Chevy 454 Vs. Ford 460 Throwdown - Horsepower S13, E13

You arrive just in time for the end of a competition between two powerhouses from the 70s, the Chevy 454 and the Ford 460. There is going to be a lot of

horsepower

, now in the first program we make a budget for the 460 spending only around 2500 dollars. From the youthful short block to the final engine, it generated 378

horsepower

on the diamond; Then in Round 2 we treated the same engine to a high performance build using a solid roller cam top end kit and a thousand CFM Holley carburetor resulting in 607 horsepower. The middle Chevy turns the same boneyard to finish the engine build, has the same basic budget, but different results on the dyno.

Chevy produced 400 various power, 31 more than the four, so today in the final round this 454 gets its high performance build and we get to see which monumental engine makes the most power either way we'll put this in our Monte Carlo 85 and we'll turn Chevy's latest full-size muscle car into a street beast to match the forged power. We have a similar parts combination as the solid roller cam, except this time it's Lunati four-cylinder heads, we're using a big-block Chevy aluminum head with racing head service, and for the induction side a manifold Merlin single plane intake now for the rotating assembly let's do something else. a little different, we're going to hang these KB pistons on the Eagle crankset and use one of their crankshafts.

Now this is our ESP cast steel part that is good for applications up to 700 horsepower. It has been drilled transversely on all cranks. reduced rotating mass and they even balance the whole thing for us now, you may remember we reused the Ford crank because they were known to run 700 horsepower Chevys, we only have about 500 horsepower, we have the crank tip tightened early so we can check. the clearance between it and the bearings that we installed and that's why we left this cap on now to do this in case you've never done it, you get a piece of plastic gauge at your local parts store, you cut a piece off, open it. and place this little strip of green plastic on the jury, then we can install the cap and bearings, by the way, Orc Levites for big block Chevys, tighten it like the rest of them and finally remove it, then compare the gauge width of flattened plastic to paper gauge should be between two and three thousand, so what if you have less than that and there isn't enough clearance?

Well, you'll probably have bearing failures more than that and well, your oil pressure will drop and you'll have a nose. happens, then let's boot this up and it starts right away, what do you say? And that starts with installing this rear main seal. Here are a couple of tips to follow when installing these things. The first is to make sure that the most. of the roof edge is facing the front of the engine, now the next thing to do is offset the main cover seal, this will help prevent leaks. Our boy's shafts are forged from 51:40 steel and are available. with a press fit or like ours with floating pins, the pistons are from KB Ikon brand and are made from forged 2618 aluminum alloy with a raised dome and single valve relief, this will help make our compression ratio from approximately ten and a half to one.

Here's another nice strength feature. Oil Rispa To prevent failure, there is no elegant way to install these spiral retaining locks, just make sure to fit them completely into the slot. The last step in our preparation is the piston ring set. All ring packs are different so be sure to follow the instruction sheet to determine which direction the bezel goes and be sure to look closely because they are hard to see. Yes, don't forget to offset the rings at 90 degrees to each other to prevent oil from reaching the top of the piston. With lots of lube, we are installing gap bearings on this rod and after hitting the first piston rod assembly, we will put another piece of plastic gauge on to check the clearance of our rod, just like the mains were right in the ballpark when you installed it.

These pistons, valve reliefs should point towards the center of the engine. Insert a fork into the bottom because it's done. Now we're going to move on to the performance valvetrain and up, and I hate to break it to you, but. Ford guys, it takes everything to be pretty, I guess we better pick up the pace, we're back with our big block performance Chevy model, this engine got a peak output of six hundred and seven horsepower to outperform a Ford and just like with our Ford 460. above we are going with a solid roller camshaft, a solid roller puts more pressure on the valve train and requires frequent adjustment of the valves, but the good thing is that you can get a row more aggressive pitch and a higher rpm range now to spin that cam. use a dual roller timing set with adjustable keyways, needless to say cylinder head choice is pretty critical on both of our big block bills for the Chevy, we're going with these RHS aluminum cylinder heads with intake runners from 320 CC compared to two 90s in the Ford. the valves measure 225 on the intake 188 on the exhaust, a little bigger than the four, but look at these combustion chambers, these are 114 CCS, the Fords were 74, so how could they have the same 10 compression ratio and a half, but again we got?

