I have yet to see a stock built 455 go 7500 rpm w/o blowing up or 10k before I crashed our Skyhawk. that's with stock rods and hyper pistons and nothing broke. now it has forged parts and I don't even worry about it. dem's the fact.
Ever been to Norwalk for the Buick nationals? The only race that is heads up is the quick 16, and this is the same for all tracks running. Beyond that they are all bracket racing. You do not win at the end, you win at the light along with a good 60 ft time, spin the tires and you are done.. When I come out of the hole with a 1.74 60 ft. with my pissy little 13.50 dial in as you all with a 455 claim, they are so scared that I took off so fast that most of them red light and then the race is over. I have been to 3rd place at Norwalk 3 times out of all those cars and I did not lose because I was slower. Most of the time it is because the damn car went faster than my dial in or I would be stupid and red light the thing. Most 455's run in the 12 second range. You need a lot more to get into the 10's like about 600 or so horse. I had 460 ft lbs tq rear wheel with the 125 shot and 425 hp how much hp is that with a little pissy 350? 320 tq and 285hp on the motor the same day at the dyno. No 350 racers No heads simple as that people. I do not see those 100 people on here that want heads building a 350 now do we. I am the only one here asking you all to build a HOT 350 the rest of you are complaining we should build a 455 because it is faster, well no crap Dick Tracy it should be, isn't that the incentive to build a HOT 350 and beat you?
No, but I want to be able to run at least under 14 sec. Bracket racing doesn't interest me. And I don't want to build a 455, I like the intrigue of a somewhat fast SBB without having to spend a boat load of money or use NOS. Like I said, if I get it under 14 sec then I'll be perfectly happy to race it.
For the record, just in my particular case mind you, if the single plane and alum heads were on the horizon when I started my project, I never would've built my 455. I've always been a huge fan of the SBB, but wanted to eclipse the 500/500 mark reliably without the use of power adders. The meat and potatoes to do this (e.I. heads) weren't even on the drawing board at the time so I copped out and went with a BBB. I still have a 350 on the stand and may bite and build it once the go fast parts come out, but I was a victim of timing and went the other way. Had I known then what I know now I wouldn't have, but you know what they say about hindsight. But this little "rivalry" you seem to be drumming between the bigs and smalls, remember one thing: at least it's Buick power and not some other transplant.
Call ta and talk to them, the intake is close to being done and the heads are well into the development phase... Mike jr e mailed me the other day discussing their plan to build another 350 to test the new intake and heads.... The 350 will be a lot more popular for racing once people can get heads and a good intake...
I planned on racing my car this year but have had some WOT issues I haven't nailed down yet. I did buy another 350 that I'm going to start building this winter to swap in though
to sum mine up...life I had allot of buick specific parts on backorder or other unforseen delay shipment.. lasy box shall be here next week via AM&P Then the rest just related to fuel injection(sswitched route to go distributorless and adding coil packs) so I can get all that through summit, which only takes 1day to receive.. so, who wants to be a buick buddy and build my engine, then I can race next to you :Brow::TU:
No, not starting a rivalry post #4 was the one that said something about it in the first place. My question is where are the 350 racers and all you get is put in a 455. If it wasn't for Sonny Seal's car i probably would have put in a 455 too but I just wanted to be different and besides I wanted at least some gas mileage since I used to cruise around a lot. It basically takes a power adder of some kind to beat a 455 unless they are stock then I can run with them that's all, but rivalry, NO. What we have here is over 100 people that wanted heads and there is only a handful on here that say they might do a 350. When I hear from TA themselves saying this is a sure thing then I will believe it. The thread about the heads started in 2007 and it has been a year now since talk of a intake started. I know, these things just take time. There is still not one 350 here being built or put together as I speak. Entertain me with I have this and I have that. You don't need those heads to put together a 350 just ask Sonny Seal, an 11 second car. Now who was it that had his heads and can have there car together right now, can't think of his name. The fact is no one but maybe 3 or 4 people have put together a 350 in the last 10 years since I added nitrous in 2005. It just is not there. 3 years out for the heads. If we are lucky. You people can get mad at me all you want I just want some of you to get the Job Done and quit talking about it for the last 5 years.
Told you I could stir the pot. Wasn't looking for rivalry, but with all the 350 babble from a "bookwriter" who has never raced or even has a working 350 engine, just a really long signature, who am I to blame? I'm not bashing the sbb by any means, but if you guys want some recognition, you gotta go out and start beating some chevy 350's. Get a name! As for the 350 guys touting how much faster than a 455, you use power adders. Uneven field. A 455 with a power adder would put you in the dust, and if built properly, would not have to rev over 6500, which is cake and pie. I wanna see some proven 7k rpm 350's, not just 1 mythical 1000 hp motor. Carry on!
