Technical stupid SBC?

dropped off the 350 that going in my bus project at the machine shop
its a 70s era with 882 heads but I have a set of 462s
this bus is heavy and will need low end torque, running a th400 and 410 gears

would it be better to use the 462s with a stock style dish piston
or
use the 882s with a flat top (the only $$$ difference would be the hardened seats for the 462s)

question 2
cam choice, would like to go a little bigger than the recommended melling towing cam
looking at a 260h

thanks

 

A bus is already heavy enough. If you are running original size tire, those 4.10's are not really that much gear. So if you're going to tow much go with something bigger than a 350. If GM go 454" Chev/GMC, 455" Buick/Pontiac, 500" Cad. The Caddy has gobs of low end torque stock

 

agreed, would love to have had a caddy but I don't have a 472/500 laying around the shop
but its a short bus and we are using what we have on this project
I have a ton of small chevy stuff and plan to use it up on this one
just wondering what would be the best combo with the pieces we have

 

Stay with the towing/RV style cam. You need all the low end torque you can get. I would also stick with the 882 heads. Keep compression to 9 to 1 or less to minimize pinging with regular gas. You sure don't want to need premium when you are looking at less than 10 mpg.

 

My thoughts are go with what onetrickpony said...

 

Thousands of 1-1/2 ton trucks and even bigger have run all over the country for the past 42 years with 350's in them. They are usually a bit slow but if you don't over stress them they haul bigger loads than the short bus all over the country. Hardest thing on them in a bigger truck ch***is is divers who think they can keep their foot on the floor on hills rather than driving a bit more sensibly. At least that I what found with a company truck that an outfit I worked for had.

 

I wana see the bus

 

The last thing you want is a short bus that can't get out of its own way

 

best picture I have now
plan to post more, my students have done a ton of work on it lately

 

definitely plan to keep the comp ratio around that number
and I hope I get 10 mpg

 

Very nice..did u shorten it and 1 ton chevy ifs?
Love it.

 

Put an FE in it .It's a Ford! If you have to go 350 my experience would say a split cam .I towed a 3800 Chevelle with an El Camino with a 350 with 882 heads 4 eyebrow flat tops 435/460 lift cam with 260 duration. Dual plane intake with a 625 Edelbrock carb. It had a 2.73 gear and TH350 and towed no problem.

 

True and years ago, early 50's and before, semis ran the flathead and 6's also. Depends on whether you want an enjoyable tow that can run with the traffic or do you want to be stuck in the slow lane chugging up the hill with the 4 ways on? The rear tires on the bus with 4.10 gear is not like 4.10's in a car or light truck. In order for it to be near that effective you would need to be somewhere in the 5's. The RV cam will help but it still won't be a big torque producer

 

almost went FE
this has a GM front suspension and the 350 was a lot easier to fit, plus I have a bunch of SBC stuff laying around the shop
this is the melling specs
278 intake/288 exhaust Adv Dur,
Duration @.050 204 intake/214 exhaust,
Valve lift 420 intake/443 exhaust,
Lobe C/L 112

here is the 256H specs
Duration @ 0.006": 256° / 268° Duration @ 0.050": 212° / 218°
Max Lift w/ 1.5RR: .447" / .454" Lobe Separation: 110°
Lobe ID#'s: 5441 / 5230 Intake Centerline: 106°

 

we shortened it 82 inches and lowered it around 14 inches
used a P30 clip Zd 4 inches
this is it sitting in the s**** yard moments away from being crushed

 

882's are a lightweight casting prone to cracks. I would use the 462's myself. Your 350 most likely has dished pistons WITH 4 valve reliefs, so your CR is't going to be any more than 10:1 with the 462's. This is based on "what you have to work with"; otherwise, I'd say 454/TH400 combo. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

yes, this 350 has the 4vr dish pistons
we are not boring, cylinder walls and pistons are fine
its a low mile engine that has some scratches on the crank
thought about improving the comp with flat tops but was wondering if the 462s were a better choice and leave the stock pistons.

 

Lots of cl*** C 1 ton motorhomes running around on a Chevy ch***is with a 350 in them. Shouldn't be as heavy as one of those, and they run the speed limit or better.

 

yep
I am using many parts from a motorhome to complete this build that has the same 350/400 combo
and its bigger than this bus

 

The bus is awesome. The 882 with a dish are gonna be low compression. If you run those go with a two valve relief flat top piston. I have had very good success building low end torque using the z/28 305 hi perf heads 416 if I remember. On a 350 with 4 valve relief dish. It was a stump puller using the rv cam and performer intake. I used a Holley 750 vacuum secondary. Headers will help the torque out if you can use them but stay with 1 5/8" primaries.


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The balls u guys had to shoren that bus.
I have a 55-58 dodge short bus that i wanted to shorten even more and do what u did with suspension but i gave up on it and gave it away...
The guy hasnt come to get it and my son and his frinds love to pkay in it...
I might just go ahead and shorten ot for the hell of it ..do u hve any pics of the process?

 

If you like to wind it above 4k use the 882's flat tops and 260ish dual pattern cam. If not go with 462's and rv cam.


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here is one picture that shows where we cut it
we took a side shot picture and "photoshoped" with a razor blade to determine where we cut it
we removed the rivets from the sectioning area and separated the pieces
almost all the rivet holes lined back up when we set it back in place
the P30 and Ford ch***is are both 34 inches wide, this made for an easy graft
we used the a section of the removed rear frame section to start the 'bridge' over the rear axle

here is a link to some of our projects
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/tech-school-students-doing-good.950588/

 

Take a few bucks out of your pocket and buy a crank with a 3.875 stroke and give that 350 some grunt. **** has one under 4340 forged. With a standard bore that would be a 390". This is a standard weight and not real trick but it will work with stock size rods and will clear the cam and block. **** has a recip package that will work for you. I would no longer build a 383 now that I've found these cranks. CNC, a discount house out of South Dakota, can save you a lot of $$$. We buy from them a lot, better than Summit, Jegs, or Amazon. Good luck.

 

Awesome thank you

 

thanks for the suggestion
that's the first I have heard of this combo
very cool

 

no plans for high revs
just wanting to make the best choice with the parts we have

 

<-- The 66 p***enger bus in the background came with a MEDIUM DUTY 350. It weighed 12,000 empty. Had a New Process 5-speed and a 7:40 gear and 38" tires. and got 4 MPG. YIKES!!!

It's a long story, but I put a 383 with 10-1 CR, a B&M 144 (2-3# boost) on it, with a 250-260 XE cam and 5.80 gear and 40" tires. Kept it around 2700-3200 RPM and got 7.5-7.8 MPG @ 20,000 lbs loaded. A lot of the time it was up against the secondaries. YIKES!!!

Broke the snout off of 2 forged cranks, put a 427 Tall deck in it and went right to 6 MPG. YIKES!!!

PM me and I can get into the details...

 

That motor home didn't happen to have an overdrive unit did it?

 

nope
were ODs available behind the th400?