my Stingray and it's money eating powers

[Rustbag]

I've got a 71 corvette that I've had since 98. I love the 68-72 body styles the best. Chrome bumpers rule.

 

It's been a small block all it's life and I decided to change that due to me aquiring a 4 bolt main 454 for practically free. It needed 2 rods and an overhaul. Well I had to get the crank turned and a set of pistons and a lil cam and an intake and the list kept getting longer and longer to turn this stock peanut head truck motor into something that wouldn't make me regret pulling out the 480hp 383 that came out. It needed a set of pistons and I prolly should have just done that in hindsight. Or at least from my wallet's point of view.

 

So I'm at my trusted head and block shop to get my parts and machine work done. But after chatting with the owner for a few minutes I became aware of a real motor he had built for himself personally that he wanted to sell for a price too cheap to pass up. This guy has been here for years and his shop is the best around here. He's got trophy's and pictures all over for starters. Everybody out here brings there work here.

 

Well next thing u know I'm leaving the place without my 454 parts. But not to get them fixed. To go home and get my 383 too. I ended up trading both motors and some money for basically my dream motor for this car. It's an aftermarket Merlin III 502 block, stroked to 540. Forged everything, custom solid roller cam, Brodix 2xtra cnc ported heads that were massaged on a flow bench for more. It's got Jesel roller rockers and Jesel timing belt setup. This motor is top of the line. I'm getting him to down size the cam, and lower the compression from 14:1 to 9:1 for my use. It was making 830hp before I'll be able to run a 500 shot of nitrous or put a blower or even a turbo on later if I wanted. It's bulletproof. It's rated up to 2500hp.

 

I was gonna use a Performer RPM airgap intake and a 1000cfm Holley carb. But hood clearance is a real issue. I had already ordered an L88 hood . It's the largest hood that ever came stock on these. It's supposed to be a sleeper.... ...relatively speaking. I didn't want to pay another $150 to ship it back and another $150 shipping to get a bigger hood either. That's $450 total counting the original purchase.

 

A week and half goes by, he said it would be 2. And I find this... bad ass icing for my cake.

 

http://www.imagineinjection.com/photogallery.html

 

I can go fuel injected for just a little bit more.

 

It never ends I guess. I'm expecting 650+hp and wouldn't it be cool if I could get over 10mpg. lol

I'll let u know how it turns out. I get the new motor wednesday.

[gipperz]

Sounds like you got it going on, I know an engine builder that built a 540 and it made 720hp and ran a 69 camaro in the 9.90 range. I'm interested in seeing pics when you get it done.

[twostrokemechanic]

just make sure if your going back with the smaller cam ...make sure the heads are not too much for it! they may be race type heads with very large runners and maybe all out drag race heads! they would run but probably would do a lot of spark plug fouling and a lot of work on it every time you turn around. im a big block chevy fan myself and small block!.....heres a pretty bad ass chevy crate engine the 572 go check out the video http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...VideoID=3272251 at least you like chevys...if people wants real power and wants to win races they should invest there money in a chevy!! cause thats where the power is! later.

[lastnline75]

man what a great sounding car! those year models are the only vets that i ever cared for. chrome front and back. my brother had two of them and i loved the big block car he had. would love to see some pics.