CUZ it rocks, shakes, reliable, goes fast and most of the time, it operates as the intended builder had it designed or built ......... Like diamonds considered the best everybody wants them. Somethings are just plain better then others. availability and part offerings are also in the mix. And I do not seeing this changing in the near future, so get one when you can an have a ball...............$0.02

This thread has been alive since mid 2004. Ford vs Chevy vs MOPAR vs AMC vs Hudson vs Studebaker (got my drift) has been going on since the 2nd gasoline powered horseless carriage met the dirt. Ain't it fun to follow the loyalty to our Iron!!! I knew Centerline way back and never realized he was a rodder until we joined up on this great site. On the other hand, he saw me come to work every day in my 36 pickup. He may even been around when I changed jobs and departed in the old Chevy powered Ford for a 3200 mile trip from Miami, Fl to Ogden Utah. Took 3.5 days and one speeding ticket. This old Chevy powered Ford has been on the road for about 232,000 miles with Chevy power (Re built at the 207,000 mark) and I have had the following problems: Blew an air shock on the maiden voyage towing a 17' bass boat from Miami to Austin,Tx (shock was too close to exhaust pipe when loaded), Main spring on rear broke some where around 180,000 miles at 80mph, a rocker arm failed in the ball seat at 207,000 miles. That was when I decided to rebuild. This truck has criss-crossed the USA many times, comfortably, quickly, economically and with reliability. My 36 coupe is Chevy powered and though it shares the driving responsibilities with the PU, it is pushing 32,000 miles since being finished in 99. Until then, it had a flat head that was driven as my second car for years and has been in several different states over it's lifetime. I would call that semi reliable transportation with Ford flathead power.

Sitting in the barn waiting for me to redo is a 68 Bronco with the good old 289. This unit has lived a tough life for 219,000 miles (so did the driver) and the worst problem I had with it was at the hands of the Nylon timing gears that stripped at 90 something thousand miles and bent every push rod and most valves. My bad cause I knew they were only good for about 70,000 miles in those days, but thought the timing set had been changed out by the previous owner. I will redo this vehicle with a Ford motor because I am too lazy in my old age to do all the work to adapt a Chevy.

My "cookie cutter" SBCs are boring reliability, but I don't think there is anything boring about the EFI on these old motors, nor the snorkled fresh air to extract a bit more efficiency. Any body want to take their Hemi power to Alaska this summer (without a support trailer)?


Trees

See my Project Journal for my present project - a king cab '53 Chevy pickup w/ power seats, power steering, power windows, OD auto tranny, A/C. I like to be pampered too. Its just when you have a pre-war Willys coupe, it HAS to be a nose high, hemi powered, 4spd '53 hydro, '56 Old rear end, tilt 'glas front end gasser. You know, factory stock.

I wasn't gonna comment but... I cannot help smiling.

"Factory Stock"

I love it.

You may be compaeing apples to oranges when you compare the two trucks.What are the gear artios of the rear axles and what are the torque ratings. All in all tho I believe the smallblock is still king.
Bob

the big bad hemi babies make me laugh, their chain is so easy to yank .......... WAAAAAAAAA! my engine is bigger then yours. I will say this for the hemi, every car show I have gone to MOST of the hemis ARE sitting and the Small Block Chevy mouse motor guys are driving and enjoying their cars......... enjoying and wearing out the parts cause if we need a replacement we do not have to dumpster dive to find what we need .............. OH yes your hemi is so much bigger and better then my SBC, I guess I will go out to the garage and just throw away my engine so you will like me ............. how pathetic some sound.. do not get me wrong it is not the engine it usually is the owner all full of themselves and stuck up ........ why? cause their motor weighs more? This post could be aggression so shoot me. That is if you can catch me, OH yeah when was the last time anyone saw a hemi in a road racer mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm? I am sure there is one. Being full of it this morning I make another observation. Notice how the hemi owner post (you know who I speak of), are always long lots of words. I am guessing but it looks like they are trying to catch up on the word count that favors the SBC , and HA HA they loose again..... very funny and childish. Just enjoy your choice of build, be in love with it. Just realize your are not all that, but hay thanks for showing up........:-)

HMmmmmmmmmmmm....How about Brooks Cunningham.??

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Actually my purpose was not to say 'mine is better than yours'. Rather it was to educate sine the mantra is that hemis are trailer queens as you believe, that hemis are prohibitively expensive to build, or that hemis are too big and too heavy for most cars. None of those are correct. SBCs are great, about the perfect engine for a DIY car. however IF someone wants to try something a little different, hemis, nail head Buicks, early Olds, Caddy, Ford FE etc., are all doable on a working man's budget an within the skill level of any competent hot rodder.

Sorry,I can't abide with the statement" IF someone wants to try something a little different, hemis, nail head Buicks, early Olds, Caddy, Ford FE etc., are all doable on a working man's budget an within the skill level of any competent hot rodder." I can walk in ANY parts house in America and walk out with a SBC part in hand and get my ride back on the road. How many manufacturers can say this? I took our 1966 327 and bolted on a 1990 700r4 absolutely no modification. I have Priced chevy, ford, mopar and amc. Chevy wins hand down. Something to think about..........How many Ford powered chevys have you ever seen??? How many Hemi powered chevys have you seen???(not many) How many AMC powered chevys have you seen??? See what I'm saying. I think what makes a car boring is building something that you are afraid to drive and trailer it to the car shows. But if that's your thing that's OK too just ain't my bag. I say build it then drive it till it needs building again..........I'm sorry but I just think chevy built a better mouse trap(no pun intended) power to $$$$$ ratio is just plain better........and I'm glad there's ford and mopar guys out there, it gives us chevy guys someone to beat up on.......... Brian

I have to agree with several of Brian's points.

