Stubbs

1980 Corvette / 4spd stick / 3.07 gears

Motor .. stock bottom end w/25K never touched
aluminum heads 2.02/1.60 64cc 1.6 roller rockers
cam .... flat tappet / in465 ex490 - dur in285 ex295 2k-6500
1-5/8 prim / long collectors. 3" collectors /dual 2-1/2 / flowmaster 44's
Edlebrock performer rpm manifold
Edelbrock 650 AVS carb
MSD HEI

Not sure on the HP or toque right now but going for a 400hp benchmark. Looking mainly for larger toque gains in a lower rpm range. The cam is not staying .. it's power is way to late in the rpms for my gears. Gears will make a world of difference but with the 4spd I will end up @ 4K+ at highway speeds and for the seat time I put into this car the coin for an overdrive tranny & gears are just plain foolish (for my app). This winter I plan on pulling the motor and sending it out for a 383 bottom end. Right now I'm searching out someplace to get good honest work done but it would help if I had a few opinions as to what I'm looking to do here.

With where I'm at now with the motor what more will it need to get close to that 400hp point and what can I do differently to pull more toque at lower rpms? As the motor is now it's more mid & higher rpm power. Just looking to see what I can salvage from what I have to move the power lower in the rpms. I'm not looking for a rocket ship out of the hole and I dont mind it being not so street friendly as thats what it is now.

And lastly I want to be able to run it on high oct pump gas. MPG is out the window , not worried about that at all.

maxxman04

all of this depends on your budget. technology has made it easy to get good power relatively inexpensive. the one key to not skimp on at all is the machine shop/work. ask around every where for opinions and input. visit the shops, talk with owners. get a feel for how they respond to your request. find out what they might think is good.

dont be cheap on parts either. you dont have to spend a fortune, but shop around. there are a ton of 383 bottom end kits on the market. heads are extremely important too. gm's vortec heads, with a little work, actually flow really well in the lower to mid and mid upper rpm range. valve float becomes an issue over 5k or so, but stiffer springs can solve that problem. edelbrock, holley, all make good bolt on ready to run heads.

a better idea would be to pick up a book on building small blocks, read it thru to see what ideas are out there.

this is a small block i did few years ago, yielded 379 flywheel hp.

.020" over bore, flat top, steel crank, stock 5.7 rods, arp hardware thru out entire motor, custom gapped rings, clevite bearings, vortec heads ported, gasket matched, decked .005", smoothed intake runner, stiffer springs, full roller cam/lifter, cam .455" lift, 216 @ .050" lift duration, roller lifters, rockers, edlebrock air gap intake, 1 inch spacer, custom built and tuned rochester quadrajet mech secondary carb (i know an old timer who is a master of these carbs) HEI with crane coil, 8.8mm wires, plugs set at .040" gap. this was good for 379 at flywheel with no extra tuning. (couldn't afford too many pulls) it was enough to push a stock suspension third gen f body with stock 700r4 and 3.42 gears into the 12's. yes, hooking was an issue. i spent just under $1500 to get there. took alot of googling, shopping, scouring, but it can be done.

good luck, and keep us up to date!!!

T.Neff

The trades and we have found to stay away from the brand name Eagle.Tons of forging and machining issues with that brand.

kevinkpk

You already said cam change,and hi torque at low rpm. This in a vette, with a 3.02 rear end. Exactly what do you want it to do? I know you don't care about mileage, but what are you looking for?

Stubbs

In a nut shell I'm looking for more bottom end power than what I have now. The car / motor was bone stock and all it was good for was driving Miss daisy to the milk store. I tore off all the emissions related "stuff" and did the top end with what I listed in my first post. Sorry to say I did not do my homework and took the advice of the tech person where I ordered the kit from. The motor runs great and makes gobs more power then it did when it was stock but the power comes in around 2500-3000 rpm and pulls strong at 4K. Between the higher 1st gear ratio & my rear end gears I have to keep the rpms up (2K+) off a stop sign/light. I'm happy with the performance I have now just not the take off. I'm assuming I have aprox 200-225 at the motor now. To answer your question I'm looking to come out of the hole "better". Again not looking for drag strip snap your neck take offs just a bit more umph out of the hole.

I'm thinking I have 2 options ...
1st - regear the car to the motors higher rpm power & add an OD 5spd tranny for about 4K. I do drive the car on the highway. Right now at 65mph I'm turning about 3000-3200. I dont want to push the rpms any more on the highway.

2nd - open up more HP & toque and get my power down bottom in the 1500-2K rpm range for half the price of the tranny & gears.

As far as funds ..... as long as it gets done right I dont mind paying what it takes if it's done right the first time. Doing the job wrong 2 & 3 times costs more than doing it right once. To put a number out there I would say 2500 is in my budget right now.

BW56

I put "Rhodes" bleed down lifters in an engine and the power came in about 1,000 rpm sooner. Idled like there wasn't even a cam in it. My power came in around 1,500 and pulled hard till 5800 no float at 6500 . Made for a long strong pull. I was told it too was around 400 hp.