Thread: 454 500hp!!!!!!

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1nkred1ble, Henry said right up front he was being frank with you, and did it in a nice way, don't take his advice lightly. While he did not give you mechanical or technical advice, what he gave you was valuable all the same. You said yo had no mechanical knowledge, simply suggested that you need to learn before you start into a project like this. If you wanted to add onto your house would you say, I know nothing about carpentry or framing, but I want to put an 1000 square foot addition onto my house. Can you guys tell me how to do it? Same thing with building an engine. You are about to spend a buncha money, if you don't learn what you are doing it can get even more expensive when you start making mistakes. Most all of the posters suggested you do some learning first. Good luck with your project.

Pat

Well one possibility is making a 496 out of that 454, it is fairly common now to do this. It will make more torque and be easier to make your 500-550 horse. Scat crankshafts sells a nice 496 rotating kit. The block will have to be clearanced though, local machine shop can do that. The other big question is what type of cam, flat tappet or roller. That block was not meant for a roller, so u would need a retrofit roller kit. Those aren't cheap but I have seen them on ebay every once in awhile. Flat tappets seems to be too many problems, I think a roller is much better. Make sure you get the block checked out to make sure it isn't cracked and that the bores are good. It will need to be bored/honed/decked true to the crankshaft centerline. Heads u can use stock iron ones, but they are heavy. I have a very nice pair from a LS-6 1971 Chevelle which I was going to use on my Corvette, but I ended up getting some Merlin 3's aluminum instead. Let me know if u are interested. The heads have been magged and blasted clean but need a valve job. One last thing, keep an eye on your compression ratio. You want to keep it in the 9-9.5 range with iron heads, 9.5-10.5 with alum heads. Generally your pistons and heads will determine this, so careful planning here will pay off. Good luck