Rotary Car Club - View Single Post - Great, another V8 FC drift car build thread :/

StephenSheppard · 11-12-2012, 06:32 AM

I have a standard bore (4.00") small block 350 with rods, pistons, and crank I bought for $150.

I am still trying to decide how to approach the engine right now. I may build this one or I may end up buying a crate engine. It's pretty hard to decide honestly. there are so many awesome crate engines out there with basically any amount of power you can imagine. I'm trying to be realistic as far as money goes. I'm not rich I just play a rich guy on TV

That being said I looked into the factory rod to stroke ratio, to get familiar with the engine. Turns out it's got a 5.7" rod with a 3.48" stroke which comes out to 1.64:1 RL/S ratio which isn't great. Also turns out that you can buy off the shelf 6" rods and pistons with a raised wrist pin to fix this issue. That gets you 1.72:1 RL/S ratio. Much closer to the 1.75:1 ideal. Actually endurance engines run way higher rod to stroke ratio numbers but I'm just talking about stuff that anyone can buy quite easily. That will lower the amount of wear on the cylinder walls and produce more torque. Not that it needs more torque

Next was compression ratio. I looked up the casting number for my block and it's a 86 truck engine. 4 bolt main, 1 piece rear main, which is why I bought it. that and the fact it hadn't been bored over yet or had any machine work done to it. I'll be looking at probably 10:1 comp or a bit higher to get some efficiency out of this old monster of an engine.

Or I could just buy a crate engine, but where's the fun in that? I don't know yet, the engine goes on the back burner for now. I need to get the chassis stuff all finished up and straightened out first. The engine is the easy part really. I could also buy a running engine that someone's selling. They don't cost a whole lot so it's not really a big deal.

So with the 13B out of the way it was time to get to work on the engine bay which needed a ton of attention. I drilled as many of the holes and did as much of the prep work as possible that I knew would need to be done before repainting or any of that took place.

What I started with after a year of rough housing around with this thing. BTW most of that damage was not me it came like that but I never repaired it. I just drove it a lot lol.

11-12-2012, 06:32 AM	#4
StephenSheppard Rotary Fan in Training Join Date: Nov 2012 Posts: 58 Rep Power: 13	I have a standard bore (4.00") small block 350 with rods, pistons, and crank I bought for $150. I am still trying to decide how to approach the engine right now. I may build this one or I may end up buying a crate engine. It's pretty hard to decide honestly. there are so many awesome crate engines out there with basically any amount of power you can imagine. I'm trying to be realistic as far as money goes. I'm not rich I just play a rich guy on TV That being said I looked into the factory rod to stroke ratio, to get familiar with the engine. Turns out it's got a 5.7" rod with a 3.48" stroke which comes out to 1.64:1 RL/S ratio which isn't great. Also turns out that you can buy off the shelf 6" rods and pistons with a raised wrist pin to fix this issue. That gets you 1.72:1 RL/S ratio. Much closer to the 1.75:1 ideal. Actually endurance engines run way higher rod to stroke ratio numbers but I'm just talking about stuff that anyone can buy quite easily. That will lower the amount of wear on the cylinder walls and produce more torque. Not that it needs more torque Next was compression ratio. I looked up the casting number for my block and it's a 86 truck engine. 4 bolt main, 1 piece rear main, which is why I bought it. that and the fact it hadn't been bored over yet or had any machine work done to it. I'll be looking at probably 10:1 comp or a bit higher to get some efficiency out of this old monster of an engine. Or I could just buy a crate engine, but where's the fun in that? I don't know yet, the engine goes on the back burner for now. I need to get the chassis stuff all finished up and straightened out first. The engine is the easy part really. I could also buy a running engine that someone's selling. They don't cost a whole lot so it's not really a big deal. So with the 13B out of the way it was time to get to work on the engine bay which needed a ton of attention. I drilled as many of the holes and did as much of the prep work as possible that I knew would need to be done before repainting or any of that took place. What I started with after a year of rough housing around with this thing. BTW most of that damage was not me it came like that but I never repaired it. I just drove it a lot lol.