History of the Big Block Chevy

boom you guys better be excited because today we're talking about the history of the big block [Music] chevrolet so let's jump right into it we're gonna go all the way back to 1958 where the first production big block came out from chevrolet and guess what you heard me right 1958 the big block 409 was not the first production big block chevy was actually the 348 cubic inch big block chevy and that's not big block by today's standards but it is still a big block and this engine was offered in four different combinations the turbo thrust the super turbo thrust the special turbo thrust and the special super turbo thrust the special on that name meant that you got a tripower these engines range from the turbo thrust getting 250 horsepower all the way up to the special super turbo thrust giving you 350 horsepower out of three two barrel carburetors these engines lasted from 1958 to 19 and 61. these were originally designed for truck use however they did find themselves into heavier passenger cars and when i mentioned these w series engines the easiest way to tell a w series from a traditional mark 4 mark 5 or mark 6 big block is by taking a look at the valve covers the valve cover is literally in a w shape as you'll see here and i'm sure you guys want to hear what the 348 sound like let's jump right to it so december 17th 1960 rules run chevrolet finally introduces the big block chevy 409 this is only paired in conjunction with the impala super sport you could not get this engine in any sort of corvette any other passenger car it was impala super sport only made 360 horsepower out of a four barrel rochester carburetor all the way up until the engine's demise it even made up to 425 horsepower and 425 foot-pounds of torque this engine touted 11 to 1 compression a solid lifter cam shaft and just made incredible power nothing on the streets really could touch it at that time but that wasn't the end-all be-all for the w series engine on your checklist in 1963 you could check off the z11 package for the impala sport coupe what that gave you was a 427 cubic inch w series big block chevy that was 13 and a half to one compression had a solid lifter camshaft and dual four-barrel rochester carburetors this engine produced an underrated 430 horsepower and 575 foot-pounds of torque that torque figure would not be matched until the 2008 corvette zr1 general motors took 45 years after this to match that torque figure once again only about 50 impalas with these engines are known to exist and let's take glory and watching a video of one of them run down the track just like that it's a new day the gopro died so we're going to continue on now so i bet you thought the next topic was going to be about the 396. well there's actually a little bit of a bridge in between the w series and the 396 and that is the 427 mystery motor of daytona essentially these engines were made in 1963 to racing the daytona 500 and junior johnson's nascar stock car these were putting uh numerous other cars as well and they did extremely well in the daytona 500. unfortunately not much is actually known about these engines and only about two of them exist today in junior johnson's 1963 impala ss and smokey unix version that is still just a standalone engine not put into another car this was basically the pathway to making the mark iv big block which we all know and love today there's only a few different design iterations on this including the exhaust manifolds which pretty much are unobtainable because they only made 50 of these engines but this engine was the pathway to the legendary mark iv [Music] so the daytona 427 engine was actually a mark ii big block and how does that translate over the mark iv where's the mark iii well gm actually attempted to buy packard's v8 tooling from them for the mark iii but unfortunately this did not proceed so no mark iii big block was actually ever made boom 1965 comes around the big block chevrolet 396 comes into flourishing so the big block 396 actually came in two different cars and that is the l78 1965 corvette and the l-37 1965 z16 chevelle the z16 produced 375 horsepower with a hydraulic flat tap at camshaft while the l78 corvette produced 425 horsepower with the solid flat tappet camshaft the big block 396 lasted from 1965 until 1972. later on in those years however it was rebadged as the 402 simply a larger bore 396 only 30 over the big block chevrolet 396 was absolutely the tried and true street performance engine for general motors in the 1960s and passenger cars and definitely deserves its praise as it was one of the first engines to kick off this legendary mark iv platform at the height of the 396 is life it went on to become the l89 which is an aluminum headed version of the l78 not put down a whopping 375 horsepower wait why 375 didn't the didn't the 1965 l78 make 425 in 1966 the 396 got d rated even though it made the same amount of horsepower they derated it because chevrolet introduced the mark iv 427 so getting into the big block 427 is actually a little bit of a tricky subject because in 1966 when they released that engine it was rated at 425 horsepower on the corvette rpo code l72 and that was the same horsepower as the 396 in 1965. so this was a little bit weird for new buyers seeing more cubic inches but the same horsepower however we forge on the l71 was actually eventually introduced in 1967 basically a stock l72 but with the addition to a tri-power intake and carbs what this allowed for was 435 horsepower