Battle of the Big Blocks

Hey, welcome to a special edition of horsepower. We're calling the Battle of the Big Blocks. A Ford 460

versus a Chevy 454

when we showed you budget and performance build ups of each of these engines during the past year. Well, we got a ton of requests for program copies.

So here they are packed into one show. Now, Ford goes first and we're out to get as much power as possible on a lean budget from the junkyard and on to the engine

dyno.

Here it is the junkyard starting point of a budget engine build. Now, what is it? Well, it's a 385 series engine which was Ford's last attempt at a production big block

there. I'm gonna hit

because of their long production run from 68 to 96. Well worn 460 motors are plentiful

and pretty cheap compared to Ford Fes.

We found this one for 200 bucks at a local bow

yard. Oh, that's nice.

During an

tear down, you can learn a lot about how an engine ran and how well it was treated.

For example, hammered rod bearings are signs of hard use and abuse.

Even a budget motor build involves a trip to the machine shop

and even good blocks will need a little work.

Now, if you're reusing the crank like us, you'll probably need to have the journals polished,

but you can save money by doing some of the work yourself like reconditioning reusable rods.

Our bill at the machine shop which included reconditioning these iron heads was about 500 bucks kind of what we expected. So we're reusing everything here, including the rods, we preassembled.

So everything over here is either a factory replacement or came from comp camps

about 800 bucks. So with the block, the machining

and the parts so far, we're at 1500 not too shabby,

we also painted the block ourselves to save a few extra bucks. Now we're gonna go ahead and install some freeze plugs. Now, here's a little tip. I see a lot of people just drop these into place and press them in. Well, that can cause water seepage. So we're gonna use a little lock, tight retaining compound which will take care of that leak.

Now, using the socket, slightly smaller than the freeze plug,

tap it into place.

Awesome.

Here's a stock spring and here's one of the new ones we got from comp cams. Now, it's a little bit taller and it has a higher spring rate and check this out down inside. There's a dampener and that keeps the spring from wobbling at higher RPM. S

our new cam is a comp hydraulic flat tap it with a 494 gross valve lift on both intake and exhaust. Now, this thing has a broad power band and for you guys, I love to hear them dance. We got a very noticeable idol.

OK. Now, for the induction on our big block, this original cast iron intake manifold is not only heavy, comes up way short in the plenum volume department. Now, y and replacements lightweight aluminum, 37 pounds lighter

and the extra volume. Well, it's gonna add up to a broad power band from 1500 to 6000 RPM. S

our 460 big block came with an old points type distributor.

We could replace it with a new high dollar piece, but instead we're gonna save about 100 and 30 bucks with a little upgrade from patrons

to pitch your pennies on a budget bill. You gotta reuse as many original parts as possible. And for us that means things like this timing cover

even water neck and oh, since we like the looks of these old valve covers, well, they're on the list too.

After 30 minutes of this, your arm may be numb but keep thinking about all the money you're saving.

We're dumping our four sixties exhaust into some headers. We got from flow tech, the pipes measure an inch and three quarter and feed into a three inch collector

summit racing has just come out with a new street strip carburetor. That's perfect for this project.

They got three versions. We got the 750 CFM version with a manual choke and mechanical secondaries and

at 330 bucks, it sure fit our budget

ready

just for reference factory four sixties after 79 like ours had a horsepower rating of 215

man for a motor that was a dog back in the day. This thing's making 493 ft pounds at 3400, 378 horsepower at 4700 RPM. Yeah, I'm pretty happy and we only spent a shade over 2300 bucks. That's pretty low budget.

We'll see how the bow tie budget bill stacks up to this. Coming up.

Welcome back to horsepower. We kicked off our battle of the big blocks by building and dyno

A Ford 460 on a tight budget of about 2500 bucks.

Now it's time for its bow tie counterpart, a Chevy 454. For the budget bill, we cleaned up these cast iron heads, then went into the summit catalog for a bill

sheet of affordable parts for like these pulleys aluminum intake manifold, basic dress up kit

and hydraulic flat tap at lifter and cam set with an operating range of 25 to 5500 RPM.

Now duration of 50,000 is 228 and 238. Then a stock replacement double roller timing set

but wait, we haven't talked about budget for the old motor. We shelled out $250.

Then our machining bill came to 700

we spent 1350 on parts.

