high HP crate engines

[Lloyd Smale]

The crate engines are used a lot because they are cheaper to buy them than you can often build them yourself unless you have access to free parts and do you own machining. The components are well balanced, get excellent mileage for the horse power, they are also reliable. At least that has been my experience with the Chevy LS motors and 502 crate motors. My dad has a 700 HP Hellcat. He's wanting a Viper. I asked him why and he said, "you never can have too much horse power".

hellcat has more hp then a viper. red eye hellcat even more, superstock and demons more yet and talk of a 1000hp special addition in the works. base hellcat will run with and probably take a viper in a straight line but it reverses if theres even a slight turn in the road. i never warmed up to vipers (other then the viper powered srt10 pickups that were very cool) they to me look like a mix of the old shelbys and the early 60s vettes that someone stretched like taffy. for the money a z06 vette is much more car in every catagory. ive beet a few vipers with my 2007 c6 zo6. it had only 505 hp but made use of it. a c7 with 650 would handly take one. dont know about the new c8 na motored z06. from what ive heard it was the fastest yet. should have kept that c6z. last real drivers vette. manual only and no electronic nannies of any kind. just a big torquey na motor in a light body with big brakes. about as close to an adult racing cart as was ever made. thing pulled down mid 11s like a hellcat but drive it 70 down the road and ive seen 30mpg. wife wanted something with a useable back seat so we sold it and bought the challenger but i dont think anyones been in the back seat in the 4 years weve had it. that said i do like this challenger and the wife loves it and said if i get something else this one stays. guess i can live with that

[MaryB]

The crate engines are used a lot because they are cheaper to buy them than you can often build them yourself unless you have access to free parts and do you own machining. The components are well balanced, get excellent mileage for the horse power, they are also reliable. At least that has been my experience with the Chevy LS motors and 502 crate motors. My dad has a 700 HP Hellcat. He's wanting a Viper. I asked him why and he said, "you never can have too much horse power".

One of my bosses had a Viper. He asked me to make a parts run one day and I told him all the shop trucks were out. He tossed me the keys to his Viper and said keep it in 2nd gear and under 60mph.... and he wasn't kidding! Thing was a beast!

[MaryB]

I am talking production car, not some special order car with one seat. And I guarantee you the option for the other seats is one hell of a lot more than one dollar!!! Don't get me wrong, I do NOT like Tesla just because of who owns it but the fact of the matter is that you get a full blown all out luxury car that blows the doors off everything else out there. And something else to note on that Dodge is that the times they quote are for a car with special slicks on a prepped dragstrip. They tell you straight up you can never get those times on the street. The Tesla can get the same times no matter where due to it's all wheel drive and advanced traction control.

The Dodges all have traction control too, standard equipment. Even my 2017 Escape has it. Escape has the same HP my old F150 had and the pickup would roast the wheels thru 3 gears. The Escape won't even chirp them, just pushes you back in the seat... even on snow it is hard to get tire spin!

[Lloyd Smale]

One of my bosses had a Viper. He asked me to make a parts run one day and I told him all the shop trucks were out. He tossed me the keys to his Viper and said keep it in 2nd gear and under 60mph.... and he wasn't kidding! Thing was a beast!

i drove a couple of them. sure wont say there not fast. but just not my cup of tea and they sound like a fed ex truck with a leaky muffler or two suburu's racing with those god awful 4 in exhausts. buddys got a ram srt10 and even with long tube headers and a cat back it sounds like crap. first few years were terrible. tops that barely slowed down the rain and side pipes that would bake you out of them on a hot day and burn your legs getting out.

[Rickf1985]

I drove one at Road America, which I think is one of the best road race tracks in America. The owner usually had me driving Corvettes or Camaros so this took me by surprise. It was not in the racing class due to engine size but they have open classes where you can race what you brought on the track for a few laps. the regulars and high dollar racers get a lot more laps. So I had most of the day to play with this thing. He wanted a full written report on what I thought of it. That is the price you pay for getting paid to do what you love!! The car was definitely fast, not fast enough to beat the Vettes and Camaros and Mustangs. It is a heavy car and handling is "different". It is not bad, it is just different. Most of that is die to the monstrous torque the engine puts out at relatively low rpm. Where I am usually rolling into the throttle halfway through the turn and I am at full throttle as I exit the turn this thing is drifting two thirds through! That takes a lot of getting used to. What I found was because I could not come out of the turns as fast as I normally would I was trying to make it up in the straight which it did quite well but then you had to haul it down going into the next turn and as I said it is a heavy car and if you are coming into a hairpin you are going from150 to 40 in a really short space. I think that is why they never really took off in road racing, Too much of a change I never drove it on the street but talking to a lot of people that have them they are a blast for drifting and burnouts in driving style to make it work. Basically they are good for turning good tires into bad tires very quickly.
But I saw in Haggerty I think it was there is a guy who has 25 or 30 of them. Every color of every model made for every year it was made!! Now THAT is dedication to a car, AND a LOT of disposable income.

