427hp Flat Tappet Cam Vortec SBC Power! 450 ft lbs (Dingle Ball 355) 

I just finished a 355 for a customer that made 440hp/438tq with 1.94/1.50 valves and 220@.050 flat tappet. I'm not bragging at all just to clarify, it's just a good example of why bigger valves aren't necessary in the vortecs, they're so prone to cracking anyways I don't like to antagonize them. Nice engine sir, turned out nice for a budget build. 👍🏼

I have an old engine on a stand. It's a 355 built for strip back in the early 80s. I only know it's out of a late 60s or early 70s dump truck. 4 bolt main. It has a 300/500 cam. Don't know true specs. The heads are not original. The car was a "83" Grand Prix. It didn't have 3rd gear when shifted. Free reved and spun bearing or something. Oil pressure was lost and engine was pulled and put on stand. All these years and I never pulled it apart. Soon to pull apart and investigate. I would love to hear it run again. It sounded very good and run very good back back then. To bring back my youth and get them goosebumps. Your channel is awesome.

Nice torque curve! 420 @ 3100 and still 350 at 6000...great street motor, very drivable and probably a bunch of fun!

Most builders miss the value of the COMMENTS section. You take time to reply with some thought instead of just “Thanks for watching!” Reading your COMMENTS section is a great education. Your viewers add a lot of experience.

Isky 292 mega cams scream right up to 7k rpms with no problem!!! Capable of 500+ hp! Not bad for a hydraulic flat tappet cam!

Vortec heads for the win! Aftermarket heads have a place I get that, but they're bolt on easy. I'm all about worked over factory heads and these really filled the bill. Great video!

Pretty respectable power in my books. "Four and a quarter horse mouse motor that broke the dyno". I was a kid during the malaise era, we didnt have abundant cheap heads like this. Well done, the roller valvetrain should be serious.

I just did my 355 for a 4900lb k10. 10:1 xr276hr and vortecs I ported and polished chambers on. Rpm airgap, proform main bodied 3310. I'm very happy with the little guy. Smokes 35's with 150% anti squat on the rear 4 link and 2 spares and fuel cell behind axle. Love your videos bro

I have this identical build, cam, intake, .30 over bore. On a 455 olds. And that cam profile is perfect for the street. Nice lope at rhe lights, instant power and it'll burnout at 50mph. Nice video

That is one of the flattest torque curves Ive ever seen. Im am impressed!

Amazing man...427 hp is gy normus amount of power...Thanks so much for doing this ! Giant killers still exist..................................

Lowend torque is awesome on this engine 👍👍 Want to see more subscribed

I certainly appreciate your time! Your a very talented man 👍

I run a 355 with a Procharger, solid Isky cam, non roller, .507 lift. Sportsman rods, cast crank, forged TRW flat tops. #186 casting Hump heads, ported with 2.02 , .160 valves. Very old school, been running for years shifted at 7000rpm. It just keeps running better. A good 355 is priceless.

Love your channel, i like they way you build on a working mans budget and get great results!

Motor in my truck right now is similar in a way. I’ve commented before but it’s a 408 small block. Extreme budget build. Wore out honed bores etc. eagle cast crank/stock 5.7(350) rods and hyper flattop pistons. Cam is a little Howard’s grind it’s a small base circle 231/235@.050 ground on a 108 lobe separation. Lift is 480/488. It has a full roller eBay rocker std 1.5 ratio. Airgap intake 850DP carburetor. There stock 906 vortecs drilled for the 400 actually Mexican castings. They have ls6 behive springs/comp787 retainers and I used those incognito type screw in studs like you used. I blended the Throats/bowls the best I could with a dremel and polished out the exaust runners what I could. I figured it should make about the same power as that one. I’m really thinking of building me another 350/355/357 combination simply because I’m budget oriented and I have a good 1182 forged 350 crank and a pair of Hbeam rods that’s been setting a few years. All I could need is a forged piston flattop though. I have a good virgin bore 1970 300horse 3970014 casting 350 block with no core shift and the good nodular 2482 main caps I planned to use maybe. Not sure what head I wanna use yet though. Maybe try to really port on the vortecs well or a Chinese eBay aluminum head purchased bare and put budget but decent parts in them. I plan to run a solid flattappet cam 500-550 lift or so. What’s your thoughts??

Holy torque curve you did an amazing job on those heads

yeah the dinglebalL! Put a Mike Jones Camshaft Designs hydraulic roller high lift cam and lifters in it, 276hr or 282hr.

