Back in my high school days i had a small journal 327 (complete stock short block) in a 67 Malibu that i reved to 7200 lots on weekend trips to the dragstrip.It had ported 1.94 dbl humps on it with "Z28" valve springs.About the 20th time i spun it that high it broke a skirt off a piston and the rist pin ate the cylinder wall up on a standard bore 327 block .Lesson learned the hard way at 17 years old.Keep a stock lower end SBC under 5500 rpm balanced or not and you should be fine...
im more concerned about your new cam running for only 10-15 minutes, was that at break in speed for the cam or was that idle, if so you may be buying a new cam shortly.
did turn a 301 or 302 to 8.5 ONCE ****ed the rings off the top of the pistons never did get anything to live above 7,500 and not 100 rpm over either but if you got a wife and kids, mortgage and food bills, if you never get it over 4,000 it will live forever i am tending to quit beating on my stuff as i age got a 355 and dont think it everturned 4 k and same with the 383 stroker, kinda like to fell the tork and not beat the piss otta them like i did when 40 year old, then used to crank 7,500 in the shop , kinda scared me when a water pump shaft broke off when running carb and got hit by radiator parts but i was a professional racer, well i got appearance money every week and did it for a livingactually my deal paid pretty well
I had a 65 chevelle with a 327 and shifted using the speedo when it hit 90mph(had changed the gears in the rear and the speedo gave the wrong mph) it was just before it felt like it didn't pull any more it was my tow-car ran 13.00@ 106mph it was my daily driver and drove it like that for 5 years doesn't mean it was good I was young and stupid. never blew the motor.you should be more careful don't do as i did do as I say. you have a heavy car and a small motor treat nice and it will last for ever
Fair question and some good answers here. With zero mention of substantial valvespring improvements (screw in studs, guide plates, chrome moly push rods, etc) and no mention of upgraded rods (aftermarket or magnafluxed, good rod bolts, etc,) I would agree with the occasional blast to 5500 rpm! HAPPY MOTORING!
I would bet the heavy car, 283, 3:36 gear will keep the r's down in anything but first probably anyway. Safe rpm for this is probably 5-5500. JMO. Lippy
I have a great big soft spot in my heart for these "Little engines that can"!!! I ran a homemade out of well, junk parts, that I called my ol' junk301 as my DD in my '67SS/RS Camaro with an M-20, 3.31 posi and anywhere from 25.5" to 26" tall tires fine. It wasan UNBALANCED early, wore out stock bore 327 block, a '55 265 steel crank, unknown bigger big end 283 rods, a CHEAP, $39.95 set of ol' W/JCW, (stock type), cast, 1/8" tall, 1/2 round domed 1/8" overbore 283 pistons, mechanical lifters and the great old -097 Duntov cam, ground hell outta little valve pinned rocker stud heads with Z-28, (aka, -142), valvesprings, my 350 Q-Jet and intake as well as my stock log exhaust manifolds. My old Machinist had me turn the piston ***emblies around backwards to get a better push on the crank, but he also told me that it would be noisy cold so don't hammer on her until you warmed her up. With new points, she would go to 7,500 rpm easy and I ran her that way. A week later, she'd only do like 7,000 rpm! Anyway, I did lose a stock rocker and bent a p/r, but dropped in new ones and went right long fine. Being unbalanced, it went up through like 3 harmonics that I could tell my rpm before she got up top. And since it didn't have a bolt in the damper/crank snout hole, it would throw a damper running like 50 to 55 mph out the bottom front of my car. 1st time, I tracked it's cutting the gr*** down and re-installed it and went right on. 2nd time, I lost it so went to a Boneyard and found another old engine deep in their s**** engine pile and beat it off using a RR track jack bar. Installed it and still went right long! Damn short stroke ****er was a real hoot, I'd roll her outta the hole easy, then when she hit 3,000 rpm, she turned from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde until up top, then I'd grab another gear and repeat! One evening beer run, onna my Buddy's rode shotgun and as I wound her out in 1st, she just kept going up and up and Ben looked over at me and said, "Whenna you gonna shift?", as I hit top and grabbed 2nd gear! The look on his face was price-less back then!! pdq67<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
Lot's of critical info missing from the equation. Balanced?, Flat tops- are they forged or cast?, No info on rods- prepped, ARP Bolts, shot peened etc. Valve train "alone" would play an important factor on safe RPM limits, springs, studs, tolerances etc., etc., . Just from what you have listed, keep 6000 RPM - OCCASIONAL- as your limit. Enjoy your ride, BDM
You asked for a max rpm, the max rpm is "reving the piss out of it". What other reason would you have to rev the engine other than making the car go faster? I don't think my answer is so dumb.
Ahh.........your back again. The dumb part of your post refers to reving the piss out of it in answer to my post that stated: "From reading a lot about this fairly common set up, I am wondering what "realistic" rpm's I should (could) be able to rev, especially in 1st and 2nd gear." And: "This is just going to be a street driver with a little at***ude....I will not race or run it hard, just screw around with it on occasion, but don't want to ruin it either..." Sure does't sound like my question had anything to do with running the piss out of it, or how fast it would go..... Now, having said that, let's both go out and have a good day! Cheers, Bob
Ha, Ran into this 2010 post of mine by accident when searching for something else on the internet... I have been driving this wonderful little combo since shortly after I posted this...so thought I would respond to your comments.. All good ones... (well most of them anyway) I have put close to 9K miles on it. * I have never exceeded 5500 rpm's with this lovely little set up * Usually shift at ~3200 or so and sometimes run up to 4000 * Would not want to push it to 6000...screams enough at 5000 * Not a big block by any means, or gonna be a real killer, but sure is fun for this Ol' (71) year old to drive. Little low end, but get to about 2700 rpms and stomp it and it will flat get up and make me grin * Drives and handles very much like the old 327-300hp Chevy's of that era which is exactly what I wanted . A lot of fun..never have dumped the clutch in low gear, but will squawk nicely in 2nd gear pretty much at will. * Rear end actually is a 3.76, so 60mph pretty much max speed for this old fart. If I stay at 55mph I can get an honest 14 mpg...otherwise about ~11. * Still running a Saginaw 4 speed with 3.11 first gear, but have a different Saginaw with the 2.84 first gear waiting to install (due to some problems with current one) This makes it very easy on the clutch when taking off...very little throttle needed to get going. * This little engine starts instantly every time, and runs very sweetly...a real pleasure to drive, as well as listen to for us old geezers. * IMO, anyone considering building a driver with this combo in a heavy car like mine will be very pleased, and probably thrilled in a lighter car. I have wanted to go to an overdrive set up, and have posted many questions on here about it...with great answers, but just decided to leave it the way it is, and drive enjoyably staying off the interstates, (or just cruising like an old man) Don't mean to ramble on, but wanted to share my experience with this great SBC... I am sure many others have had, or are having the same great experience...
Going from my personal experiences running SBC, I would not expect to gain anything by pushing it past 56-5800 and the only reason to push it that far is if you are drag racing it. When I had a 63 Impala with a 327, it was best shifting at 5800 and my 68 Z28 302 was happier shifting at about 6500, but that was a lot different from the engine you have described.
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