De-Stroked 348

[shawcreek1]

I have been collecting and running W-blocks for the last 30 yrs. Around 10 years ago I bought a garage full of Cars and parts from a estate in North East Texas. There was a lot of W- parts some racing and HiPo. In the deal was a 55 Black 55 Studebaker with a 1958 Tri-power 348 in it Complete with the breather and all. When it all back to Ky we pulled the 348 out the car and it set in storage for 10 yrs or so. I bought the parts from a realitor who was selling the estate for family. He told me that there was a long racing history behind the engine that was in the Studebaker. That he knew it was a factory release engine that was delivered to a Chevy Dealership there in Texas. He said that he recalled seeing the car race it was a black and white DeRay. You just like myself I'm sure have heard these stories as much as I have, at the time I thought it was probly just that he was telling me something that he thought I'd like to hear to close the deal. And Thats just may be the case. I took the engine to the person who does my machine work and told him to freshen up the short block. I knew it had a set of 11:25 to 1 pistons in it because I had sold the heads several years ago (340-350 hp heads).
I picked it up last night and found that it was .125 over bore and de-stroked .125. It had a chrome CSC crankand a 158XB cam. The block has T120FA code with no vin. . I have several questions if any one could help me. Could this be a factory release engine? Does any one know of a dealer sponcered car as I discribed? And I wonder what the preformance of a 348 with this bore and stroke would be? Thanks Rick

 

[tripowerguy]

You didn't say what year the Del Ray was but I know that the only factory engines available in 58 and 59 was the stock bore and stroke. The factory was not really into racing whole hog until 59 and 60 and then mostly Corvette sports car. The 348 didn't fair well in Nascar and I don't think Chevrolet would mess around with bore and stroke in public, they would do this in house to tear the engine down and look at it. The 315hp and 335hp engines were out in droves by 1959 and lots of dealers ran cars but no factory cars that I ever saw. Roy

 

[Fran Preve]

Somebody give him the formula for figuring cubic inches, bore x bore x stroke x XXXX x cylinders (I forget the constant). And that .125 over bore is ALL that a 348 will take (it's used up now).

 

[64ss409]

Somebody give him the formula for figuring cubic inches, bore x bore x stroke x XXXX x cylinders (I forget the constant). And that .125 over bore is ALL that a 348 will take (it's used up now).

.7854 (missing constant)
Ron

 

[Fran Preve]

Thanks, I'll try repeating it 10 times.

 

[64ss409]

Hey, an easy way to remember...........on your calculater/adding machine, upper left corner-4 keys, clockwise, 7854.........for those of us that have "sometimers"
Ron

 

[Fran Preve]

DAMN if your not right!. just looked at my keyboard.

 

[walkerheaders]

for an 8 cylinder block you can use: bore X bore X stroke X 6.2832 = cu. inches

 

[rwagon57]

And the answer is...

348 overbored .125 and destroked .125 = 355 ci

 

[Monkeywrench]

shawcreek1 was my Father and I lost my Dad April 20 2012 he was 62 and like the man said he was a w collector. What he failed to mention was that he was a collector of All High Po. Tho dad was a chevy man to his core that didn't mean he wouldn't turn down a deal on a hemi or one of those 4 twenty what ever u call them fe motors. Anyways without further ado Dad's 58 Hipo348 D stroked .30 over Balanced an Chromed hardened.