All time greatest engine?

My choices in order:
sbc
bbc
Donovan Hemi

 

Not here to bust anyone's bubble but if you will read the history of the flathead and also the history of sbc you will find the following quote from Zora Dontov to Chevy.( When can design the overhead engine from the flathead ford but in order for it to last you must make sure you have created a great net work of parts suppliers)

sp1ke

 

In the imortal words of Fred Offenhauser.. "There are Street Rods, and there are Hot Rods. Street Rods have a Chevy up front and a can of wax in the back. HOT RODS have a Flathead up front and tools in the back"! Jazzy Nelson ran a 9.10 1/4mile, and blown Chryslers couldn't do it...Just sayin -Mike

 

Oh and it was rated at 80 HP stock!

 

If your going for the WOW factor, the 427 Ford Cammer has gotta win hands down, followed by the Boss 429. If your going for pure numbers, affordability, ect. SBC hands down.

 

/6 hands down the toughest engine of them all
after that the hemi

 

The REAR sump (SBC), fitment into MOST any engine compartment (SBC) availability (SBC) aftermarket support (SBC) stroker kits $ (SBC). The sound of a high winding SBC in the distance at 2 A.M...........Look it gives you guy's that do not run them a special class. So love them at least for that.

 

http://vimeo.com/16117810 Check it out. Running on the stand. Just remember, "There is no substitute for cubic inches."

 

For the street: small block chevy.
For the strip: big block chevy.

Oh, how I love my BBC, I really do.

 

Pontiac 428.

 

You fuckin nailed it. I like everything, but you can't argue with the SBC.

 

Anyone who doesn't believe the answer isn't the SBC is simply lying to themselves.

 

Whoops ! Got a double negative in there . The answer is SBC.

 

I love the nail head.... and just 1 of these would suffice ...lol... I'm not greedy....


Roy

 

WOW!

 

No doubt the small block Chevrolet. It got not only me but most of my buddies in this "hot rod" thing,....and I can't help but think many of the rest of you have been influenced by that great design.

My personal favorite at the present time is the Y-block Ford,....if you can get some torque and horsepower out of that old beauty, you're a Hot-rodder!

 

Greatest engine? I'm a favorite of the Saturn V myself.
If we are talking affordable piston driven, the 350ci SBC is pretty hard to beat.

 

Flat head, and the most awsome HEMI

 

For me its the small block Ford....

And in the words of Carroll Shelby....
" The first American designed and built engine to win a world championship"

 

Ford 428.

 

I believe the LS series engine will soon steal the SBC's title.

 

SBC
SBC
SBC
But I do like Hemis, BBC's, FE's, Cleveland's, even LS's
So long as it's an 8 - and sounds like one, it's goona be OK

 

.

Heck,

If you take away all bias and look at the history of the V8 engine, you have to say
-the Flathead Ford.
I mean, heck,... it's STILL around and competitive almost 80 years after Henry Ford introduced it.

Frankly, I don't think there is much of an argument here at all.




But then again, I have been known to be controversial for the sake of being controversial....





Whew, Is it getting Hot in here or what??






.

 

In a decade or two, everything will pale in comparison to what people can do with the current LS motor. They've just begun rodding them, yet you can get close to 1000 hp with a pretty much stock shortblock and two turbos, with pump gas and while getting better MPH than your average SBC. Fully streetable.

 

I would love to have a 426 max wedge, a 425 nailhead, an E 475 M.E.L., 409/427 W motor, and last but not least a S.O.H.C. 427. These engines are way cooler to look at than a sbc ,but any way you slice it the sbc trumps any engine you can think of.

 

I what feild is the flathead ''still competitive''?

 

small block chevrolet

 

oh hell ya ..the haters are many

 

I like the rest,,,but sbc is the best!

 

I should probably stay out of this, but here goes: I'm not a Chevy fan. I was a mechanic way too long to have any respect for them. They are popular for the same reason they always have been- easy and cheap. Chevy made no real improvements (read spent no money) for decades, and it actually worked for them. Other companies were changing and improving, and Chevy kept using the same poor design. Let's start at the bottom: Why would you bolt an oil pump to a main cap? Torque the bolt, and the cap distorts. Don't matter much for a street motor, but does in race applications. Solution- aftermarket oil system. Wimpy main bolts (even 4 bolt blocks). Solution- aftermarket main caps or block. Wimpy rods and bolts. Solution- aftermarket rods. Heads with press-in studs?? Solution- tap the holes, or aftermarket heads. Really weak rocker arms. Soluton- aftermarket rockers. Distributor driven off the rear of the cam- makes cam breakage a threat, and timing unstable from twisting cam. Solution- aftermarket crank trigger. Really wimpy head bolts. Solution- aftermarket head studs. So how do you build a great Chevy small block? Throw away everything Chevy built, and replace with aftermarket. Now you got a motor.

Big block Chevy? Don't get me started. Just take a real look at those cylinder heads. Who the hell would design such a mess?? Unequal length intake ports, a missing head bolt in every-other cylinder, what were they thinking? Solution- put a Ford style head on it and replace the block with one that has all the head bolt holes.

For me, the greatest engine ever is the '64-'71 Chrysler hemi. Unbelievable horsepower potential with stock hard parts, and if you need 7000 hp, the basic design will support it. Most folks think it takes a fortune to build a hemi, but a hot street or bracket drag motor can be built suprisingly cheap, and right in line with any other big block. Lots of cast-off alcohol parts out there, and the motor gets big real quick. I say get away from the boredom, and build something that causes a double-take at the shows.