Thread: Anyone used "Peanut Ports" on your BBC?

Tweet

Just an observation from someone who at one time came on here often and stopped. I stopped because of the responses I got were typically wise ass comments. When I would get answers back on questions, rarely was my question answer but I was given suggestions saying "You should do this and that" and typically it was way beyond what I was looking to do. the sachasm back towards me in e mails I got based on questions I posed was the final effort I made in educating myself on my BB build. Take it for what its worth.

On the other hand of this. No offense to the original poster. But beyond your asking "Who has definitive expereince with these heads on a BB build" you have gotten some good infomation from very expereinced people here,,,Johnny O, Pat and Erik have all given you basically the same answer in different ways. These guys all have much more expereince that you and I for sure. ... Even if you think their advice came acrossed in a poor manner. It seems like YOU DONT WANT to hear/accpet what they are saying and are fighting and waiting for someone to tell you WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR, (that they will be great heads) rather than the truth. You came acrossed just as sarchastic in your comment "Maybe I should go to a 4x4 web site to get smoe info. Im sure you could...cause thats what those heads were made for towing, torque, pure daily driver kind of heads..not performance.

No offense, no flaming..just trying to maybe help you come to realization. Good luck with your build!

I really dont understand your dilemma. budget is a probelm is the impression Im gettin from you...so put the heads on and have fun cause for around town driving IMO you will have more fun with the peanut port head than those rectangular ports. Save you coin and get a set of 781's with proper valve and port work and put them on later.

65cayne, I'm sure the heads will work good as long as you don't expect something crazy powerful. With the smaller intake runner size you can expect better throttle response and torque. But what everyone is trying to say is you will not be able to run a big cam in it. You are stuck with a cam of not much bigger than a 210 duration @ .050. Which, will make an excellent torque motor. GM performance made the HT502 with that in mind. The peanut ports made excellent torque and at only 3000 rpms made the max 550 torque. But don't expect it to rev, that is all that is being said. Consider 350 horsepower the max that it will make. But torque will be awesome, and that can make a car fast too. It will just not feel as fast as a whole lot of horsepower and rpms. Just try it with what you have, the cam is not too big so it will run good.

I have been sitting back and just reading on this post, it interests me as i have 74 oval port 454 4 bolt that is in need of a build.
Thinking of going to a 496 crank and keeping rpm to a limit of 5500 for durability with a hyd cam and stock heads a bit higher comp etc very simple. Something that has a torque line as flat as a table.
An engine that would almost be at home in any vehicle and would perform adequatly in anything because of the torque output.
I dont know much about the peanut heads but-
65 canye has a pretty heavy car and a gearsetup that would be more at home with the lower rpms than a screamer it may work just fine, but not 1st on raceday. Put them in if you want set it up let us know how it turns out.
Id shure like to know.

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

have i used the peanut ports in a Hp build NO. i have work on boats that had them about the same cam you have they made 330 hp and did run good why i have not used any? it would take to much time to get more then 400hp+ out of them but would be a good head for TQ //////i think this said it all maybe not ??that is why somtimes i do not uderstand any one or maybe they do not understand me ??if you build your engine like the merc boat engine 330hp and gear it not to go past 4800 it will make good power with headders you may get 375/400 with a good intake .

this was back on page 3 or so i added to it were the /// so what did i leave out

Pat, you left nothing out. I personally always look for your replies. Thanks for hangin in there.

Okay folks, I have been contemplating what 30-A Rider said and feel like I owe you all an apology. I re-read my posts and, it is possible that I may have come off sarchastically even though I tried very hard to write in such a way that one would not get that impression. I certainly did not mean it in a "mean" way. Also possible that I interpreted Erik's reply-post in the same fashion and shot off a response without thinking. Erik, my tone in real life is not near as severe as how it may have come across in words on a screen. Take that for what it's worth.

So, sorry for all that mess. I am not a mean guy. Stubborn maybe, but not mean.

For those interested, I will let you know how it turns out with the small ovals. I found a group of folks running them on the street with some success (like Blackroc) and little on the investment side so I may try it for a while and save some $$. A running BBC is better than no BBC at all.


There, now I feel better.

I should add the sbc I had in my car prior to this 454 ran 11.8xx so I definately noticed a drastic change. Althought the 454 with the peanut ports isn't too bad till it runs out of air.