On my end I dont want to start building my motor until I know some head specs. To build a high effort 350 and expect aluminum heads it would suck to get the numbers wrong after putting together the rotating assembly and decking the block. I dont want to make sacrifices in order to run ported iron heads if there is a reasonable bet that aluminum heads will be coming out that flow better and have a different chamber size and valve size. TA has no reason to mislead us and say development is happing if in fact it isnt. Until we know more the most I plan to do in the meantime is ported heads and a cam on my current stock shortblock. I am low 14s on a bone stock motor right now (just headers and quadrajet). I do have timeslips to show that too.
we do turn 7500 with the s/p. with the blower we are limited to 6500. and I saw 10k on the tach before I hit the wall. all fact.
Nice The best I ran with my first engine was 14.5 That had Poston gs110 cam 4bbl intake carb headers and 3.42 gear 2nd engine is bone stock..never ran..sure it would of been in the 16.5s lol
I am with ya you are absolutely right on your statements. X-factor, Herch rods, new crank, forged pistons, turbo, Sonny Seal heads, you would have thought the engine would have been built by now, "bookwriter" now that's good. We have to beat on some Chevy's and get a name for ourselves. I always got looks at the track when beating other cars and they all thought I had a 455 and was shocked when I told them it was a 350,The next round they were not next to me. I have beat them over the years but mine is a little tired, after all it is 20 years old now. Maybe we need a little rivalry with the 455's that might get someone to build one at least. But you know it will not be easy unless we use a little gas for help. A Pro Charger would be nice. We have to do something to keep you have 100 more cubes! And coffee can pistons. I was thinking of trying to run a small 50 shot and I am sure I can run mid 12 with that. I have a very tight suspension on the car to handle corners real good and this slows me down some in the top end. Watch the video I posted and you can see how much the tires tuck in when I launch. You know, when I was running the TA 510 cam I still had power at 6200 rpm but was actually afraid to run past that based on what was going on with the 455's at that time, it was 20 years ago when I had my motor built with that cam. It might have been able to spin to 7 grand, after all mine is fully balanced. I could have at least been able to use a single plane intake for sure then. Wish I had it then.
Just a comment from another old-school prick, While I was messing with my big block Buick stuff, a good friend trusted me enough to help him follow Kenne-Bell's recipe for a 13 second Buick 350. Some of you remember the write-ups in the catalog, they basically started with baseline stuff, then added/changed things and reported results. In hindsight, I'm amazed that we got similar results, because I think the gains they boasted were (shall we say) over exaggerated. This is 1989. Here's what we did: Full body '71 GS, no AC. Don't remember what it weighed. 1971 block and heads 0.030" with TRW (now Sealed Power) forged pistons Milled the block zero, angle milled the heads on the deck and intake side for a true 10.1:1 Tons of bowl and chamber work on the heads First generation TA intake for the 350... And let me tell you about that dual plane aluminum intake from TA back then, it was their first version. It fit like a glove, but I was swimming in aluminum shards to make it work for the heads. That pretty much cured me of wanting to port anything. Hat's off to those that do it. We installed KB's 118 cam, which is normally easy on a big block 430 or 455, it's a lot for a 350. Ran it advanced, 3500 converter, 4.11:1 gears. Started with a Holley Q-jet replacement, went to an 800 Quadrajet. The car was low 13's consistently on nine inch slicks, open KB headers. But we dealt with carb tuning, ignition, everything else including the attitude of the driver (owner). This was 1991. I've been away from racing for many years. Don't let TIME stop you, otherwise you'll just be dead and nobody will remember what you're doing. Devon
Well, there is one right now but you're kinda right, still doing a whole lot of custom machining and still waiting for the custom parts that HAVE been ordered so............. it isn't technically being "put together" right now, but it is slowly getting there. Plus after it is done it won't be in the 350 cid family anymore, it will be a 380.4 cid stroker. So after the completion of this engine it will be up to Andy(user name here:Alec) to race it. The head porter(Henry) that is going to do the port work and valve job is backed up with work for the next few weeks as well but progress is being made. He is going to hold off on having back surgery for the winter months, so hopefully he will have the sbb 350 heads done before then? Or we may have to find someone else to do the porting, but would rather have Henry do that job!(I would say Henry is ONE(don't want to start any head porter drama here,LOL) of the best head porters here in MI. definitely worth waiting for.) Can't have the cam made until the heads are done, another set back! There have been a lot of set backs with this build but it IS in the works, for more details look for the sbb 350 stroker thread in the small block section. Derek
Thank you for talking about that, it is what we need here to keep this going. I just want to see some 350's being put together and not talk about it for 5+ years.
Thanks for the info here that is great to hear and I know this takes time. I would wait for the good head porter too if he was available. My engine builder that did mine said it is easy to hit water when porting those heads. You know some alum heads may get made but in the meantime at least you are not waiting for that and going foreword with your build. I remember getting my Ken-Bell book in 1986 and it was just a dream for me then and took till 1994 to get it done. But I did have the Comp Cam 268 cam in there in 1983, didn't know crap then, barely know crap now. It is a work in progress. LOL.
Can you tell us about the car and how you were able to get this done? What car Skylark or Apollo, suspension tricks, gearing, cam change, carb tricks, and so on? I am sure people that want to stay on the stock side would like to know about this.
