anyone else caught themselves doing this?

haha

and just for shits and giggles lets pick up a jegs catalog.
same brand in all comparisons

roller rockers
sbc-149
sb mopar-209

performer intake
sbc- 139
sb mopar- 212

edelbrock rpm heads
sbc- 524
sb mopar- 679

eh, i wont keep goin. but cost isnt my arguement, i just like chevys better. cost is just an added bonus. i only commented cuz ive been down that road......

 

i have no problem seeing sbc's the problem is that most of them you see at car shows have ugly valve covers and air cleaners and the cheap plastic wires covers etc thats what makes me turn away

 

I guess the SBC thing is they are everywhere because they are cheap ! Bottom line . You can get a 400HP crate SBC for less than $4000 and that is hard to beat . SBC have just flooded the market so bad you get tired of seeing them stuck in everything !

I am a Ford & Mopar guy but what I really can't stand is , why the Hell do you stick a cheap SBC into a Ford or Mopar ? That is against my way of thinking and when I see that a car shows I will pass them by because of that . I understand and still say , it's your hot rod so do what you want to it " but it's not my cup of tea ! I guess it just rubs me the wrong way to see that but it's your ride so be happy with your choice .

My Ford will have a Ford engine and my Mopar hopefully will have a 440 or 383 . But I will NEVER put a damn chevy motor in my cars !

 

gimmie a break, a bitchin ride is exactly that.
who really cares what they use for a powerplant or what reason they chose it?

 

the only engines i have ever really cared for other then SBC's are the y blocks and the nailheads, but thin agian any old car i have had i have drove the piss out of and if by chance something does go tits up i can fix the sbc nearly anywhere, now i know folks say this is just an old crutch but still , it is the truth. and more power for less money

 

I tend to do the opposite, I see the SBC as a platform I can run anything on...within a couple of hours I can go from my 6-71 setup to a 3 deuce set up or a low rise dual quad setup.

It's really the "Mr. Potatohead" of engines.

 

If the person has taken the time to detail the engine and attempt to make it look like an early engine, I'll take the time to check it out. Whether it's a SBF or SBC in an early Ford if its sporting a nice 5" high Edelbrock air cleaner, $40 Chinese chrome covers etc., I just move onto the next part of the car.

What offends me way more is late model tilt columns out of '80s-90s cars in early cars. If I see one, I don't bother checking the engine or interior out since I know what I'll find. (dirty 350/350 scrap yard special, '80s Cadillac seats, home made door panels and wiring hanging down from the dash, etc.)

To be honest, most guys that I know that run late model SBF or SBC motors in their '30s-50s Fords don't open the hood at shows. They've heard the comments once too many times. Toronto is the home of 4drs and restorers.

 

Being an engine oriented guy, I'd have to ask how you can have a bitchin ride without having a bitchin engine? To me, the engine makes or breaks the car. How can you not care what the powerplant is???? That is the heart of hot rodding. There should be a damn good reason for choosing whatever powerplant you choose. And, that reason should matter to others.

 

If I see one with a sbc, i look at the engine, see if it's tricked out with anything other than a 4 barrel, and then move on to the rest of the car. I really never look at the engine alone and study it if it's a sbc. I know, the are reliable, and cheap..... but i don't like reliable and cheap. I like different. period.

 

I asked Mr. Duntov, and here is what he had to say:

"the majority of hot rodders are eating, sleeping, and dreaming modified Fords. They know Ford parts from stern to stern better than Ford people themselves. A young man buying a [hot rod] magazine for the first time immediately becomes introduced to Ford. It is reasonable to assume that when hot rodders or hot rod-influenced persons buy transportation, they buy Fords. As they progress in age and income, they graduate from jalopies to second-hand Fords, then to new Fords." Zora Arkus Duntov

 

Passing up looking at a car that you like just because it has a sbc is pretty narrow minded.
Its like the way in which restores view hot rods or not talking to someone that has tattoos.

 

Almost 100 posts because this guy can’t stand to look at a small block chevy? Someone please give me his address so I can poke his eyes out and move him from indawaitinroom to indaemergencyroom.

 

I try to get creative every time I hafta use one, I tried to disguise the motor in the HENRY J , at least to get your attention. Ground off any boss on the intake not being used, converted the stock air cleaner. Band clamps on the radiator hoses. My one regret is using the hei. Originally, I liked the idea of no coil but I think I'm gonna put a petronix dis. and put a coil back in. oops ! forgot the homemade valve covers !

