quote:Thoughts on this build? What would you build if given a clean slate?
Ok, these are my thoughts...
Forget about horsepower. It doesn't matter. Torque is king on the street. My goals were 390-420 ft.lbs of torque from 2500-5500 rpm. The horsepower will be whatever it will be. But this is the RPM range where the engine will live 99.9% of the time, and about 90% of that will be under 3500 RPM.
I've never heard of PowerHeads before. Curious if anyone else on the forum has any experience with them, and if they're Chinese ProComp heads being repackaged. ProComps are poor copies of CHI heads, which don't perform particularly well out of the box (from what I've read on the 351C forum).
http://www.powerheads.com/superboss351c.html
You have a good start on your goals, but you're mixing parts and goals, which makes no sense. Clarify your goals...
- Power (remember, torque is king on the street.) This is what you will feel when you take off from a red light or put your foot into it in 2nd or 3rd gear)
- Idle quality - Do you want a smooth idle? Or, would you prefer a lumpy pro-street wanna-be Camaro idle that makes more noise than power? I apologize if a little of my bias is coming through. I've seen too many Panteras with overbuilt engines that lose their drivability on the street, and lumpy idle quality with dyno results less than 10% better than my original 100,000 mile engine produced on the dyno. That's a fail in my book.
- Drivability - You already stated you "will use the car primarily for street driving and 1-2 track events per year." Good! Will your street driving predominantly be running errands around town, to the store, dropping off and picking up kids? Or will it be only Sunday cruises through nearby country back roads? My engine uses a lightweight knife edged racing crank along with a Centerforce aluminum flywheel, and coupled with a 106 intake centerline and 110-degree LSA, I'm disappointed with slow speed drivability - being able to idle down the street or through a parking lot. Now I need to keep the RPM's up much higher so the car isn't "jerky." My cam grinder actually recommended a 112 or 114 LSA, but I didn't understand how much this might have impacted the slow speed drivability of my car.
- Focus on goals rather than parts, but let your engine builder know what parts you have that you wish to re-use, such as your Performer Intake, Holley 700 carb, etc. But don't worry about specifying "Hypereutectic pistons." Let your builder recommend the best combination of parts within your budget. Forged pistons are superior to hypereutectic, and your budget is sufficient for the better parts.
- Check out George's recommended camshaft in another thread titled "seeking camshaft recommendations." http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/...251029946#9251029946 It's a good read, and nice cam he recommends.
I'll send you some additional info via PM if you like. Good luck and keep us posted on your engine builder's recommendations.