General SBF engine stages?

I always have thought that the stock "points" ignition was one of the first things to get rid of. Upgrading to electronic igntion backed by a matching coil, was before my intake and exhaust mods. I see it fit to upgrade the stock 2 row immediately because it is one terrible radiator for performance engines. If you are held back by your budget, I would go with stages...from top down.....carb/intake, exhaust, heads, cam, bottom end build up. If you have one big pile of money to blow I would make a weekend project out of it and do it all.

Mike

streetstang67 said:

This might be a too general question, but could somebody list these "stages". I started out with just intake and exhuast, but now I want more, but I dont want to have to mess with cooling and some other things. At what point of upgrades does ignition need to be upgraded from stock; at what point does the stock cooling system get rendered ineffective; at what point does the transmission become the weak point, etc....???
Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

My definition of "stages":

Stage 1: headers, 4V intake, and carb.

Stage 2: Stage 1 plus heads, cam, and exhaust

Stage 3: Stage 2 plus high compression pistons, balanced bottom end, and really anything else.

Ignition upgrade: some may argue never, others before your first mod. Points ignition worked for the top '60s racers and IMO they'll work for you.

Cooling: I'm not sure for a '67+, but my '65 overheated in stock form. '67-68 didnt have a much larger radiator, so I'll assume the same problems could arise.

I like (in theory) the dissapointing way.

That is the build to last / safety type of thinking. For example:

Get the biggest AL radiator you can, electric fan, thermostatically controlled.

New fuel lines and pump / filter etc to flow enough to match your end goal.

Make the car stop and handle better before you make it accelerate quicker - brakes, wheels and tyres, suspension.

After all this you'll probably be thinking all that money and it's not really any different. Then you finish it off with a better motor and it all comes together.

Stages for a motor I can see as being (and to be safest to be done in this order)

Shortblock - you can run your old cam, heads, intake and you'll make little extra power, but the foundation for a trustworthy engine is there when you do the rest.

Then exhaust

heads

Cam and induction - I think these have to be done together to stop a compromise between overfuelling if induction done first or underfuelling if cam done first.

Finally ignition for that last bit of optimum performance unless your compression ratio warranted it earlier.

Of course IMO, it must be done all at once as it is a system, and for BEST performance must be engineered as that, not compromised along the way because you couldn't use the cam you should have because you didn't have the exhaust, heads and carb for it, etc. Or you have the cam heads and induction worked out but it's on a worn out shortblock, so the big rpms the cam needs to make the power is too much for it. So it will either end up being run in an rpm zone that is doggish or you blow up the shortblock. Doing it in the order above I think allows you to eliminate any need to compromise BUT you get hardly any benefit until the last stages.

Ya breaks is a stage not to forget about.
I would work on efficiency first. Exhaust, electronics and cooling maybe roller rockers. If those all work well and cool fine, then its time to add some power. Intake, carb and heads cam(high volume waterpump while you are at it). Breaks! Once the engine is running well and the car at least stops reasonably, you can start on the tranny and rear end. No use working the tranny if the engine doesn't run.
Kevin