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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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In the 60s Chevy started making larger displacement V8s with the 348 first, and used the term big block to differentiate it from the previous smaller block engines such as the 283 and 327. Displacement can be increased to more than a small bigblock by increasing the stroke and/or boring it out. Eventually it came to be sort of a general term for larger engines, used by other manufacturers. One of the most popular was the 396, but they got up to 454 by 1970, 502 and 572 were sold as crate engines, but not in cars sold at dealerships. I recently almost bought a 1972 Nova with a 468, a 454 bored out, but it only got 6 mpg and it was hard to keep the rear wheels from spinning on dry ground.
It typically refers to the physical size of the block. Chevy small blocks went from 262 to 400 and the big blocks went from 366 to 454. Pontiac had only a small block and went from 326 to 455. Mopar had small block 273-360, big block 350-400, bigger block 413-440. Ford had small block 221 to 302 Cleveland and big block 302 Windsor to 428.
Generally the block is physically larger, it has to do with the design of the block, not just cubic inches the bore & stroke displaces. For example GM has big block and small block 400 and you can build a big or small block 427, Ford has had 332 ci big block and 351 ci small blocks, aftermarket engines can extend those numbers.
In the 60s Chevy started making larger displacement V8s with the 348 first, and used the term big block to differentiate it from the previous smaller block engines such as the 283 and 327. Displacement can be increased to more than a small bigblock by increasing the stroke and/or boring it out. Eventually it came to be sort of a general term for larger engines, used by other manufacturers. One of the most popular was the 396, but they got up to 454 by 1970, 502 and 572 were sold as crate engines, but not in cars sold at dealerships. I recently almost bought a 1972 Nova with a 468, a 454 bored out, but it only got 6 mpg and it was hard to keep the rear wheels from spinning on dry ground.
The Cadillac El Dorado used a 500 cu in engine from '70 to '76. It made 400 HP and 550 lb-ft of torque in '70. By '76 it was choked down to 190 HP and only 360 lb-ft of torque. I imagine it was a great highway cruiser back when gas was $.89 a gallon.
The Cadillac El Dorado used a 500 cu in engine from '70 to '76. It made 400 HP and 550 lb-ft of torque in '70. By '76 it was choked down to 190 HP and only 360 lb-ft of torque. I imagine it was a great highway cruiser back when gas was $.89 a gallon.
Those are gross vs net figures.
Hot Rod magazine once bought a '76 500-cu-in Cadillac engine, did a tune-up on it, and put it on a dyno measuring the old gross/brake hp way. It made 303 horsepower, less than, for example, the 375 (gross) horsepower of a '68-'70 472 or the 340 (gross) hp of a '64-'67 429, but still not bad. So the '75-'76 500-cu-in engine made less hp than the earlier examples, but it didn't lose 210 hp!
It is not the C.I. displacement that determines whether big block or small block, but the physical size of the block (and thus the engine overall) that differentiates one engine family from the other.
I remember when I first saw a Chevy 396 and was blown away by the way it dwarfed the small block 327s and 350s and even the medium-block Ford 390s I was used to.
I did a wiki search for engine size, picked Chevy as an example. WOW, didn't realize that Chevy had so engine sizes that were classified as small block/big block and by bore/stroke. Too much detail and reading to get a handle on it reading on a computer screen.
I originally wanted to find out the differences between LS6, L89, LT1 engines. I still don't know.
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I imagine it was a great highway cruiser back when gas was $.89 a gallon.
