[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by n20ta2

I actually wanted my machine shop to bore and hone with the torque plate, he told me the bore wasn't necessary with it but that he would leave enough material to hone with it. He checked distortion with it bolted on before the hone and found some but it easily cleaned up with the hone. I asked him if he thought it was worth doing and he thought it was, he said I would definitely get a better ring seal and the engine would break in quicker and have less blow by. I'm at the upper level of what this block can handle at around 700hp but I think it would be worth it even on a street engine if you want a better then factory ring deal

I was fortunate that the smallish town I lived in, in the center of Southeast Oklahoma, had a legit engine builder/dragracer living there. He performed engine machine work, and buiding services, to any that could afford his services.

A good friend of mine had him build an engine (of course it was a Chevrolet, builder was a Chevy guy, as most are...) Builder has a torque plates for a SBC 400 and one for the smaller bore SBC's and of course BBC's also...

My buddy had a small block 400 built for his 66 Chevrolet C-10. That darned engine was a mild build BUT ran like gangbusters in that old pickup, had truly incredible performance!!! Builder also had a Superflow 800 dyno, he had bought not long before the 400 was build. THere was no doubt in my buddies mind that he wanted it dyno'd!!! The NET numbers were 300 HP, and 400 ft/lbs torque. I'm sure that if this had been done by a magazine, it would have achieved bigger numbers...

My point....I had my 283 for my 67 Bel Air built shortly after, all the same details, dyno'd (200 HP for mine, after all it is a 283)...........I still have the engine, under my work bench, it's doing in my 67 Chevy pickup, soon. It has 175,000 miles on it. It ran as good the day I took it out of my car, as it sis the day I forst drove it....