but the l71 was not the end-all be-all on performance for the 427. in fact in the same year 1967 chevrolet introduced the l88 which was an aluminum headed solid lifter big block 427 with 12 and a half to one compression ratio and it was rated at 430 horsepower 5 horsepower lower than the l71 but actual figures show that the l88 ended up making about 560 horsepower equipped with a set of headers that is astounding numbers that means that you could basically keep up with them near a brand new corvette 50 years ago the l88 went on to live for about three years eventually in 1969 the compression ratio was dropped to 12 to 1 to allow for an open chamber cylinder head this allowed a little bit more flow but it did lose a dip in compression equaling out to about the same amount of horsepower but what also happened in 1969 was the introduction of the big block 427 zl1 yeah that's right the new zl1s weren't the first zl ones the z01 features the same aluminum cylinder heads as the l88 a slightly higher profile camshaft but biggest yet they're all aluminum block these only came in two corvettes and 116 camaros of that year and they were absolutely tearing up the drag strips these l88s and these zl1s were pushing out 11 second quarter miles in the 60s with a four speed behind them if that isn't mind numbing then i do not know what is so 4 27 for the win so for the 1970 model year the ls5 and the ls6 454 were introduced in both the chevelle and the corvette in the corvette the ls5 made 390 horsepower and the ls6 made 450 horsepower however for the chevelle another one of chevrolet's advertising tricks the ls5 chevelle made 360 horsepower but don't you worry the ls6 cervel actually maintained its 450 horsepower rating [Music] the ls5 and the ls6 were continued on until the 1971 production model year until the ls6 was cut for the 1972 model year the only thing that you can get was the ls5 and that is when they went from gross horsepower ratings to net horsepower ratings drastically dropping the horsepower rating that you get on a car that you go out and buy from the dealership the difference between net and gross horsepower is gross horsepower was done under ideal conditions for example with exhaust headers and no accessories while net horsepower actually was done under normal conditions such as what you would find if you had the engine in your car which that means ran with mufflers and all accessories on the engine this greatly reduced horsepower figures that were advertised for the 1973 model year combined with net horsepower ratings and a us fuel crisis the 454 was dropped to 270 horsepower this continued on until the big block was finally put out of production in the corvette and all sports cars in general in 1975. unfortunately the 454 was the right engine at the wrong time these engines continue to trend downward and horsepower all the way until the 7.4 liter big block only pumped out a measly 230 horsepower however they did make great truck engines putting down 385 pound-feet of torque however in 1991 the gen 5 big block was finally introduced still only pumping out a measly 230 horsepower but with a gen 5 big block all of them came with 4 bolt mains however these engines are generally harder to adapt aftermarket heads or gen 4 heads onto them as they do require a special head gasket the gen 5 big block lasts until 1995. so what happened to 1996 the l29 vortex 7400 came out the 9-1 compression gen 6 big block this touted forged internals and better flowing heads and on top of all that it had multi-port fuel injection people have made over a thousand horsepower on these assemblies because they're forged from the factory stock blocks making over a thousand horsepower with a little bit of forced induction that's absolutely mind-boggling but if you just want to put in your street car guess what it still made 290 horsepower and 440 foot-pounds of torque but sadly these l29s were not put into anything for a performance application they were generally found in suburbans or larger trucks also hell yes we want to see an l29 make a thousand horsepower [Music] by the way check out richard holden's content down below link in description he basically tries to make max effort builds on pretty much every engine you could think of and a lot of them that i didn't even know that existed after the l 29's demise the gen 7 big block came out aka the vortech 8100 l18 this engine produced 340 horsepower and 450 foot-pounds of torque displacing 496 cubic inches absolutely insane to come in a production vehicle 496 cubic inches came out in 2001 and lasted until 2009 when the big block finally got cut general motors cut the big block and has not made a production big block since however they still still crate motors and you could still get aftermarket parts for all these engines that i just mentioned so if you liked learning about the big block chevrolet make sure to leave a comment like and subscribe and as always have an amazing day

Channel: RatMaro

Views: 1,675

Rating: 4.9310346 out of 5

Keywords: History of the big block chevy, Big Block Chevy, 454, 348 Big Block, 409 Big Block, 427 Big Block, 454 Big Block, 496 Big Block, ZL1, L88, Z11, Z16, Camaro, Chevelle, Z16 Chevelle, Big Block 396, 396, 427, Drag Racing, 1960's Muscle cars, Big Block History, 1963 impala, 427 Mystery Motor, 427 Daytona 500, History, Small Block, Small Block Chevy, Corvette, Tunnel Ram, L71, L72, L29, L18, 496, LS vs Big Block

Id: DN9LsaB1SLs

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2020