I guess we can go Reader's Digest versions......

I had someone ask me for advice on building an engine for his musclecar project, and he suggested I do features on this site. As I explained to him-whatever type of engine your building-Chevy, Ford, Mopar, Pontiac etc-there are entire books devoted to the nuances of each engine type and how to get that last ounce of hp and torque out of each one. It would be virtually impossible and incredibly long-winded for me to try to serialize how to build every engine type for street, strip, or concours. However, I can give you some good general advice that will save you time and money on each engine line, and recommend the books to buy to give you ALL the info you need to build a reliable, powerful engine for your project without breaking the bank. I'll start today with the obvious choice-The Small-block Chevy. Then we'll go through ( not necessarily in this order ) Big-block Chevys, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Small and Big Block Fords, and small and big-block Mopars.  Anyway-the first rule of building a small-block Chevy is don't listen to self-proclaimed "experts" and their list of "Gotta Haves".  You may or may not have heard them- "You gotta have a 4-bolt main block" "You gotta have a forged crank"  "You gotta have 2.02 heads" and several other "gotta haves" that I can't think of right now. These idiots are half-right. Yes, if your building a NASCAR Nextel Cup engine that has to go 7,800 rpm for 500 miles at Daytona, you need all the beef you can get. However, if your building a street engine to power your musclecar / show car / weekend cruiser that's only going to be driven on sunny days, and the occasional weekend trip to the drags and even then will probably never see the high side of 6,500 rpm, you don't need ANY of that stuff. Here's how to save money and still have a powerful, reiiable SBC.  #1. Bottom end. Two-bolt main blocks are fine for street use. I've seen them used for years in "Street Stock" and "Hobby Stock" racing classes without a problem, and these engines are far more abused than your street car ever will be. The same goes for cast cranks. As long as revs don't go over 6,500-your fine. Ditto for stock rods, and the stock oil pump. This is why the Mouse was and is still so popular with racers of all different classes from $500 claim rule dirt-track racers to the big dogs at Daytona and Indianapolis. They just don't break no matter hard you run them. As for pistons I would recommend simple, cast, flat-top rebuilder pistons. Their cheap, they run quiet, and they give 9:1 compression with 76cc heads, or 10:1 with 64cc heads. I have seen thse last 2 full seasons in an IMCA race car- so you should get over 100,000 trouble free miles on the street. I would only recommend forged pistons if you were going to run a blower or nitrous, but even then I would ask- if you have THAT much money and need to go THAT fast-"Why aren't you building a 454 instead of a 350?"  # 2. Cylinder heads. All the "old-school" experts talk about "standard" heads and Hi-performance" heads made from 1964-86. Here's the skinny. Standard heads have 1.94 inch intake valves, 1.50 inch exhaust valves and pressed-in rocker arm studs. Hi-performance heads have 2.02 intake valves, 1.60 exhaust valves, and screw-in rocker arm studs. That's the difference. 1970 and earlier heads have 64cc combustion chambers, and 1971 and later have 76cc chambers. The port sizes are exactly the same. And it's a simple,cheap procedure for any machine shop to put the larger valves and screw-in studs into standard heads. But here's the real kicker-you don't even need to that for most street engines. You can make 350 hp with standard 1.94 heads easily. And-in 20 years of racing street stock and hobby stock cars I have NEVER seen a stud pull out of a head. So, unless your restoring a '69-72 Z/28 or LT1 Corvette to the nth degree-you don't need to kill yourself searching the galaxy for "202" heads. Here's a couple of tips if you want a quick 30 or 40 hp boost and don't care about serial numbers. 1981-86 305 "smog" heads have 58cc combustion chambers which will raise the compression on the average 350 from 8.2:1 to about 9.6:1. 