Thread: old skool 454 vs 7.4 vortec for torque?

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Hello everyone, I'm looking for a new motor for a "jeep", well it used to be a jeep thing but i broke most of that stuff. recently lost compression on my 305 and since im getting into it anyway I want some big block power to step up to 44's and have seen budget builds of older n/a 454's for under 2500 putting out in the 500hp close to 600 ft/lbs with not much more than cam and heads, intake/ehaust, but going carb is a concern for extreme angles. been trying to look into a 7.4 vortec but the stock numbers don't seem very impressive and i haven't been able to find a reasonable budget build up and the additional electronics and sensors are a concern. so my questions are is there a good TBI system that can support 500 hp on a gen V or older 454, or is there an easy budget friendly way to get close to those numbers with a newer vortec? im not looking for a complete cheap junkyard build (went that way with the 305 and regretted it) but would really like to stay under around 2k. mounting/tranny etc are not a concern at the moment.

With 44" tires, you'll need rear gears into the 5's and a transfer case into the 9's or 10's to make a final drive of ~40:1 to 50:1 to have any tractability at low speeds and do rock crawling. I just went over this with another rodder. $2K won't even make a good down payment by the time you purchase EFI and an aftermarket transfer case. You'll generally need at least $1000 worth of machine work on the block and heads to make everything right and build a good foundation for power. I would probably begin with a Mark IV block and use peanut port heads.
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the vehicle is anything but stock currently, hence why i said i wasnt concerned about tranny etc at this time. An atlas should have no trouble handling the power and the 6.72 gears i have now are more than sufficient for 44's, I'm on 40's now. Problem is the axles weight roughly the same as the state of Texas until i can afford the disk conversion, and then they will still be very heavy. Im slightly worried about the th400 with the torque numbers i want, but the best way to find a weak link is to beat on it till it breaks and i will worry about it then. Current project is the bad motor so im wanting to get the best torque numbers i can for a reasonable price and still have a little in the jeep piggy bank for the next hing that breaks.

I've never been a real big fan of the vortec 454s. They just are so lazy IMO. You could do an old 454 on the cheap I bet. I see them on CL around here for a grand and lower depending on the condition. You can get holley, Fitech, or Summit throttle body EFI kits for a grand and under. You'll probably be in the $1250-$1500 depending on how you go about fuel pump and lines etc. This would be cheaper than building an engine for sure.

Every time I get into an engine rebuild, the cheap or easy and fast are out the window. It starts out with just a slight over bore, and turns into $3500 or more gone in minutes. Haha

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