Big block questions

[Scott Knight]

Hey Curtis,

> If the bore on the 454 is 4.250" and the 502 is 4.466", then is a 502 made
> by and over bore of almost a quarter of an inch?  How thick are the cylinder
> walls?  Can you just take any big block and bore it to 4.466" and have a
> 502?  Is the 502 block cast with thicker walls or are they all the same?

The cylinder walls on these 'Bowtie' blocks are much thicker than
production engines.  In fact the cylinders are siamesed and can accept
bores up to about 4.700" with a little block filler in the water
jackets.  The most common big bore engines are 4.625" though and you can
run that safely without filling the block.  This is the most standard
configuration of 540" you will hear about.  It uses the 4.000" 454
crank.  The other standard racing engine is the 509 that is a 4.500"
bore with a 4.000" crank.  The 502 is something that GM has come up with
for seemingly unknown reasons.  The 509 race engines were around for
years and years before there was ever a 502 crate engine.

Later dates.
-- 
Scott Knight  mailto:sknight at mich.com
http://www.mich.com/~sknight IRC:SS396man ICQ:8353618
'95 Black Impala SS
'94 Ducati 900SS CR