I read a article years ago in hot rod or popular hot rodding about the parts list and procedure to build a 350 chevy with ford connecting rods that runs on 87 octane.I have a buddy that read this article too and started putting parts aside years ago and then forgot about them.He cleaned the garage the other day and found the parts but we lost the artcle and we still need somethings to complete engine and not sure of what they are if anyone remembers this article or can tell me where to find it I would greatly appreciate it.We are bored and want to build it for a future street rod.

Thanks leadfoot.3

Are you thinking about "The 350 Chevy Should Have Built" article by Hot Rod?

http://www.purplesagetradingpost.co...y%20engine.html

Hmmmm, do I believe everything I read on the internet? Good question! LOL

87 octane from some "cheapo" station, poured into an 11:1 compression engine and it worked?

The 6 inch rods are nothing really new, But the picture of the pistons side by side just doesn't jive for me. The "stock 350" piston looks about a half inch smaller than the new one. If my math is kinda close, the difference between a 4" bore and a 4.155 bore is less than an eighth of an inch. (oops! just re-read the article again, missed the part about a 400 block and 327 crank.)

I did like the part though about "when they removed the lead, the octane rating plummeted. Yep, lead was used primarily for detonation control, not for valve lubricant. But that's another very long contraversial conversation that never seems to end.

Mark

With the advances in cylinder head design and camshaft technology you can come very close to the same HP & TQ results with a more conventional 355 for a lot less money.
Now if you combined that shortblock with current heads, cams and EFI.......... hmmmmm

These are essentially the dimensions of the NASCAR specific 350 engines that Chevy supplies basic components for such as the 12480045 or 46 and 22551790 blocks which are available in stock deck heights or the 790 can also be had at .3 inch taller. They come with external cooling and dry sump provisions. A finished 350 built on one of these would have a 4.14 inch bore and the 327 stroke of 3.25 inches. The nominal rod length is 6.2 inches.

While it looks and smells like a 350, it probably would make 99.9 percent of Chevy's commuting customers very unhappy if it was a production 350 since it's designed for screaming at 9000 RPM not hauling your boat to the lake on weekends.

As for running Ford 300 inch 6 cylinder truck rods aside from cheap at the wrecking yard, I can find little to endorse their use in a performance engine when there's better, albeit more expensive, solutions out there. This is an idea from the 1950s and 60s even though it took Hot Rod magizine till 1995 to publish it.

Bogie

It's a typical "what they shoulda done" type of article, with the advantage of hindsight added in. They ignore the fact that there was no 400 when the 350 was developed. In fact, the 350 was a logical step in the growth of the SBC from it's 265 roots. It is a testimony to the soundness of the basic design of the engine that it was used for all the SBC iterations.

In a stock engine, there is little to choose between the 5.7" and 6" rod. Way too much print has been wasted on the benefit of the 6" rod over the 5.7" And while the 3.48" stroke crank in a 400 block is fairly popular, the 3.25" stroke in the same case is more of a novelty.

BTW, Chevy DID build a 3.25" stroke by 4.125" engine. It was called the 348. And it is dead as spats.

tom