Thread: 454 500hp!!!!!!

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I agree ,I found this out- you start pushing 400HP and you had better know your clearences and machine work.That costs MONEY to farm out if you do not have the tools. I also agree that few of us on here do.
For myself it would not pay back as often as I build an engine (maybe 25 in my 32 year working lifetime. None of my BBC's ever ran over 6000 or SBC's over 7000 Rpm on purpose nor were planned to do so) I DID however spend a good chunk of wages on qualty measuring tools and torque wrenchs. I pay to have the serious machine stuff done or buy a kit short block/assembled bolt on heads. Its real easy to screw up a good set of heads, I leave that to pro's. I am fortunate in that I have a working relationship w a qualty Machine shop and custom balancer. I then assemble either myself. In my use of the net I listen to combo's that have worked for others like timing and cams, heads/valves, intake /carb info. I have also asked about clearances ,torque specs, good brake in oils, lowest pressure reduction oil filters and I have a Alt bracket question going right now.. But planning an engine w that mixed bag w/o experiance would have at best dissapointing results. In the end I had to make the choices according to my end game plan and experiance... I've won a few races + lost a hell of alot more. Built fast HP engines and daily's and the two in my experiance are not even close cousins. Had engines that crapped first time out (Its been a LONG time tho,knock on wood) and others that ran multiple seasons. (a couple daily's are on 10 years now) High end HP engines are not assembled on a garage floor by ametuer builders and expected to last very long. Can it be done ? Yep, Should it? NO.

ive ben readin all this.i have a454 truck engine too.i too am a beginer at engine building.ive ben told that 400hp can be made with this engine fairly easy.port the peanut heads,cam and lifters,and better intake.even use the same carb.tq is where its at.this can be done on the cheep.that other 100 hp is costley from what i have found.this is my first engine build.i want to start out with a pretty simple build.i would like to have some large oval port heads,but these truck heads will work well with a port job from what ive ben told.these changes to the 454 are only gona cost about 500 bucks.now thats cheep power.im not tryin to change your mind,but this is a good way to start and you can do it yourself with some advice from these fellers who do know how to build on.