Big vs. small V8s

[stanger42]

obviously i meant the race track...not the drag strip.










Edit: sorry, that was rude of me.

[Ghost74se]

I prefer the small blocks, to the BB. SBs handle better, and since I want street cruisers, instead of strip monsters, the SB is the way to go.

[MrPbody]

Stanger42, a drag strip IS a race track... I was trying to be more specific, and wasn't obvious...

[jonnyboy9012]

I would have to say big block, the bigger the block the more room there is to push out more power, and the weight thing with the big block can be done away with with an aluminum racing block, even though they are more expensive they weigh alot less. Just my .

[RedLightning]

Originally Posted by Blue02R6

Depends on the car mostly, but I'd rather have a nice, big, torquey motor.

same here, too bad "L"s dont come with BB's. Oh what firebird do you have 400? Im in love with Gen 1 "birds".

[1977moneypit]

I am probably going to be swaping a 454 into my 77 chevy k10...it has a 400 sb in it right now but has been giving me so many problems....blow by, loss of compression...and i think think the block might even be cracked because of white smoke out of the pipes. My question is will I be able to just swap in the 454 without any fear of trashing the tranny...I have a th350 w/np 203 t-case. I have read abunch of threads saying that you need to beef up the th350 for people that have 600hp big blocks. But, I am not looking to drag my truck, I just figure if im gunna get another motor I might as well go with a big motor that is gunna sound mean. All I plan on doing is just boring out the block to get whatever lip is there and then just go with a basically stock piston, new gaskets and headers. Will this pretty much stock 454 be alright against my new/stock th350?

[ace27]

I will stick with my 396. More torque = more fun!!!

[Kdickie]

well, the old addage , "there is NO replacement for displacement" rings true most of the time , there are expections , I prefer the small block FORD!!! , For the HP/Lb of weight , the Small block Ford surpasses the chev, but it takes TALENT to free those ponies! IMHO

[Robs71Nova]

Big block all the way for me (two of my cars have them as a matter of fact). Its just so nice to see someone on the street and they ask "whats under the hood" to pop it and the entire engine bay be filled with nothing but motor. You can have a 500 horsepower small block and a 500 horsepower big block, but the big block is going to be more "street friendly" BECAUSE of the high RPMS your going to have to turn to get 500 horses out of a small block. You can get 500 horses out of a big block relatively easily and still remain very streetable. The 454 in my Nova should dyno in the 515 horsepower/540 torque range (its a new motor, so these are desktop dyno projections) and I still get around 9-10 MPG on mid grade gas. To each their own, but for me, its a big block.

Rob

Edit: To the guy that said 454s are "insanely expensive to make", thats not true at all. TOTAL I have about 2400 in the build of my 454, and it makes 500 street friendly horsepower. 1000 dollars of that was spent at the machine shop getting the rods fitted for ARP bolts, crank turned, etc etc. It was basically gettin a brand new engine back from the machine shop. If you do your homework they are not that expensive to build at all. You would have a VERY hard time building smallblock that turned enough RPMS to make 500 horsepower on that budget (believe me, I have tried).

[Mr. Horsepower]

This is getting redundant but I am gonna say it too. They are both good. It depends on the application. I am a small block guy but I totally respect big blocks too. I would say small block is better but thats cause I am bias on them.

[wedgemotor]

Everything needs a BIG BLOCK!

[Madcat455]

I'd go with Big Blocks... Street use isn't going to see over 6K rpm's for that long.... unless you're in Germany...lol.

Me personally.. I'll stick with my 455 that weighs less than a stock Chevy 350.... Buicks Rule.