Dam good power for a 355 !!! Great job. Get that roller in there now. Thanks

That kind of horsepower would work for my ride any day!

Yes, by all means, bring it back with a roller cam! Great project, I enjoyed it.

This channel is 100% the reason I bought Vortec heads for a winter project, and now I know what to shop for for the eventual build on my 82 C10. Wicked! Any word on the vortec spring kits? I sent an email but never heard back. Would love to buy a set! Awesome channel!

An engine where the rings never seated from the prior rebuild is the ideal situation for a dingle ball rebuild. I don't think I'd probably try it on a 250,000 mile 350. Bummer about the dyno guy being so conservative, maybe it'll do better next time. On a side note, we had a FE 390 with this scenario when I was in shop in high school (yes back when we actually rebuilt motors in school), rings never seated on a fresh rebuild. Dude took it on a road trip about 600 miles away and burned 8 quarts in 600 miles. We built him another motor and sold off the one that never seated, the people that bought it for minimal $$$ were pretty thrilled at the brand new condition of everything. They had it re-honed, used same pistons and new rings and never had any issues.

As always an excellent education for vortec diehards! Thankyou! Time for a 305 build!! 👌

Got to love sbc engines ! Thank you!

Those are solid numbers especially for a budget build. I bet with a roller setup it would hit 450hp. Liked thanks

That’s a sweet little engine for sure. Good numbers. I’d like to do some head work to my 906’s They have stock size valves. All I did was clean them up lap the valves and install new seals. I’m running blue Ls6 springs. My cam is a Comp Xe274h. The engine is a 350. I’d like to do the 1.6” exhaust valve upgrade and get my intake to at least 250cfm @ .500 I enjoy you channel and love seeing budget builds make good power. Looking forward to seeing more of this engine.

Loved your build, reminded me of 355 I had as a 19yr old apprentice back in 1984, had 12.5:1 TRW forged, Crane 292 solid flat tappet ( big in the day) 1.7;1 Crane rollers with Crane stud girdle, Crane triple ( flat inner) springs, 461 heads ported by living legend " Luigi", victor jnr and X rods, on super ( leaded fuel) now I constantly ran this to 8500 rpm until it wore out the valve guides, I then sold car to an apprentice of mine years and years later who rebuilt it still using original X rods, I was told so many times you can't run that hard on production rods ( these were polished shot peened etc etc as was std in the day) but I had no other budget choice and being young and dumb and full of cum I did it anyway it went hard and sounded great and was never beat, lucky ? , maybe, but I wasn't the only one who couldn't afford aftermarket rods back then that did it, probably wouldn't risk it these days as H beam rods so affordable now and forged pistons so much lighter than old TRW,s 12,5:1,s, not to mention factory steel cranks not as tough as we once thought,

Love this build! Exactly what I’m looking for. Great video

I like the 0.050 duration numbers. Use a hyd roller cam with the same 236/244 on 108 LSA but with 0.575” lift or so and put the intake centerline at 106°. I’m thinking you’ll break 450 hp!

Had really good results with Howards cams lately. The right cam for your motor looks like the Howards 110265-10 or 110265-12(233/241 dur @.050 and .530/.545 lift) depending on where you want the lobe centers. If you feel like pushing those rods over 6K rpm, then I'd go with the 111815-10(237/245 dur @.050 and .560 lift on both sides..

Add a 1” spacer under the carb, do 1.6 rockers advance the cam 4 degrees or if you can only 2 bet it hits 470ftlbs and 450 hp with 36-37 degrees of timing if you do the windage tray too

Awesome work! Thanks for sharing. 😎👍

Awesome brother thanks

Next upgrade has to be a roller cam instead of a flat tappet but hot damn I sure wouldn't complain about having this motor in my truck, I'm pretty sure that summit makes roller truck cams for 350's as well

Howard’s cam spec are 225/231 @0.50 and advertised duration is 278/284 and ground @110 but advance it 4 degrees

Great video! Gives me hope with my little 305 with Vortecs. Surprised by that torque for sure, was not expecting that..

That power curve would be sweet for a street car, or a boat. Put that in a 21’ or 22’ bow rider with captains call exhaust it would scoot along pretty good if propped correctly.

Very nice street rod build! Looking forward to the roller setup test.

