Power per dollar

davesdeville · #1 (**permalink**) 09-30-03, 10:57 PM

If you had a finite amount of money... lets say $2500, what kind of engine would you build up and why / how? The goal is the most power you can get out of it without making it a race dedicated engine.

DeVillish · #2 (**permalink**) 09-30-03, 11:56 PM

i think i would go with a sbc 350. Theres such a huge market that parts are pretty cheap, theres more avalable and with so many resorces on them it would be easy.

MMNineInchNails · #3 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 01:09 AM

No question about it. I think everyone would go for the 350. It's the cheapest engine to build up and they have so many parts for it, it'd be the best.

AKPsiMC03 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 06:18 AM

one of my friends just built a 433 HP, 460 ft lb, 350 for that price and put it in his firebird.

JJhomer83 · #5 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AKPsiMC03

one of my friends just built a 433 HP, 460 ft lb, 350 for that price and put it in his firebird.

The 350 is your best bet. Your going to have to do a lot of research on what parts to put on it to get you the most bang for your buck. I recommend going to a library and reading hot rod mag, Super chevy etc.... they have budget motors in there mags all of the time. Also look into a rebuilt motor and rebuilt parts. Heads, cam, carb, exhaust, etc....

davesdeville · #6 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 07:10 PM

I was thinking that too. Then I thought I'd look for things I could do with a Cad500 when I get one, and I figure

$250 for a usable 500 from a junkyard
$250 for an Edelbrock performer intake
$500 for 10:1 pistons
$450 for cam, lifters, valvesprings
$200 for a good set of headers
$200 for a carb, or maybe keep the good old stock Qjet and clean and tune it.

With those mods, I'd expect the Cad to hit around 410-450hp with 500+ torque. The cost would total $1850, so even if it didn't hit my estimated power, there's enough money left over to put a good nitrous system on there for an extra 150-250hp.

I don't know if that setup would be better than a 350 though since I haven't looked into 350s much.

MMNineInchNails · #7 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davesdeville

I was thinking that too. Then I thought I'd look for things I could do with a Cad500 when I get one, and I figure

$250 for a usable 500 from a junkyard
$250 for an Edelbrock performer intake
$500 for 10:1 pistons
$450 for cam, lifters, valvesprings
$200 for a good set of headers
$200 for a carb, or maybe keep the good old stock Qjet and clean and tune it.

With those mods, I'd expect the Cad to hit around 410-450hp with 500+ torque. The cost would total $1850, so even if it didn't hit my estimated power, there's enough money left over to put a good nitrous system on there for an extra 150-250hp.

I don't know if that setup would be better than a 350 though since I haven't looked into 350s much.

Q-Jet wouldn't work with your edelbrock performer intake. I suggest getting an edelbrock or demon 850cfm carb for that setup.

Blackout · #8 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 07:45 PM

I don't get the question. Your asking to modify an engine but not to make it race dedicated

obiously once you start modifying an engine it will be producing more hp/tq which would mean better performance which would be better for racing.

davesdeville · #9 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 08:45 PM

Alright if you want to be a pain about it, I mean an engine that is still useful as a daily/weekend driver. So it doesn't need race gas, doesn't need work after every run, etc. Of course there's no chance of making a pure race engine for $2500 anyway. Also, it's obvious that any performance increase would be better for racing but it's also obvious that performance modifications don't always result in a pure race engine..

AKPsiMC03 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 10:06 PM

wait... how long does the motor have to last?

cus if not long, get a junk yard 350, make a custom turbo kit for it, then blow a 250 shot through it

Elvis · #11 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 10:14 PM

I have to admit I was salivating last night when I was doing 1/8 mile test runs in the Fleetwood I borrowed.

I agree with MM9. The LT1 has a lot of potential with just simple bolt-ons. And it was pretty common, too.

The Fleetwood was scary when I started thinking of all the extra power I could get out of it with just a few hours here and there and a only few hundred dollars spent. I used to spend my Sunday afternoons watching shows like "Crank & Chrome" and being shocked and awed by their dyno runs.

But I think I'm over that after my Honda Prelude/riceboy experiments. They were fun, and they did yield some respectable results, but I don't want to do that kind of stuff to my daily driver anymore.

What deterred me and brought me back down to earth was how I would probably end up spending twice as much on brakes and suspension to counteract the increases in HP. That's not the kind of work I know how to do, or ever want to learn.

davesdeville · #12 (**permalink**) 10-01-03, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MMNineInchNails

Q-Jet wouldn't work with your edelbrock performer intake. I suggest getting an edelbrock or demon 850cfm carb for that setup.

Hmm, that sucks. At Jegs, it says the stock ac compressor won't fit - they should probably warn people that the carb won't work either. Can you tell me why it wouldn't work?

MMNineInchNails · #13 (**permalink**) 10-02-03, 01:02 AM

well you might be able to use it if your intake manifold was either built for a q-jet or was all open, instead of the four ccut out circles. The Q-Jet doesn't have equal size for the manifold, the Secondarys are a lot bigger than the primarys, so they wouldn't fit into the manifold. I don't know if that just confused you. I don't really have any better way to explain.

Here is a picture of the Q-Jet Gasket to let you know what i'm talking about

http://www.nardek.com.au/nard040.jpg

Here is a picture of an intake manifold

http://www.boss302.com/intake4.jpg

see what i'm talking about? They're all equal size and secondarys wouldn't fit.

I guess you could just go for a box open intake manifold, but you why do you want to go with a Q-jet so bad? Just get a regular edelbrock or demon carb 850cfm would be nice. q-jets just have a bunch of extra shit on them.

davesdeville · #14 (**permalink**) 10-02-03, 06:38 PM

The intake manifold pic you have doesn't look like the Edelbrock one:

http://static.summitracing.com/globa...e/edl-2115.jpg
http://www.jegs.com/photos/3502115.jpg

It says the manifold will work with square or spread bore carbs, which doesn't help me cause I don't know what that actually means. With the Jegs pic and the gasket pic, it looks like it could work though.

I'd like to be able to use a QJet because I have one... which is cheaper than buying one. QJets are perfectly good carbs.

lux hauler · #15 (**permalink**) 10-02-03, 11:06 PM

I don't mean to get off topic here.....I just wanted to give a little info on carbs and intakes.
There are adapters that will let you mix and match carbs and intakes.
Here's a link that shows some of the adapters Edelbrock has.
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/install1.html
I think I'm going to use the Q-Jet (rebuilt and modified, if needed) on my 500 with the Edelbrock Performer intake.