Hot Rods The best engine you have ever had- looking back

I have to say and I am a fan of the Hemi....It was an OT 455 in a 98 Olds...It gave me over 200 and 60 thousand miles and never had the valve covers off...The car was totaled was the only reason it went away...

 

Tough to choose between the 300HP 327 in my 63 Impala and the 68 Z28 in my OT Camaro! Both of them were fast and served me well as I won a lot of races with both of them!

 

4.3 V6 I had in a 29 Model A. that thing ran like a V8

 

Good 'ol 327 I built as a teen,it was the only shiny thing in my '57 back then. 7000 rpm regularly, M21 & 4.56's!
*edit - .447 lift 350 hp cam, 11 to 1 TRW dome pistons, 650 DP, Torker intake.

 

Bought a Chevrolet ZZZ when they first came out. I put it in a deuce tudor sedan highboy with a 350 trans, 3.89 gears and 285/15 rear tires. When I got the first motor running it rattled so bad the dealer warrantied it with another ZZZ which ran about 40,000 miles. When the new owner pulled it to have it refreshed the machine shop said the motor looked like it had 80,000 miles on it. It was really fast and made a couple 4000 mile plus trips. Must have been the 3.89 gears that wore out the motor?

 

What about that first generation of Z-28 / 302s?

 

Stock bore and stroke 350. 2 1/16 Hilborns, Mondello 492 angle plug heads, Reed roller cam (around 300 degrees duration), 14:1 + compression (heads were angle milled to the max!). Ran on methanol. Was competitive with the carbureted big blocks of the day at the Valley. Nothing really special, just a good combination that was like the Energizer bunny: it just kept on running!

 

This one. .030 over 327. T-10 with 4.88 gears. It was pretty quick in my 56 Bel Air back when 100+ octane was about a $1.00 a gallon.

 

Many 327s-some in 40's some in trifives etc. Best one still have in wife's 55 built right-was a circle track champ motor that we detuned just a bit for street use-very strong!! See pic. The 57 Fuely ran pretty strong too for what it was. 283 .060 over, 097, 3 spd close ratio, 3.70 posi-would stay out on my sons 40 with a pretty good 350 up to about 65 but you had to wing it up!!

 

A 300 I had in a ford pick up , me , my family and anyone who wanted to borrow it beat on that thing like a government mule and it took it all with a smile .

And a SBC for ease of maintenance, cost of parts , and again the abuse I’ve put dozens of those engines through for Pennie’s on the mile .

 

The best engine I ever had was a stroker 371 Olds that I bought from our local machine shop, Hydrohead, when the customer quit paying for it. It had 12:1 pistons, balanced 5/8 stroker kit, Engle cam & kit, Lockerman ported heads, adjustable rockers, Weiand 2x4 intake with new AFBs, a new DuCoil distributor, Isky valve covers with the bumps. Everything I dreamed of. I had seen it in the showroom and I told my buddy that worked the counter how I wished that engine was mine. He said, "buy it". It was $350, just what was owed on the bill. They even let me make payments, I was only making $1.75/hr. When I got it, I painted it Cal Custom Candy Blue over silver base and put it into my short door '47 Ford coupe in place of the Pontiac that was in there. The fender well headers came from my friend Gilbert's crashed '49 Olds. Not knowing anything about the DuCoil, I saved up and we towed it to R&W Automotive in Inglewood to have it started and tuned - $79. Holy cow that thing was mean. I did have trouble keeping head gaskets in it though. Finally, I put the solid copper gaskets in it sprayed with aluminum paint as advised by R&W. It didn't last long, it kicked a rod spectacularly, while racing my buddy and his '36 Ford coupe with a 390 FE. I still have a piece of the pan rail around here somewhere with candy blue paint on it.

 

It took my Senior year in High School and the first year of trade school to scrape up the $$, but I built a +.060" Chevy 230 6 cylinder for my '63 Chevy II. It had 11.5:1 forged Jahns pistons, a Sissell solid lifter cam of way-big duration, and Clifford Research headers, but money ran out before I could afford a more appropriate intake/carburetor to match the rest of the parts. I can still hear the cackle of that 6-banger when the cam came alive at full boil. I've always wanted to build another one to finish what I had started back in '70 &'71.

