Not practical but good!

[kb426]

It's been years since I've had a real hot rod engine. The kind with high compression, enough cam profile to rump and real low end torque. With today's wide lobe center cams, efi and real efficiency with moderate compression ratios, the rawness has disappeared. We have wonderful performers that kind of lack character. My last sport bike was a 10 second performer from the dealer, made 44 mpg and you never had to work on it. It also idled smoothly and did nothing wrong. I'm all for everything being great but is it going to be difficult to build a hot rod engine and still get some of the magic from the old days? The cammyness, the feeling of multi carbs opening up, etc. I know that many of you travel a lot more than I do. Have you run across something that does everything but still displays "animal magnetism"?

[chimp koose]

The 350 i am building right now . 10.6:1 , solid cam , 108 lca ,235,255@ .050 advanced 4* , aluminum heads 202/160  , headers , dual plane med rise /quadrajet. It will likely be 375+ hp and sound like a monster. After I get that out of my system I will probably go with efi/hyd roller .

[phat46]

Same here, when things settle down I will be building an old school 383 Chevy stroker motor. Got lots of goodies for it now, aluminum heads, nasty cam, roller rockers, etc. have a four bolt block waiting to go to the machine shop. The rotating assembly will be coming soon. Going for about 10 -1 compression, hot ignition and so on. Nothing like that sound and seat of the pants performance. Looking for about 450 h.p.

[chimp koose]

I will be starting a build with my son in law soon . Using some of my silly parts . He has the same heads as are on my 350 ,188cc intake ports ,vortec style aftermarket aluminum .Forged Flat top single valve relief with 6" scat rod , narrow rings , in a .030 over 400 sbc. Windage tray , crank scraper ,rear pan baffle with a kickout pan, Lifter valley baffle . 11+ CR ,not sure on cam . likely air gap performer rpm w/800+ cfm . Goal of about 600 hp for a street camaro. I also have a 4" callies crank that makes 427 cid in my standard bore 400 block and some canfield 215cc cnc ported heads with t&d offset shaft rockers . That combo with a .660 lift solid roller, flat tops made 750 on pump gas & single carb . I am waiting on a racer friend to retire his aluminum block so I can revive it for this stuff . I would love to run it up to 14:1 on alcohol with a hat injector on a tunnel ram. I still have my 125" wb roadster chassis but would prefer a FED . Talking about motors makes me all giddy !  :lol:I once moved my family 80 miles to teach auto mech at a school that had an engine dyno back when I was running my FED  I am just doing valve relief work on the heads for my model T today .

[idrivejunk]

I never had a performance engine and am probably too young for comments to qualify, and also don't have an answer.I do have an experience and a thought to share.

When I worked at a Benz dealer, the guy I got my GP from was a master mech tech or whatever. And a fellow Pontiac performance enthusiast. I told him any time he did a pre delivery inspection on one with the hand signed dyno numbered engines, to please stop at my stall and throw a rev. I recall once around 2005 he did so in a C class with the AMG package and like a five liter V8. I guess that made it a CLK500 AMG. My point is that had I been blindfolded, I could not have told you it wasn't a first gen F-body (Camaro). It had rawness but only when prompted. Drove a V12 SL600 AMG which was even more hairy but zero rawness. Only zip.

A road rod... to me... is a cult admission ticket. Priority on getting there while appearing "retro" and parking with peers.

If I could liken it to choosing a woman, what she does at home in the dark can be the deciding factor more so than how she holds up in the morning sun at a rodder meet.

A raw rod, to me, is more like a dirty secret. Something you partake of which sustains you and that does so whether it's existence is known or not. I call mine a sanity preservation tool. Unfortunately, yes... that means making a choice now, in my opinion.

[lofat46]

One of the guys in my club bought a '41 Ford that hadn't been run in a few years from a fellow club member. It has one of the nicest sounding small block Chevys in it, a good old fashioned 1960's built 301, double hump 2.02 heads and a solid lifter cam.  For you younger guys that haven't heard of a 301 SBC, they were high winding home brewed 327 blocks with a shorter stroke 283 crank, fuelie  heads and either a 327/350 HP solid lifter cam or aftermarket solid cam.  Chevy eventually released essentially the same motor in the '67-9 Z/28 as a 302.

[kb426]

I ran solid lifter cams for ever. The 32 had roller rockers on it. They had a click that mimicked solids. I grinned at that noise.

[Bruce Dorsi]

a 327/350 HP solid lifter cam .....

Actually, the 327/350 cam was for hydraulic lifters.  ...I ran one in a 283.  ...Part # 3863151.

The same engine was also advertised a 327/325 in the Chevelle.

[kb426]

Most of us know about 097, 151 and 30,30 as more than zip code numbers. In Mopar land we have purple shafts. In Ford land you will here Le mans cam used. Most of those have visions of grandeur from our past.

[chimp koose]

how about the 3/4 race cam?    

[enjenjo]

I had a 283 with a 30-30 cam, power pack heads, 327 truck two barrel intake and a 425 Olds Rochester two barrel. It was a runner.

[WZ JUNK]

I will sell you a big block Ranger cheaper than you can build one, and it sounds good too.  It runs like a Ford trying to catch a Chevy.