 

Then you'd really like a Pontiac as there are only10 bolts that hold the intake on and the distributer doesnt have to come out and if you spend about 10 minutes modifying the intakes that leave the water cross over on the engine, you can change to any intake in about 3 minutes as the vally pan and water jacket keep sealed up.!!!

 

Nope, not at all.....I love SBC's.

Of course, my current car is powered by a nailhead, because it's a Buick. My 48 Ford was powered by a flathead. My model A, which I built to be a HOTROD was powered by a supercharged SBC......I originally started with a flathead, but couldn't bring myself to spend thousands of dollars to be spanked by a dodge neon, or toyota or some just about any other shitbox in your average Walmart parking lot.

Love them or hate them, if your building a car on a budget, you can most often build a faster car by using the SBC.

 

Back in the day, mid to late 50's early 60's the cookie
cutter engine was the Ford flathead. Every comment
made against the sbc was also made against the flathead.
I find it hard to believe but back then some folks actually
didn't like the way a flathead looked. Too gaudy, with the
finned heads. What goes around, comes around.

 

I'm with you. That late model steering column/damn illfitting junkyard caddy seats are a way bigger turn off than the engine to me.

Radials on a fenderless car make me want to walk past it too, though.

To each his own.

 

This is an interesting phenomenon, and one I've noticed in my profession. We tend to set up filters for what we want to see. We go around primed, as it were, to pick out what we're looking for out of all the background chaos. Currently I tend to register tall front wheels on thin-fendered cars quite strongly, because it's a look I've been playing with. Hopefully because I've seen this process and know that it's happening it doesn't stop me from appreciating things that don't specifically register in that way.

I see architects and especially architectural students go around with filters for what is currently fashionable in architecture. Worse, those with pretensions to some sort of cultural superiority regard their filters to be their discovery of ultimate truth after all the ages of error. It's only when you've seen a few fashions come and go, and more importantly reflect on the whole business of history and fashion and the snobbery underlying the prevailing assumptions, and the moral implications of that, that you get to make intelligent decisions as to what is good and what is not.

A lot of people decide aesthetics purely on socio-economic grounds: I like it because the people who seem to like it are such-and-such people. I was going to point that out on the recent thread about flames: that "fashionable" flames are part of an "ironic stance" that is, in essence, quite insulting to us who are into hot rods in earnest and don't give a damn about what socio-economic reflections it may or may not cast on us, ironically or otherwise.

It's not quite the same as ignoring SBCs because you're actually looking for something else. That's fair enough: you're just looking for something else. The same processes are involved, but I don't think there's a moral aspect to worry about.

 

I don't know why people say the SBC isn't traditional, I had friends in the early '60s that ran them in their hot rods, a 265, 283, or 327 is just as big a part of '50s & '60s hot rod history as anything else.
That said when I see a car with a 350 TPI motor, I always wonder why they leave the hood open. And it amazes me when some one spends years building an awsome custom, one of a kind, totally unique, and then puts a crate 350 in it.
I prefer to see a Ford in a Ford, or a Mopar in a Mopar, these day it's just as easy.
But as long as the car belongs to the other guy then he can put what he wants in it.
And by the way when I go to shows anymore I pass on a lot of cars, regardless of the engine, unless something stands out on one..

 

I have always and always will be a Ford guy. SBCs, as others have said, are a dime a dozen. So like you it has become a Ho Hum deal for me. I just got back in the swing of hot rodding, After 25 years, because of the great swing toward "Traditional Cars" I was sooooooooooooooo sick of seeing 50 Duece roadsters at a rod run and the only differance was the color of paint along with the fact that the guy that owned it had no Idea about the car because he just signed the check!!!!!!! OK OK I am off my Soap box !! I also feel It takes a lot more work to put a Ford in a Ford. Especially a roadster.

 

I dig all motors as long as they are old, and american!

 

No.
but i find reading posts that bash the SBC , to be getting more borring then using one

 

I don't see where any one is bashing a SBC. Its just a perspective

 

True, but there's not a million different induction systems laying around for those.

 

Exactly! I Couldn't have said it better myself. It's all the snobbery that gets me. Who cares.

 

i notice myself doing this anytime i see a 40 ford of any style i just walk away from them.

 

I agree, I love 40 ford but they almost have to be stock. This is one car gold chainers have just raped and pilaged to no end.