Great choice on LSA

That made awesome power. Nice work

For a hyd roller, and 6000 rpm power peak, I would look at these in order from 1st to 4th choice. Howard's 110525-10 Lunati 501A5 possibly with 1.6 rockers Crane 119571 possibly with 1.6 rockers Comp XR282HR with 1.6 rockers If power peak past 6000 is ok, then the Crane with 1.6 rockers would bump to the top, followed by the Lunati with 1.6, then the Howards, then the Comp with 1.6. A hyd roller cam will have about 15 degrees less duration at .050" compared to a hyd flat tapper, to give comparable powerband.

400-400 @5300 rpm, thats pretty stout. great build!

I would like to see s Q-Jet tested sometime.

Good little combo, I’m subscribed 👍🏻🇦🇺

My build... .30 over 638 block 4 bolt, cast crank, stock rods, 4 relief dish speed pro pistons, melling HV oil pump. 062 heads machined for screw in studs. 63cc chambers. PAC beehives, comp cams ultra pro magnum stainless 1.6 rockers. Comp cams pushrods. Custom ground roller cam 224/228@.50 .544 lift on a 110 sep angle. Edelbrock air gap. Msd pro billet distributor. 92 camaro accy drive. Sniper efi. Sanderson cc17 headers. 2.5" exhaust to 40 series mufflers. Dunno the power but I'm hoping for 400. I've got it figured right around 9.8:1 compression. So pump will be friendly.

Good flowing head like LT4 factory with better exhaust that cam intake good match. You can run that cam with Crane Lunati or Rhoads liftters that bleed down hyraulic psi at idle build up to normal at higher rpms pulls better vacume at idle. Good build.

Nice engine, I really like your videos. Very informative

You can go about 10 pointers bigger with the cam to get a 430/430 combo. Similar to the zz430 gm fast burn.

Howard’s cam 110245-10. With 1.6 rockers gives you 533/540 lift… on my 327 10.2 compression it made 470.9hp @6000 and 445 torque @ 5000 with a very flat torque curve

Got your 500 likes. Get the roller in there !! Voodoo

I'd like to see this same engine tested with a solid flat tappet with similar specs before you move on to a hydraulic roller. I bet the solid flat tappet will get you another 25-50 HP and maybe another 25 ft lbs of torque. Great budget street combo as it stands now though. 👍

That combo with the same cam in a 383 or 406 would probably make a ton of torque and probably be able to run power brakes!! Just focusing on Torque!! RJ

I bought a 350 that had professionally ported and polished vortec heads with a Comp 294S cam 294/294 525/525.cam While it runs low 12's in my 64 Nova, I questioned the cam choice because I was always under the impression that Vortec Heads generally like split duration cams. Lots of guys run Vortec heads with the Comp XE cams and have good results.

Built same setup 880 block stock bottom end .015 tho head gaskets milled the heads .030 tho stock valves ls6 springs com 787 retainers jegs intake summit circle track cam 253/253@.050 .500/.500 hardened pushrods 1-5/8th long tubes 3 inch exhaust with 2.5 tailpipes in my 79 monte it'll rev to 7300 tr6060 trans 4.10 gears.

This is a close comparison to the engine I have in my c10. Can’t wait to fire it.

When you find the right cam , the first words from your mouth will be "WOW , THATS BIG "

I hope my build is in that ball park. like that torque on 355. got small alum heads that flow little more than those. The cam is close running large comp 4x4 cam with 1.6 rockers should put lift in 520s, 530s I think.

I like the comp cams xr300hr it works really good on a 355 I have a 357 I'm getting ready to put one in with pro Maxx 215 As cast heads hoping to make 500 hp

Dingle ball hones conform to all of the warpages in the cylinders. Use a fixed stone hone 👍🏻

