Technical Inches why so important?

It`s like asking a guy what he drives. A Ford. What kind, a 4-dr sedan or a roadster. It doesn`t matter how they are built, there is a difference.

 

In my go fast days, bigger was always better. Now in my cruising at the speed limit days, it just has to run well enough to get out of the way of the young punks and be fun to drive in the process! And smoking a few unsuspecting folks every now and then is always a plus!

 

we are an odd bunch. you don't need cubic inches or horsepower to be cool. unless you have a somewhat modern motor. 303 Olds is WAY more cool that a crate 350 in a Hot Rod. put 305 or 307 Chevy in anything and you spend the rest of your life hoping nobody asks what it is, while a low HP Ford Flathead or banger puts you in the cool club with far less power.

 

"400 inches of throbbing fury."

"Hey, gettin a little personal with that question."

"Size? Do they come in different sizes?"

"Not big enough, got beat by a Subaru."

"Too big, damn thing won't pass a fillin station."

"Bigger than yours I bet."

"Its the perfect displacement of 350 cubic inches. You see engineers sorta knew that, and if you think of how many engines are that size it becomes apparent. The thermal dynamics, volumetric efficiency, internal coefficient of windage, not to mention the ease of getting stoichiometric fuel delivery..." (and hopefully ½ way thru you get the puppy-at-a-high pitch look).

Hey this shit is fun, so talk fun too. The only danger is taking it and yourself too seriously. Carry on...

 

Woo Nose and Who Keerz?!!
If you tell me it's a 427 I say "OK"...... tell me it's a side oiler.....THAT makes me wanna chat.
6sally6

 

Not true... some of those modern little four cylinders are VERY powerful with small displacement!

 

Maybe they want to know if it is a side-oiler, a tunnel port, or a S.O.H.C.?

 

No substitute for cubic inches. Unless it's a turbo'd v-6 buick. LOL. Ask the old pro-stock guys. Uh, what was that guys name? Buddy..........Inger.........

 

It IS important, but not necessarily because the number is bigger.

It's a part of the engine's identity.

350 important
427 important
302 important
426 important
216 important
262 important

What's most important?
Yes.
Who's most important?
Of course.

 

Yeah but Ricky, if it's too small, is it...impotent

 

Are you being short with me?

 

After almost 60 years I still can't look at an engine and even make a wild ass guess how much HP it makes? Cam, pistons, rods, heads, all contribute to net HP, and none can be seen from the outside. All I can see is the intake, carb, and headers, which wont tell me much.

 

Style of heads and intake plus headers should give some clue within reason. Dist. , carbs, all will tell whether its mostly stock or high performance.
I'm just used to people asking what size my sbc is.
If it's a odd old engine I want to know what it is not how many cubic inches.

 

That song is about shoebox, not a fox body..........

 

It's not the size of the pencil, it's how you spell your name.

 

I have several customers running between 1,000 and 1,100-horsepower out of those little four-cylinders, on the street.

Each of them will soundly trounce about every single car on this board in a drag race.

The race-only versions could gap a HAMB-era top fuel car.

 

I'm spending thousands on a multi carb, high compression, bigger than stock cam 4 speed backed DeSoto hemi that I hope will make 250-275 HP. It's puny, under 300 cubes but just popping the hood and seeing that golden money pit makes me happy. That's all I care about, satisfying myself. I have a 200 MPH motorcycle to scratch my speed itch. In reality, none of us are the fastest, have to please yourself.

 

Yes, they certainly are.
Now imagine applying the same principles to a big cube engine............

 

Never had a problem saying it has a 307 in it.
Of course it a stroked 283 when I describe it

There is a 413 SBC going in it soon .
Both engines will about the same .
One will have about 300 more .
The big one will be more better

 

And those small powerplants are what, half the weight of an equal power, dinosaur V8 based engine?

It's always fun to see someone pull all the unnecessary weight of a car for increased performance, only to put the biggest lump of metal they could find in front of the gearbox.

Anyway. Nobody uses an old engine design if peak power is any sort of priority. They're used for the looks, sound and so on, when you go for performance chances are you'll find that the best options have 4 valves per cylinder to make the engine breathe very well, the spark plug in the middle of the combustion chamber for the quickest burn time (no unnecessary distance to the far away end of the chamber), and a turbo to push a large amount of air into those relatively small cylinders.

 

I have not heard any talk of the 'Top Fuel' guys considering smaller displacement 4 cylinder engines.
In fact, if they weren't limited to 500ci maximum, I'm sure they would be going bigger...........

 

I've found the higher racing classes useless for judging technology by. 40 or 50 years ago the rules often allowed people to be inventive and try new things (just look at things like the Brabham fancar in 1970s Formula 1, with the cooling fan doing double duty to suck the car down to the ground to improve traction), but since many years the rules tend to be written so everyone has to run basically the same technology and design. Back then things like a 6 wheel car was a big new idea, today a slight change on the front wing is a "big" change to the cookie cutter car.

Haven't looked closer at the top fuel rules in a long time, but I bet they are quite limited in what engine configurations they are allowed to run. If you want to see people trying odd ideas in racing, take a look at the bottom end classes, where rules may be more open, and people do as much as they can on a limited budget.

 

I got a bad/funny joke to tell, but pass on it

My take is if you’re going to brag on the size of your engine, best be ready to back it up when some says “so what, wanna run it”?

I learned long ago to just stay quiet about such things.

 

Personally to me it doesn't really matter except curiosity sake. The fastest car isn't necessarily the coolest. I'd rather a little dodge red ram hemi over a new supercharged coyote motor in a build.

 

Back to the OG question, does it matter? Sure it does. Let's zero in on our beloved flathead a moment. All for the same $$$, all perfect building blocks for a hot rod motor as in worthy beginnings. A 221, 239 or 255, which would you start with? My answer is counterintuitive but what's yours? Mine is the 239 but the "smart money" is on the 255. "Why would you pick a 239?" you ask, because I'd want to experiment with an idea. Shorter stroke but a longer rod for slower piston speeds and more RPM. Of course every related paradigm would have to be addressed but something about that plan intrigues me. In that case it's not the size that matters.

 

This is just a little 406 with a weezing aluminum lung on top. Wanna run?

 

Sure, but I've seen a lot of cars at cruise nights that have a 165hp Chevy 350 with an aftermarket distributor, intake, and headers. It's still 8.0:1 or less, but at least it looks the part, right?

 

BTDT

 

Yup...but the guys with BIG motors with all the modern tech are going seconds faster than a HAMB era top fuel car.

Cubes still matter.

 

Torque baby!
Like the dirt racers say "to win you got to be the first one out of the turns".
Of course you need to be a good driver too!