XCAV8

I'm very close to scrapping the whole 454 mk iv idea......
Very Close!!!!!!!!!
For me to put the blocks together right(with piece of mind) ,cost per engine with machine work will be close to $ 4000 per motor..

My New plan -------
Brand new DART Big M blocks (Standard Or Tall decks) ??
Eagle 4340 crank Balanced (want to pick a nice stroker with the best possible geomitry)
Eagle H beam rods
JE forged pistons (Bore) ???
Rings ,Mains ,rod and cam bearing ( top quality)
Goal to get to big C I min 540's ---- to 565,572 whatever combo has the best working geomitry
I was surprized to find out the price for this short block + or - $200 bucks depending on exact parts...... $ 3800.00 per motor

heads i was looking at are prolines, cast 2.25 int. 1.89 exh.
cam and carb i haven't a clue.... i have holly 850's with vac sec

My GOAL is to build the motors fairly mild for reliability . natural for now, with blowers in the future 2 - 3 years down the road

My machine shop guy is hooking me up with some good prices...

I would really appreciate your oppinions on this ASAP so i can choose my parts, his distrib has everything in stock except cranks which they can have in 2 days.....

thx guys in advance

XCAV8

ttt

delsol

You're where i was about 1 month ago! mY 454'S are sidelined and I'm working on 588's. One thing that you should keep in mind is that if you want to blow that engine later you will be making big power, once you start looking into the eagle crank people will tell you they're not where its at. I personally went with callies. I looked into a place in Ohio --Ohio crank-- that use foreign forgings but do all the machining in house to make sure of quality-- which i found out was the problem with the eagle and scat stuff. They will even assemble and balance shortblocks with merlin blocks, close to that price $4100. with all the rest of the parts you had mentioned.-- I've heard good things about them.
I went the more expensive route (150% more) since i'm thinking that later i might end up with whipples and wanted a good base to start with

mopower

Eagle cranks aren't bad , at least in NA configuration. I've heard of them breaking in SC engines...usually the snout breaks off. But check the finished product , their QC sucks. My buddy has a shop and uses them quite frequently and never had a crank related failure.
But he checks and balances every crank. Mostly because they NEED it. Bearing surfaces vary in size and some even have taper.
Same goes for the rods. The ones I got , the pins wouldn't even fit thru the hole. I have 2 540's using these parts and they were both done.

bobby daniels

hEY MO POWER the only way those cranks are bad is if you use a CRANE BOX then the spark is so hot ( hotter than the sun )) it burns through the eagle crank and scat ,,I have also heard they weld the ends of the rods so the pins won't go through ,

Crower and Luniti have the best afforadable voltage proof models









JUST MESSIN WITH YOU

mopower

I know

I thought only MSD had a hot enough spark for that

bobby daniels

hey really the luniti (holley) is a good part and mo -power ((OH THIS HURTS )) is dead on target the scat may last N/A and the Eagle may N/A but you really need to have a good machine shop blueprint it . Eagle rods are ok til about 850 hp after that you will be streching it No pun intended !!
The 540 is a good combo but latly we have been running the 565 4.25 and 4.600 and its a power making bullet and very dependable


MSD welds the pistons in the bore ,mo-power and the spark would push the boat

delsol

Hey Bobby, where does the Callies cranks fall in the lineup-- I was under the impression that they were right with the lunati and crower. I went for a tour through their facility 2 weeks aqgo and was very impressed with everything. They seem like a quality machining house.

DanB

I keep readin threads were guys are building NA motors and want to turn em into blower motors later. What usually winds up is you have a half ass NA motor and then a half ass blower motor. Decide what you want and then build it. These are 2 diff animals and the combos are totally different.
You should be able to build a nice 468 from your 454's for around 1500 per shortblock if you have a good block, crank rods and the tin. You need pistons rings bearings cam lifters and machine work. Heads are another matter.
Dan

bobby daniels

I used a couple of their cranks about several years ago and they were bad ,machined if you could call it that .but they came out with a new crank( their expensive one )) I think its equal to the luniti but I've never used one ,but have friends that have and they liked them
,,ones in a N/A 540 .
I just know luniti's and like them but watch out for their cheap one,get their pro series only,do not use the racer version