Reply to "Motor avaialble to me Locally your opinions please"

Ryan,

I'm going to spend a minute writing about power goals. Unless you are racing competively for trophies, money, championship, etc, how much power the engine makes is relatively a non-issue, so long as when you push the gas pedal to the floor it puts a smile on your face. The seat of your pants is more sensitive to improvements in throttle response than it is at determining how much horsepower your motor is making. Even a stock 300 bhp Cleveland can break a 335 section rear tire loose, so tremendous amounts of horsepower just aren't required to have fun. On the street, the car with the best throttle response and low rpm powerband will accelerate fastest from a stoplight. If you are spinning tires, burning rubber, you aren't accelerating, and the more power you make beyond the grip limits of the tires, the harder it is to control wheel spin. The proper way to engineer a drastic increase in power (like going from 300 to 500 bhp) is to raise the rear axle gear ratio. With our Panteras that would mean swapping the 4.22:1 gears for 3.77:1. With higher gearing the motor has less mechanical advantage in low gear, and tire spin will be easier to control.

Having written all that, since money is an issue, the least expensive route to take would be to make the cam change, button it up and run it as is.

Buy your cam from MME and let him spec it out to achieve your powerband goals. Let the horsepower fall where it will.

You won't need stud girdles, don't waste your money. A solid roller cam will require adjustable valve train with the usual beefed up components (studs, guide plates, heavy wall push rods, etc).I prefer the Yella Terra rocker arms from Australia, but thay are more $$$. Mark McKeown can provide all the compatible valve train hardware you'll need, his prices are competitive, and you'll have an engineered system.

You don't need to nitride the crank either, if you want to spend money usefully on the reciprocating assembly, have it dynamically balanced. The con-rods need the heavy duty rod bolts too (SPS, ARP).

I'll make these comments about your head choices. Having the iron 4V heads ported would be cheaper than springing for the cost of alloy heads. They will need some work to get into the 500 bhp league. For better throttle response, I would prefer to see you hooked up with some 2V heads, but you must decide how much budget you have. There is a business in Orange County California called Power Heads. They sell fully prepped Australian iron 2V heads (302C heads) for $1000, and for $500 more they'll port them to support a claimed 500 bhp. That is a little bit cheaper than springing for the price of alloy heads, about the same price as having your 4V heads prepared with the same work.

Head choice with a Cleveland is often dictated by intake manifold choice or vice versa, I would like to mention there are some excellent manifold choices to accompany the 2V heads: the Edelbrock Performer, the Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap, the Weiand X-cellerator and the Parker Funnelweb 2V. You might have noticed the group buy taking place for a Weber IR 48IDF intake for the 2V heads too. A well rounded selection of manifolds. With iron heads capable of 500 bhp, and alloy heads capable of 600 bhp, the selection of 2V heads is also well rounded. Either choice in 2V heads provides an impressive improvement in throttle response and lowers the rpm at which the motor "comes on the cam".

If this is a stock displacement motor, it would require 1000 more rpm to achieve the same bhp numbers as the MME stroker. I'm sure you realize, the faster you spin the motor, the more prep work and expensive parts have to go into it.

The stock carburetor from a '70 - '71 Cleveland flows about 600 dry cfm (Holley measurement), its too small for a Cleveland, the revs flatten out around 5500 rpm. You'll need to upgrade to a 750 cfm Holley or 650 cfm BG Demon. If the motor is sporting the 30 year old crankshaft dampener plan on either having it rebuilt or buying a replacement. Now is the time to install an electronic ignition, if the motor is not already equipped with one.

cowboy from hell