Lynn

 

Probably this oval port 396. Young with no money, home ported the heads, angle milled, used Erson cam, 500cfm center carb. I've had hotter 427s and 54s but this little 396 with all 6 barrels open really screamed.

 

For me its was a lot of granny motor Mopar 318s. The 1st one I ever had showed 60,000 miles on the odometer the day I bought the car. The day I sold it, 7 hard years of abuse later the odometer showed 36,000 (back then they only went to 100K). My brother in lay bought the car from me, he drove it another 15,000 before he slid into a ditch and punched a hole in the oil pan. That car never had the valve covers off of it while me and my BIL had it. Other then oil & filter changes, tune ups, and a trans rebuild at 125K, the drive train was OEM as far s I knew.
There were several more over the years, including the one I built up into a street screamer, until the one day I broke the crankshaft.

We had a 318 we were running in one of our dirt track cars. In the heat race, we were involved in a crash, they drug the car in, and we worked like crazy to get it sort of functioning in time for the consi race (non-qualifier's last chance to make the feature, you had to place 1st or 2nd to be the last 2 cars in the feature. Because of our position in the point standings, we had to start on the back row of the consi. Almost from the beginning there was a trail of smoke following the car around the track, but it was running hard and gaining positions. About 1/2 way through the race, the trail of smoke stopped, but we were still gaining positions. I let him run. We finished in 2n place, just inches behind the winner. We were qualified for the feature. When the driver pulled into the pits, he showed me we had no oil pressure, and sure enough, no oil showed on the dip stick. We discovered a piece of sheet metal was rubbing against the side of the oil filter and had rubbed a hole in it. We pulled the filter, beat the sheet metal out of the way, pulled the oil filter off the race car hauler, and had to borrow a couple quarts of oil to bring it up to full (it took 6 quarts to fill it). We had just got done added the oil when they called our race onto the track. We were thrilled the motor actually started. My driver asked me how I wanted him to run the motor. Its coming out next week, anyway, might as well blow it up. We ended up finishing in 6th place (out of 20 starters) and that 318 was still running great. we actually ran it the next week as well. It was still running when we did pull it out.

One of my wife's cousins had a 64 Chevy pickup he beat the living daylights out of. Over the course of about a year, he had put at least 3 different SBC in and blew them all up. He was at my place one time and I was giving him trash talk about how weak his beloved sbc were, and what he really needed to do was put a real motor in the truck. I sold him a 318 out of a 68 Dodge pickup I was parting out (it was a really strong motor). He somehow cobbled that 318 in the Chevy truck and commenced to try to kill that 318, he had a point to prove. I saw him 6 months later and ask him how the 318 was doing. He was actually bragging about it! The old Chevy truck had a stick, he was telling me how he could dump the clutch, then let off it quick, then floor it again to get the front end to start bouncing, then he could mash the gas and pull the front wheels off the ground (he even had a picture to prove it.) The next time I saw him I asked about the 318, it seems the Chevy truck died, but he put the 318 into something else and was still driving it.

Yep, 318s. hands down. Gene

 

I don’t know if this my favorite motor but I am super impressed with my 59 Dodge 230 flathead six. Came outa an old mail truck so it probably had a ton of miles on it. Put an Edmunds aluminum head on it and it purrs like a kitten.

 

The one I miss the most is a Olds 455 I put together out of stuff I had laying around my shop. I used a set of STD 455 Pontiac pistons and a set of 425 Olds rods. Bored the block to fit the pistons. Used a old Mondello/Engle grind flat tappet hyd cam. A set of ported 72 model Ga Olds heads and a Edelbrock Performer intake. Dropped it off in a beat up 71 Vista Cruiser. It ran 8.20 in the 1/8th with a 3.08 gear!!!
Had more fun and won more money with that heap than all the others put together!

 

Most memorable for me was a 305 Chevy out of an 84 caprice. I totaled my truck just before Christmas and needed wheels, found a rusted out 4x4 for 400 bucks with a barely running engine. My buddy had a 305 no one wanted out of a granny fresh caprice he had parted out years earlier. 50 bucks for the engine, half a can of spray paint, and some old Camaro parts and I was up and running. First job was hauling a ramcharger and a load of stuff over Donner Summit for a friend. Ok, I was doing 5 miles an hour with 3.08 gears, but she took it. I abused that little engine for a year,and she never hiccuped. I wouldn't hesitate to run one again, without a trailer though.