I’ve broke 500hp on 030 and 040 over 3.480 GM crank build, GM crank, GM rods with good studs, and some cheap hyper flat tops, cheap speedmaster 200cc runner heads 2.02’s 1.60’s obviously, 64cc chamber with the 2vr flat tops, so about 10.8:1 with the cheapest aluminum heads you can get no port work just blended and polished short turn and the chamber opened up the outside edges of the valves to help deshroud, but a fat nasty mechanical/solid flat tappet from lunati .560 - .578 / .255 - .258 @ .050 108 sep before the 1.6 rockers so almost .600 lift, big single plane hurricane from speedmaster as well. I’ve done a lot of different 3.480 stroke combinations all the way from cheap stock rotating assembly stuff to blowing a wad on internal balanced crank with overkill rods and dome pistons up to 13.5:1, nowadays if I build a 350 355 357 360 I will pretty much always just reuse gm crank and rods and a cheap set of hypereutectic flat top or dish, pretty much cheap everything but just overcam the piss out of it to make it sound nasty. If the goal is to go fast I just won’t build a 350 anymore, if I either don’t have a crank with it or the crank is not fixable and I have to purchase a crankshaft, I always just go with a 3.750 stroke as the price difference is almost non existent, I’ve built many 383’s with a 9,000 cast crank from eagle or scat, use a good set of early 5.7 rods, and some Keith black claimer hypereutectic’s, a good flat tappet cam and speedmaster or RPC heads. Make 550+ no problem and under 5,800 rpm. Anything hotter and I’ll step up to a mid grade competition I beam. Before this insane parts boom happened in the last 5 years or so, I used to be able to get a 383 done machine and parts cost all under $3,800 sometimes as cheap as $3,000 depending on cylinder heads, cam, and depending on what the block needs done. Anytime I can get away with just honing a block and having a good deck and main sizing etc I was able to get a 383 around 500 horse done for right at $3k

I have a 327 out of a 68 Camaro with 22k miles on it I’m pondering doing this setup to.

Have you considered using the same roller cam that was in the 447HP David Vizard spec'd Vortec 350? He talked about it in the back of his book and you can google the Sledgehammer build. It was a 280 roller on a 108 LSA. (It was custom specc'd, but he did have a custom cam line with Lunati. The closest one would be part number DV278-08HRH specced for a roller block with the right cam snout for a roller block which you'd have to mention. Specs are 227 at 0.050 and 0.565 inch lift with 1.6's on 108 LSA. It's a single pattern cam and he seems to always recommend 1.6's on 350's. He always changes the LSA depending on the cubes, but that would be the right one for a 350. You might even get more vacuum.)

just discovered your page, like it a lot, great videos

Very respectful.. 💪🏼.. put 93 octane & you'd hit your 435hp goal.. that dip you incountered at 4500rpm is valve spring harmonics, try 2 things, alittle more spring but mostly shoot for .050 .060 coil bind, if you have .080 or more that tends to happen.. flow #s suggest. .750 lift.. however anything above .650 lift would be great. More duration the better👍🏼.. rock on!!

I knew you could do it I built four of them in 2003 sore around 1600 to 1800 depending on which bottom you use either hydraulic flat or hydraulic roller.. having access to a machine shop is nice isn't it

Great dyno breaker engine Pat! I like it. You could put the Chevy performance spo 350/357 cam in with scorpion 1.6 rockers then run it on propane! It’s on a 108 too.

You need to find a new dyno shop! Every dyno owner I ever met, checked there driveshaft every single engine! There driveshafts were always built by heavy duty driveline shops, using the strongest u joints available! If there ever was any movement in the shafts, we changed the joints or shaft went back to shop for repair! Which was rare! Also if they were a extremely busy shop, they had spare everything on hand! I’ve rarely had any dyno issues, We had a rotor in one of the shops dynos finally give up after 1000s of pulls & we were on our last backup pull w a street 1300hp blown Hemi! He had the parts there to repair it! Also There is also absolutely nothing wrong with a dingle ball hone! They are used on race engines all over the world! From cast iron blocks to 100000$+ 965 cubic inch nitrous engines! Never mind top fuel cars! I’ve never seen anything ball honed not seal up! Even old worn out farm engines that I’ve seen honed when I was a young kid! Anyone that says there no good are not very smart & probably shouldn’t be inside a engine anyway 🙄🙄🙄🙄! Nice Job! With that cam, it should have been able to run 7000 pretty easily, especially if the springs were right & it didn’t have retarded heavy rocker arms on it! I’ve built hundreds of 355/358s for circle track racing! Those are non vortech headed, no porting 😏 solid lift .550 rule, pistons cannot stick out of deck, 11 to 1 comp max, 2 barrel engines that run constantly from 4500 to 7500, with a cam that’s slightly bigger than what you have! They make well over 400 ftlbs & around the same power you made! Brokedick racers even use the Scat cranks & rods, the cheap ones & they live at least a couple of seasons W/O issues! The good Crower rotating assembly’s, last forever it seems 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸!

Woo hoo

I ran stock rods to 7200 in the light hunderds of passes left at 5200 shift at 6400 7200 at 150 mph.never broke one it did loss a rist pin into the cyclinder once, press pin.

