Had a ride in a 1970 with 'a stroked ZO6 motor' !!

[SwaveDave]

Was at a car show yesterday and go to talking with this guy who had his red 1970 convertible there. I told him i rebuilt the motor last year and it really upp'ed the performance. He said : "Awe man..you should have put a ZO6 motor in it; i picked up a used ZO6 motor off of ebay and just had it stroked to 382 , and its faster than the 502 crate motor i had in there " . He says :"....come on , let for for a short ride" . So we get out of town and turn onto a country road that runs straight for about 3 miles. He slows to about 10 mph then nails it ; all h___ breaks loose and when it finally grabs , he went thru 2nd then 3rd getting significant rubber each time he shifted. 4th too. At about 130 mph , i was ready to tell the idiot to shut the darn thing down...when he finally gets off the gas and brakes back down to 60 mph. Finding an area to turn around in, we head back the other direction for one more rocket ride being pinned back in the seat. On the way back to the car show he said it gets 19/28 mpg and the more he beats on it, the better it seems to run. I said :" Okay ...im a believer in small blocks now !" .

This winter, hes going to have it Twin Turbo'd which will put out 682 RWHP. I told him that id come looking for him next Spring.

Dave

 

[Stallion]

:eek :eek :eek That is amazing power. Hmm..that would be a good idea to do that.

When you "stroke" a motor, you make the stroke longer, right? Why would they stroke it, instead of making the bore wider? Any reason to that?

 

[smook]

..you don't want another ride ???

I would pass on that next year's ride. Might just send you into orbit!

Hehehe.

I own a Z06, 2002... It does pull...! I sometimes launch into orbit for a couple of seconds..too!

Nice story!

-Bill

(I'll bet it's hard to find a used Z06 motor!!)

 

[SwaveDave]

He said it was advertised on ebay and that there was something wrong with the motor ; he didnt care cause he was going to strip it down anyway and stroke it. He kept the same factory cam but put in new pistons, crank, etc... He found a computer out of a Camaro and used that and mounted next to the 'gill' outlet of the car.

What i noticed was...it was very very strong thru 3rd gear, but when he went into 4th...the pull was drastically less. The only difference i could see , was that, my BB had more pull on the higher end.

I dont know if i will go for another ride with his Twin Turbo setup...the guy just seems a little different to me ; i was getting panicky when he hit 130 mph ..and he still had 5th gear to go into with his Richmond 5 speed.

 

[WhalePirot]

the stroke longer gives more torque, which is what accelerates the car. Horsepower overcomes the 'drag' until top speed is reached and is a mathematical product, based upon torque and RPM.

I wonder how he'll get the thing to hook up with TTs.
mike

I loved driving the Z06! I'd have one if Chevy made it as a Vert!

 

[SwaveDave]

I dont know how hes going to manage with TT's cause he said hes going to keep his 235x70R15's he has on the car. Said hes got a 308 rear now ...and hes dropping to a 273 rear when he gets the TT's . Not sure about his rationale on that...but then again...im not sure about him either ! Perhaps he figures he already has enough low end grunt so he wants to capitalize on fuel economy at high speeds.

Dave

 

[AKRAY4PLAY]

Dave,
it sounds like your non-plumb driver is trying to get more torque applied to the rear end. when you drop your rear ratio, more torque is applied to the frame and aids in the rear end squat that results in weight transfer and ultimately traction. the 235's are small, so he may be a proud bragger that is only interseted in tire smoke, time will tell. the turbos will add big power, but it takes time for them to spin up, so the low-end may be soft enough not to shock tires. it will be interesting to see his ride after the mods, should make for an intersting post!! Brian

 

[81LT4]

Re: ..you don't want another ride ???

(I'll bet it's hard to find a used Z06 motor!!)

There all over the place, you would be surprised.

 

[Stallion]

the stroke longer gives more torque, which is what accelerates the car. Horsepower overcomes the 'drag' until top speed is reached and is a mathematical product, based upon torque and RPM.

I wonder how he'll get the thing to hook up with TTs.
mike

I loved driving the Z06! I'd have one if Chevy made it as a Vert!

Then what would the result be if you had more bore then, instead of adding stroke?

 

[ccflorida]

130mpg

When I was at the Corvette plant. They mentioned the C5 top end is 175mph..Surprised you didn't see that speed Dave..

 

[Stallion]

Re: 130mpg

When I was at the Corvette plant. They mentioned the C5 top end is 175mph..Surprised you didn't see that speed Dave..

:eek Wow!! I can't believe that they were allowed to put that kind of stock power back onto the street.

 

[SwaveDave]

Stallion, My guess is, if you only increased the bore and kept the stroke the same...then youd have mostly hp gain with little torque gain.Stroking is what gives more torque.

Roy,

I cant imagine going 175 mph ; going 130 mph is the fastest ive ever been in a car and things are really moving quickly at that speed...especially the road as you look forward at it. When we hit 130, I got a fleeting thought that, it takes a whole lot of space to bring a car to a stop at that speed which is when i got panicky -- i mean real panicky.

Dave

 

[Stallion]

I haven't gone over 80 in the Vette. I don't like pushing her too hard. I know I know, she can take a lot more than that, but I don't want to get in trouble either.

 

[WhalePirot]

A larger bore means more cubes; probably more power, all else equal. HP being a mathematical product, both will increase. The lever arm is increased with more stroke, yielding more leverage. The bore burns more fuel/air mixture; applies more oomph to the same arm, so, more torque as well, but which yields more depends on the size of the changes.

My 406 has a stroke quite similar to the big blocks; hence she pulls like crazy down low, even though I give up some low end torque with the Lingenfelter vs a mini-ram.
mike

I 'tagged a cat at 130 one eve, long ago; been to 150+ twice in my Vettes. The BB '71 got a bit light up front; the '84 Z-51 was quite nice. Small dips grow huge above 130. I had to keep my hands at 10 and 2 so my flopping elbows didn't cause a spinout!