Kind of my thoughts as well.
Martin
Martin
CK5
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1976 C-10 Stepside Shortbox - Beagle's Build
- Thread starter beags86
- Start date
This.
So I missed replying to this thread. Have those 781s opened to big valves and they will work good. Made 660 NA with my 427 and a nicely ported set. I lean toward solid roller but either way go roller for sure. A cast 4.25 strike crank is like $250 and should handle 500-550 easy. Sonic check and bore it if you want, it should go. A vortec block however will not go as far on the overbore so your gen iv may be just fine. Also a gen vi can can be used in your block. If you find a used stock roller they are billet and can be ground to performance specs for less money than a new cam.
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Ah, I wish it was just that easy. I simply don't have anything what-so-ever to do the swap at this time. Plus the trans swap (if I ever go that route) is what I consider phase three or four. Phase 3-4 is at least two winters out. I may never do the swap, I don't know. It just a long term goal/plan, as I said before.
Right now phase one is the engine swap and I am only focused on that. Along with the proper adjustments for my intended power level. Since I didn't receive any real input on this other then the obvious, do it once. I'll just stay with my original plan of tossing a t400 in it and calling it a day.
going to sell me everything I need?
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beags86
Eastbound and Down
@folkenheath
Terry has driver seat on the fat block.
I didn't know he did all Ron's machine work. Email me if you want to talk more.
Terry has driver seat on the fat block.
I didn't know he did all Ron's machine work. Email me if you want to talk more.
A 496 build with @folkenheath helping out. This feels very familiar. Looks like you had better luck finding a block than I have. Want to see how this turns out.
beags86
Eastbound and Down
Yes, Heath has been a bad influence on me. Actually he told me to see if you wanted to part with your heads. I saw your engine for sale today. Pretty sure I am going with brodix or dart heads at this point though. I switched my machine shop to the same guy he uses. Turns out I lucked out with the core as I have owned it for 13 or so years and never cared to see what I had.
I hear you there, airflow and hp make me giddy like a little kid. Last night I was comparing intake gaskets for the new heads I got for my latest creation. They flow 486 cfm from a conventional 24 deg BBC head.
I bet you can't do it!
(That means try it and make a build thread about it) If you want to go 4L80E, a bone stock unit with transgo shift kit can take 700 hp (I do my own mods myself for free without the shift kit but that takes too much time anymore), and if you don't want to buy the $600 controller I could tell how to wire it to make it a full manual unit temporarily. We did it to my brothers truck and to my regal to, although my regal is about to get EFI finally that will make it an auto again. I could send you a diagram on how to wire it to shift it with 3 rocker/toggle switches (one for each gear).
The converter is the expensive part. They can make you one in Rockford at Midwest converters. They make anything from stock to a billet lockup piece that can take 2000 hp through the lockup clutch!
He has been doing his machine work for years. He tears down the engines in the drag cars every 300 passes to check them out and freshen them up, and Terry does any of the machine work needed.
Want to hear something funny AJ. Beags wrote me a PM several months ago. He basically said, "I think we have something in common outside of CK5, do you know what it is?" Well, I couldn't figure it out after reading his build thread. But I did figure out he went to the same high school, and what year he graduated (he was young enough I didn't know who he was, because with 65 people/class, everyone knows everyone within a couple years of your class). So anyway, I texted my cousin and asked him since he was younger, turns out Beags and I are second cousins, his Grandpa is my Grandma's brother. We just hadn't seen each other in 2 decades or so. So the world is small, you meat someone on the net that you have already met 20 years before that and it turns out you are second cousins.
Hey, I just told you not to spend a bunch of money on a high end LS, when a heavy truck will feel more powerful with a big block. It's not my fault you decided to spend money on a big block instead!
Don't get me wrong, LS engines are excellent small blocks, I've built some of them and I like them, but they are still small blocks. For example, just for comparison, look at the LS376, 525 hp 6.2L crate engine, it has 486 lb-ft at 5200 RPM, and about 410-440 lb-ft from 3000-4000 RPM
Now compare that to the ZZ502, which has 502 hp, but has over 520 ft-lbs from 2700 all the way to about 4800. Obviously these are both stock crate engines that can be improved, but my point is, the big block has over 100 ft-lbs more torque than the LS small block of the similar power levels. And that you will definitely feel every time you drive it. And with a $300 stroker crank in a big block, the displacement is hard to compete with.
Yes, I know you can make a 500 cubic inch LS if you go crazy, but you can make a 6o0(with std deck height), or 700 or even 800 cubic inch inch big block if you go crazy. I just tried to pick a middle of the road unit for each as an example. They are both good engines, but for a heavy truck big blocks rule.
You are going to like the stroker BBC beags.
Save the LS build for the cutlass project. That would be sweet there.
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beags86
Eastbound and Down
LS cutty...hmm... Coming from the guy putting a BBC in a G body...
