If you coulda done this, like, 15 years ago, you could have cleaned up at the street races sooo big. You read right: 454 cubes in a small-block crate engine, and not an exotic, tall-deck block with a bunch of specialized components, but in a regular ol' Chevy-type package that bolts right into anything that'll swallow a conventional small-block Chevy. It's the new deal from World Products, the same company that previously introduced the 427ci smallies (see "Little Block, Big Inches," Aug. '01).
The World 454 small-blocks come complete from carb to oil pan, including a Hardcore-tuned 1050 Dominator, a newly designed Motown single-plane intake, Milodon's trick drag pan, and HEI ignition with ACCEL plugs and Taylor wires. Inside are a Scat or Eagle 4.000-inch crank, Eagle H-beam 6.000-inch rods, and JE or Wiseco custom-forged pistons with a 1/16-1/16-3/16 ring pack. The cam's a Crane tappet grind with 0.560/0.554 lift and 252/260 duration at 0.050 on a 112 LDA, and the valvetrain includes Harland Sharp roller rockers.
The 454 is based on the World Products' Motown iron block, and the biggest news about it, beyond the huge displacement alone, is the 4.250-inch bore. That's enormous for a small-block; a stock 400-based Chevy block cannot generally be bored beyond 4.165 inches, and aftermarket manufacturers have usually recommended a 4.185-inch max for their offerings. That spec was largely dictated by the gasket bore of the readily available performance head gaskets, but Fel-Pro recently introduced PN 1036 gaskets with a 4.250 gasket bore. Combined with the 4.000-inch stroke, the World Products 454 small-block has the same bore and stroke combo as an original 454 Chevy big-block.
Whether you order iron or aluminum heads, you'll get Motown 220 castings, and ours were port-matched to the intake. The number refers to the intake-runner size in cc's, and the valve sizes are a big 2.125/1.600. These are the same heads we've used on our Anvil mule engine to make as much as 875 hp on nitrous.
What kind of power can you expect? The engine comes in an iron-head version advertised at 575 hp and 565 lb-ft, or an aluminum-head version that makes 600 hp and 575 lb-ft. Our test engine has aluminum heads, and we independently dyno'd it with an electric water pump and 13/4-inch-tube headers with 3-inch exhaust and Flowmaster mufflers to obtain the power numbers seen in the chart; the peaks were 610 hp at 6,400 rpm and 584 lb-ft at 4,500--that's 100 more horsepower and the same torque as a 502 Chevy! Every World Products engine we've ever tested has made slightly more than its advertised power.
The small 454s sell for $9,995 with iron heads or $10,495 aluminum, and both are covered by a two-year or 24,000-mile insurance policy that covers them for up to $4,000 in repairs. But 24,000 miles? Yup--they run on 91 octane and they're designed and built to drive forever. And while you may read about the 454s elsewhere, HOT ROD is the only magazine to own one. We'll toss it in a car and give you the full performance report a few months down the road. HR
Motown 454 Power LB-FTHP4,000559.3 426.04,{{{100}}}564.8 441.04,{{{200}}}574.0459.04,{{{300}}}579.4474.34,400581.7487.34,500584.0500.34,{{{600}}}582.0509.74,700580.5519.44,800581.2531.24,{{{900}}}578.8540.05,000574.7547.15,100572.1555.55,200571.8566.15,300569.3574.55,400564.8580.75,500555.0581.25,600544.2580.35,700535.3581.05,800527.0582.05,900521.4585.76,000516.4590.06,100510.8593.26,200509.7601.76,300506.4607.46,400500.8610.26,500489.9606.3