A budget 496 Big Block Chevy.  The goal is to assemble a pump gas 500 + horsepower,  maximum torque big block on a limited budget.  A SCAT bottom end kit – Comp Cams flat tappet camshaft  –  Brodix Race Rite oval port head  –  Edelbrock Air-gap manifold and  –  Demon 850.

550 Horsepower 496 Big Block Chevy  The Beginning 

A standard 2 bolt main 454 block;  bore .030 over, decked a SCAT bottom end kit with a cast steel crank 4.25″ stroke crankshaft, 6.835″ connecting rods, KB pistons, Clevite bearings, and a Mellings high volume oil pump.

Heads – Valve train”  

A Comp Cams XE284H flat tappet camshaft and lifters with Comp Cams push rods, and Crane Cams 1.7 ratio rocker arms.

A Cloyes double roller timing chain with a Cloyes aluminum timing chain cover. The timing chain cover has a built in cam button to eliminate cam walk and a removable plate to allow cam timing changes with out removing the timing chain cover.

Cam was degreed with 4 degrees advanced.  We used the Brodix Race Rite oval port heads to help with the low end torque and because we already had an oval port Edelbrock Air-Gap intake manifold.

   The rocker arm geometry was checked, notice the witness line directly in the middle of the valve stem

Carb – Intake Manifold

   We already had a Demon 850 CFM speed demon carburetor, which worked well with this combination.

Judgement day

The 496 was bolt on a DTS engine dyno after the standard 20 minute break-in we did a series of pulls optimizing the ignition timing and jetting.

549 Horsepower and 609 LB-FT torque all below 6000 RPM

With 550+ Lb-Ft of torque from 3000 to 5200 RPM this would is an excellent street engine, especially for a heavy car like a Chevelle or Impala.