mild 454

[70rs/ss]

I have found 3 Vortec 7.4's in the last year or so for $100 each. Two had a rod knock, no biggie, I am going 496 and the stroker kits run about $1400, so a 4-bolt main block, 496 stroker kit (crank, rod, pistons, ring, etc, etc) and the 96 and up Vortec oval port heads. The heads have a 100cc chamber and the fast burn combustion chamber, they flow as good as most aftermarket iron and or aluminums, but open up the valves a bit, bowl blend, etc and you have an excellent set of heads on your hands. 550-600hp is super easy with this set up and I'd guess cost around $3k for a long block ($300 for intake {edel rpm air gap}, dist, carb {750 or 850 vac or mech secondaries) turbo 400 and tada!

The 40% more may not be all that true since a BBC starts out making power in gobs where as the SBC needs to be wrung out, don't compare BBC to SBC in cost, look at it in terms of $$$/hp and the BBC is nearly a wash. I built a wicked 383 from an iron 97 iron Vortec 350 and have $2600 into the longblock and might be able to put down 450-500hp, now that same $2600 and $400-600 more and I am tossing 550-600hp, so how much more is it to build a BBC???