Love em'- cheap, easy to find parts, simple design, if anything goes wrong with them, it's usually the bearings or a rear mainseal. Plus they are great engines for HP/ci. Plus They will usually go for 100,000mi before ever having any sort of problem. Good and dependable.
Not that I don't like them, I think they are WAY over used. It also troubles me that many people have been led to believe that something HAS to have a sbc to be dependable. Is that suppose to mean no other motors are dependable?
Why does the SBC topic come up so often? Are people trying to justify using a late model 350 in their ride? Just run what ever the fuck you want... Put a sbc in a honda if it makes you happy.... But please nomore SBC posts... this shits getting old
Hey Buddy, you clicked on the SBC! How many "other" engines have had a run of 50 years? I like traditional small blocks, mine have always had a oil tube. I don't like traditional rods with centrebolt valve covers SBC's. Old cars need old SBC's
hey when are you going to change where you're from - please join us here in the ATL like racefab says SBC rules
Hate is a pretty strong word, I like em but if you went to a show of 10,000 cars and every other car has the same engine in it. It can get tiresome. Reliability and cost is attractive but there are other motors out there.
Cheap, light, powerful, fits in an early Ford, and thoroughly traditional if your tradition goes further than early '55--definitely the spiritual heir of the flathead. Just don't use any visible parts advertised in SRM, please.
i dont hate em, it doesnt really matter if its going in a custom car with the hood down all the time, but with an open hooded hot rod it would have to be dressed up really nicely, with 3 or more carbs.
I like the SB chev but its no challenge really to make one work for an application. Lotsa parts available. But lately for me they are Ho-Hum. I recently picked up a decent flathead merc that i cant wait to mess with. Somethin' different ya know?
been said many times . but i will repeat you cant beat a sbc for power to cubic inches and weight of it. the whole idea of a hot rod was to go to the junk yard pull the latest most powerfull engine and jamb it into a light weight car. as cool as any early hemi is i can't see adding 200 plus pounds to make less power then a sbc. If you are running some thing just for the looks you might as well put fake patina on the car and glue rust into your fiberglass car to give it that "barn fresh" look if you are building a car with no parts sitting around dollars for donuts you are going to buy what is cheap.
I will be the first to agree that i get tired of looking at the average SBC at car shows - especially the ones that are dressed with aluminum valve covers that have milled flames and all the other crap that you can buy from summit to dress them up. They look like shit - usually the whole car follows that theme too and I cruise by it. But there are some damn sexy small blocks if they are first off clean and have the right parts. It also needs to be put together right with no leaks. I then can admire the engine - any type of engine for that matter. I hate rusty oily motors - how hard is it to clean and paint your mill? Hve some respect.
Shit, i just want to drive. I'd put a hole in the floor and do like the flintstones if it would get me on the road. Yeah, SBCs may be really common, and true I'd rather look at a flathead or nail or straight eight because they're rarer, but I am building my car to drive it (which is the whole point, right?) My stovebolt was toast, and I worked a great trade for a SBC, so I had to go with it. Now, I might as well come right out of the closet and tell you that I have a M2 front end as well. For the price of rebuilding my roached stock front end, I now have one that I can get parts for at any auto store in the nation. Maybe an SBC is not as cool as a flattie, but once you start down the road to "Cooler Than Thou" trying to get the parts that will make you the envy of all your peers, someone else will come along with an even rarer, older, Ardun-powered-er car... It's like reverse Gold Chainer Syndrome.
What the fuck is this going to prove? It's not what you use it's how you use it. Seriously, this is dumb. It's just as hard to find cool vintage parts for a sbc than any other vintage engine..... It really is. You can buy new gay repop parts for most old engines now days......
with this you should of had what SB i like the 327 & the 400 but dont have any use for 283s 305 307 good motors depanable just dont care bout them i like 327 for a snappy driver motor but pretty much only build 400 any more as i like biggest cubic inches i can get but i am a Poncho freak at heart
Theres nothing wrong with a later chevy V8, but if its in your red rimmed and black-bodied later model sedan, you suddenly become Uber-cool in Orange County! BTW, Hi, yes I'm still alive.
My steel 32 Ford has a SBC. That motor gets beat to within an inch of it's life everytime I go out. The gas pedal is a switch.....on or off. I love rare exotic motors but I wouldn't have the heart to abuse one. If my small block chevy blew up tomorrow, I would just laugh. If I blew up a 392 Hemi, I would cry.
hey lets face the facts from the late 50s on the sbc was used in most all hot rods. my truck has a sbc in it and i get shit for it all the time it was cheep i can get parts at auto zone. I drive my truck to school every day and all the assholes that bitch about it pull there car out once in a blue moon so im having more fun than them in one day than them in a whole car show season. when i herd people i hang around with talk abut s.b.c.s I hated the fact that i had a s.b.c. in my car for a little while but then i said piss on them i am gonna paint my car green not flat black like everyone wanted im not gonna have a flat head in her ill proudly say i got a 283 in her and watch them sigh and im gonna be more happy doing it my way All Im asking dont give people shit over having one
love them, lots of potential in a small package. I have 13 years and 200+ runs on a 331 hilborn injected FED, still runs strong never had the heads off! (it's a restored exhibition car/not competition) I've been in the 8's with a 406 alky small block on a rear engine and 9's with a 377 on gas in a street legal car. like I said lots of potential!
well I'd never go back to a 235.... My first 56 had one.. hated it.. Here is my 3rd '56 with it's current 265PP now...
Good little motors... not the "end all" for those who want to be different... I like them and run them because they are CHEAP and easily found on the sides of houses and behind garages! Sam.
I've had hot rods with a 283, 327 and even a 350 and, all things considered, you just can't beat um. They are just too good, too available and too cheap to ignore. I've also got a flathead in my ragtop that I'll never replace but if I want to put 1,000+ miles on a car in a weekend, it will have a SBC in it.
Oh now I get it, 350 ucan buy them for less money and sell them for more. OK Dont forget the FE 427 was real popular too.
They're mechanically sound, but I just have the SHITS of seeing them.... It's like shitting money: It has it's benefits, but eventually you'll get tired of rinsing the turds off of a fistful of pennies...
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