how much HP

[ByronRACE]

The only saving grace of my "eyes bigger than stomach" combo is that the power is tunable. NA, the engine will probably make close to 450-500rwhp. With timing retard, probably 400-450. So, with pulley changes and changes to the blow-off valve I can tune it to that level if so desired. Had I built a 1000hp NA engine, my options would have been far more limited.

One mistake I did make was cam. It's too big to cruise nicely under 2400rpm, and I find myself in 4th gear to stay there when I have a double overdrive 6spd available...so it's a bit of a waste. I'll be changing from a 242/256@.050 duration cam with .680 lift to something with about 10deg less duration and .080" less lift. It'll lose some lope and make peak power sooner (and less power) but will allow me to cruise under 2400rpm smoothly. I'll then tailor the power with boost once again until I'm at that traction limit. I like to be able to come out of corner exit, get it straight, mat it...and have it stick.

So, if you want something that has a real wide span of tunable power ranges without having to dig into the mill too deeply, you might want to consider a power adder EFI combo. You can do a lot with the keyboard instead of a wrench, and your option to change power further with easy to access surface parts (like pulleys) makes life easier.

That said, this entire exercise taught me that I probably would have been just as happy with the way the car drives had I put a 514 crate motor in it...and I would have been driving it 6+ years earlier. (I'm slow). One thing my car does have is additional wow factor when the hood is open. People just don't see that every day and for those that understand what they're looking at, it's a real conversation starter.

Byron

[FUNFER2]

Hey Byron, just thought I would mention the cam in mine.

600 lift, 252/260 duration @ .050 112 lobe sep.
It's perfect for me on the hwy & street, as I live outside the city.
It likes to idle at 1,000 -1,100rpm.

[mln385]

Okay just my 2 pennies here but the Roush 427 R's cam is not (in my opinion ) as street friendly.
What are you planning on doing with the car? If it is a street cruiser I would suggest the 427SR/Tw it is very well mannered for the street and the power comes on heavy at 3000 rpm!

I get 10-14 MPG with mine with the tko 600 5speed, if you find you want more HP later you can always upgrade to the injection set up for better throttle responce and roughly 40 more HP.

Marc

[ByronRACE]

Originally Posted by FUNFER2

Hey Byron, just thought I would mention the cam in mine.

600 lift, 252/260 duration @ .050 112 lobe sep.
It's perfect for me on the hwy & street, as I live outside the city.
It likes to idle at 1,000 -1,100rpm.

Thanks for that info, but can I get a little more? Is this a hydraulic roller, flat hydraulic, or mechanical flat? What is your engine displacement and cruise rpm? If it's 427 cubic inches, I'm surprised that you can cruise smoothly at 1800-2000rpm. That is really the best of both worlds if it works.

[mjmacqua]

Byron,

You may or not remember me, I had a lot of trouble cooling my 557, you offered a number of solutions. My engine had 650+HP and definetly had the pucker factor... With the cooling issue and the afore mentioned, I decided to rebuild it. I still wanted the big block, so stuck with the 428 starting point, when finished (almost) it will be a 514 with a mild cam. It will be, as most big blocks are, a torque monster, which is what really makes us go. Unfortunatley what sells cars is HP what makes them go is Torque. Hopefully none of us are racing on the street as we know that is illegal, but even more so, when the HP starts taking over, we are above 90-100MPH, another pucker factor in a go cart type vechile. (pardon the go cart reference I couldnt think of anything else to get the point across).
I think most of us love to DRIVE these cars and on occasion punch them out. They key is figuring out what you really want to do. You can spin the tires with a 302. And keep in mind the first 2 questions we are asked, is it real? and what's under the hood, 427? (two other selling points)

[mln385]

How did you remedy the cooling issue if you did?

[mjmacqua]

I rebuilt it...And I hope it works (it isnt finished yet)

I tried Water Wetter, New fan (bigger puller, more cfm, better shroud), burping the system (looking for air bubles), I was about to try a bigger water pump, when instead I rebuilt the motor and still changed the pump. I ran an electric mezeire 35gpm, now I have the 55gpm. My problem really seemd to be an air flow issue, standing still it would heat up, but if I got it moving it would cool down.

[greg schroeder]

I started with a Roush 427R having 561 HP at the crank. The way Superformance was doing the exhaust and fuel delivery at the time in 2005 when the car was put together it ended up producing a touch over 400 at the wheels. I changed the headers, side pipes, fuel line, carb and air cleaner and it put down about 475 at the wheels. I did also change to the aluminum flywheel, near solid motor mounts and stronger half shafts too. With the rear Mickey Thompson ET street drag radials in the 275/60 15 size it worked pretty good. I could see having another 100 wheel HP for kicks and still have the car managable.

I know quite a few guys with highly modified exotic cars. The Cobra with 475 at the wheels is pretty quick. There's very little on the road that would be quicker to 100 mph, but those drag radials are critical to use in my opinion.