Whats it worth? BBC

[1981Regal]

I wouldnt shy away from a big block just because of Peanut port heads.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

There's the slight chance of it having a cast crank, too. Then it's pretty much doo-doo for anything more than a daily driver...

Tommy

 

[prairiehotrodder]

Are you kidding Tommy? I guarantee it has a cast crank. I've never seen anything but cast cranks in 454's. Forged cranks are few and far between. Also that cast crank will do just fine for loads of power. I wouldn't be afraid to use one for up to 600 hp. Don't scare the kid away from building a big block. Its the best decision he'll ever make. I've seen $1200 truck 454's with a used cam, used intake and used headers walk away from $5000 small blocks.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Are you kidding Tommy? I guarantee it has a cast crank. I've never seen anything but cast cranks in 454's. Forged cranks are few and far between. Also that cast crank will do just fine for loads of power. I wouldn't be afraid to use one for up to 600 hp. Don't scare the kid away from building a big block. Its the best decision he'll ever make. I've seen $1200 truck 454's with a used cam, used intake and used headers walk away from $5000 small blocks.

I'm not trying to scare him away, I'm just laying out the potential downsides. As for the cast crank, it's been the other way around for me. Every BBC crank I've ever seen that was considered a foundation for anything other than a 3500 rpm truck engine was forged. But, most of the cast units I've seen from truck engines were crap to begin with, so they were tossed & replaced. Everybody knows if your buying a new crank, you might as well get a forged one. Conventional thinking used to be forged 2 bolt mains were good to 500-600, but you needed the 4 bolt beyond that. Cast cranks were for trucks.
Also, maybe the fact that I haven't been seriously involved in building engines for a while means things have changed and I got left behind a bit...


Tommy