 

Back in the late 60’s, maybe not the best, but it was the strongest motor I ever had until it blew up. It had unbelievable torque! 14;1 compression, blueprinted, originally from an alcohol funny car. Hilborn guided me through converting the injection from alcohol to gasoline.


This 392, built by Jay Steele (rip), Taylor Engines, is a great motor I have had in my 51 ford for the last 15 years.

 

The 389 Super Duty that I transplanted into my 56 GMC . That engine made great power for many years.

 

I've had several good engines in my time, kid wise/sreetwiseback 60's had a 300 HP 327 modified to around 350+ and engine was outstanding, the RPM, abuse it received with no failures was amazing. Had several great racing engines, the best was a SESCO Chevy 4 cylinder Midget race engine, I purchased it new 75, that engine ran for years in my Dad's racer, only freshed it a few times, ran 100+ nights over the years. I had great success with the VW midget race engines, but high maintenance costs with a few major failures. SBC Sprint car engines all good, the SBC combo was run for years, buy good parts, pretty much indestructible if maintained properly. All of my HAMB cars were SBC the best engine IMO

 

I too love me some SBC 327 but my all time favorite is the CAT 1693TA, greatest sounding engine ever. Second choice would be CAT 3406B.

 

Everyone has their favorite. Sounds like that choice makes you money. Mine costs me money....

 

A government mule?? That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in the last month!! I’m with you on the 300 Ford. Toughest engine I’ve ever had! Pulled my bracket car 50 miles each way for two seasons and never gave trouble. I replaced it with another F-250, 4x4 this time, with a 400 Ford. Another great engine, I beat the hell out it four wheeling and it never complained. Strongest trailer towing engine I had until I bought my Cummins. That old 400 would out pull the 5.3 Chevies I had.

 

Had a 300 in a Ford dump truck and pulled a very heavy pintle hitch trailer with an international backhoe on it. It never failed to get me there and get me back home. Great motors..........
Now the brakes and trying to stop was sometimes an adventure though!

 

In the mid 80's (no money days) I bought a big Pontiac with a locked up 421 for $100. It took two weeks to get it to turnover soaking and trying every day. Eventually got it to run, put a Tripower on it and put it in a 64 Tempest with a 4sp and 3.55 gear, It ran amazingly good, reliable and was quick.

 

My Y-Block Lincoln motor went 400K with only an oil pump & timing chain replacement & a valve job & it was still running strong when the transmission died... In that 400K it was a daily driver, a tow car for a race car, a show car, my daughter's wedding car, my junkyard parts picker, & my swap meet parts peddler...In the '70s & '80s we tended to "just drive 'em & not baby 'em", especially as they were just old used cars & hadn't become anything "special"... Now it's the next vehicle on my list for work after I finish the current one because my son wants it for the memories it brings back for him.

 

In the early 90's I pulled a 350 out of a hot rod project '34 Coupe my Dad had bought. Had it rebuilt and stuck it in my OT Elcamino. That thing ran strong and hard. Drove it for a dozen years until the body rusted away then parked it. I always planned to pull the engine and put it in my '33 Sedan, but here it is a good 15 years later and I still haven't done it. Poor thing is probably frozen up and will require a full rebuild again.

 

Back in 1972 the 301” that came in my 3window was the most free revin’ small block I have ever had the pleasure of pounding. When I would shift her, the RPMs would drop off in a heartbeat; then scream back in the next gear and wag the ass of the coupe every time. The 294” that I’ve had in her since that 301” block cracked around 1976, just ain’t the same.Still a real fun runnin’ride…but that 301”mystique is still a real thing ; to me. Waaaaaaaa, BANG, Waaaaaaaaaa!

 

Random thoughts:

The older we get, the faster they wuz.

At the risk of pissin' off those who lovingly recollect engines they could beat on and neglect and it would still run, the reason is/was, none of those POS would make enough horsepower to hurt itself.

If I could go back in time, I'd beg, borrow, steal enough money to own a 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk 3-speed overdrive and build a 374" Caribbean engine for it. Beat 'em in the quarter, beat 'em on the top end and look good doing it.

 

Favorite engine? 327
Best engine? Slant 6 Mopar. Simple,reliable,efficient