So, what's under the hood?

That's a question that's been asked since the beginning of the 20Th century. To answer it, I have to talk a little more about the rules and get somewhat specific. As I've said, the car has to be more or less as it was in 1964. For the engine, that means nothing bigger than a 327 cubic inch V8 went into a Chevelle. In some of the Corvettes and a few Chevelles and Novas that motor developed around 360 HP. We have the allowance of boring the cylinders up to +.040" or +40 thousandths over, that means putting in bigger pistons. We'll only be going +.030", which gives us about a 331 cubic inch engine. The plan is having somewhere between 400 to 450 HP. That should be plenty, but, there's an old saying, "never enough horsepower". We'll see.

What we are starting with is called a Chevrolet small block, these were made between 265 cubic inches up to a 400 ci. Ours is a 350 that will be "destroked" or built with a 327 crankshaft. This makes it a 331 engine, keeping us within the rules.

Where the motor is being built at is Selby and Sons Machine Shop, just down the street from us. Here's a picture of one of the sons, Everett Selby, our main man at the shop, balancing the crankshaft. That nifty machine spins the crank, and figures out where the weight needs to come off. You take off what's needed with the drill press, and you have a balanced crankshaft. Add the flywheel to one end and the harmonic balancer to the other, both also balanced, and you have a bottom end of a motor that's better than most.

The block has already been bored and is ready for the rods and pistons, our camshaft guru is bringing the cam over anytime now, so at this point, all the big parts for the engine are here, almost ready to be put together.

There's a few little tweaks yet to be done before that happens. A little grinding here, a little filing there, so lets get that done so we can build a motor.

NEXT TIME: That's a V8, A'merican style!!

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