The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Oh what a difference a few years can make!

Well, maybe a little more that a few years but it seems like
it was only yesterday that GM introduced the 265 when I was
a sr. in high school.
Just reading a bio on Bob Bondurant and in 1959 it talks about
his stepping up to the Big Bore crowd and purchasing a ’57 Vette
with a fuel-injected, 190hp, 283 ci engine.
Then I needed to look something up on the EcoTec3 engine in my
2014 Silverado wt, which is rated at 355hp at 5500 rpm.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

It's amazing how they can get so much power out of such small engines. My 3.6 (220ci) Charger has 292HP.

Yep, I'm very impressed that they are getting more than
1hp/cu.in. out of a work truck. that would have been unheard of
back in the good old days for a stock engine. In '72 when we
got married we bought a new Nova 305 which had a whopping
130hp. Thought that was pretty healthy for a stock engine
with a 2bbl.

dg

1956 Corvette 265 ci
"225hp version of the 265 V8, using a pair of Rochester 4-barrel carburetors, was made available. An optional 3.27 rear axle ratio could also be ordered. In his spare time, Duntov had developed a ‘high lift’ camshaft for the 265 that, with the dual 4-barrel carburetors, boosted output to 240hp."

1957 Corvette 283 fuel-injected engine:
"For the first time ever, mechanical fuel injection became an option (Code 579B among others) and, when fitted to the 283 engine, it would produce 283hp. This is considered the first time in history that a production GM engine hit the one horsepower-per-cubic-inch of displacement level."

From: Bowtie Breakthroughs

I can remember commenting to a Chevrolet field engineer who used to hang out at Dad's shop on a regular basis that I was disappointed about Chevy dropping the fuel injection option early in the life of the 327- - - -1964, maybe? He shared a few little -known facts about the Rochester fuel injection system with me:

#1: "General Motors loses money on every one we sell!"

#2: "The only gain over carburetion comes at wide-open throttle. At low end and midrange, carbureted engines out-torque fuel injected ones."

#3: "If every engine we produce was equipped with the best fuel injection we can build, regardless of cost, and somebody came up with carburetion in its present stage of development, it would be hailed as a major advance in fuel technology!"

How's that for bursting a young hotrodder's bubble?

Then Volkswagen came out with electronic fuel injection in 1966, and all the rules changed! Of course, the 66 VW Fastback shared a clock circuit frequency with CB radio, and playful truckers with linear amplifiers could shut off the fuel injection when a Volkswagen was halfway through a passing maneuver! They changed the frequency in 67!
Jerry

And then there were the years when the pollution controls started and horsepower went south for a while. I had a new 1975 Camaro with a 350 that developed a whopping 150 horses!

In his 80's Bondurant's memory must be failing him Tim, he
seems to have underrated the power he had at his disposal
in his '57 Vette.

But..that certainly isn't a problem with Jerry who seems to be
able to remember all those facts and never needs to look it
up. I'm going in the same direction as Bondurant, can't
remember what I just ate as I'm rinsing the dishes, thank
God for the internet and spellchecker.

I think that was pretty typical back then Fred. Of course when
you hot rodded the engines you could get great performance
from Duntov's dream machine, as jerry brought up. When I was
selling Chevy parts back in the early 60's we sold a lot of
the Duntov cams and dual quad setups. They would give you
just as good of performance as the aftermarket high performance
parts for less. The stock small block had good lungs, with the
extra muscle the Vette cam provided, it just needed to be
fed the right diet. Zora brought a lot of the Ardun experience
with him when he hired on at Chevy.

Whole point here was that today, a stock, off the lot, 323 inch
work truck is kicking out more horsepower than the high
performance engines did back in the late 50's.
I didn't make a study of it when I bought the truck last year.
My "big old wife" did all the haggling, she's good at that
you know. All I did was tell her it had to be Red, small V8,
and have a towing package. I knew it had a lot of kick from
driving it these past few months but didn't realize till the
other day that it was capable of putting out that kind of HP.

In fact, what prompted me to pop the hood for the first time
was our discussion about the Dex-Cool. I wanted to make sure
the new truck came with it. I knew it had aluminum heads and
aluminum radiator cuz I could see a corner of each, but I
couldn't find the block to confirm what it was cast from
because of all the plastic covers, tubes and wires that
obscure the engine.

dg

And then there are the wondermotors from guys like Kenny Duttweiler in the Speed Demon, for Bonneville (Crashed @ 370MPH last year). I've seen this car run dozens of times - amazing power and speed from a single engine car! I am told it will be back on the salt for SpeedWeek in August.

http://landspeedevents.com/blog/poteet-and-main-speed-demon-tech-sheet/

C/Class Engine, 5.98 HP per cubic inch
Ken Duttweiler built small block Chevy V8
388 cubic inches
Dart Little M standard deck block (9-inch)
Bore: 4.125-inch
Stroke: 3.400-inch
Dart 11 degree Little Chief aluminum heads
Engine management by MoTeC
2670 HP @ 8800 RPM
1313 lb-ft torque @8800 RPM


D/Class Engine, 6.6 HP per cubic inch
Ken Duttweiler built small block Chevy V8
299 cubic inches
Dart Little M short deck block (8.5-inch)
Bore: 4.125-inch
Stroke: 2.80-inch
Dart 11 degree Little Chief aluminum heads
Engine management by MoTeC
1980 HP @9300 RPM