All hail the BBC...

My proven combo (at least in my mind ) :
496 CI, 11:1, moderate HR cam, Richmond 5-speed trans, 12-bolt

When I 1st bought the 67 it came with a seasoned virgin 454 block and 396 virgin crank, the rods for the crank and a new set of .030 over 12.5:1 TRW pop-up pistons (with 427 compression height pin location). Also "in a box" were a set of seasond virgin open chamber 1972 vintage heads (that probably came off of the block) and a set of new TRW swirl polish 2.18" intake and 1.94" exhaust valves. I had machine work done and then slapped (and I do mean slapped....balanced rotating assy but minimal blueprinting) all of this together, topped it off with a Holley Strip Dominator and 850 dbl pumper, put on a set of Hooker headers and went racing. Managed a best of 11.38 @ just over 120 with a 1.67 60' (using 295 McCreary dirt track tires) at Brotherhood Raceway (on Terminal Island back in the day, if you race and are from LA you know what and where this was) back in the mid-late 80's. BTW, the cam (.625 lift/310 deg @.050" I & E..at least that's what it said on the box) and valvetrain, intake setup, headers and exhaust, gears and posi for the 12-bolt were all purchased new or used at the Pomona and/or Long Beach swap meets. This thing was about as low buck as you could get. I did have to run 106 (Thanx to SoCal fuels in Wilmington and 5 gallon jugs) in it to get full effect (best timing advance). I could drive it on 92 (at the time) mixed 50/50 with the 106 but it only got 3 mpg with the 4.10 gears. Needless to say this would not pass Cali smog after they started smogging old cars again in early 1990's. Out came the 427, in went a wrecking yard 454 out of a 78 pick up (it passed smog but was high mileage). Found another 454 and proceeded to build the engine that's in the car today. 9.5:1 cr with a .510/220 intake, .525/230 exhaust cam. It passed smog cleaner than the (then new) 96 Z28 vert that I had at the time. Now that I'm in AZ can you say HELLO 496?

I'm a BBC fan as well.

My dad's been out of town for awhile, and the cars been sitting idle, so I'm driving up Sunday to crank up his beast and drive it a little.

It's a 509 (bored 502) with ported Brodix heads and CC solid roller, backed by a transking TH400. Motor made 650 fwhp N/A on the dyno. He's got a NOS big shot plate on it with a progressive controller, but has yet to spray it.

The 396 tags fool quite few people and the solid roller make is sound a little less agressive that what it acutally is - he's had quite a few late model vettes and a couple of vipers try to run, thinking it's a 350-400hp 396 car, only to see some fleeting tail lights :lol:

Here's a couple of pics:

The bore of a stock "396" is 4.094". The "400", actually 402 cid, was 4.125". The crank for 396, 402, and 427 were all 3.76" stroke. Not all of the smaller blocks can take the bore out to 4.250", so before you start make sure the walls are thick enough (sonic testing or someone who knows enough about BBC castings to be able to tell the difference between a thin wall 402 and a thick wall 427 or 454 block). My 396 casting is the same one they used for 2-bolt main 427's in '66, so it shouldn't be a problem for me. However, from what I've heard very very few of the 402 blocks can be bored more than .060" over.

A 454 block with a 396/402/427 crank is a 427. Bore it .030" over and it's now a .030"-over 427. I know a fellow racer who did pretty much that, except that his is overbored enough to make it a 440 cid. Interestingly, that gives it the same bore/stroke as the Mopar 440. 454 blocks typically had enough meat in the cylinder walls to take a lot of overbore, most accepting .125" over (that's 4.375") easily.