How to Hot Rod a Chevy Engine
Chevrolet engines are quite possibly the most popular engines used in hot rods today. This is not surprising, considering the vast selection of aftermarket parts and the fact that Chevrolet engine components are almost always cheaper compared to other manufacturers. A hot rod's performance primarily depends on two variables: power and weight. If the vehicle's weight is constant but the power is increased, the vehicle will be faster. Similarly, if the engine's power is unchanged but the vehicle's weight is reduced, the vehicle will also be faster. A Chevy hot rod engine can be built to both increase the amount of power and reduce the vehicle's weight.
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Things You'll Need
- Four-barrel carburetor Aluminum intake manifold Aluminum heads Camshaft Exhaust headers Distributor Ignition coil
Instructions
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Upgrade the carburetor to an aftermarket four-barrel design. A carburetor's purpose is to mix air and fuel together. The majority of stock Chevy engines used either a two- or four-barrel carburetor, both of which severely restricted the amount of air and fuel that could be delivered to the combustion chambers. Aftermarket four-barrel carburetors significantly increase the quantity of the air/fuel mixture, which in turn allows the engine to produce more power.
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Replace the stock cast iron intake manifold with an aluminum manifold, which not only saves weight, but also increases the amount of air and fuel that enter the engine's combustion chambers. Stock Chevy intake manifolds were designed to flow only a limited amount of fuel through their chambers, since the stock engines were only designed for daily street operation. Aftermarket aluminum manifolds feature smooth chambers that allow a greater amount of the air/fuel mixture produced by the carburetor to enter the combustion chambers, resulting in an increased production of power.
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Install aftermarket aluminum heads. The heads are the last component the air/fuel mixture flows through before reaching the combustion chambers. Chevrolet's stock cast iron heads are significantly heavier than aftermarket aluminum heads, and do not flow as efficiently. By replacing the stock heads with aluminum heads, weight will be taken off of the front of the vehicle and the engine will be able to draw the air/fuel mixture into the combustion chambers faster and in a larger quantity than with stock heads.
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Replace the camshaft with one which features greater duration and lift. The camshaft is the nerve center of the engine, and controls when the intake and exhaust valves within the cylinder heads open, and for how long each valve is open. Installing a camshaft with greater lift and duration will increase the amount of fuel that enters the combustion chambers, thereby allowing the engine to produce more power. Installing an aftermarket camshaft is particularly vital to allowing the engine to fully realize the benefits of the aftermarket carburetor, intake manifold and cylinder heads.
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Install exhaust headers in place of the stock exhaust manifolds. Chevrolet almost always used exhaust manifolds as opposed to headers. Manifolds require the exhaust gases produced by each cylinder to quickly converge into a single pipe. This convergence requires the engine to expend power to push the gases though this single pipe. Exhaust headers feature one separate exhaust pipe for each exhaust port, thereby significantly freeing up the engine's power.
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Upgrade the stock ignition system using aftermarket components. Chevrolet ignition systems are among the most effective stock ignition systems on the market. However, with few exceptions, these stock systems were only designed to produce a spark to the spark plugs at relatively low RPMs, typically below 5,500 RPMs. Hot rod engines can easily exceed 6,000 RPMs, thereby rendering the stock Chevy ignition systems inadequate. Therefore, a quality aftermarket distributor and ignition coil should be installed to ensure that the engine receives the proper spark at high RPMs.
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