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Building a 500hp 454

Yeah, the prospect of coming back down Moab Rim with a truck that stalled every time it went nose down was not making me feel warm and fuzzy. I did a ton of trails in my old K5 with a carb, but there were also trails I avoided because of it; Moab Rim being one. I would say, "If I ever get EFI on this truck, I'll do that trail". Heck, if I was going to run a carb, I'd probably look seriously at a roots supercharger to get my HP goals.

beags86 said:
I mean this in the nicest way possible, but when you posted that post, what's the bare minimum amount of work I could expect to do for something like this... Makes me believe if you pulled the engine, that the cost of it might stall you a bit.

Look we get it and we all have been there. Big block stuff isn't cheap. If you use your current block you might cheap out and not get what you want, or you might have your truck down a long long time. You don't want either of those.
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Some of my thinking is cost, but also logistics. Like at what point do I take it to a machine shop? If I need to do that regardless, then it makes more sense to me to find another block to build. I was just thinking that if I could use my motor, or even the one @ZooMad75 has, and save some machining or other costs then that would figure into it.

In the past I've always just taken engines to the machine shop and had them do all their usual stuff with it. I wasn't sure if that's always necessary.
 
The more I keep thinking about it, the more I like the idea of doing a stroker kit. Then I was reading some Internet chatter about making power with the peanut port heads like @Bowtie85 was suggesting. The big thing people kept mentioning was how the peanut ports are limited over 3500RPM-4000RPM. This has made me think more about what I really want from an engine upgrade.

There is the 500hp thing, but really what I want from this truck is to be able to haul our camper more comfortably. I know, I know, you all were already asking me about this 4 pages ago, but I think my mindset should be how to get 500 or even 600 ft-lbs of torque. All the things people point out as being strong points of the peanut port heads, are the things I like in an engine; great throttle response and low RPM torque. If I'm honest, I generally start getting anxious if my engine RPM gets over 3,000. So instead of doing what I said earlier and let TQ follow my HP goals, I should let HP follow my TQ goals. Maybe I should change my thread title to "Building a 600ft-lbs 454".

Now I'm thinking 496 with a roller cam and peanut port heads. People talked about porting the heads, but I guess I'm not certain what all is involved with that.
 
mrk5 said:
The more I keep thinking about it, the more I like the idea of doing a stroker kit. Then I was reading some Internet chatter about making power with the peanut port heads like @Bowtie85 was suggesting. The big thing people kept mentioning was how the peanut ports are limited over 3500RPM-4000RPM. This has made me think more about what I really want from an engine upgrade.

There is the 500hp thing, but really what I want from this truck is to be able to haul our camper more comfortably. I know, I know, you all were already asking me about this 4 pages ago, but I think my mindset should be how to get 500 or even 600 ft-lbs of torque. All the things people point out as being strong points of the peanut port heads, are the things I like in an engine; great throttle response and low RPM torque. If I'm honest, I generally start getting anxious if my engine RPM gets over 3,000. So instead of doing what I said earlier and let TQ follow my HP goals, I should let HP follow my TQ goals. Maybe I should change my thread title to "Building a 600ft-lbs 454".

Now I'm thinking 496 with a roller cam and peanut port heads. People talked about porting the heads, but I guess I'm not certain what all is involved with that.
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One thing about stroker engines is that... "more cubic inches=more torque".
 
beags86 said:
Friends don't let friends use peanut ports.
I'm out.
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I would have to agree with that. My experience is that peanut port heads are restrictive enough to not flow good enough to cruise Interstate freeways at a decent speed. They are stump pullers at low speeds and RPM's though.
 
1-ton said:
I would have to agree with that. My experience is that peanut port heads are restrictive enough to not flow good enough to cruise Interstate freeways at a decent speed. They are stump pullers at low speeds and RPM's though.
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The l29 stroked to 489-496 with a bigger cam would be forkin' perfect for what he wants! It's so close...
 
Seriously thou. Buy zoos l29, have the heads worked a bit. Mild port and Polish. At minimum a gasket match. New valve springs for the high lift cam.
Put the stroker crank in with the bare minimum overbore. .30 so your at 489 cubes. Pop in a slightly bigger cam. (Bigger then a "rv" cam). Make sure the lobe separation is over 110, 112,114 would be nice to play with your injection.
Do the basic engine rebuild techniques, rings, bearings, blueprinted, balanced. Pop a single plane for the sniper and some headers and your set dude. 600 lbs guaranteed and probably over 500hp guaranteed to. Done correctly I bet less then 5 grand.
 