Those big, domed pistons take up a lot of space here. We are changing the springs that come with the heads, though for these dual springs with DAB Nurse they now have double the spring rate and are a perfect match for that. solid roller cam to seal our heads, we're going to try a set of these Co Matic gaskets. Now they sent us a cutaway so you can see the three layers of stainless steel with the elastomer liner now as the engine goes through the compression stroke. the head tries to lift up off the block, so an interesting design feature of these gaskets is that the gasket will actually rise vertically to take up that space and still maintain a good seal after falling on the heads, we'll hold them in place with a set. of ARP bolts and torque them in three increments to 75 foot-pounds, the rest of the valvetrain came from Lunati, including the roller lifters.

Due to our parts mix we have to measure the pushrods to get the correct length and just because we have to wait to receive them in the morning doesn't mean we are dead in the water, in fact we can install this Merlin single plane intake which we got from world products now that it has won, many riders are using it these days, it generates good power. in the 25 to 8500 rpm range and use what is called a correct casting process, which means they smooth the inside so there is no need to clean the runners or plenum, it is ready to go as are the heads with those of us who are going to hold them. a set of RPS this engine will need much better lubrication now so we are upgrading to a high volume Melling pump and a pickup that came with our new pan which is one of the hamburger racing pans with outlets for extra capacity of oil and inner flap baffle, okay, time for the test, it was much easier to turn the engine upside down for this, so why didn't we do it?

The motor mount is stuck and will rotate B. The instructions say to install the pan this way or see without thrust IDE and rockers those lifters we installed would fall out of their holes if you answered C you are right you will probably never have than uninstalling the intake manifold to pick up the falling lifters, we can do the rest of our I worked on the dyno today, including the Pioneer damper, the water pump, and since we used the same carburetor for both of our economy builds , we are reusing this Holley 1000 CFM, which is the same carburetor that was used in the second stage with the Ford during its dyno. works fine now we really are dead in the water until first thing in the morning when our push rod shows up, what does that mean a good night's sleep for us and just a few minutes of commercials for you?

Yeah, the Ford Chevy guys better stay close by. for the big showdown coming up I'm nervous I'm nervous I'm ready to go today we're turning our budget big block 454 into a horsepower explosion with an eagle rotating assembly and a domed icon Pistons then with parts like a roller cam Linate solids and a valvetrain, a set of RHS Pro action heads, and a Merlin single-plane intake, a similar build we recently did on a Ford 460 that made about 607 horsepower. Will this bow tie counterpart match or surpass that? We are just a few steps away from discovering it. I'm happy to say that impulse prompted me to order it.

It arrived right on time and just because they are new doesn't mean they are ready to use right away. Case machining material can lodge inside these things and unless removed, can prevent oil from reaching the top of the engine, so you should always take the time to clean it with solvent and then blow it off with air to make sure It's clear, after getting them in place, we finished the valve train with these 1.7 ratio rocker arms to set the valves on a solid roller cam. You will need a feeler gauge to set the intake to 20mm and the exhaust to 24,000. to look just over 31 years old, we are going to shoot our 454, we trust this launcher, explained the customer, equipped with the new 3 igniter module and a built-in adjustable rev limiter, with a set of eight millimeter performance cables, no pattern now to get started, we are running the engine through a heat cycle to break in the ring and all the broken components.

God, I love the sound of these big blocks. These sensors in each header pipe tell us the temperatures of the exhaust gases. This is a useful way to detect. A problem with any of the cylinders that run a solid roller has its consequences. Look at how Lucy's rockers became during the heat cycle. Now you have to clean the valves after breaking in and it is good to check them every 3,000 miles or so. Remember. We're chasing a 607 max horsepower from the equally modified for our first run at big 4, it was a nice 409 and the increase shows the stroke we're going to increase to around 32,561, this thing still revs amazing at 5,000 rpm, let's see what it does more time. before we get to 6000 sounds for Nomo we get to 615 horsepower at 6500 rpm or we haven't lately we have enjoyed impressive results by changing lighter distributor springs yeah 620 two and a half don't forget the hat Yes, horsepower, okay.