So we're at $2300 which is about 200 bucks under the Ford budget.

We're getting really close to seeing how this bow tie motor stacks up to its blue

oval counterpart.

Any predictions

and you always put me on the spot. You know, these things are built pretty identical. I'd be scared to say, but I will tell you this. I think they're gonna make within 20 horsepower of each other. I bet the Chevy guys are hoping that.

Well, they've got a shot with this Mallory he I distributor that has a billet housing. Plus we're using a set of their pro sidewinder eight millimeter wires

to keep the playing field level. We're using the same 750 CFM Summit car we used on the Ford build.

I don't

it burn it up.

All right, Joe. You wanna give it, uh, fire it up

now, since it's loaded with a hydraulic flats

and valve train break in oil and some run time is mandatory to avoid scarring the camp shaft current

that will make the Chevy guys happy or not. I hope so. Let's see.

I like when everybody's happy.

0407.

I'm liking these numbers. I can't believe

this voter is ready for five grand and I bet you blue oval fans are ready to kick the TV.

Hey, car though, I'm partial to Ford myself, but

you gotta hand it to this 454 combination

standing

409, but it may have peaked out. Well, maybe not, but that's enough salt in the wounds for one day

and crunching the numbers. Here's how the two budget big blocks stacked up against each other. As you can see, Chevy runs away with it 31 more horsepower than the budget version of the 460

ironically 31 more foot pounds of torque.

That's two motors with just about the same size block and similar parts packages.

Next, the gloves come off for Ford and Chevy performance builds the best and baddest is yet to come.

Welcome back to horsepower and our battle of the big blocks. Now you just saw the results of our big inch Ford and Chevy engines after similar budget builds. Now it's time to get a little more serious. You bet. Here's what happens when we swap some of those budget parts for performance boltons in search of big treatable horsepower numbers. Once again, Ford goes first,

the stock cast iron crank and rods and replacement pistons are gonna be stout enough to handle the upgrades we got in store, but

we can definitely help it out with this. It's a trick flow stud girdle that really is gonna beef up those two volt main caps

on top the valve covers come off as well as the dual plane intake we installed during our budget bill. That's because we're replacing it with this. A quick blow track heat single plane intake

designed for mid block Fords operating in the 3500 to 8000 RPM range

for more power and better valve chain geometry. We're getting rid of the stamp steel rocker arms for a set of these new trick flows that have a 1.73 rocker ratio.

They also have needle bearing fulcrums and a relief cut in the front for more valve spring clearance

trick flows. Aluminum power ports are a perfect match for our new intake. Now, these things have 290 CC intake runners and 74 CC combustion chambers and that's compared to 90 ones in the factory head. So we are gonna have a higher compression ratio

for the exhaust ports, check this out. These things are a night and day difference over the factories. Take a look over here

on these. The air has to flow up and around and then down to escape. Now the trick flow ports are raised from the stock location to allow a lot better air flow

to keep our heads in place. We're replacing the head bolts with a RP studs.

It's very important to only install them finger tight that way the studs only stretch on their vertical axis.

This hydraulic flat tap at cam shaft was a good choice for a budget minded performance set up

but not for our new power plan. In fact, in this place is going this comp hydraulic roller that was specked out for us by engine builder John Coy.

Now the gross valve lift of this flat tap, it's 494 compared to 685 here. And you can see the different shapes of the lobes and why this one's gonna hold the valves open Longer

duration of 50 thousands lift is 256 on the intake, 264 on the exhaust side.

The next pieces in our valve train are these comp cams hydraulic roller lifters soaked in oil.

Now, I went ahead and called comp CAMS in order to set a high tech 38 push rods that me

in at 8 200

with the rocker arms in place. I'm gonna adjust the valves a half a turn

past zero. Lash.

If you want old style looks with new technology, Holly has taken the 4150 to the new level with the 4150 HP. Now, this thing has cast main bodies without any choke horns and down leg style boosters

on the bottom side, it's got stainless steel throttle plates and it even comes with screw and air bleeds. Now, one of the cool user friendly features are the dominator style fuel balls. You can plumb from either side. Now we got ours in 1000 CFM.

All right, man, we all primed up already. Prime time, baby. Ok.

We got a hold down for this thing. I'm not talking about a barn dance down south. You know,

you gotta get it in first though. I know it. There we go.

