Thread: 396

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Hey everybody, im new to the forums and have a couple quick questions about building some power with a 396.

first off its a '70 nova 4 speed (auto) with 4:11's in the rear. The engine is the original 396 with edelbrock air gap manifold, Holley carb, longtube headers, and a flowmaster exhaust.

I have been reading up on the engine and the car, but figured i might have some better luck here.

-another concern is that this engine seems to be burning a little oil when its cold and right before it shifts. also the oil p.s.i guage reads 50, when in Park and stopped; but when in gear and stopped its just above 0 and increases with throttle.... im sorry if this is a stupid question but is that normal?

Thanks for the help in advance if anyone has any suggestions, or tips please PLEASE help me out.

thanks again

What you need is one of those new ZZ572 crate motors, just slap that bad boy in there and youll be good to go....

ha yeah 572... i wish. Im 17 and trying to pour money into this car, and college at the same time and the car seems to be winning.

Anyway as far as the motor - its in very very good shape, and runs beautifuly. Is there a specific oil weight you suggest? I just changed it recently and put in 10w-30, should i just go with detergent free oil? or maybe a 40 weight?

i checked out the actual gauge itself and there is a very fine clear hose running the the gauge face itself with oil in it and you can see it travel when the car is running. I dont think it a problem with the gauge.

ha and besides the 572 anymore performance suggestions?


thank you for the help so far

You didnt mention the carb, if i was trying to pull out some X-tra hp from a basically stock motor on a budget and it was a 396, i would go with a Edelbrock performer rpm cam, or a cam close to those specs (nothing too big) and a set of roller rockers and if it didnt already have it i would get a 750 vacuum secondary on there. Holley of course. You already have a decent intake you mentioned. Maybe a little hotter coil also. That should wake the motor up a bit. Check Ebay out man, you can finde some really really good deals on big block chevy parts. just type in big block chevy and you'll get like 16 pages of parts. check it out. later,Joe

what would that set me at, as far as power ?
- the bigger cam that is and roller rockers as well as the carb? just a roungh estimate.... over 450?

In all honesty i'd like to be in the 550 - 600 hp range. and id really like to do it with this 396. would i just be better off throwing in a bigger engine?

right now i really dont want to spend anymore than about 5k on parts.

anyway thanks again for all the help

70 Nova,
Reality check here. If you have around $8-10,000 to spend then you can look at that kind of HP. More down to earth would be 350-400 depending on what HP the engine is already and the existing compression ratio.
I would recommend getting a Demon carb. They have a record of pulling more HP with the same or smaller CFM rating and better fuel ecomomy.
Check with the tech dept of Comp Cams and tell them what you have. They can make recommendations on the best cam for your application with out hurting HP. A cam can be too big.
One more thing. Think about drivability. An engine with 600-650 HP will not be very streetable, and won't run on pump gas.
Ed

that specific 396 was supposed to make 375 hp stock- thats why i figure,in reality, 550 wouldnt be so far off. Or at least attainable without breaking 5 grand although spending more isnt a huge deal.

i just wanted an already proven combination of parts that would net me close to that number (on a budget).

wether it be naturaly aspirated or not



edit: Just posted some pictures too

Personally, if it were me and I was looking at college expenses as you are, (Still paying for them for (and with) my son after 15 years and they don't seem to be getting any smaller) I would go with a set of roller rockers and a Demon Carb. You won't believe the difference you will feel.
If you really want to spend 5 grand, yank the engine, bore it .030 to 402, full roller cam and rockers, Demon carb and you could approach 425-450 HP.
You could purchase a stroker kit on ebay an build it yourself if you have the ability, or you can purchase a 502 crate motor. Lots of ways to spend money.
If you really do have a 396 / 375 HP, it is worth some money. You could sell it for 12-1500 bucks and put that along with the $5000 you supossedly have that could be used for college and buy a pretty nice crate engine.
I am just sitting here trying to put myself in your position and wondering why you would need more than you have at 17 years old.
I'm sorry, this board isn't for preaching on a soap box. I will get down now. Someone on here can probably help you more. Good luck,
Ed

I saw this somewhere and dont remember where but the best way to put it is this : Speed is a question of money, how fast do you want to go?
what your looking at with a stock set of heads and stock compression and a little hotter cam and a nice intake and carb and a good tune up is maybe 400-450 horsies, maybe. compression is hp up until the point of detonation put about 10.5:1 pistons in there about .060 over with some good gas in there you might hit 500. maybe. oh yeah a good set of headers with a good exhaust.

alright guys the help was amazing - tomorrow im taking it into Gratiot Speedshop where they are going to throw it on a dyno and see where im at. Then go from there. As far as the throwing the money at the car vs school, not to worry the college part is handled the money im talking about 'for college' consists of savings for beer money and other 'needs'. so i figure it'd be better spent on something constructive. again thank you for the help

"tomorrow im taking it into Gratiot Speedshop where they are going to throw it on a dyno and see where im at."

this oughta be good.....stay tuned.....

Hey, Tech.
How's it going ? I was hoping you would show up on this. I can't control myself. What's you opinion on this? You always have good answers. If he really has the 396/375 I would like to have it. Don't have a clue what I would do with it though. I have laid a lot of rubber on the asphalt with one in my younger days.
Can't say that I blame him though. At 17, everyone wants the baddest thing on 4 wheels.
70Nova, you said that you posted some pictures. I can't find them. What kind of shape is the body in? Is it worth an engine like that?
At my age I prefer people looking at the car with their tounges hanging out and drooling over the car rather than worrying about 600 HP. I mean, where you gonna go that fast at?
Ed

tomorrow im taking it into Gratiot Speedshop where they are going to throw it on a dyno and see where im at.

Lol 250 @ 6600 rpm lol

Only kidding just figured id stir it up a bit.....

Let us know how it worked out, Later, Joe

70Nova, the problem with making huge horsepower on the street is the available fuel today. If you're building a naturally aspirated motor (unblown), you have to use a very high compression ratio to make 500-600 horsepower along with a cam that is too wild to be streetable. If this were my motor, I'd pull it apart, cut the crank 0.010"-0.010", cut the bores 0.030" and use pistons that would yield about 9.5:1 compression ratio with the iron heads, have hard seats installed in the heads, zero deck the block and use a 0.035" to 0.040" head gasket. With a 750 carb, roller rockers and headers and a cam with around 225 degrees duration at 0.050" lift, you should be able to generate an honest 400-425 hp on pump gas.

If you're still thinkin' 500-600 hp, you need to be thinkin' blower or turbo.......

http://streetmachinesoftablerock.com...topic.php?t=81

http://streetmachinesoftablerock.com...topic.php?t=83


Ed, you need to take a couple of aspirins and lay down until the feeling goes away.....

ok good news and bad news. I made this dyno appointment like i dont know a week ago - i get there today and they tell me come back in 2 weeks..... what the hell?

anyway today was not a total loss i went to another speedshop and ran into a guy that owned the same car in highschool. I begged for some enlightenment and he schooled me for a good 3 hours on this car and engine. He then ripped the carb apart and tuned it as well as fine tuning the timing... turns out it was way off.
Needless to say now this feels like a completely different car.

i still need to find a dyno shop, so if anyone knows of one in MI that can keep an appointment... ha let me know.

as far as the pictures go if you click the little camera by my name it will show them....ha i hope. the car is in very very good shape it just had a frame off restoration and the paint and chrome was all re-done.