When starting from scratch, building a purpose built drag car w/ a "9 second ET" as a goal...the difference between getting the job done w/ a 454 BBC, or a 460 BBF is a very thin line.
Considering that you currently have Chevy junk to do it with makes that a no brainer. I too would use what you've got.
Back in the day, however,..that was a different story.
Living in the south, (and being a Ford guy) I got sick of seeing a Fox body car immediately stripped of it's powerplant and a SBC/BBC thrown in because "it was cheaper", hat I set out to do the same thing you're doing w/ a 385 series engine sourced from JY stock stuff just to prove that that statement was crap.
I used a JY sourced 460 P.I. engine out of a Crown Vic , and mated that to a C-4. ( I even found the factory C-4 bell to mate that trans to that engine, w/o need for an adapter.)
I documented everything cause my friends were keeping track of how much money (back in 1995) I was spending to prove my point.
It basically amounted to a cast crank/rod block w/ dished, heavy-assed forged TRW pistons. A Comp flat tappet cam and lifter set, A Weiand Stealth dual plane intake, Stock, hand ported heads w/ cheap Manley SS valves, a Holley 3310 vacuum carb, stock Duraspark distributor w/ a MSD 6 A. Some heddman 2" header, an 8.8" rear w/ 4.11's, and a set of DIY 30" ladder bars for traction.
The trans was rebuilt by me using some junk 10" 3500 stall converter from whoever was cheapest at the time....
Oh,.....And two hacked, jacked, and stacked NOS powershot plates that I drilled the spray bar holes out to the same size of the then "Super power shot" plate sizes for the extra 25 hp per plate. The Nos system was staged,..the car was footbraked, and left on one kit, and as soon as I upshifted, the second kit got added in (Total N20 was supposed to be like 350 hp)
I cannot remember the actual ticket price of the total, but IIRC, the whole price tag was less than 3 k front to back.
But everything was new, or newly rebuilt.
Right off the trailer the car N/A would run 7oh somethings,...and high 6.40/6.50's on one kit, and picked up another tenth when I grabbed the second kit. I ran it that way all summer long,...for a total of about 60-70 passes until I blew the thing up trying to get a 6.20..
When I took the engine apart it looked like holy hell inside, The caps were walking all over the place, the thrust side of the cylinder walls were deeply scoured, and the the C-4 looked like I was trying to drive the entire rotating mass out of the end of the case w/ a sledge,....I was rattling the hell out of the engine, and the tops of the pistons looked like they had encountered a mini meteor shower.
It was only a matter of time.
I knew nothing about Nitrous back then,...Nothing about fuel delivery/distribution, timing retard, or plug readings. Nothing about nothing for the power level I had reached or was trying to keep. Nothing about staged/stacked nitrous systems, and why you shouldn't use vacuum secondary carb, on a dual plane intake when trying to do it.
It was only because of the robustness of a 460 architecture, a choice to use forged pistons, and a lot of luck that I managed to prove that point.
Knowing what I know now....I could do it for less, and go way faster.
The whole truth to the story was that an oval port 454 could have had been just as cheap,and the parts were far better built as factory items from the start. I had no 4 bolt block, I had no forged crank/rod/pistons to rebuild as stock replacements.
Even after spending several days w/ a die grinder, my heads looked "choked" (only talking ex port here) compared to an oval port, and literally fell into the holes when compared to a rectangular port comparison..
But back then,...You being a chevy guy, and me being the ford guy that didn't have to break the bank to keep up w/ or beat you.......You'd have never heard that from me.
But as with everything,........ time has a way of softening perspective.
Sooner or later if you hang here, we'll cross paths,...I have the rep for being the forum prick,...mostly because I have a different view of things from what most others think..I'm sure you'll find out one way or the other.
Since I have a lot of time on my hands now days,..I figure that I'd just get all of that out of the way, so that you won't have to wonder if I'm being an asshat or not..
Hello BTW,...my name is Mike.