The motors warmed up and, hey, we're pumped up, but we're gonna walk before we run too hard first with a 5000 RPM pole

for 533 horsepower.

Yeah, we're definitely not close to Pete. So after a few more runs and some more timing,

we're ready to see what happens at six grand

596.

Well,

it's pretty close,

but this ain't horseshoes. Surely we can make 600.

Now, we're gonna see what happens with lighter springs that came with our distributor

and another degree and a half of the time.

Oh

my God.

There it is.

Good job.

Not just 600 but 607.

You're watching horsepower for a DVD copy of this episode. Just go to Power Block tv.com and order your copy for just 595 plus shipping and handling. Start your own horsepower collection delivered right to your door from the power block.

All right, it's time for the final phase of our Chevy versus Ford big block shootout.

Let's see what happens when like the Ford, our Chevy bow tie engine gets a performance build up. Now it's gonna get a similar package of all the high performance parts and when it's all over, we're gonna see which classic power plant gets to wear the crown

to match the Fords power. We've got a similar parts combination like this solid roller cam, except this time it's from Lunati

for cylinder heads, we're using a racing head service, big block Chevy aluminum head

and for the induction side, a Merlin single plane intake manifold. Now, for the rotating assembly, we're gonna do something a little different. We're gonna hang these KB pistons on a set of eagle rods and use one of their crank shafts. Now, this is our ESP cast steel piece that's good for applications up to 700 horsepower. It's been cross drilled on all the rod throws for reduced rotating mass and they even balance the entire assembly for us.

Now, you might remember we reused the Ford Crank because they were known to handle 700 horsepower stock Chevys. We only about 500 horsepower.

The rods from our kit are forged from 5140 steel and they're available with a press fit or like ours with floating pins.

The pistons are K B's icon brand made from 2618 forged aluminum alloy with a raised dome and single valve relief. This will help put our compression ratio at about 10.5 to 1.

A solid roller, puts more stress on the valve train and requires frequent valve adjustment. But the upside is you can get a more aggressive cam profile and higher RPM range.

Needless to say cylinder choice was pretty critical in both of our big block bills for the Chevy. We're going with these RHS aluminum heads with 320 cc intake runners compared to two nineties on the Ford

valves measure a 225 on the intake, 188 on the exhaust. A little bit bigger than the Fords. But get this combustion chambers. These are 100 and 14 CCS. The Fords were 74.

So how could they have the same compression ratio of 10.5? But don't forget we got those big dome pistons taking up a lot of space in here.

We are swapping out the springs that came with the heads though for these con dual springs with dampers. Now, they've got twice the spring rate and they're a perfect match for that solid roller cam.

The rest of the valve train came from Lunardi,

including the roller lifters

because of our parts combination. We have to measure the push routes to get the correct length

and just because we have to wait to get them in the morning doesn't mean we're dead in the water.

In fact, we can install this Merlin single plane intake we got from world products. Now, it's one, a lot of racers are using these days. It makes good power in the 25 to 8500 RPM range

and they use what's called a right cast process, which means they smooth out the internal. So there's no need to clean up the runners or the plenum. It's ready to go on.

We can do the rest of our work today in the

dyno.

We're reusing this 1000 CFM Haley, which is the same car, but we ran on the second stage with the Ford during its

dyno runs. Well, I'm happy to say the push drives we ordered, came in just in time

and just because they're new doesn't mean they're ready to use right out of the box machining material can get lodged inside these things and unless it's removed, it can actually block oil from getting to the top of the engine.

Well, after dropping them in place, we finish up the valve train with these 1.7 ratio rocker arms

to get started. We're running the engine through a heat cycle to get the ring seated and all the components broke in.

God. I love the sound of these big blocks.

Sounds phenomenal.

We're up to 615 horsepower at 6500 RPM,

but we're not done lately. We've enjoyed impressive results from changing to lighter distributor springs.

Oh, yeah.

Now, before you, Chevy guys start slapping high fives, let's look at peak runs of each engine stacked up against each other. This is horsepower. The bright whites, Chevy peaking at 6300 RPM. 11 more horsepower than the Ford that flattened out here at 5900 torque is a different story though. This is the Chevy, bright green down here and the Ford making 11 more foot pounds.

So, who's the winner?

Well, we better call it a tie

between two classic big blocks. Now loaded with the best of new and old world high performance. See you next time.