I’m not saying we need an aftermarket block for the 350 but I wouldn’t use one anyway as I like my Buick to be all Buick not an aftermarket engine. My point is that us 350 guys still need to work with the factory block we can’t just switch to an aftermarket block to solve the issue. No I don’t think there are many people that will push the limits of the 350. I’ve just added a thick block girdle, billet crank, internal balance, good rods and pistons, and max effort ported alum TA heads. NA it wont the push the blocks limits however I will run it on twin turbos, buying larger turbos if needed. As far as I know no one else is serious about pushing on these other than Bobb Mackley and his sons procharged engine. Johnny and grumpy are pretty successful so far as well.
6-71 blower IS running down the track not hiding in the garage. lol. built(still a r&d project) it right so i down have to worry about it breaking. just worrying about getting down to 7.99 so i can move on to another project
Jim, question for you. How many of your customers with aluminum blocks and Factory oiling set up are driven on the street I mean highway long high speed trips I would be interested on how as the block Grows and Lifter bores increase how much oil pressure drops off or becomes an issue. Only one has been designated as a street driver, In my opinion, the main need for this block is in the realm of racing, I don't try and sell it for the novelty of having one on the street. That said, I do have another one in the works that is destined to be run on the street. The first one that was not a dedicated race motor was the supercharged one I built a couple years ago, and I have not had any feedback from that customer. Not sure if it's on the street yet, it was part of a big project. One thing to keep in mind with the aluminum block.. While bore diameters do increase due to heat, I don't think that is the biggest factor here. We are seeing on the dyno that these motors need to be treated like a filled iron block. They have oil temp issues.. Now, I suspect it's because that they have a bunch less coolant in the block, plus the casting is thicker, being alumium. Whatever the cause, the oil gets hot, and without an oil cooler in a HD street application, that is going to impact the ability to maintain oil pressure. Thats the bad news.. the good news is that even this might not be a problem, since this engine tends to stay alive with oil pressures that would send an iron block to the scrapyard.. The best information on this will come from those using one on the street, and hopefully someone doing so will see this and chime in. I can tell you for sure that for the alum block/ factory oiling system, the extra long gears do provide adequate oil volume to maintain oil pressure, up to oil temps to 200*. With the standard length gear in the same motor, what you see is that the pressure will just increase to say 70 psi, and then it will stay there, or slightly fall back during the pull. That being said, while dropping oil pressure during a dyno pull will certainly cause tightening of the butt cheeks, this motor will live when others would show damage.. or fail.. JW
Land Rover discovery front cover bolts to the block. Crank needs modifications to drive the pump. Has provisions for distributor also.
That’s why I sold my aluminum block. When I originally purchased it it was going to be a strictly drag car. As life changes and time goes on I wanted more of a pleasure car. While having my aluminum block on the Dyno and seeing how the heat affected the oil pressure I just could not trust it on the street. It’s probably the lifter bores growing more than anything. Until somebody proves it wrong I don’t see it being a street deal. And I don’t mean going for ice cream. I do believe there will be an iron block coming out and just leave it at that.
sean, with all the changes to get to and including the 6-71, the dragster weighs about 1800 lbs. right up there with the big boys. we have hit 150 2 yrs b4 covid. trying for low 8's
Being a SBB thread if OT creep to BBB alloy blocks is OK then I guess alloy block Rovers are OK too. The point there being that those are an aluminum block engine and don't seem to have any real issues with the swelling of lifter bores and such causing a drop in oil pressure. Now I'll grant you those little motors do have their own issues but I can't really see this being a fundamental problem. I don't build race engines. All of my builds are street engines and the needs are much different, especially in a 2000-2700lb car. To be quite honest 800hp in one of those cars would no longer be a street build, as very few drivers have the fine touch needed to maintain control in the widely changing conditions of street driving. It's true that you could do it, but it would be entirely unsuitable as a daily driver for a whole list of reasons, not the least being general driveability, durability and economy. So we're not doing .750" lift cams. After all, we have to run an exhaust system that actually reduces the sound level and fits in the car. These limitations mean that just about anything over .500" lift is pretty much wasted due to exhaust restriction. I do like blowers though, and I like a high winding engine. So some interesting compromises have to be made. A 350 cu. in engine is not really an option even with the largest and latest Rover block, which means the choice is an iron block or a limit of 5L or 300 cu.in. displacement. The weight difference is in the neighborhood of 50lbs (with 300 alloy heads on the iron block) and for some that is a determining factor. Not to me though, I like the 300 block with the 350 crank and the best heads available. TA heads add about another 10lbs. But over the years we've seen a lot of messing with the oiling system of the Rovers and 215's and what works there is exactly what works with the SBB and for that matter with the BBB. First and foremost hold the bearing and pump end clearances tight. If only that much is done oil pressure problems mostly just disappear. But just for a moment consider the fact that the most force you will ever have pushing oil up from the sump into the oil pump inlet at sea level is 16psi and it is often less, you can begin to understand why any restrictions in the pump supply side could be a problem. The stock pump itself has no issue sending plenty of oil to the bearings at more than adequate pressure provided there isn't too much leakage caused by large bearing clearances, and provided it has the oil delivered to it in the first place. Don't think that just because the suction galley is full of oil that the pump can simply suck in as much as it needs. The very most it can ever do under completely ideal conditions is to create a perfect vacuum, or zero psi of absolute pressure. But if it's pushing the oil out faster than it is coming in to refill the inlet we get pump cavitation and it pumps nothing, or rather a reduced amount of oil. So while job 1 is reducing the flow needs by keeping clearances tight, job 2 is letting more oil into the pump inlet. How you do this is your business, but following the recommended oiling mods is a pretty sure path to success. Talk about the LS system if you like but the Buick system isn't at all bad, it just needs to be optimized. Jim About that Rover front cover... It's pretty similar to the V6 one in most ways and was made both with a distributor and without. Most common used a reverse water pump for a serpentine drive but I'm pretty sure it was also made in an early version the other way. Might be a bit hard to find. But like Jim W said, you don't really need that. Maybe in some cases you might have to watch distributor gear wear, especially if you are running higher oil pressures but you should be able to get a good service life out of them if you aren't going too extreme.
