Car Craft Magazine RV suitable BBC Motor Article.

[Keyair]

Picked up a October 2010 copy of Car Craft Magazine and they feature a $2650 "Crate" BBC built by Demon Engines, in Sante Fe, CA.
The motor makes massive (500ftlb)torque between about 2500rpm and 4500rpm (550ftlb @ 3500rpm peak) and peaked at 445hp.
Now I am not suggesting that this is an ideal build spec for an RV... but the whole article they talk about using stock parts(heads, and cranks) and no real special stuff.
I thought it was a great read and would be of interest to those who have a engine build in mind!

[Journalist]

Sounds like it would make your moho pass everything on the road but a gas station.

[Keyair]

Shame 345's have a Tag axle back there... Wheely bars would look very COOL!

[John H.]

Did the article say it was geared toward RV usage ?

does anyone have a current price on the Jasper RV engine ?

[slowmover]

I think the torque peak is too high by several hundred rpm. 2,800-3,200 would be better. The torque converter would have to have more slip than stock, meaning soggy low-end performance. Either that or gearing changes to take advantage of the higher rpm.

[Keyair]

I guess my point was that with fairly simple stock internals and stock "Peanut Port" heads that all of our motors have, you could build a strong motor.
The peanut port heads, and their small ports, give high velocity at low engine speeds, and as a result are all about torque, not revs.
Thats why the performance crowd hate them.
If I remember right, the motor in the article did not have an RV or towing cam.... swapping one in to that motor would drop revs where the peak torque arrives. It would drop the outright power, but we dont care about that anyway...

[Robfike]

Sounds interesting.

[Steve Heywood]

The engine featured in the Car Craft article is unsuitable for RV service for a couple of reasons, camshaft & compression ratio. For an iron head engine to survive in a motorhome on regular (87 octane) gas it would need about an 8.5:1 compression ratio, the CC engine has 9.4:1. You would also want a camshaft with slightly less duration, lower lift, and a wider lobe center.

I could build a 454 with an honest 350 HP & 500 lb-ft torque that would survive a long time in a motorhome for about the same money as the engine in the CC article.

[Keyair]

Originally Posted by Steve Heywood

I could build a 454 with an honest 350 HP & 500 lb-ft torque that would survive a long time in a motorhome for about the same money as the engine in the CC article.

Ok, good info Steve!

Since I have a 1990 MkIV 454 under my bench, please tell me what you would suggest as specs?
I had a plan to put it in my '73 Blazer, but things change....
Also have a good pair of "781" casting heads, that have the larger oval ports, if they would work better.

When I was researching a possible build over on the CK5 forum a few years back, a member(Kevin400ex) wrote this..

" if your towing heavy loads the peanut port heads work fine. just grind the crank and put some forged flatops in it and rebuild the heads. an rv cam with .500 lift 214* /222* in/ex duration at .050 with a 112 center and youll have a torque monster. the cam specs listed are from an engle rv101/104hyd cam. I built this combo for a 30ft class A motorhome and used the stock iron intake with a quadrajet and thorley headers. coach weighed approx 20k lbs with my enclosed trailer with my dirt toys in it. i pulled the whitwater grade on the 10 in palm desert in the hammer lane no problem"

[slowmover]

I would start by limiting compression (measured) to 8.8:1 maximum. The resulting cylinder pressure should intersect with a cam profile that also works with the TQ converter slip and rear gear/tire height (respecting vehicle weight).