I thought chevy was supposed to be cheap.

[Thumpin455]

I have $1700 in this 400 now and its still not together, and it came to me as an assembled $500 short block. I guess putting vortec heads on something isnt nearly the bang for the buck its supposed to be. I think I could have gotten some aluminum non vortec heads and used the existing parts I had instead of being forced to buy all new top end stuff. It is limited to less than .450 lift because of the stock springs, changing them would mean more $$. I suppose its for a truck, hopefully the thing will move ok be decent on fuel, and live a while.

Urgh... I have built entire Pontiac engines that make more power than this thing will for less money, and that was all new and reworked stuff inside them. I just dont see the cheap unless you are building a stock slug with the cheapest crap parts available.

Perhaps I will change the springs sometime and see if a new cam will allow this lump of iron to make as much power as one of my blue engines. Always wanted to build one of each with stock heads, similar cams, and see what runs faster in the same car, the problem is the chevy seems to always cost me more to build and mess with.

[squirrel]

You just don't have enough Chevy stuff laying around....

What does it cost to put late 1990s heads on a Pontiac? Oh yeah, they quit making Pontiac engines long before then!

[Bob Holmes]

I've spent three times that on ONE head, its valve train and cam. For a 4-cylinder.

Its all a matter of perspective.

[Barry Donovan]

keep the draft cold and drive.

[Brian Lohnes]

I think you are doing it wrong.

[Thumpin455]

You just don't have enough Chevy stuff laying around....

What does it cost to put late 1990s heads on a Pontiac? Oh yeah, they quit making Pontiac engines long before then!

Well cheap to make doesnt always mean better, more efficient, longer lasting, or less polluting. It does however mean cheap.

So $400 for each head, $450 for intake, rockers, gaskets, oil pump, cam and lifters, $180 for a distributor, $500 for the short block, and it still needs exhaust. I stole the fasteners, pushrods, and other small stuff from a 305 we pulled from an 82 Firebird, otherwise it would be costing me more.

If I want to go with a 350 and put cheap cast pistons in it from one of those $200 rebuild kits that comes with a pathetic stock cam and use some crappy 882 heads, then sure I can build a $900 engine too. It will run like a $900 engine and last about that long. The $2700 Pontiac I built back in 95 was bracket raced for 7 years, street driven and made long road trips, never leaked or burned a drop of oil, and pushed a 3700lb car with my 240lb lump of lard to 11.71@115 and ran dead consistent 12.1s with a stock converter behind it. Shift at 5800 and launch from idle. $1400 of that was in the iron heads. The only thing that killed it was someone putting lead shot in it, and one of them finding its way to #7 rod journal. All the chevy guys around me spent lots more to go just as fast, or went two seconds slower with the cheap engines using lots of gear and high stall speeds.

The $1500 Pontiac that I just pulled from the GTO last year ran 13.50s@105 with 2.93 gears in a 4200lb nose heavy car, stock converter, and got 20mpg+ highway and still runs great after being built in 94. Still doesnt smoke or use oil and the only reason I yanked it was to run a high compression engine in its place.

Perhaps I just think engines should do things differently and make lots of power at RPMs where it will be used most. I dont expect this little sbc to impress me much, not many of them have prior to 1998.

[antmnte]

I got the upgraded Vortecs (can run more lift) the intake, rockers, all the bolts and gaskets for a grand from Scoggin Dickey.You dont need to do anything else to them and they run pretty darn good.

[SpiderGearsMan]

yes , those wiped out old spring should take a beatin hahaha

[Scott Liggett]

For $1700 you coulda got some of them fancy schmancy AFR 210s for that motor.

Its all the little parts and bolts that run up the cost of an engine build, especially if you dont have lots of them lying around to steal shit off of.

[ls7gto]

Blah Blah Blah. I heard all of this before. when I went faster the pontiac guys say... Its easy with a chevy, they are cheap to build. then the next time the get smoked, " it runs good for as cheap as it was to build. "

A friend of mine has a high 10 second 65 GTO , has more cash in his carbs ( tri-powered) than I have in my intake and heads. And I dont need alot of gear, and dont need to rev past 6300 to be faster than his. There are 3 pontiac guys I really like, Jim Hand, Charlie Baesch , and Brian Rock. Oh, almost forgot...Arnie!

[ls7gto]

$450 dollar intake? Wow, I coan buy a sweet Dart for that kind of scratch!

[oldsman71]

u cant buy it all top dollar, you gotta earch out deals unless you got it laying around its all hi dollar

[Beagle]

learn speaka chineese..

http://www.jegs.com/p/Patriot-Performance/Patriot-Performance-SB-Chevy-190CC-Freedom-Series-Heads/1122038/10002/-1

773 dolla , small port head, gud torque, 2.02 valve, 250+ cfm

find swappa meet, air gap rpm there will be. 750 carb, many to find.

Freiburger did a 500/500 SBC a few years back, and I was shocked at the price. I'll see if I can find it, but iirc, it was 6k. Forged crank, everybody in the pool before 6200 though. Motown 220's weren't all that bad, but every nickle and dime added UP. I'd consider Vortecs if I had them already, but like you say, they need mods to go over .450. Might as well junkyard pick them and rebuild them.

Both the vortec setup with manifold for 800 or gt40's brand new for 539 are long gone deals. The time to get them was the end of production.

[Bamfster]

What is that saying? "Cheap, fast, reliable ..... pick two...."

[BigBlockMopar]

Chevy's aren't cheap, they just look cheap...