Reverb Rey
Member
Folks, greetings from MN.
Somewhat inspired by the engines on this forum, I've decided it's time to build a 409 Blown Stroker for my street rod. I started the parts acquisition about a year ago, and got what I thought was a good 65 truck block with a nick in one cylinder, which my engine guy now thinks will need a sleeve. In the mean time I bought a new set of Bob Walla heads, a new set of Edelbrock heads, and also have a nice set of studded 690's (that might end up for sale at some point). I was debating what to do with this build (in other words, how big!) and bought a new 4-inch stroke Eagle forged crank, with mains sized for a standard 409 block. I assumed ~11:1 compression would be OK with my aluminum heads.
But then I was reading MRHP's blown 348 build up thread over the past few years, and when I saw how that thing sounded on the engine stand, that was it....I need a friggin' blower! Mid-life crisis? Whatever! And so the change in direction is underway. Talked to Don Hampton and he says blower manifolds will be ready shortly. We have a blower builder up in this neck of the woods that has been building/rebuilding them for 30 years, and have a fresh 6-71 coming next month. He advised no more than 8.5:1 to allow more "room for tuning" which I read on this forum somewhere as well.
Of course, there will be the various blower pulleys, snout and whatnot to figure out. But the BIG question is the engine block. This will be a hot street engine which will get run down the strip from time to time. I'm guessing 650 or so HP? Talking to my engine builder, he (half jokingly) said "You should get one of those aluminum blocks!" Yeah, OK......so I contacted Bill Mitchell about them, and he said that a batch is done with casting and is waiting for machining, should be ready in 3-4 months, which is fine because I'm not in a huge hurry. I figure by the time I get done spending a chunk of change on finding a good block, adding 4 bolt mains and all other work needed, I'm halfway to the cost of one of these bad boys. I can sell the new Eagle crank (anyone interested??) and go with a standard 427-style forged crank. Since I'll be adding a blower, really don't need the longer 4" stroke. FYI the car is a 48 Chevy, back halved/tubbed, Tremec TKO600, 4:11's, 3,700 lbs. Running a boring old BBC now...
So my question to the group...had anyone here ever bought one of these World/BMP blocks??? I've heard some stories once you get one, they still need a bunch of machining to make sure they are ready to go. Any legit feedback on this would be appreciated. I'm willing to spend the dough on one these if it's the bomb.
Will be looking for roller camshaft recommendations (for blower use); the BMP block uses standard BBC bearing sizes, but I understand that a custom profile will be needed.
So let the fun begin! Again, looking for feedback on the BMP block and general blower config info.
And one more thing, we have a cylinder head guy here in the Mpls area with a good flow bench, so one of these days we're going to take the BW, Edelbrock and 690 heads and put them on the flow bench to document the differences. Stay tuned for that little project.
Regards
Rey
Somewhat inspired by the engines on this forum, I've decided it's time to build a 409 Blown Stroker for my street rod. I started the parts acquisition about a year ago, and got what I thought was a good 65 truck block with a nick in one cylinder, which my engine guy now thinks will need a sleeve. In the mean time I bought a new set of Bob Walla heads, a new set of Edelbrock heads, and also have a nice set of studded 690's (that might end up for sale at some point). I was debating what to do with this build (in other words, how big!) and bought a new 4-inch stroke Eagle forged crank, with mains sized for a standard 409 block. I assumed ~11:1 compression would be OK with my aluminum heads.
But then I was reading MRHP's blown 348 build up thread over the past few years, and when I saw how that thing sounded on the engine stand, that was it....I need a friggin' blower! Mid-life crisis? Whatever! And so the change in direction is underway. Talked to Don Hampton and he says blower manifolds will be ready shortly. We have a blower builder up in this neck of the woods that has been building/rebuilding them for 30 years, and have a fresh 6-71 coming next month. He advised no more than 8.5:1 to allow more "room for tuning" which I read on this forum somewhere as well.
Of course, there will be the various blower pulleys, snout and whatnot to figure out. But the BIG question is the engine block. This will be a hot street engine which will get run down the strip from time to time. I'm guessing 650 or so HP? Talking to my engine builder, he (half jokingly) said "You should get one of those aluminum blocks!" Yeah, OK......so I contacted Bill Mitchell about them, and he said that a batch is done with casting and is waiting for machining, should be ready in 3-4 months, which is fine because I'm not in a huge hurry. I figure by the time I get done spending a chunk of change on finding a good block, adding 4 bolt mains and all other work needed, I'm halfway to the cost of one of these bad boys. I can sell the new Eagle crank (anyone interested??) and go with a standard 427-style forged crank. Since I'll be adding a blower, really don't need the longer 4" stroke. FYI the car is a 48 Chevy, back halved/tubbed, Tremec TKO600, 4:11's, 3,700 lbs. Running a boring old BBC now...
So my question to the group...had anyone here ever bought one of these World/BMP blocks??? I've heard some stories once you get one, they still need a bunch of machining to make sure they are ready to go. Any legit feedback on this would be appreciated. I'm willing to spend the dough on one these if it's the bomb.
Will be looking for roller camshaft recommendations (for blower use); the BMP block uses standard BBC bearing sizes, but I understand that a custom profile will be needed.
So let the fun begin! Again, looking for feedback on the BMP block and general blower config info.
And one more thing, we have a cylinder head guy here in the Mpls area with a good flow bench, so one of these days we're going to take the BW, Edelbrock and 690 heads and put them on the flow bench to document the differences. Stay tuned for that little project.
Regards
Rey