This was what happened to the last sbc and then I decided to try a bbc for a change.

Originally Posted by 65ny

Pat, you left nothing out. I personally always look for your replies. Thanks for hangin in there.

Agreed. Pat's reply said pretty much everything I beleive.

Just wanted to add my $.02. I run a 454 with 236 peanut ports in my 26' boat. I too run out of air around 4500 rpms, and want to go to around 5500 rpms.

I plan on switching to some 049 or 781 heads soon and running her until she needs a rebuild then I will make her a 496 with forged internals and then may really rev her. Oh, if I didn't run in salt water with raw water cooling (cooling water comes from body of water you are in) system, I would change to aluminum heads to save weight. I thought about putting a closed loop cooling system in, but will just stay with cast iron heads for simplicity.

Unfortunately, I don't want to loose low end grunt, which is why I want to keep the same pitch prop but just rev higher.

well the only thing that i will add is your engine is a very good running engine in your boat the 330 hp are not to bad when they are using small port heads with stock size valves and small cam and all cast iron heads intake crank .. parts.and cast pistons . if you pull a part one there is no trick parts that i think speak volumes on just how good the 454 big block is in stock form .i think they build them to keep them down around 4600. that keeps them happy and well live long

Well, 330 hp pushing a 26' Celebrity Andretti just doesn't satisfy the speed freak in me LOL. I'm hoping with different heads and cam to at least get around 400 hp out of her w/o tearing into the motor. I have higher flow exhaust manifolds on her, and edelbrock intake and holley carb, electronic fuel pump etc. This winter coming up I'll pull the motor apart and see what the insides look like. I would like to eventually end up with an all forged 496 making serious horsepower! Or, maybe I'll just swap in a 502 and start from there, but that would be for another thread LOL

Originally Posted by canadianal

...I dont know much about the peanut heads but-
65 canye has a pretty heavy car and a gearsetup that would be more at home with the lower rpms than a screamer it may work just fine, but not 1st on raceday. Put them in if you want set it up let us know how it turns out.
Id shure like to know.

Well, For those that are curious, the motor is in and running. Due to a series of unforseen events, I am currently using the peanut ports with stock valves, no port work. The combo is as follows:

65 Biscayne, 4000# (?)
454cid, 9.35:1cr (approx)
770cfm Holley SA, vac sec
Weiand DP intake (rect port )
GM 14092360 Heads "peanut ports"
Voodoo 60201 Hydr FT (256/262, 213/219@.050, .515/.530, 112LSA, 108 ICL)
Headers, 2.25" dual exhaust through 40 series FM's
TH400, stock converter, 3.36 gears in the rear diff.

How does it perform? Depends on who you ask. In my experience, it has very good street manners, starts fine, idles fine at about 700 or so, only a slight lope. This combo provides an exessive amount of torque just off idle and pulls very hard (IMO) up to about 5000 (highest I have revved it) although it gets a little soft starting around 4000. It will burn the tires for quite a distance if I ask it to.

Let me add, I AM NOT A DRAG RACER AND HAVE NEVER DRIVEN A SUB-ELEVEN SECOND CAR THAT "HOOKS"........SOOO, to some people, this car could very well be A DOG (or "turtle"...some dogs can RUN) and thus not very impressive. For saturday nice cruises and tire smoking to impress the chics, it does just fine.

The "dreaded" peanut ports are performing better than expected. To compare theory to reality, I can feel the choking effects start to come on around 4000 like I said (and like others have told me) BUT it is not nearly as bad as some would lead you to believe. Could be the exhaust?Again, JMO. Depends what you are comparing against. For such a heavy car, it moves very well. City mileage, with my foot in/out of the throttle, netted around 8.5mpg. Highway MPG I would guess somewhere around 11 (?). I havent driven enough highway miles to know for sure.

Thanks to all who helped me get here. If anyone has any questions or comments about this motor, feel free to PM me or reply to this thread.

"For saturday nice cruises and tire smoking to impress the chics, it does just fine."

Meet any chics yet?

Originally Posted by 65ny

"For saturday nice cruises and tire smoking to impress the chics, it does just fine."

Meet any chics yet?

when the smoke clears, they are normally all gone....