All I can say is Milani Carlos in the hallway man that's fun you ready now before you guys at Chevy start high-fiving so let's look at the peak horsepower of each engine stacked against each other , this is horsepower, the bright white is Chevy tops out at 6300 rpm, 11 horsepower more than the Ford that stalled here at 5900 torque is a different story, although this is the bright green Chevy down here and the Ford now gains eleven pound-feet more on average, that's a little different story. performance measure throughout the dyno run and in that department, well, it's Chevy without a doubt twenty-one more horsepower than the Ford, the Ford still makes a little more torque, well, without a doubt, they're both tough engines, but only one will fill that hole. our body Carlo we recently built a Pontiac engine and run a lot of Fords and Chevys so what's missing Hey Mopar guys, don't worry your chance will come a lot sooner than you think but after the break Joe has a little tech tip that you want to share. with you in an LS one here on the dyno, so I have to get this out of here.

We're always looking for ways to save money building and maintaining engines and today's budget tips, all about how to make your heads run more efficiently. To extend the life of engine components and save you money in the long run, we are wrapping this head with a titanium head de-icing wrap that acts as a thermal barrier keeping the engine compartment cooler and containing head heat to improve performance now coming. A kit with enough raph to cover a set of header locking cable ties to keep everything secure and tight and a can of silicone liner to seal and protect even further.

Now, let's run this small block Chevy with a stock head and the head I just wrapped. On the other side, after running theengine for about five minutes at different revs, we check the temps in the area around the pipes and it's 307 on the bare side 236 on the rap side, well that's 71 degrees colder than the other side. that difference in the engine bay of course there is also the obvious advantage of never worrying about the spark plug sleeves burning out enough, now you can get that head wrap individually or in the kit like we used for about 80 dollars the next time someone points the finger at you.

It better be one of these, the turn pro magnetic finger. I now have a magnet sewn into the tip that allows you to pick up light magnetic objects with a breeze even in tight places. Now it's also nice to have around when you're working. with spring-loaded objects like C-clips or even distributor springs now on the top of the finger they also offer gloves that have magnets and both index fingers now the gloves cost around 20 before for 11 dollars you can get the special friend to stay with you for always, you don't need to be a gear expert to know that sludge, if your engine is enemy, why, because once it builds up in the Clarks oil passages, the result is reduced fuel consumption, decreased engine performance, perhaps even an engine attack.

Castrol GTX is formulated to provide your engine with maximum protection in a leading oil against sludge buildup viscosity and thermal degradation Castrol GTX contains two unique dual-action dispersants that provide a superior level of protection against sludge buildup to withstand the most extreme driving conditions. Oil is the lifeblood of your engine, it can also be your protection against sludge, build horsepower projects on a budget that save you time and money. You've seen us build many high-performance engines and know that every project's drill involves a lot of disassembly, machine shop work, new parts and meticulous assembly. A lot of fun to make, plaster is the right way to build a high-performance engine, but when a problem arises in your everyday driver that results in water and a cylinder hole, the cost could be more than just a new gasket, it's time and a workshop can get hundreds of labor, so instead of going.

That route you might want to try a chemical solution head gasket repairs a new internal engine coolant seal from rod leaks, according to them their technology has advanced to the point that you can now simply pour it into a cold radiator and then let the engine idle for 15 minutes. As it circulates antifreeze, it reacts to the heat sealing of the engine, including the water passages in the head gasket and block. They claim it works on any gas, diesel, iron or aluminum engine and that it seals permanently, so if you're on a budget this is a low price. cost option, oh and you AMC guys just got a look at our next project car, but that's it because we're out of here.