big block chevy
When it comes to muscle, power, and performance, you can’t beat a big block Chevy. And if you want to harness that raw power, there’s no better way to do it than with a custom set of headers. Enter the Pro Series Big Block Chevy Round Port Custom Header Build Kit from Stainless Headers Mfg. Inc. – the ultimate toolkit for any serious fabricator.
Bob Gruitch just thought his car was not performing up to his expectations. A ’55 Chevy equipped with a 502 big block, square port heads and a Crane H296-2 camshaft should be more than enough power. But it lacked power and didn’t idle all that well, especially in gear. This shouldn’t be happening with an engine built by John Gianoli at Reggie Jackson’s High Performance Engine Shop, so Gruitch figured he had something wrong and brought the car to John Bishop’s Hot Rod Tuning Service to have it checked. He’s lucky that he did.
Mark Turner is an avid hot rodder—he eats, sleeps and breathes hot rods and muscle cars, and he jumps at any opportunity to add another car to his collection. On one of Turner’s many trips to check on the progress of a Camaro he had being built at G&S Custom Fabrication & Suspension in Athens, Alabama, owner Greg Blaydes told him about a ’67 Camaro RS/SS convertible being built whose owner had lost interest and was looking to get out from under the car.
This engine, and others like it, has opened up a brand-new chapter in the ever-evolving, wild world of Chevrolet power. By design it has a bore and stroke of 4.60 inches by 4.25 inches and Big Chief II heads, which are about 2 inches taller, that feature oval-shaped intake ports. This, they say, is for maximum cylinder filling. Years ago, creative racers would angle-mill heads to arrive at the desired combustion chamber size and to improve the valve angle in combination with the incoming intake flow. These heads are nicknamed “11-degree” heads, as they have been designed with a built-in 11-degree angle right out of the box. There’s no angle milling needed here. A special valvetrain is necessary, along with longer stem valves. Quarter Mile Performance feels that these heads are worth 200 additional horsepower over the very best “shorter” heads.
When this ʼ54 Chevy truckʼs owner started building it, he wanted it to be fast and to have a nasty appearance. He always liked the Pro Street style, so that is the direction he decided to follow. He started by ordering a custom back half that was narrowed and set up with a narrowed rear differential with coilover shocks, a Panhard bar and ladder bars. In order to complete the back half, the car was delivered to Dream Cars, where the suspension was installed.
