The big-block Chevy has always been the leader in terms of making the most power for the dollar spent, especially in the upper reaches of street performance. But what if I told you there were recent breakthroughs in the Pontiac world that put that Chevy superiority at risk? We’re going to find out for sure in just a few days when we bring this big Pontiac over to Westech for some dyno testing.
The first key ingredient is affordable cubic inches. Scat now has inexpensive rotating assemblies for Pontiacs that are in line price-wise with their budget big-block Chevy kits. Prior to this, a Pontiac stroker crank and its companion custom pistons where boutique-priced parts. Once these parts came on line, the breathing capacity of commonly available Pontiac cylinder heads and intakes was severely over-matched—the limiting factor being the Pontiac intake port, which restricts flow due to a pushrod pocket that pinches the flow. A company called Roland Racing has come out with a new intake/head combo which uses a symmetrical port, canted-valve layout instead of a siamesed-port, parallel-valve layout. The Roland induction pieces (called CV-1) are affordable, and they eliminate the pushrod bulge in the intake port. PHR will be the first magazine to test these Roland CV-1 parts.
We’re currently building our 496-inch Pontiac stroker motor at Outlaw Racing Engines in Upland, CA. Engine builder, Andy Mitchell, says we ought to see 750 hp on pump gas with no problem. We’ll have the dyno results and a complete line-item breakdown of all the parts cost in the May 2009 issue of PHR.