This is the guy I was talking about above.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/market...-bill-blewett/

But I found this one while looking for that article I found this one, 80 Vipers! And all driven regularly.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ollection.html

[Tazman1602]

LOL! I've replaced more carrier bearings than you could count with an abacus.

…. I also, you should have been around big trucks with Kingpins back in the day…LOL

ART

[SoonerEd]

I had a typo...I meant Demon��

[Lloyd Smale]

I drove one at Road America, which I think is one of the best road race tracks in America. The owner usually had me driving Corvettes or Camaros so this took me by surprise. It was not in the racing class due to engine size but they have open classes where you can race what you brought on the track for a few laps. the regulars and high dollar racers get a lot more laps. So I had most of the day to play with this thing. He wanted a full written report on what I thought of it. That is the price you pay for getting paid to do what you love!! The car was definitely fast, not fast enough to beat the Vettes and Camaros and Mustangs. It is a heavy car and handling is "different". It is not bad, it is just different. Most of that is die to the monstrous torque the engine puts out at relatively low rpm. Where I am usually rolling into the throttle halfway through the turn and I am at full throttle as I exit the turn this thing is drifting two thirds through! That takes a lot of getting used to. What I found was because I could not come out of the turns as fast as I normally would I was trying to make it up in the straight which it did quite well but then you had to haul it down going into the next turn and as I said it is a heavy car and if you are coming into a hairpin you are going from150 to 40 in a really short space. I think that is why they never really took off in road racing, Too much of a change I never drove it on the street but talking to a lot of people that have them they are a blast for drifting and burnouts in driving style to make it work. Basically they are good for turning good tires into bad tires very quickly.
But I saw in Haggerty I think it was there is a guy who has 25 or 30 of them. Every color of every model made for every year it was made!! Now THAT is dedication to a car, AND a LOT of disposable income.

This is the guy I was talking about above.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/market...-bill-blewett/

But I found this one while looking for that article I found this one, 80 Vipers! And all driven regularly.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ollection.html

one good thing about them was like my c6 z06 they didnt (at least the older ones) have all the granny traction and stability control bs. it was controled by something between your ears

[Rickf1985]

This one was a 92 or 93 and I don't remember any traction controls. If they were there they were disabled. Traction controls are the only reason you are able to get super high horsepower cars and drive them on the street. Traction controls are also why modern drag cars can turn such low times. Watch these guys programming there computers some time. It is amazing to watch, they can control the power to the ground through the timing, boost controls, transmission torque converter, throttle control. All to perfectly match the track with the driver just flat footing the pedal before the lights even come down. We did all of this wat back when with our ears and foot. And experience.

[Lloyd Smale]

and we won races not our car or our tuner

We did all of this wat back when with our ears and foot. And experience.

[Rickf1985]

Or lost. LOL. Amen to that.

[MaryB]

Friend of mine could set Ford timing by ear... he won a lot of races...

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Since we have a bunch of gear heads having a conversation here, I have a question.
(first, I am not a gearhead)

Back in the Day, I inherited a stock 71 olds with a 455 CI engine, the air cleaner cover said 455 Rocket.
since then, I've seen other Oldsmobiles of that era with the moniker 350 Rocket.

So, the question is, Was the name Rocket just a marketing thing, or was there something special/unique to the Rocket over other standard GM engines?

[skeettx]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGqfOa6tmC8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldsmobile_V8_engine

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGqfOa6tmC8

Thanks for the info, both link were great...but I especially liked the Vintage video Road Test.

My fave part of the video was 3:40 and on.
Mentioning, "Camber compensation system which helps with high speed cornering and minimizing the effects of heavy cross winds on the highway"
...LOL, I don't recall heavy cross winds effecting my 4300 pound Boat although, maybe a little bit, once I got over 90 mph?

[Lloyd Smale]

back in the day i had buddys who would tell you the rocket 350 was a better motor then the small block chev and its only real downfall was lack of aftermarket support. if you could go back in time with a bunch on nitrous it would be one of the best motors to use LOTS on.