I always thought there were 2 types of chevy engines.

Long blocks and short blocks?

What is the difference?

I have now read that the short block is without the Heads, and long block is with them.

I thought the long block 350's are for trucks and designed for more torque and durability and the short block was for higher revs and sports/race cars?

Help.



Thanks God Ford is not that weird.....wait, 289, 302 (more stroke), 351's windson and clevelands(total opposites of design). 390 in their own world, 427 side oiler, 428 CJ, 428 Super CJ, 429.....not counting the 460's and such.

 

maybe you mean "Small Blocks" and "Big Blocks"? dunno, just guessing based on the different displacements listed for the Ford engines. Not really familiar with Chevy myself, but if it is diffs. between SBC and BBC, the main thing I look for (traditionally) is distributor location - SBC is usually toward rear of engine, BBC is toward front. also exhaust manifolds - sbc v8's had "middle" two tubes close together, while bbc v8's have evenly spaced outlets... visualize Ford's 302 manifold. Have no idea about modern Chevy v8's though. as far as short block = without heads and long block = with heads, you're pretty much correct. anyone else care to elaborate further?

 

I'm not quite sure what your question is but I will try to give some info.
A short block or long block has to do with (as you found out) the amount of parts that are on an engine when you buy it seperate from a vehicle.
The confusion may be difference between a big block and a small block engine because they can both have the same displacement(different total size).
A big block weighs more than a small block and are usually bored for a larger displacement. A larger displacement can easily yield more torque. With more torque, they quite often are not set up for higher revs because they get so much low end power (lower revs...more durability).
The lighter small blocks are often set up to maximize everything all at once (weight is a premium in racing). A lot more stress, less durability.
That's the not so quick and simple.
I hope that give you some insight and doesn't just confuse you more.

 

Naw, BBCs and SBCs have the distributor in the same postion, the rear. IIRC, they both use the same distributor. The easiest way to spot a BBC other than being physically larger, would be valve covers then as you said, exhaust ports.

 

Ok what is the SBC, BBC?

No I did mean the short block vs long block...Thanks

 

you are right a short block is block with crank rods and pistons...a long block includes the cylinder heads too.

 

Small Block Chevy
Big Block Chevy

 

Correct, and it has nothing to do with rev's, torque, etc. It's just simply the parts of the motor you're getting. You can usually get a short block or a long block, of either a big block motor or a small block motor. (that's supposed to help clarify, not confuse.

 

Whoops, confusing the Mopar stuff and Chevy stuff. You're right, bob! Had to ask my co-worker (Mopar fan and ex-mechanic) to be sure. Oh well, always thought having the distributor near the fire wall was kind of not-so-smart.

 

Agreed, imagine my delight when I bought my first mustang and there the distributor was right smack dab in the front! Nothing like fumbling over a running engine to reach the dist in the back.

 

I am a Chevy guy at heart......but love my stang. Having built my share of Camaros and currently building a Pro Touring 69 Camaro Convertible I would like to add 1 thing here. The higher revving Chevy engines are due to having 4 bolt mains. This means instead of having 2 bolts on each main bearing cap, there are 4. This offers more strength and stability at high RPMs. This means the difference between a 5500RPM redline and possibly a 6500RPM redline. I have a 412 small block in my camaro that redlines at 7000 RPM, but it was built by Jenkins Competition (AKA Grumpy Jenkins). It's a Chevy 400 CI engine bored out to a 412.

Sorry for being long winded, but it feels good to be able to add something to this forum. I don't know a whole lot about Fords, but I know plenty about Chevy's

 

In most street engines the valvetrain is the limiting factor followed by the bottom end. I had a 72 Camaro with an amazingly stock 2 bolt bottom end, I'm talking reman rods fitted with ARP rod bolts, cast crank, cast pistons and the heads were ported 461 castings with full solid roller valvetrain which I had set up with the heaviest springs I saw in the catalog. On the plus side I could spin the thing to 9k on the tach (Autometer tach, but with errors it probably swung into the high 8's but who knows????), the down side, man it pounded on the valvetrain mercilessly at low engine speeds and you had to adjust the valves all the time.

You can make a Ford rev no problem (which oddly people tend associate 289 and 302s with mega RPMs) just gotta treat it the same. Early blocks are better for this because they have soild webbing in the blocks unlike the later light weight cast iron block which used hollow main webs and the like. IIRC for a 5.0 block, the reccomended cap is 6500 rpm and 550 HP and even then extend high RPM duty will eventually cause the block to fail. If your talking a nice street motor that occasionaly sees the track with moderate horsepower levels then the 5.0 block isnt a bad alternative for trying to save some weight.