Technical Inches why so important?

I'd love to !!!
I like your ride so much I could look at it all day, even if it is from behind........

 

Thanks TWENTY8. She is heaven, and HELL.

 

I didn't reply to this thread early on because I have learned that it's almost impossible to explain the relationship between HP and Torque to people who don't understand it.

 

The 429 Cadillac still haunts me to this day.

 

HAHAHA! I always wondered what the reason for the 3.48 stroke was! I always figured there might be some high falutin' engineering reason for it, that I was just too dumb to understand. Never figured it to be just to hit a number. It doesn't hit the number right on the head.

 

Well, I've posted this before, but I've heard old circle trackers say HP is how fast you were going when you hit the wall. Torque is how far you moved the wall.

 

Hot rodders figured out how far a sbc could go early on. Not long after the 283 debuted, Reath was making kits for them with 4 Inch pistons and 1/2 inch stroker crankshafts that resulted in 352 cubes.

 

*Except neither is true.

Velocity is how fast you were going when you hit the wall.

Velocity times mass times momentum is how far you moved the wall

 

Engine size doesn't matter. It's all in how the engine is used...

 

It's so easy it becomes difficult to grasp. TQ is an actual measure of work. HP is the calculation how much "work" that measure can do (a simple numeric value assignment). I like to say TQ is for the track, HP is for the barstool.

 

....in a specific amount of time.

 

I've haunted many with the 390, the 429, and the 500 Cadillac engines neatly nestled in the engine rooms of Ford pickups, and 1 in a 38 Dodge pickup. Lots of TQ to play with...

 

When it comes to FE's, they can range in CI from 332, 352, 360, 390, 406, 410, 427 and 428 (not counting truck 361 and 391). And if you know what you're talking about, there is a big difference between engines, although it's near impossible to tell by looking, unless it's a sideoiler. And even then it could range in size from 393 to 454 cubic inches...or even more. So yes, if I see an FE....I'm going to ask what size it is.

If the owner can't answer that question, then there's no sense in even talking to him about the car, because obviously he doesn't know anything about it. "I just bought it this way"

Most any Ford guy will ask me if my Mustang has a "real" 427, because that's the badging I have on the scoop. Damn straight it is! Then we start talking about FE's.

 

Here's an industrial, Facebook marketplace has a few if you search it, a friend here just sold a block last month, another friend was selling a complete engine
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/555334089842554/?mibextid=dXMIcH

 

I only need a bare block, with main bearing caps. That's all I'm missing.

 

Big old Cads, Olds, Buick nailhead are the deal, 1949 to 1966 do the trick.

 

Pete

 

Can Am in a production body I think. I could be wrong about the Can Am/Trans Am thing I get that confused all the time. I am pretty sure about the production body thing. I know that Ford tried the tunnel port thing and could never get them to compete. Proof that you can get ports too big.

 

You did not see many if any production Boss 302s in '68 on the showroom floor. Our '68 Mustang had a Boss in it but it was installed by a previous owner. That car sure did not look like a Boss car. LOL

 

Ask all you want, are you going to get the truth?

 

You didn’t see any. Most of the early Boss 302 blocks carry a C8FE casting number though.

 

I have found lately, that all pickups have 390's, and all cars have 428's, and the majority of those 428's are Cobra Jets.
40,000 produced, 50,000 survived....

 

Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Makes you go. More suck and squeeze means more bang and blow.

 

Very well put.......... (I assume you are still talking about engines and their capacity )

How about thinking about it like this.
The more cubic inches an engine has, the more potential it has to make more power. You will just need a funnel and lots of $$$ to release the potential energy.

 

In the 80's 307 engines were almost free . Nobody wanted them.
I was taking a machine shop class in college and was broke mostly.
So when I got a chance to use the boring bar and all that I punched a 307 .060" over . TRW made a forged piston and I got a set on sale.
A duntov 30/30 cam and a set of ported 461 heads and the almost 327 made just under 400 HP with the tunnel ram and 660's .
The 307 large journal cast crank is still in it . It was good for high 12's in a 67 chevelle.
At the time the short block cost me $400 to build .

Worst part is the smaller bores shroud the valves but honestly the engine likely wasn't down 15 HP from a identically built 4" bore 327.
In 1979 a 350 was still fetching decent money . $300 was a lot to a 18 year old kid then.
That 12 CI I cave up after boring VS a hard to find large journal 327 meant nothing on the street .

Today it's all 383's with cheap SCAT or Eagle stuff and aluminum heads that make 500 hp with a good cam.

 

TRW actually still has stock bore stroker pistons for 283/327 on the shelf. Most of the time when you find a stock 307 today it needs bored anyway so they are not normally necessary. What you got was basically their old stroker pistons in over size.

Lots of times you can still find a free or early free 307. Them and 305s are not considered to be good hot rod fodder. That is because most of the people looking at them are not tuners. Anything can be tuned (built) by someone who has some idea what they are doing. Some motors are more difficult than others of course, and with some the cost outweighs the results. Usually you can screw a healthy street motor together from a SBC without breaking the bank. Hell even a 265 can be made to run using mostly stock parts. It won't ever pull stumps but it'll move a light car along well enough, and performance wise if someone is building to our era of car they perform respectfully.

 

Cubic HP is good and bad at the same time. Big inch motors stock are stump pullers, and that is important for most of us. But you got to feed it and cool it. Feeding it is not so important, we just accept the fuel bill as being part of hot rodding. Cooling it can be a big deal, older cars minus the hood allow the heat to escape, but it is harder to find a radiator to cool the mill and not look hooky. In a later car it is easier to hide the radiator and many later cars had bigger radiators stock. But big motor in a small engine bay does not allow heat soak to escape. Louvers help, sometimes the hood and the fender wells both.

Funny I was running 12s though the mufflers on a smaller displacement motor with 3.08 gears. Granted it makes more then 1 horse per inch and good torque. I doubt I would have done much better with 400+ cubes, the Pusher was traction challenged. LOL

BTW as automatics go the 400 is my go to on a GM car. They have their problems as well, a T350 shifts faster (think stockish trannies here) but the 400 will take a lickin and keep on tickin. Like your choice of transmissions.

 

But that one is about Rev's '50 Ford....with a flathead.

 

So I'm told. I obviously haven't listened to it in a while or paid enough attention to it when I did.

 

Or, in other words.... If all else fails, just stroke it!....