We're sick of building small-block Chevys. Not that we don't like them—we're just worn out from finding cores, digging up parts, paying for machine work, and wrenching through four midnights each time we dream up a new power scheme. So we came up with this brilliant idea: create one bulletproof small-block that we can beat on relentlessly in a grillion different configurations, changing parts and pieces in each issue. We figure it'll start mild, then grow increasingly fierce as the months roll on.
So here it is: the Anvil, a short-block built with top-quality parts to ensure a long life of dyno thrashing and—who knows?—maybe even some time under the hood of a project car or two. The concept is upside-down to what you normally see in a magazine, wherein a cheapo short-block is thrown together with the killer heads, cam, and intake to make a huge power number for a cover blurb. Nope—this short-block's all about using the best parts available for reliability under extreme power numbers and extended flogging. We're almost scared to tell you the prices on some of the stuff we'll use.
The Anvil will begin life like a fairly typical street 350 Chevy with flattop pistons, though we couldn't resist messing with the combo a little bit. It's got 6.000-inch connecting rods (5.700 is stock for a 350), plus a bore of 4.040 (like a 0.040-over 350) and a 3.500 stroke (0.020-inch longer than standard). The result is 359 ci, similar to a common 4.060x3.480 street 350, which is 360 ci. We went with the longer stroke mostly because we wanted to seem trick, but also because the extra 0.020 of stroke means that piston is 0.010 closer to the deck, requiring less milling of the block to achieve zero piston deck height.
Even so, we had Dougan's Machine set the deck height on the World Product Motown block to 9.010, leaving the pistons 0.010 below deck to give us some room to alter the combo in a future rehash. With the 5 cc of valve reliefs in the Lunati pistons, the Anvil can be set up for compression ratios from 8.6:1 to 12.0:1 depending on the cylinder-head chamber size and the head-gasket thickness we choose.
Do we really think this'll be the last small Chevy short-block we build? Not really, but we're still gonna stomp it mercilessly. Look for the Anvil to make fire for the first time in the next installment.
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