yea i'll realize that soon enough haha and good deal on the rod specs do you also happen to know what engine they come out of? http://www.honda-performance.com/pistons.asp#
This is great talk and ideas that help develop and build. :gp: I looked into this a couple of years ago and talked it over with 2 old men at Atlanta Crankshaft about a set of NASCAR Honda bearing rods I had. The bottom line we arrived at was; you are cutting .12 inches off a already cast crankshaft. They pointed out that any hp gain by adding stroke and cubic inches would be offset by the reduced RPM you could turn with the weakened crankshaft. Another concern was the throws needed to be widened. With the .945 Honda width mentioned a Buick 350 big end rod width is .835. That means the throws need to be opened another .110 of a inch. This may weaken it more?? I don't know, but the old guys started yapping about Mallory metal or tugnsten having to drilled and dowelled into the crankshaft to get it to balance out. They beat me down pretty good as old guys can. :idea2: :spank: In the end I was going to have a bunch of money $$$ in rods, pistons, and a weaker cast crankshaft. It made more sense (for me) to go to aftermarket rods and keep all the stock crankshaft I could. If I had a free machine shop or a buddy I would give it a try. :TU: I don't want to discourage anyone, but it was not going to work for me. I found the thread when I was looking into this in 2005: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=88838
Like you say we are not going to see HUGE gains in a few cubes, and the headaches will be many. We have Eagle rods for an SBC application that fit perfectly with slight narrowing and one bearing tang moved. This combo has been track proven 12s NA shifted at 6500 rpm all 08 season and in 2010 will be running one of the steel X factors! Reliable and the cheepest option so far for forged piston and rods combo Brian Leibee said that it would be no problem to do another setup like this for someone just call and he can repeat the machining on a set of rods for less then fancy offset grinds on the crank. The rods are very slightly narrowed, bearing tang moved and stock buick 350 bearings are used, the piston is custom made anyways so no problem to go with the SBC pin diameter. Info on the pistons : The piston builder Ross Racing Pistons with 4cc oversized diameter valve reliefs for about 11:1 compression. Job card # off the order sheet was 115793. Precision Machine,Phone# 307-362-5049. __________________
I get asked all the time "why do you want to spend more to go slower" Dont worry you will not discourage, I thrive on it! And my buddy is my machinist, worked for Robert Yates, NASCAR untill he was tired of being away from family and moved back home. My block will also be bored 60 over. After this we will go to work on the heads to see what we can do. Hopefully in the end it will be worth it.
HAHA! It will happen! I have a few things to finish up on Green Bean, that's taking longer than planned due to starting up a new manufacturing facility. The 350 project will get started as soon as Green Bean is completed. I've learned my lesson in the past on trying to do 2 projects at the same time. It doesnt work for me.
Green Bean is my avatar. It is one very ugly shade of green!! But, it's very powerful and that makes it a very cool sleeper!!!
I always thought more stroke e = more low end torque, and more bore = more high end horsepower. For street crusing, Ill say low end torque is a lot more fun.
Can't you just use the 400 crank and then go with either the Honda or Chevy rods? I know you have to check the lower end of the block for relief cuts (so the rods clear) and also check for interferrence with the cam. Has anyone used the 400 crank? Doug
but don't Buick motors already have a noticeably larger stroke than most motors? depends on which family and displacement you're talking about. "long Buick stroke" really only applies to the tall deck small blocks. the Buick 350 is by far the most under square GM 5.7L ... and the 340 was worse. it has a stroke nearly identical to the Buick 455 ( which was the most over square 7.5L ), being only .100" less. this under square issue is the primary problem i have with stroking the SBB 350. if the Buick 400 had problems with valve shrouding, how on earth are you going to feed air into a SBB 370? i mean, if you're going forced induction, great. normally aspirated? not so hot. Nailheads are incredibly over square for their displacement ( a 322 has a 4.000" bore, the same as an SBC 350 ), with the 425 having as big a bore as a BBB 455. they had to be over square because they were effectively fitting the valves into less than half the diameter of the piston. I always thought more stroke e = more low end torque, and more bore = more high end horsepower. that's a function of a couple of different issues. if you're going to make cubes with stroke you get much higher piston speeds and frictional losses. couple that with the narrow bore keeping valve sizes down and you're killing high rpm operation from several different directions. you can make torque with a big bore motor and you can make hp with a long stroke motor ... but you're really working against yourself to do so. stroking tends to be the best way to gain cubes which is why people do it. Can't you just use the 400 crank not in a million years. the 400 belongs to the Big Block Buick family and has bore spacing of 4.750". the 350 is in the Small Block Buick family and is only spaced 4.240" the only possible option for crank swaps is Nail forged cranks to the BBB family as they share bore spacing. you are thinking of the SBC 400 ... which, being in the same family as the SBC 350, is quite easy to swap parts around with. to quote myself from the thread Bobb linked: "on the plus side, if you're willing to spend the dough it might be possible to resleeve the Buick 350 with 4" bores and that would give you 387.04ci on the stock stroke." *me thinks of that insane Rover block* ou:
I'm glad my engine is still working good for you! My stroked 350 is still on hold, But, I WILL have it completed later this year. I just had the Transmission completed and am working on a deal for the car right now (62 Skylark) to install it all in. I just got everything finished up on Green Bean last week. 6-8 weeks and I should be back on the 350.
