Been working on a nice little 210 build over the past couple years and while close to being finished...I am considering a last minute change? Already have a freshly built 383 in place that makes about 500hp, but a friend just offered up a brand new in the crate GM LS7 big block that he found and squirreled many years ago. It's a zero mile motor and makes about as much power as the 383, but has that infamous big block thump that only an LS7 can produce. The friend who offered it owns a local machine shop and builds all my high perf motors, and offered this one up from his own long term stock pile. His shop engine builder went through it recently and balanced/blueprinted the entire forged assembly, cleaned up the NOS 990 heads, added new valves, springs, rocker assembly and fit it with a 650" lift 262 duration solid roller cam to produce some nasty street manners. Zero miles...fully gone through with all the original GM factory paint marks all over its factory 289 block and heads as taken from the GM crate.
Thinking of changing the mounts to Earl Williams 3/4 forwards and massaging the firewall to get it to fit. My TKX and Quicktime bell will match up and the engine comes with brand new 55 long tube BBC headers which might need some tweaking to get them fit with the 500 steering box. Debating if it's worth the effort to get the valve covers to squeeze in there and clear my stock firewall as I don't want to try and cut a pocket kit in now that my firewall pad, wiring harness and interior are all finished inside the car. If I can massage the stock covers to fit with Earls newer mounts, I just might pull the pin and fit the big block in there. Thoughts from anyone who really knows how to shoe horn a BBC into a stock firewall? Rad clearance is no problem as I have a custom forward mount support with electric fans. Just wondering if the EW 3/4 mounts are enough to move the covers forward off the firewall. Maybe just a little leather wrapped FBH work will dimple the area just enough to fit the low covers???
Thinking of changing the mounts to Earl Williams 3/4 forwards and massaging the firewall to get it to fit. My TKX and Quicktime bell will match up and the engine comes with brand new 55 long tube BBC headers which might need some tweaking to get them fit with the 500 steering box. Debating if it's worth the effort to get the valve covers to squeeze in there and clear my stock firewall as I don't want to try and cut a pocket kit in now that my firewall pad, wiring harness and interior are all finished inside the car. If I can massage the stock covers to fit with Earls newer mounts, I just might pull the pin and fit the big block in there. Thoughts from anyone who really knows how to shoe horn a BBC into a stock firewall? Rad clearance is no problem as I have a custom forward mount support with electric fans. Just wondering if the EW 3/4 mounts are enough to move the covers forward off the firewall. Maybe just a little leather wrapped FBH work will dimple the area just enough to fit the low covers???
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