Georgia Flash Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 Alot of you folks are showing your age on this one 396 Chevelles were pretty cool when I was a youngster and no they were not 350's that someone in the backyard tinkered with to make them 396's. They came that way installed from the factory in certain GM cars. It would be killer to have one in a Z because it seems that no one here has one. On the 400 small block, my mom had a 1976 Pontiac Firebird Formula with a 400 sb and it was a dog. Any 396 Chevy would have easily kicked its arse! Grumpy should have all the answers on this one I would think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedRacer Posted December 24, 2003 Share Posted December 24, 2003 michaelk - Ron used to frequent this site often but I haven't seen a post in awhile. Only picture I know of is over at Eric's ZParts site http://www.zparts.com/showcase/rj-dragz/pages/rj-preview.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted December 25, 2003 Share Posted December 25, 2003 About a half dozen members on this site own or have owned a big block Chevy-powered Z. Most of those cars were specialized toward drag racing, though a few (such as mine) are multi-purpose. Whether or not the complexity of the swap is justified depends, as most things, on your skill level and your intended level of performance. Though estimates will vary, the concensus is that about 500 "streetable" hp is the threshold beyond which BBC becomes more cost-effective than SBC - assuming that the Z chassis has been suitably modified. Unfortunately (for me, at least) big blocks don't have much of a following on this site; such threads rarely develop beyond, "wow, this is cool...." If you do choose a big block, select the larger displacements - at least 454. Below 400 cubic inches, the small block makes more sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mas28O Posted December 25, 2003 Share Posted December 25, 2003 A 396 is used alot on small blocks and it is a 4.030 BORE, 3.875" STROKE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2002sentraSER Posted December 26, 2003 Share Posted December 26, 2003 i will post more info on the motor when i get it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nic-Rebel450CA Posted December 27, 2003 Share Posted December 27, 2003 Any 396 Chevy would have easily kicked its arse! I would think that that would be more from tuning, or lack thereof. A 396 and a 400 are nearly identical. They have the same stroke, and the 400 has a slightly bigger bore. I doubt that a 396 would beat a 400 tuned the same way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpyvette Posted December 27, 2003 Share Posted December 27, 2003 some of you are forgetting that the bbc potentiall has far better flowing heads and larger ports than the sbc engines and can potentialy make a good deal more hp if the correctly matched parts are used. its not at all unusual for correctly ported bbc heads to allow flow numbers that sbc heads can only dream about, look even stock iron oval port heads once ported can moke way over 650hp http://home.hiwaay.net/~ppatter/patrick_budd_article.htm http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/96198/index7.html http://www.nastyz28.com/bbcmenu.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest michaelk Posted December 29, 2003 Share Posted December 29, 2003 thanks speed racer but i was hoping that you meant someone had built a streetable BB Z. It sounds like Michael may have what I was thinking of though. Sounds pretty cool and hey I learned something new. I had never even thought of a non dragster BB Z before this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2002sentraSER Posted December 31, 2003 Share Posted December 31, 2003 the motor i found is the 350 with the long bore and strouk and it has a performance street cam aftermarket aluminum intake and a 750 carb but thats all i know so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2002sentraSER Posted January 12, 2004 Share Posted January 12, 2004 com 9:5:1, 750 carb, stock valve sizes lifters , edelbrock performer rpm eps aluminum intake manifold, stock performance street cam .45 lift with .278 duration, with block hugger headers and mufflers no cats, approx how much power am i looking at the crank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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