Of all the projects going on at my house, this one is not really a hot rod or custom, but the HAMB is about the only place I have seen the expertise I need. "Operation Poor Man's Duramax," is an old 3/4 4wd Chevy I use to pull all the car **** I buy on ebay and Craigslist home. It has a 30 over 350 in it, but with a full-floating axle, th400, etc. it needs more torque. I have a 454 in the shop, but I would at least like to have a shot at double-digit mileage. I have a 500 Caddy, but it is in an old Caddy, so it ain't coming out. Guys told me to find some Vortec heads, but I figured if I was going to have to deal with CC's in the low 60's, I might as well try strapping on the old 461's I have, especially considering all the current and future projects we have involve flatheads and Y-blocks. These heads are in excellent condition, with 2.02's and porting for street performance, I guess, by some old-school lunatic (now deceased) several years ago. I can fuddle through the dished piston, gasket thickness part to get the compression down, although suggestions would be appreciated. The cam is my concern. I used to use one with lots of overlap to take care of things, but with this truck, I obviously need low-end torque. I know, the low-speed, high-load combo is a killer. I have plowed through several posts, and gotten lost in many of them. Coatings, and high-tech and high-dollar solutions are beyond the scope of this hokey *** project. If some one could point me to a certain post(s) or just nutshell this for me, I would appreciate it. I've seen that some of you guys dream of flow numbers and are fluent in that mysterious cam language...
I'm not the most knowledgeable guy around on cams and valve sizes and porting so I'm going to leave that part of the discussion alone. Trade your 454 for another Caddy. The Cadillac is lighter than a 454 and makes much more torque at lower engine speeds. The performance mods on a small block are mostly going to make power turning faster, in a hauler you are usually better served when the power comes on at a low speed. You call the truck a Poor Man's Duramax. A small block that will kick out 500 ft pounds of torque is turning fast and may not be a pleasant driver. A Cadillac producing 500 ft pounds could be a stocker idling smoothly, well behaved at any speed, but burning premium gas. The later low compression Cadillacs produce less impressive numbers but are still very well behaved very strong pullers. Yes I'm a fan of the big Caddy motors and I am currently putting one in my preferred parts fetcher.
I guess I've known all along that the Caddy was the logical choice here. I've had my Caddy for ten years, and drove it daily for 7. At one point I played with the carb and timing for a few weeks and managed to get 14 mpg out of it. I know the sbc is underkill for this application, I'm just fishing for some new angle that maybe I hadn't thought of.....
461's won't have hardened seats, and therefor are not suitable for a truck motor that's going to see prolonged loads. The Vortecs may have small chambers, but they are also less prone to detonation.
If your getting in to the motor you could always put a stroker crank in it to make it a 383. It wouldn't be big block or diesel levels but would have considerably more torque than the 350.
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