BBC and turbos
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 65
Likes: 0
BBC and turbos I went to a big event at the race track last night (no problem raceway in belle rose,LA) and from what I saw turbo looked like they was king of the track. Mostly bbc+turbo. But the thing that got me was the fact that most of the guys didn't want to tell me anything about their engine besides the size of it. Which leads me to two questions.
1. Is that a racers thing to keep engine a
secret?
2. Does bbc respond better with turbos due to the bigger better flowing heads than small block's and ls engines
1. Is that a racers thing to keep engine a
secret?
2. Does bbc respond better with turbos due to the bigger better flowing heads than small block's and ls engines
TECH Junkie
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 3,012
Likes: 48
I went to a big event at the race track last night (no problem raceway in belle rose,LA) and from what I saw turbo looked like they was king of the track. Mostly bbc+turbo. But the thing that got me was the fact that most of the guys didn't want to tell me anything about their engine besides the size of it. Which leads me to two questions.
1. Is that a racers thing to keep engine a
secret?
2. Does bbc respond better with turbos due to the bigger better flowing heads than small block's and ls engines
1. Is that a racers thing to keep engine a
secret?
2. Does bbc respond better with turbos due to the bigger better flowing heads than small block's and ls engines
BBC Gentry/Brummett Hi, I worked with Tom Gentry and Carson Brummett, he was the man I sold my ignition products to for use on his boats.
His method for a BBC Marine Racing Engine was the KEEP the block bore THICK AND the install a Billet 3.5" stroke crankshaft.
His engines were turbocharged, making 1600HP, lasting the offshore race distance was then easy.
Tom won many Races/Championships.
My guess is that my be the case.
Andy Frost (Red Victor) is my customer in England, he uses my IGN-1A coils.
He runs 50+.lbs boost and Meth.
Another way to look at this case is from the boost amount, the greater the better, CID is of lower concern.
Lance
His method for a BBC Marine Racing Engine was the KEEP the block bore THICK AND the install a Billet 3.5" stroke crankshaft.
His engines were turbocharged, making 1600HP, lasting the offshore race distance was then easy.
Tom won many Races/Championships.
My guess is that my be the case.
Andy Frost (Red Victor) is my customer in England, he uses my IGN-1A coils.
He runs 50+.lbs boost and Meth.
Another way to look at this case is from the boost amount, the greater the better, CID is of lower concern.
Lance
BBC is just easy cubes and good head flow for cheap. It will bolt in (and actually fit) where just about any SBC will, and trans will swap too. More cubes means big turbos with little lag. Their is also benefit of durability over smaller higher stressed engines in general. Their was a guy on YB that had a 402 BBC wAFR305 Heads and twin S480 running a truck 427 crank and he went high 7's mid 180's at 3200lbs. Ohh ya I think that was blow thru too...
Once you get over the power level that you will need aftermarket blocks and such the BBC will be cheaper to build for big horsepower. You can build 600 cubic inches in bbc for the same price as a 454 lsx. Your not making 3000+ HP with an ls.
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TECH Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2015
Posts: 1,280
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From: Pittsboro, IN
My good buddy and turbo mentor has a 67 Camaro. 496 with a 150 shot and it ran high nines.
He added a single 106mm Precision turbo, supporting fuel system, blow through carb on E85 it now runs 8.1X at 175.
It is a street car.
Ron
He added a single 106mm Precision turbo, supporting fuel system, blow through carb on E85 it now runs 8.1X at 175.
It is a street car.
Ron
TECH Resident
Joined: Sep 2013
Posts: 993
Likes: 119
From: Mechanicsburg, PA
Do the BBC guys end up spending money on stuff like injection, better ignition system, turbo headers, etc? Or can they get away with carbs (like Ron's buddy), a distributor and exhaust manifolds? Seems like you'd want at least a programmable ignition system. Maybe go to coil on plug?
People in the LS world may tend to forget that "old school, low tech" big blocks easily trump modern LS motors power wise. You don't see LS motors in pro mod cars. There is a reason for that.
Do the BBC guys end up spending money on stuff like injection, better ignition system, turbo headers, etc? Or can they get away with carbs (like Ron's buddy), a distributor and exhaust manifolds? Seems like you'd want at least a programmable ignition system. Maybe go to coil on plug?
Kind of funny. My buddies Camaro I mentioned ran 10.40’s NA. His 496 was really similar to my old 496, but mine ran high nines.
Both were mid nines for compression.
I wanted to do the LS because it was new school and I knew a little about tuning from my Vette.
I think back and I could have injected and turboed the Rat and prob would have killed myself!
His car btw has MSD7 and we set up the curve via laptop.
He built custom headers.
Zero data logging. Drives me nuts!
CalTracs on a 275 pro.
Both were mid nines for compression.
I wanted to do the LS because it was new school and I knew a little about tuning from my Vette.
I think back and I could have injected and turboed the Rat and prob would have killed myself!
His car btw has MSD7 and we set up the curve via laptop.
He built custom headers.
Zero data logging. Drives me nuts!
CalTracs on a 275 pro.
We have a few street cars that run various small blocks with a few different types of forced induction. Then we have our jet boat... 540 cubic inch BBC making 1600hp naturally aspirated. Then we spray 800 on top of it... Not that it won't take more, but the hull is already over powered at that. When we do the street racing version of **** at the river? We don't spray and not much can come close.
TECH Junkie
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 3,012
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We have a few street cars that run various small blocks with a few different types of forced induction. Then we have our jet boat... 540 cubic inch BBC making 1600hp naturally aspirated. Then we spray 800 on top of it... Not that it won't take more, but the hull is already over powered at that. When we do the street racing version of **** at the river? We don't spray and not much can come close.
Yeh, you're telling me it was insanely expensive. I didn't have to pay to buy the parts, it's my best friends boat. We both drive it and we always go to the water together, so I guess we are part of the same team? Anyways Dart block 540, Big chief heads from RFD, Carillo Rods, Custom pistons, Custom solid cam, Hogan sheet metal intake and a Sonny Bryant crank. Compression is super high 16+:1,it runs on alcohol, and spins to the moon. Spinning it at super high rpms also makes the HP number appear larger. It isn't your garden variety 540... Its been designed on the very high end of things. It is rad though the cams operating range is super high since its a jet boat. It's like driving a car with just 1 gear and a torque converter that rides like 100rpm under the rev limiter.
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 502
Likes: 38
Yeh, you're telling me it was insanely expensive. I didn't have to pay to buy the parts, it's my best friends boat. We both drive it and we always go to the water together, so I guess we are part of the same team? Anyways Dart block 540, Big chief heads from RFD, Carillo Rods, Custom pistons, Custom solid cam, Hogan sheet metal intake and a Sonny Bryant crank. Compression is super high 16+:1,it runs on alcohol, and spins to the moon. Spinning it at super high rpms also makes the HP number appear larger. It isn't your garden variety 540... Its been designed on the very high end of things. It is rad though the cams operating range is super high since its a jet boat. It's like driving a car with just 1 gear and a torque converter that rides like 100rpm under the rev limiter.
It is a mathematical formula, however as you increase RPMS it makes the HP bigger. The formula is (RPM x Torque)/5252. So as you increase RPMS it makes the HP number bigger. So since we spin that block to 9000 rpms it makes the hp seem high 