I've been thinking a lot lately that I've never owned, or even driven, a "high" horsepower motor. Closest would probably be the 383 in our 71 cuda (don't own anymore) or the 08 2500HD 6.0L company truck that are both around 350hp. So I've kinda made it a goal to build a 500hp motor.
Bearing in mind I don't know a lot about building motors. In the past I've taken them to a machine shop and had them rebuilt with a mild cam. I know very little about big block engines.
I'm working under the premise that the Sniper I'm running now will support up to 650hp as advertised so nothing new is needed there.
Some info on the engine I have now. It's a 454 with peanut port heads. It is a 4-bolt main block for what that's worth. It's a rebuilt Jasper engine with unknown miles, I would guess between 10K and 20K. The block is very clean and the cylinder walls still had good crosshatching. To me the cam looked to have more wear than anything else in the motor. We did a compression test and all the cylinders were good and consistent. We did not do a leak down test.
In the interest of budget, how realistic would it be to just throw a set of aluminum heads and a roller cam in this block and run it? Would the low compression kill most of the potential horsepower gains? Would the heads raise compression some?
Thoughts?
Bearing in mind I don't know a lot about building motors. In the past I've taken them to a machine shop and had them rebuilt with a mild cam. I know very little about big block engines.
I'm working under the premise that the Sniper I'm running now will support up to 650hp as advertised so nothing new is needed there.
Some info on the engine I have now. It's a 454 with peanut port heads. It is a 4-bolt main block for what that's worth. It's a rebuilt Jasper engine with unknown miles, I would guess between 10K and 20K. The block is very clean and the cylinder walls still had good crosshatching. To me the cam looked to have more wear than anything else in the motor. We did a compression test and all the cylinders were good and consistent. We did not do a leak down test.
In the interest of budget, how realistic would it be to just throw a set of aluminum heads and a roller cam in this block and run it? Would the low compression kill most of the potential horsepower gains? Would the heads raise compression some?
Thoughts?