beags86 said:
Seriously thou. Buy zoos l29, have the heads worked a bit. Mild port and Polish. At minimum a gasket match. New valve springs for the high lift cam.
Put the stroker crank in with the bare minimum overbore. .30 so your at 489 cubes. Pop in a slightly bigger cam. (Bigger then a "rv" cam). Make sure the lobe separation is over 110, 112,114 would be nice to play with your injection.
Do the basic engine rebuild techniques, rings, bearings, blueprinted, balanced. Pop a single plane for the sniper and some headers and your set dude. 600 lbs guaranteed and probably over 500hp guaranteed to. Done correctly I bet less then 5 grand.
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Disclosure; what I layed out for you right there is exactly how I'm building my 496 for my 76 stepper. Except I didn't have a roller block so I'm converting mine. And I want to go aluminum heads for weight.
And the cam will be a slightly bigger then I would use for your application. But simple basic engine stuff. I am planning on 600/600 hp/lbs when done.
 
beags86 said:
Seriously thou. Buy zoos l29, have the heads worked a bit. Mild port and Polish. At minimum a gasket match. New valve springs for the high lift cam.
Put the stroker crank in with the bare minimum overbore. .30 so your at 489 cubes. Pop in a slightly bigger cam. (Bigger then a "rv" cam). Make sure the lobe separation is over 110, 112,114 would be nice to play with your injection.
Do the basic engine rebuild techniques, rings, bearings, blueprinted, balanced. Pop a single plane for the sniper and some headers and your set dude. 600 lbs guaranteed and probably over 500hp guaranteed to. Done correctly I bet less then 5 grand.
Click to expand...

500+ torque has been achieved on a L29 with a cam package, intake manifold, headers and a carb. I'm pretty sure super chevy had the article on this build......
 
beags86 said:
Seriously thou. Buy zoos l29, have the heads worked a bit. Mild port and Polish. At minimum a gasket match. New valve springs for the high lift cam.
Put the stroker crank in with the bare minimum overbore. .30 so your at 489 cubes. Pop in a slightly bigger cam. (Bigger then a "rv" cam). Make sure the lobe separation is over 110, 112,114 would be nice to play with your injection.
Do the basic engine rebuild techniques, rings, bearings, blueprinted, balanced. Pop a single plane for the sniper and some headers and your set dude. 600 lbs guaranteed and probably over 500hp guaranteed to. Done correctly I bet less then 5 grand.
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I've been too afraid to ask @ZooMad75 how much he wants for it. And he hasn't volunteered a price so I'm thinking he might want 5 grand for it. So I'm trying to down play any desire I might have for it so he'll get worried and send me a low ball price thinking there's no market for his engine.....


:haha:
 
nvrenuf said:
Occasionally, I see people mention "roller blocks" and "converting" on big blocks - there's nothing to change or modify, just buy the parts. :dunno:
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Well just buying the link bars and roller lifters. Etc. Minor detail.
I don't know if it's common any more, but at one time you used to drill and tap for a spider on a sbc.
 
I recently read it too myself. One I remembered too from the article. I used to subscribe to Super Chevy Mag, god probably 6 hot rod mags, all the off road mags at one time. Its great reading but in short order you place has magazines Everywhere!!! Lol. I do miss magazine reading, but not going to re-up anything. Of course we use the net now for that. I’ll still pick up the occasional magazine if I’m at the store and remember and take a walk down the magazine isle.
 
I don’t know about you’all, but this motor refresh/rebuild I want to get going on has me excited as hell! Can’t wait to get back into this thing. I was looking at the assembled motor. Saw some things I Didn’t do which I should have when I first assembled it. Have No freakin idea Why I Didn’t do the work.

Engine block and head casting flash. Especially in the oil return flow paths where from the rocker arm calley of the head at the ends where it flows back down into the block. My heads Needs a carbide rotary deburing job. I did this to the 396 I built, ny first motor I ever built extensively.

I don’t know why I didnt on this motor??? Its freaking obvious it needs it. I don’t want to pay the motor shop to do it. So I think I’ve decided to oull this motor apart myself and do all the detail work I can, then take all the motor componants to the motor shop. I want my son to be a part of the teardown and deburing process.
 
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Mrk5 PM'd me (responded to also btw) about the price and it made me realize I previously made a commitment to Larry for first dibs if I don't use it. Without going into great detail, he's storing since I can't store it myself. He's done a ton of work on my stuff, we've horsetraded a ton and I won't sell unless he's not going to use it. He does have the Blazer sitting behind his shop so that would happen eventually.

Actually, when it gets down to brass tacks, mine has zero facts to back up the seller's statements to me. It came to me in the back of a diesel bro's truck where I had no chance to hear it run. It was obviously taken out quickly by the damage we found to certain items and was greasy as hell to boot. As I told Mrk5 in my response if I had to do it again I'd look for one I could at least hear run first before committing money to it. Driving would be even better if possible. The ad posted that it is available to hear run is in the right price range too.
 
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