Cubic inches

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by noflac52

Facts

and the inernertz is full of em ey

now off you go and google stuff

[burnz]

Originally Posted by MethodX

Then you have the 348 and 409 big blocks. The w heads, Which were available until the mid 60's
Shes so fine my 409.....

Originally Posted by noflac52

All of the engine displacement, deck height etc stuff is not really relevant. Its the weight of the block. You have to compare apples with apples and in the sixties and seventies they were made of cast iron and the big blocks weighed more than the small blocks hence big blocks, small blocks.
We aren't talking about engines here for those who will come back and say such and such engine weighs more than such and such engine. We are talking about blocks.

If a bigger displacement of more than 400cu in or so was required a bigger block was cast to build a bigger engine. With todays technology big block/ small block isn't as defined as it was then.

read the above post, wedge block are from 348 (5.7L) to 427 (7.0L) they are big blocks (rat). the 409 is the rearest of all the big blocks.
the W427 is a small block (mouse).

the mouse block typically goes to 511 cid due to bore spacing.
as the rat block goes to 810 cid, most common 727 cid,,, some custom billet mill now go to 1000+ cid

[MethodX]

Originally Posted by burnz

read the above post, wedge block are from 348 (5.7L) to 427 (7.0L) they are big blocks (rat). the 409 is the rearest of all the big blocks.
the W427 is a small block (mouse).

the mouse block typically goes to 511 cid due to bore spacing.
as the rat block goes to 810 cid, most common 727 cid,,, some custom billet mill now go to 1000+ cid

The 348, 409 and one special version of the 427 are big blocks, W head.
Early series, available up to the mid 60's

Then Chevrolet bought out the Gen IV big block- 396, 402, 427,454... the rat.

[noflac52]

For those who couldn't grasp the first post.

Small block = small
Big block = big
The word piston describes pistons
the word head describes heads
the word crankshaft describes crankshafts
the word block describes block.

Manufactures during the horsepower race stretched the small blocks as far as they could with boring and stroking, deck heights etc and this generally occurred at around the 400 cube mark before it became more expensive and a degree of unreliability set in to keep developing them further. They achieved easy cheap horsepower and torque from an engine with bigger displacement with a higher degree of reliability. The big block.
With todays technology these kinds of figures can be easily achieved in smaller engines that stay together.

It wasn't done so that car enthusiasts could brag that they have the biggest engine it was done to win at the track and sell more cars for the cheapest manufacturing costs.

All the manufacturers did it and they all had their different designs. You can't generally bolt items from one manufacturers big block onto another manufacturers block or heads and other stuff from small blocks onto big blocks but the one thing they generally had in common was that they weighed more than the small blocks and of course they were actually bigger.

Its as simple as that ! The big blocks were bigger than the small blocks and the cut off point for reliability and cost was around the 400 cube mark.

Once the block is cast you can make it smaller displacement than 400 cubes with the crank and rods etc but it is still a big block.

The term big block describes the block castings!