540 BBC Good Combo?

I'm looking to buy a BBC off a buddy of mine but I'm not sure if its the way to go or not.
Everything only has 40 passes on it with a stack injection on it(made 1080hp with stack).I'm looking to do some changes to it and but a blower on it and make 1800-2000hp??

Here are the motor specs:

540 ci,4.50"x4.250"
Donovan alum block,solid
BME rods and pistons,1.094" pins,should be able to get comp down to 11.8:1
Pontiac "427" heads,2.40/1.90 tit valves,Nextec springs,
T&D rockers

I've done some reaserch on the heads and I guess they are not the best for high boost applications.What if I fill them solid with Hard Block and spend the time to put longer rocker stand bolts in and weld the rocker stands together?

Also a blower manifold will be a problem but I think I'll buy a Indy for Big Chiefs and do some welding and grinding to it to make it work. Any other ideas?

 

bbc

get a decent 1471 high helix and detail the valvetrain and it should make 2000hp easily.It won't need much more than 30 psi and 8000rpm to run good.Make sure you think about the oiling system also, it will be a lot harder to keep the bearings happy running blown vs. N/A assuming it's a wetsump.

Mike

 

There are a few things that would concern me at 2000HP. Rod size and weight, pin wall thickness, ring size and location, rod length, pushrod and lifter size, just to name a few. The intake deal is pretty far from fitting them heads also.

 

I'm going to run my Mert 14-71(K8 rotors) blower and Davenport fuel system off my current BBC.Its a cast iron block,470ci,360 heads, made 1600hp on Davenports dyno and was still climbing but Les said to quit before my block was a boat ancor..... 4 seasons on that motor with no failures. I'm going to run the same oil setup on this motor,Titan pro pump@120psi,Jeff Johnson pan,3 quart Moroso accumulator,14 quarts of 60w

 

Good points. It has .904 lifters,Manton 1/2" to 7/16" taper wall push rods.straight wall pins with buttons. I will have to get some more info on the pistons and rod length. From what I was told this motor was built for a blower but the guy ran out of money so he just put a stack injector on it. How far off are the ports compared to Big Chiefs?

 

Sounds like it might work. I think the spacing between the ports are around an inch different than a Big Chief style head. You could buy a Big Chief gasket and set it on the head to see the difference. Good Luck

 

427

I don't think the ports are off by an inch. Do a search, it's been discussed before. Sounds like you have some good parts and experience with the other engine. I like your oil system, check for good drainback out of the heads.
Consider forged rods if it doesn't have them. Hussey and Venolia are making a Brooks type.
We run a big chief and the camshaft is critical to keeping the valvetrain alive. The 427 casting might be a little happier but the bottom line is the exhaust side does not like opening into huge cylinder pressure and it tries to tear the stands out.
If you keep the rpm down it will live better but when you see how hard it runs you will probably want to rev it more.

 

I'm going to run GRP rods, I've had good luck with them. As for the cam I was going to talk to Billy @ Oddy's and maybe buy one of there grinds?

 

Intake matching

I have been there and done this with the intake. It does take alot of work but you can make the Indy intake work. It took many hours of tig welding and grinding.As far as how far you have to move the ports depends on who orignally did the intake port work. I have seen the ports in 2 distinctly different locations. Are your intake rockers offset or straight up? My set up made 45lbs of boost at 8500 rpm. Only problem I had was keeping the head gaskets from leaking

 

I have two cast blower manifolds for those 427 heads and one Hogan's sheetmetal blower manifold. Send me a pm with your phone number. Maybe we can fix you up !


www.k-boat.com

 

I thought I owned every set of stack injectors for 427 heads on the planet about four years ago. (At least all but the one set that WizBang owned) Would love to see which set they are.
Yes, they are about an inch difference than big chiefs on the intake side.

 

Pistons

Are you planning on buying blower pistons?

The reason I ask is, we switched our 572" motor from NA injected to blown alky, used the same pistons, just dropped them in the bores .020 and went with thicker head gaskets to get 11.6 to 1.

We thought it was a great plan, well after about 8 passes we started seeing stress cracks in the pistons, NA pistons just aint tough enough.

 

Wannabe you missed another set of injectors. I had a Kinsler 8-port before the blower.

 

Wow! Learn somethin new today.

I would love to see how other peoples engines ran with the stacks.

 

Billy @ Oddy's will get you going with all the right answers , I have run your combo in the past it made good power. I will say the Donavan block is the weak link it will be fine if you don't try to see how much power you can make, that combo can over power that block been there done that pushed the main webbing out just below the cam we had a HH SSI D 1471 about 35 over and one of Oddy's cams had to go to a KB block to keep it together

 

Would drilling the rocker stud holes deeper in the head and installing heli-coils help to keep the bolts tearing out? What about filling the heads with Hard Block to keep them more stable also?

 

hi depends how much your paying for the engine, if its cheap pick it up. but if ur going to do mods buy a hemi.

 

Drilling and tapping the head for a longer stand bolt is a must do on Big Chief style heads. Jesel sells a stand bolt that is 1.5 uhl. If you fill the head with hardblock and ever have to do a welding repair, you will be screwed.

 

That's what I wondered with filling the heads.