The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Need some advice from some engine elders

Guys:

Here in the shop, I have a GM 366 engine. We run these engines in some of our route trucks in our fleet. Anyway, I just picked up a new project and was wondering if it was possible to "informally" hotrod one of these motors. I know these motors are built for torque. But it's free. Any suggestions ?


Jase

By GM 366 do you mean a Chevy big block 366?

If so, I believe the heads severly limit breathing, so its not popular in hot rod circles. But if you replace the heads and manifold it should have some potential.

The 366 would be waht is called a Tall Block, it's a Truck engine. Not many folks seam to know there are Three main engines in the GM V8 family, the Small block, the Big block & the Tall block.

Don't know of many hot rod parts for it, it's a truck engine built for torque, not speed.

Yeah but the internals are great for a 396 or 427. It has a steel crank, truck rods 7/16 , and 4 bolt main caps. All of these parts will interchange with a 396 or a 427 the crank is the same. The difference in a tall block is that there is an extra piston ring, that's why those engines would go 2-300,000 miles. I would look for a 454 block and build a 427. Later

Dave

hay skiff I also have 366 and in process of putting the steel crank in 454 block
to build me a 427

here is my build list so far

1.My 366 crank in good 454 block

2.heads from chevy 396 "police intercepter engine"
with ports lightly smothed and polished, propane vave seats, stainless valves and roller rockers.

3.have not found pistons yet but hope to git aprox 9.5 or 10 to one compression.

4.edelbrock performer rpm manifold with rejeted 750 Q-jet

so far I have came with about 450-500 hp and 500-550 ftlbs of bullet proof go juice [Big Grin]
also going to build my own tuned
headers

Dont forget that the taller block means wider intake and diffrent water pump so intakes will not interchange with standerd blocks
if you had the 427 tall block and a custome crank you could build a sweet stroker race moter the ones I have seen are about 468 CI but it would cost a lot

I know someone who worked at a Chevy dealership and ended up with a good 366 a customer had changed out for a 427 tall,and he ran it in his '75 3/4 ton 4X4 for a couple of years. Seems like he swapped the heads to 396 heads,but had to build spacers (now available through the aftermarket) yo make a custom intake fit,and the big block distributor is too short.You might be able to mix-n-match parts to get a non'governed distributor. BTW-they pull GREAT with an automatic!don't expect mileage though.

all performance parts for 396 to 454 will fit these tall deck motors with the exception of the intake manifold.the heads are farther apart due to the taller deck hieght.at one time there were spacer kits available to make a passenger engine intake work on 366_427 Truck engines.knew a guy who put one in a camaro.if low rpm torque is what your looking for these are the way to go.

On tall deck engine the distributor is same length as standerd block, the intake is just thinner to make up for it.
but you still dont want to use it becuse the timing springs and wights are severly retarded to compensate for pinging on low rpm pulls
the stock intake would work if you did a littel port matching with the bigger cylinders heads (works good with oval port heads).
But it will not work with high performnce reqtanguler port heads as those are huge!

Oldchevy is right the square port heads are worthless blow 6500 rpm.Bill(Grumpy)Jenkins dyno tested these heads and found that the oval port heads actually make more power below 5500 rpm than the square ports on the same engine.