305 heads have slightly smaller 1.72 inch intake valves, but the slight loss of airflow is more than made up for by the power and torque boost of the added compression. And you can put 1.94 valves in 305 heads if you so desire. The other choice is as close as yuour local GM dealer or the internet. For about $650-( you can't even get old heads re-done for that at most machine shops ) you can buy a pair of brand-new Iron Vortec heads from GM. These have 64cc chasmbers, flow better than any stock and many aftermarket heads, can accomodate cams with up to .480 lift and will give you a good 30 or 40 hp boost. If you want to run a cam with more than .480 lift-Scoggin-Dickey sells these with beehive springs and modified valve seats to accomdate up to .575 lift for less than $800 a pair. You'll have to buy a Vortec-compatible intake manifold, but Edelbrock,Holley and Weiand sell them for about $200. If your building a 1987-95 engine-I can't imagine that anyone would be for an old musclecar-the heads and intakes are different from the 1955-86 models and don't interchange. The valve covers and oil pans are different too. GMPP and companies like Edelbrock, Dart and Trick Flow all sell ultra-high performance aluminum heads for the SBC-but I'm assuming most of you want your engine to at least LOOK stock, which is why I only recommended Iron heads. If you can afford them and don't care about not looking original-they will make all the power you could want. # 3. Cams. Modern hydraulic flat-tappet cams can give trouble-free operation and make power up to 6,500 rpm. For that reason-there's really no need to mess around with an old-style solid-lifter cam. Unless of course, your restoring a Z/28 / LT1 engine-then Crane and Lunati have you covered with exact replicas of this factory cam. And I think it's still listed in the GMPP catalog if you "gotta have" a box with a GM part number on it. Here's a good tip to know. Larger engines can take more "cam" without adverse effects on drivability and cars with manual transmissions can take more "cam" without affecting drivability. For example, the old stand-by-the "350 hp 327" cam-will absolutley ruin any 283 or 305. This same cam will work pretty damn good in a 327 with a 4-speed, better in a 350, and be really sweet in a 400 even with an automatic. You can get away with more cam in a stick-shift car because idle quality isn't as important. The driver can launch at whatever rpm he wants by manipulating the clutch. In an automatic, unless you have a high-stall converter-a car with too big a cam won't take off very good-probably slower than a stock engine. Follow the cam manufacturer's recommendations on engine size, carb and intake, gearing , transmission or converter recommendations, etc and you won't go wrong. A lot of companies sell hydraulic roller cams and they are fine-but they are more expensive than the flat-tappet design and often don't make any more power. In fact-the roller valvetrain is so heavy that it doesn't let the engine "wind up" as quick as a flat-tappet design-which hurts you coming off corners when you want maximum power and torque. That's why to this day Nascar has resisted switching to rollers. I'm not saying don't buy a roller cam-I'm just saying you don't need to spend the money if you don't want to-and '69 Camaros didn't have roller cams to my knowledge!!  # 4. Induction. If you want to look stock and make maximum hp-here's the way to go. GMPP sells an exact replica of the original Z/28 / LT1 high-rise manifold in cast iron, and it's got the spread-bore bolt pattern-it will accept a Q-jet or a Holley or an Edelbrock carb. In dyno testing this manifold out-powered every aftermarket intake made except the Edelbrock Performer RPM, and the Edelbrock only beat it above 5,200 rpm. This is why a lot of racers whose class rules require an iron intake run this manifold. Otherwise you could port-match your stock intake, or if you don't care about having an aftermarket intake atop the engine-the Edelbrock Performer series is pretty hard to beat. Same for carbs-Summitt racing sells performance Q-jets, as well as Holley and Edelbrock / AFB designs. It's just a matter of how stock you want to be or look. # 5. Exhaust. Headers can add lots of power and sound way cool. They also can greatly reduce ground clearance, need constant re-torquing or they'll blow gaskets, and may get in the way when you try to change spark plugs or the oil filter. Headers are a use-them-if-you-want-to thing. If you want the power boost and are willing to put up with idiosyncrasies I just listed, good for you. And even the most anal purist usually won't NOT buy an otherwise well-done car just because it has headers on it. If you want the car to look stock or just don't want to mess with headers a good free-flowing dual exhaust system from the manifolds back can add as much 30 or 40 hp to even a mild engine. There are people that have flow-tested all kinds of stock iron exhaust manifolds-the "Rams Horn" design has a "cult-like" following-and they port match and extrude-hone their iron manifolds, but in reality-if you want to make every last ounce of available power ( and your not in a racing class that requires iron manifolds ) then just put headers on it and shut up. Hope this helps everyione out, and well go through the other engine lines as promised in similar Reader's Digest fashion. I would recommend buying HP Books excellent "How to build Max Power Small-block Chevy V8s" before you start buying parts. Most auto parts stores like Autozone stock it, or you can order it through Summit Racing.  Mastermind