Not to totally derail my own thread. I do plan on getting my '87 cutlass out of storage in 2016... Not sure about an LS swap but I do plan on getting it out and putting alittle time and money into it. Towards the later part of this year...
Not to totally derail my own thread. I do plan on getting my '87 cutlass out of storage in 2016... Not sure about an LS swap but I do plan on getting it out and putting alittle time and money into it. Towards the later part of this year...
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beags86
Eastbound and Down
@Greg Ducato is going to set me up with a 400. It will be good enough for now.
Beags, put another big block in your monte, put an LS in the cutlass.
I hear what you are saying, but even 3.55 sucks on the freeway with no overdrive. Yeah the mpg isn't worth the change, I just hate buzzing my engine and still getting passed when everyone else is going 75 on the freeway these days. Now I just bump 4th and lock the torque converter and cruise, turns my 3.73s into a 2.80 gear plus some with the lockup. With a lockup converter you can get a decent stall for performance and still lock it up on the highway for cruising, best of both worlds. Not to mention transbrakes. I'll take a transbrake over a clutch on a drag car any day. I'll take the clutch for the sports car though. Then I really like the clutch. So with one trans you can have a 10.5" lockup converter, a .75 OD, and a transbrake that can be driven on the street or at the race track. Transbrakes are bitchin'.
I hear what you are saying, but even 3.55 sucks on the freeway with no overdrive. Yeah the mpg isn't worth the change, I just hate buzzing my engine and still getting passed when everyone else is going 75 on the freeway these days. Now I just bump 4th and lock the torque converter and cruise, turns my 3.73s into a 2.80 gear plus some with the lockup. With a lockup converter you can get a decent stall for performance and still lock it up on the highway for cruising, best of both worlds. Not to mention transbrakes. I'll take a transbrake over a clutch on a drag car any day. I'll take the clutch for the sports car though. Then I really like the clutch. So with one trans you can have a 10.5" lockup converter, a .75 OD, and a transbrake that can be driven on the street or at the race track. Transbrakes are bitchin'.
Stop being a pussy. No crusing rpm really hurts engines. Do you think the guy that ordered the LS6 with the 4.56 gears only went 55? Hell no he turned it what it took to do 5 over the speed limit. I turned my 427 3800-4200 on drag week and the bearings looked great after the tear down. The cylinders were oiled awesome with the cyclone of oil flying around inside at those speeds so the rings hardly wore and the mpg was 9-12 which really is pretty great for a dominator fed BBC. My converter was extra loose then but now much tighter on this iteration to bring down the 1500 additional rpm of flash the bottle added before. I did have a super t10 before but the constant 12 bolt ring and pinion breakage tied to the need for a $1000 adjustable clutch forced me to a th400. Of course again I am think about my pile and not this truck. I will be adding a gear vendors over a 4l80e seeing as when you get into making 1200 or do HP the 4l80es become much more expensive. I am being forced to move to a 3.55 gear to help keep it off the limiter and lower the multiplication. A 80 would be nice I guess if it was a mild build like this but then with it being so mild I would be going to a manual to get back some excitement.
Hey that's my line..(except I always add "such" in there).
And weren't you just talking about spinning 1200 - 1800 RPM and now its 4000? 
Of course it doesn't hurt it, but the engine can only take so many cycles so it just shortens its life, plus it drives me nuts hearing the engine buzz on the freeway, I'd rather here it purr at 2200 or so. Of course 20 years later I am yanking the engine out while it's still fine so it probably wouldn't of mattered.
I had a 3.55 and TH400 for 15 years, got sick of it, installed 4L80E I built with enough mods to handle 1400 hp (or so they say).
Now I can pussy foot the RPM on the freeway cruise speeds and beat the piss out of it when I want and launch the transbrake too. No complaints. If you spend the money to make a TH400 live to 12o0 and then buy the GV OD the 80 would of been cheaper because most of the parts are similar to the TH400. But now that they have TH400 with Ried cases and all light race parts that can live to 4000 hp and GV that are well over 1400 that setup does have more potential if you are tryin to be Tom Bailey or something. They even have lockup TH400 converters now too.
I like your style John, keep it up!
Sorry to hijack your thread beags, but at least its tranny tech that might help big block people.
You can pick up a used 4L80E for around $300, and wire it to run manual if you want. If you are like me you'll get tired of the freeway RPM real quick.
But if you want an OD stick shift for an autocross someday I can see how just keeping it simple with the TH400 might make sense.
beags86
Eastbound and Down
This. I don't want any breakdowns until I get a fully built rear end and that won't be this year.
It's all perspective. It's a mild build for a race car, but I don't consider it a mild for a DD. I'll never get this truck to hook correctly. Street or Track. I'll never fully build the rear suspension because it will never be a race truck. 500 or 600 or how ever many horse will be plenty.
