Engine Building - V-8 Power Trends And Best-Selling Engine Combos

It's incredibly easy to build monster 500-plus cubic inches with a Ford because of the 460's wide bore center and the affordable prices on stroker cranks.

Ford 385 Series Big-Block 545 Ci There's a displacement war going on out there and it's escalating rapidly. When we talked to Barry Rabotnick at Survival Motorsports about a Ford 460 engine, he said simply, "Build a stroker." Rabotnick says that while the 4.300-inch stroke, 0.030-over Ford 460 idea makes 521 inches, he likes stuffing in a monster 4.500-inch stroke. With the exception of one Ford truck block, Rabotnick says the crank will drop right in with no grinding necessary. Survival's stroker kit includes a Scat 4.500-inch cast crank, big-block Chevy 6.700-inch-long H-beam rods, and a set of Diamond Racing forged pistons that are internally balanced (along with rings and bearings). If you go with the dished versions, this will create around 10:1 compression using a combustion-chamber volume of around 76 cc. Rabotnick likes the Blue Thunder Ford 460-style heads with the 2.25/1.88-inch valve combination. He says these will flow 360 cfm with minor bowl work. The heads listed here are bare machined and Rabotnick reports that you can assume it will cost another $1,000 for parts and a good valve job. For cam timing, look for a mechanical flat-tappet cam of at least 260 degrees at 0.050. Comp Cams sells a Magnum 306 solid single pattern that specs at 260 degrees at 0.050 with 0.640 lift and a 110-degree lobe-separation angle. For induction, an engine this massive demands a 1,050-cfm Dominator carburetor and a Victor 460 single-plane intake. A set of 2-inch or 211/44-inch primary pipe headers should be close to ideal. It's possible to make more than 630 hp at 6,000 rpm with 650 lb-ft of torque peaking at 5,000 rpm.

A short-deck 582ci Rat motor can be easily passed off as a 496 or even a 454 if you're adept at subterfuge. It's the ultimate sleeper Rat. But you won't be able to use the Shafiroff valve covers. They're a dead giveaway.

Big-Block Chevrolet 582 CiTalking with the crew at Shafiroff Race Engines, we learned that the most popular standard-deck-height Bow Tie rodent is the 582ci Ultra Street engine that pumps out 745 hp at 6,200 rpm and 710 lb-ft of torque at a mere 4,500. This is a monstrous 4.600-inch bore and long-arm 4.375-inch stroke, so even with a big Comp Cams or Crane mechanical-roller cam that specs at 260/266 degrees of duration at 0.050-inch tappet lift with 0.668/0.678 inches of lift with a 114-degree lobe-separation angle, this motor can still make the power on pump gas with 10.5:1 compression. Horsepower and torque numbers on these gargantuan motors are all dyno'd with a 1,050-cfm Dominator carb. According to Shafiroff's guys, the biggest complaint after the buyer stuffs the motor into his car is that the rear tires shred in record time. Of course, if you really want to go crazy, Shafiroff also sells a tall-deck 598ci package that makes 755 hp at a mere 6,000 rpm. Lord have mercy.