Title is supposed to be "chebby".
I am admittedly ignorant on American V8 other than basic knowledge. I am trying to find a budget replacement for the trashed motor in my C4 Corvette 2016 Challenge car.
A local dirt track racer has offered to give me a "built 366 claimer motor" long block. Built off and old late '80s school bus motor.
Wot in hell will I be viewing? Never heard of this motor. I assume it's a BB?
GM commercial engines were not always the same as passenger versions.
It could be a punched out 348 which was a "big block"
Cadillac had a 368 but I doubt it is the same engine.
Itll use a standard chevy bellhousing. If its free, go get it. We'll figure out how to stuff it in a vette later.
In reply to Dusterbd13 :
I've done a bit more interwebz search and from what I glean it's a 4 inch bore big block with a lonnnnng stroke that is only desire able for the forged crank and 4 bolt caps. Pistons were heavy heavy heavy. Consensus seems to be it's basically only good as a boat anchor.
The challenge shows boat anchors are useful in odd ways. Its a small bore, long stroke, low revving big block. With all the low end torque, you could run a powerglide behing it with 2.73 gears and still have respectable performance, probably for a net LOSS in the budget.
Or dump trucks..... attach it to my SM465 and you too can have a dump truck drivetrain in a vette.
Absolute boat anchor. All of the weight of a big block, with the cubic inches of a small block.
I’d tow my Corvette with it, not sure I’d want to power my Corvette with it.
Bobcougarzillameister said:Or dump trucks..... attach it to my SM465 and you too can have a dump truck drivetrain in a vette.
He'd be in 3rd gear by 45, which in some ways would be quite hilarious...but maybe not at the Challenge.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
I ran most of my auto-x runs in 3rd. topped out around 55-ish with my 4.10's and 29.5" tires
If it's what I think it is, they really do make good dump truck motors. The only dump truck I've spent any considerable time behind the wheel had one. I thought it was lovely.
I think that they were a tall deck block. They are a version of the typical Mark IV big block chev, but the 366 and truck 427 had a taller deck, allowing the use of three compression rings on the pistons. The 427 version was kinda the base for the early mountain motors, because you could bore them some, and stroke them pretty heavily with some sort of custom long rod situation. Think Sonny Leonard in kindergarten.
The above may very well not apply to the 366, but I know the 427 was built that way. You used to be able to buy intake manifold spacers to use a regular hot rod big block intake on the tall deck motor.
I just realized i need to point out there are three different 427 Chevs. There was a 427 ?ZL1? version of the 348 409 W motor, then the typical car Mark IV 427, then the tall deck truck version.
Everything here is my own personal Wiki, and as such, may be partly wrong, so don't make any bar bets based on this.
I would also argue with the "Low rev" part of the story. You have an engine with a similar size to a small block 350, but with heads that have much larger ports and valves. They would make more torque, but at a higher rpm, unless designed to do differently with the camshaft.
There's also the possibility this is simply a Gen 1 small block with a piston and crank combo that happens to measure 366 cubic inches.
366 is a tall deck mark iv big block. Intakes are specific to the tall decks. Everything is bigger. Taller deck = heads farther up and out = typical bbc headers for chassis aren’t going to fit.
Very desirable crank, and i’ve heard the cylinder walls are plenty thick enough to take out to the bore of a 427/454. Which means it can get a stroker crank and be 500”+
There is potential but be prepared for some custom stuff. Intake manifold for one. I am unsure if the cam height is the same. I think the pushrods are different, and there are other things.
Give it a try. For free it can't hurt. BBC heads are good compared to SBC heads, so there is potential.
What is a chebby? A big fat guy eating a cherry?
Ok I learned something it is not English it is Mexican (that I did not know was actually a language). Seriously I never knew where that came from.
dean1484 said:What is a chebby? A big fat guy eating a cherry?
Your thinking of a "chubby"...which is a big hairy fat guy that eats "twinkies."
SBC 400 is a good build IMO, but for the price you can also build a 350 using ~90% stock parts that makes good power. SBC is so common you should be able to find a good core. Around 87 they went to roller lifter block design. The C4 vette heads are good LT4. Then iron Vortec heads, or aluminum ones from Summit. 2c pay attention to the engine machine shop used, careful crank balancing, torque plate use, accurate line hone, balance the flywheel and damper, or neutral balance. I won't pretend to know what all those mean but it's good to know the parts beforehand and to go to a builder with a good reputation. https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engine-swap/569009-atillas-best-builds.html
C4 is LT1/LT4, you can get an LT4 top end kit (or j/y equivalent) and you might be able to get a mail order chip tune for a rough ballpark with the stock engine computer.
Even then you might just look for an LS style 5.3 to swap in.
Patrick said:366 is a tall deck mark iv big block. Intakes are specific to the tall decks. Everything is bigger. Taller deck = heads farther up and out = typical bbc headers for chassis aren’t going to fit.
Very desirable crank, and i’ve heard the cylinder walls are plenty thick enough to take out to the bore of a 427/454. Which means it can get a stroker crank and be 500”+
All of what he said.
Other things - the water pump may be weirdly shaped. The crank snout almost definitely will be larger than passenger car BBCs. But that is okay, since IIRC the heads' accessory mounts are tapped 7/16 thread instead of 3/8.
On the plus side, they have thick-stemmed super heavy duty valves, since the engines were designed to basically run at WOT forever. On the down side, they cams and ports and such were designed so that they could run WOT forever...
It's a big block with all of the weight and none of the displacement. That's a hard no in my book.
I seem to recall Indianapolis ran bus motors for a while.
if its the big block, dump truck engine its not worth the time to put in,
but if its the small block stock car 366, it will be full of awesome, might have to add a bit of gear to use the power.
We had a 366 in a soda truck. On the plus side it moved a truck that was routinely overloaded to about 40,000 lbs. on the minus side it never moved it over about 40 mph. It’s a lot of iron for not much displacement and I never would have thought to swap one into something.
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