Nice numbers

Using almost this same combo for my 86 monte ss. Ill be running the 268h cam though, came here to figure out what rockers i needed to use since this is my first time using vortecs and this video helped so much!

How about a Comp XR288HR or similar? Duration numbers are close to the flat tappet cam you've got in there, but with more aggressive lobe geometry for the roller lifters.

A-hone & go build is not always bad. I have seen motors that were abused on break-in & had good results scuffing the bores up & changing out the rings. Dont be afraid of circle track cams - they have gobbs of mid range torque & your valvetrain will live longer. I think a bigger rocker arm 1.6 or 1.7's might get you to 435hp. That cam should build torque higher up. Maybe take a couple degrees out of the cam timing.

Lunati 268 would be good on that combination.

I would like to see you install Melling's #22450 cam which is a Chevy Z/28 Optional Off-road 2nd Design solid lifter cam. Lift is .341" (intake) and .357" (exh.), which is .511"/.525" at the valve with 1.5 rocker ratio and adjusted to.022"/.024" clearance and a 106/116 centerline and 112 spread at 0.050". Top off the lobes with Melling's JB992 liftres. rpm is about 7,200. You might want to give the rotating parts more thought if you use this.. Could be interesting. Or use their #22400 cam which is the 1st design.

Nice

That's pretty impressive for a flat tapped cam.

solid 327-365 cam 255@50 4:85 lift then add some higher ratio roller rocker 1.75 advance cam to intake centerline 108

I always loved the Ingle EP-22 in my 327 4 speed with 3:73 gears in 65 chevy stepside 461 heads 12:1 compression dont know the hp

Yeah you're right it starts to shine at about 6200

Awesome video, thanks for sharing all this with us. You've inspired me to build something like this. Maybe do 10.0:1 though.

Go with the summit flat tappet 244/254 duration 508/533 lift 114 lsa sum-k1108 or hyd roller 525/520 lift 112 lsa 218/227 duration summit sum-8802

This kind of stuff from you makes me rrreeaally want to dig into my '98 burbans l31 vortec... But dayymm no time and empty pockets is effectively keeping me out of it until many years to come 😄 but hey, what you would think on making this combo 13:1 cr for e85, how would vortec heads keep up or would they crack even sooner 🤪

650 street brawler, vacuum secondaries

Mines the same set up , I'm running a lunati voodoo 468/489 runs very strong

loved your other video explaining proper quench. I noticed those guidelines were around flat top pistons. On this dingle ball build with the small dome pistons, did you alter your approach for the quench value since these are technically dome pistons?

Very nice 👌 Earned my like and sub 💯

I’ve got the same motor with sawtooth heads going into my 49 Chevy and I’m about to buy a cam kit lol

I went solid ft and wish I went roller. Interesting to see what cam it ends up with

Before roller cam, throw 1.6 rockers on intake only , ex only then both, then throw roller in it

I would almost bet you'd get your target 435 HP with this engine exactly as it is by only changing the rockers to 1.7 ratios. The other option would be some basic port work on the exhaust side. Doing both might have you knocking on the door of 450 HP. However, the broad torque curve on this engine is very nice and would make it a blast to drive in a lighter weight street rod or Chevy Nova. Maybe get the can (or something similar) done on a 110 or 112 LSA for better vacuum? I'd also give a look to a Clay Smith roller. Maybe a custom grind.

There is a Crower hyd roller that you might like Summit Cat. number CRO-00484S. It's got the 108 lobe center that I like but it is a reduced base circle cam so longer pushrods are required. I'll bet it will slap your ears back at anything over 3000 RPM...LOL

Keep in mind vortec heads do not have water pump bypass provision. You have to drill the thermostat or run external bypass to intake manifold

I was cool with the video and the results but when I checked on the price of Vortec heads and was shocked! Holy Pete they are near Aluminum prices now. Marketplace and Craigslist people are like "I know what I got so I'm trying to gouge you!"

SALUDOS DSDE VENEZUELA GRACIAS POR ESOS DATOS TECNICO Y PROBADOS POR USTEDES Y PARTE UTILISADAS O PIEZAS

550 lift single pattern, 280 duration on intake with 1.6 rockers 108 LSA

Great video

If it’s not to late run a Howard’s reto version of the 180235-12 with 1.6 rockers.

Jesus, I've run flat tappet solid lift cams in my BBC's for years, and twist them 8000+!!! FFS, the cam can take it, although your rod bolts might not! But if you've got ARP rod bolts in those things, they'll easily handle 6500 FFS!!