All hail the BBC...

7699 Views 31 Replies 17 Participants Last post by five7kid, Dec 26, 2005

five7kid

Discussion Starter · May 10, 2005

Here's a forum where we can talk the good ol' Rat, the King of the Track.

While the SBC has the reputation of being the most hot rodded engine, at the 1/4 mile the Rat really shines. At Bandimere Raceway, they noted recently that around half of the cars that race there have a Chevy engine, and over half of those are BBC's. Since the vast majority of those racing there are amateurs who need to watch pennies, that's a significant statistic.

Personally, I've got the baby of the family - 1966 396 of 325 horse variety, minor mods such as .030" over rebuild, forged TRW pistons, stock closed chamber heads treated to home porting and polishing, 2.06/1.72" valves, around 10:1 CR, General Kenetics 270 hydraulic flat tappet cam, Comp Magnum roller tip rockers, Weiand Action+ dual plane intake, Holley double pumper with 750 CFM Proform mainbody, HEI large cap distributor with Accel box, Hedman hedders intended for the Impala chassis the engine/trans came out of. I've never had it dyno'd, but gross crank HP estimate is in the 400 sea level range. I'd like to get a Comp solid cam and RPM Air Gap type intake sometime in the near future to up the grunt a little. Grunt is the word since it's pushing around 3850 pounds down the track. But, it doesn't complain.

Looking forward to sharing info about our fav rodent!

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pwr2w8

· #12 · Aug 3, 2005

five7kid said:
Hmm, it seemed to me that 454 parts were always less than those for 396/427, etc. But, I haven't been looking lately.

My block was used for both 396's and 427's, so I'm considering having it punched out to 4.250" next time it's apart. Certainly the bigger bores breathe better, and if you don't have anything to work with, it makes the most sense to build the bigger engines. These days, a 454 is considered "small".

I'm certainly not running 9's, but it has been very consistent for me lately.

I didn't think you could punch out a 396 that much. You would have to bore it out .156, I didn't think that gm designed the cylinder walls to be taken out that far.

For a 427 I've always heard to get a 454 block with a 396 crank, since the 454 already has the 4.250 bore.

I've yet to build one, so I could be comletely wrong here. :dontknow:

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