Small vs. Big

[Hopalong]

I don't know if this has been debated before or not, so I thought I would start it up. I have been planning for some time to build a 440 for my car (if I ever get to that point, arrgghhh), but I have been looking at small blocks a little more lately. It's hard not to notice that power and torque levels have been climbing for both as of late. It seems like it would be hard not to build a powerful engine unless you really tried. So my question is this: With power levels going up on both, which would you prefer and why? It does not matter what you may have in your car now, but if you were to go out and start on a new one right now?

[6PackCuda]

I think for cars that were built to handle a big block, such as E and B bodies, the big block is the way to go. But for smaller cars, like A bodies, going with a small block would save a lot of headaches.
I guess it really comes down to how you want to go about making the power, how much power you want, and how much $ you want to spend. With a big block, you've got brute force right out of the box, but they're big, heavy, and hard to work around. A small block is going to require more $ to make the same power as a big block, but you'll see significant weight savings, and you've got a lot more room to work around them.

[Hopalong]

I agree with you 6PackCuda, but I was noticing in the Summit catalog that you can get a 408 inch small block fully dressed for about $5000 that makes 375 hp and over 400 ftlbs. That's 1970 440 T-N-T numbers! I know more can be made from a big block for about the same money, but I guess I have been giving more thought to weight and even (yikes) gas mileage. I know a small block like that won't be sipping fuel, but the lighter weight would help.

[Stein]

Andy you need to come down to Beatrice and drive my Challenger with a little old 340, I bet you will be sold with a small block.:elephant:

[CrazyPete]

just build a warmed over big block you can do it on a budjet pretty easy i agree the hp levels on sb's are awesome but man theres just something about that amount of torque that you only get with a BB

[Hopalong]

Drive your Challenger Stein?!! I'm on my way right now!! :bolt: Seriously, some of my thought process is that I want a car that does more than just go in a straight line and I know that our old Mopars can do that and more. So that opens up the idea of a small block since it would take a bunch of weight off the front as compared to a big block. I agree about the torque though, my car always had a big block in it and the tire spinnage was never in short supply (at least until it broke the drive shaft!).

[Bryx512]

Small Block :moral: Big Block

[directconnection]

Small Block :moral: Big Block

:throflmao_4: I like that

[69Swinger]

For me it would just really depend on the scenario. What I want to get out of it, what it's going in, how much I'm going to try it.

I built a very Mild 440 for drag racing in my truck and it'll run Mid 12's all day, and did for over 5 yrs with zero problems. Which is 4 Sale I might add, Craigs List Link coming soon.

On the other side of the teeter todder I built a stroked 410CI small block for the dart, which I've also had great luck with. With 8.3:1 CR, Mild cam, and ported heads, no boost, it put down 300/380 on the dynojet. Add 10psi and it was 518/568.

Though there is some debate about the longevity of stroker small blocks with the rod geometry putting extra pressure on the side of the cylinder wall.

There are other options as well, carb on a new style hemi 5.7/6.1L, EFI on a classic SB/BB engine. Diesel? :)