The day that you can bop out to the local wrecking yard and pull a decent and runable early Hemi, Nailhead Buick, early Cad ohv, early Olds Ohv or even a Y-Block Ford that you can stick in a car without a complete rebuild are pretty well gone. It's been close to 30 years since you could count on pulling one of those rigs out of the back row of some used car lot and driving it home and pulling the engine for your rod.

The average early hemi that you will find now will need a complete rebuild including being bored and new pistons. Same for the rest of the "kool" old engines. Heck, the price quotes for rebuilding a flathead are unreal.

Yes if you are knowledgable you can find some deals but that takes years of experience in know what you are buying and who you are buying it from.

I've been at this for 45 years and I still see 750 bucks in a rering and bearing job in the 330 Desoto out in the shed. that is with no pistons, no new cam an no dress up goodies which are as rare as rooster teeth. The last cast iron 4 barrel intake I had offered to me had an asking price of more than I did the rering job in the 350 in my 71 GMC for. "It's rare, I want lots of money for it" was the attitiude I got from the guy.

There are two Chevy Performance dealers within a 3 hr drive of where I sit that stock (not order) ready to go performance smallblocks. Drive down, say I want this one. pay (yup big bucks) load it up and drive home with it in the back of the pickup. Yes, that is way to easy but it is possible.
One with the good stuff listed on the web is
http://www.gilbertchevy.com/?CFID=1...FTOKEN=30324839

I don't knock the kool old engines of the past, I just mention that for the entry level rodder and the normal working guy they arn't always the best idea.
Maybe for the second, third or so on car he builds, yes go for it. But having an engine that takes a weeks pay to buy some racers old aluminum valve covers that still have to be repaired and polished to be nice doesn't make a lot of sense for the normal guy.

I also have to agree with Brian in that I want to be able to get repair parts on the road. I don't want to have to have a starter shipped in from some place in California when I am stuck in Rock Springs, Wyoming. I want to be able to go to NAPA or another parts house and buy one over the counter and go. The 48 will have a 396 in it but I will still be able to get what I need at most parts houses if I need something on the road. By the way Willies 36 it has a hitch for when you can't find that elusive part on the road and need that tow home.

You guys are 100% correct. The SBC is a super cheap and easy way to go for hot rodders to get a very serviceable mill.

I am that 20 year dude on a budget, and guess what engine I have? An SBC. Why SBC? Because it's the ak 47 of engines, they're cheaper, easier, and everywhere. The AR-15 family (AR, which stands for armalite, not assault rifle btw) may be more effective, in a number ways, but why does the world use the ak instead? It's simpler, more reliable, and it get's the same job done. The analogy hopefully makes sense.

I love gm cars. I like challengers too. Those are bad. Never liked ford personally. One thing I've never understood. Why are 71 hemi cuda's the most sought after car? (as it has been explained to me) Please mopar man explain the 71 cuda thing to me. I personally think the z 28's camaro's were the most bad *** things in that era. Then again, I wasn't there, that's my uncle talking(he owned a 71 z 28 back in the day). Why the cuda though? It's an ugly car, it's just plain ugly to me.

Have you ever shot an AK-47? Those things are pieces of ******! Accuracy? Obvioulsy there is no russian word for this because it don;t have it! Now.....AR-15? THERE is a rifle! Accurate and light!

Every carmaker has there premier model. I would say that Ford Blocks make the most power right now but I am partial to SBC for the HP/dollars equation.

no, I am saying m-16 is better, just like a 600 hp hemi is better, then 300ish hp chevy 350. I like m-16 tremendously, I've shot at people in Iraq with them. Believe me, a properly maintained m-4 with an acog and pac4 is a great rifle, properly maintained of course.

The Chevrolet Sb was a revounlutionary design back in 1955 and still holds its own to day. Lots of planing obviously went into making the engine to last over 40 years. I take my hat off to all those engineers that worked at GM during those days. For a kick off it started the American efficency of building an exelent engine at a reasnomble cost,for example the inlet manifold holds the distributor,thermostat,covers the valley ect. This saves weight ,no distributor boss needs to be cast in block and whole part cast in 1 reducing cost and speeding up production. The pushrods take oil to the valve gear,no external oil lines or gallerys to leak oil out head gaskets and how briliantly simple,pushrods are hollow anyway. So 1 part does 2 jobs and this engine is full of this kind of thinking. The oil system is very good even to day but nothing complex 55-65psi will suport 500 hp. (More like 80 psi for a Clevland then that opens a can of worms with shawn dissy drives extra power and on top of this oil drain back probs). The Oil pump mounts to the rear main cap clean simple and again 1 part doing 2 jobs Interchaingability is awesome no other engine can be built in such displacements with factory parts. Ok so the heads could have been beter but this engine is very compact and with the technology of the day to satisfy GMs interchaingability requirements,power to size to weight,ect it was prety good. Their not perfect but prety close. The GM engineers were a very clever bunch of people not only on the Chevrolet side but also the many other divisions that GM has slowly sold off that pisses me. Such as Detroit Diesel, EMD,Terex,Big GMC trucks ect. These divisions inovated lots of the Engineering marvles of last century and that basic philosiphy ran through all these divisions as well as Chevrolet