, and a 600 Holley carb. That combo will pull like a freight train in that truck. I believe you can get the modified Vortec heads from Scoggin-Dickey brand new for around $700.

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FIAA!

SFPP!

I agree with mytmouz, if you got the 400 go with the min to clean it up. Vortec heads are great bang for the buck. I build alot of IMCA motors which can be claimed so $ is important. If you get the 350 block go 383 it is relativly easy to get 1.5 to 1.6 hp per cubic in with that combo.

My gripe with the vortec is the valve angle. The small valve will acutally flow more air than the large valve. $1K to get a vortec to flow like a $700 iron head dart.

Just my .02

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Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy horsepower...and that's kind of the same thing...

I to agree with mytmouz use the 400 with 6" rods and vortec heads 10-10.5 comp. and edel. manifold and this will make the kind of torq that big block dream about But a warning is needed here if you build a combo. like this be sure to have cash left over for tires as you will be buying them quite often.If you want low speed torq the 600 holley will work if you want high speed then the 750 will work. This motor combo "will" make allot of power and live so you can up grade it as your budget grows

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1978 pro street step/side 455Buick, 4sp,4.11s, 31/18.5s

all that is good stuff. I have been thinking about using the Dart Iron eagle heads I have heard a lot of good things about them.

I thought you wanted a budget build?You can get a set of loaded vortecs for about half the price of bare Darts....

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72 luv v-8 owned since 16!
240" rear engine dragster
traded the circle track cars for a blown 496 chevy
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29 dodge 4 dr sedan (project)
84 ranger 2wd "tuff truck" with 350 sbc

Speedway motors sells a pair of Dart Iron eagles ready to run up to .600 lift for $819.95. They also sell Prolightening and World products comparable spec heads for around the same price. I know I said I wanted a budget build up but I think 800 bucks for a set of decent heads would be a good idea. I might be a little crazy but I believe a good set of heads is money worth spent. Besides that the last motor I ran in my luv had a set of GM 3978487X heads with 2.02/1.60 valves if I had another pair of those I would use them but I dont want to track another pair of those down. THere is another non budget build up question that has had me interested for a while that I know pretty much nothing about. Roller cams First off I have been doing alot of thumbing through the Summit, Jegs and speedway catalogs and noticed that they are spendy and usually have quite a bit of lift. second of all I noticed there are several different lifters available and I have also heard about there is a retro fit and sometimes possible extra machine work involved. like I said I dont really know anything about the topic and I dont want to throw a ton of money at it. Also cam choice is a little questionable I wanted the Iron eagle heads because they are all set up for up to .600 lift. I figure that is a little extreme but at least the option is available. I would assume ( Im not a engine builder or anything close to being one) that .500-.525 lift would be some where in the ball park where I would want to be. My father in law who is an automotive tech and a hotrodder says anything under .500 lift is a waste of free horsepower. I was looking through the summit catalog at the Vortech heads and they are all speced out on max lift at .480 and cost right about $600 So thats another reason I am looking at the Iron eagles. If I really wanted to get out of the budget section my choice would be a pair of edlebrock RPM heads. That brings up another dumb question is straight or angle plug? whats the actuall difference in performance.

The advertised .600 lift is for a hydraulic/mechanical cam, not nearly enough spring pressure for even a small roller IMO. The type of roller lifter will be based upon the block you use. I might have a reasonable option, I'll send you a pm.

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FIAA!

SFPP!

Like I mentioned I dont think I will go with a roller cam its just something that has been in the back of my mind I am probably going to go with a hydraulic set up possibly a mechanical I just dont want to have to be adjusting valves all the time.

Well since you don't have the block yet you could buy a later model roller cam block (87-98) and run a hydraulic roller 383 . The vortecs can be modified for more lift , but they run out of port around .525 and you'll have to buy an intake . You could match the vortecs with a lt-4 hotcam and 1.6 rockers . I have also heard of 4 or 6 cylinder roller lifters being put in old style blocks for a budget retrofit .

Go with a hydralic balanced 383 stroker. Easy build 350 block w/ 400 crank, bored .040 over. 350 blocks have cheepest, and most bolt on profomance parts. vortech heads, and edelbrock airgap manifold. good setup. Thats the motor I'm going to use when ever I decide to get a muscle car (soon as I finish my luv and my ricer)

I think if I get the 400 block from the guy down the street I will just use it as a 400 or what ever it ends up being after its cleaned up. I like the saying that goes "There is no replacment for displacement" In my last stock car I had a pretty much stock 400 with a small cam performer intake with a holley 4412 2 barrel and a restrictor plate that had 2 holes about the size of a quarter each stock exhuast manifolds from a GMC truck 305 all limited by the rule book of course and that thing was fast. I think that a motor like that with a good cam like the edlebrock RPM cam and RPM intake with the Iron eagle heads and the Doug Thorley tri Ys would be really working the locker pretty hard.

So what combo did you go with on your rig? Right now i have all my qjet tuning stuff packet, but i can help ya diagnose that thing. Hey, drop by the house in the next week if ya wanna hear the camaro, its just sittin in the garage here waiting to move, maybe we can drive it up to the scale at the mill and see if I need to chop more crap off it LOL Really, im hoping to get that pig under 3,000# with an iron head rat, but it is damn near a skelleton now, catch ya later.

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LUV Truck Desserter!
76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro

The motor is pretty much stock right now it has an Edlebrock performer intake , Edlebrock CA emissions 600 cfm carb and Doug Thorley headers.Gotta keep this motor for the smog exam. I think I am going to buy a el cheapo 383 kit from speedway. The truck already doesnt stick to the road with 12 inch wide tires and a detroit locker so I dont think anything exotic is in order for it until I decide to back half it or something crazy like that. I would like to see that camaro one of these days give me a call when you want to show it off.

Well hey, you just need some stickey tires if ya want to really go fast lol Ill dig up your number, im usualy around in the evening this week. I just came from a track meeting tonite and the club voted to hand over the operations to a fellow racer. Should be a good thing for the drag strip here in Redding. Oh next week ill have all the cars here, we are stuck here (girlfriend and her kids too) till the new place comes through. Gonna be cramped here, moving is so fun!

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LUV Truck Desserter!
76 Daily driver (SOLD)
73 LUV (rusting away at the moment)
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63 Nova
74 Camaro