How to Build Big-Inch Chevy Small Blocks (Cartech)

Rating:
Summary: Great book on Small-Block Chevys
Review: Part of this book's title, "big-inch, small-block", reminds me of oxymorons like "jumbo shrimp", "pretty ugly", "mandatory option", or "open secret". That put a little smile on my face before I even opened the cover.

Besides his presumed appreciation of the oxymoronic comedian, George Carlin, author, Graham Hansen has been a hard-core Chevy fan all his life and has been building high-performance Chevy engines for more than 25 years. From this book, you'd think his knowledge of Chevy engines is nearly encyclopedic.

<u>How to Build Big-Inch Chevy Small Blocks</u> is just an outstanding book, right there with of some of the best of the automotive, how-to/technical genre. The only thing wrong with it is, in fact, the title. Oh yeah, it covers large displacement Small-Block V8s and does that well, but the book really is a comprehensive discussion of putting together any high-end, street or racing Chevy "SBV8," not just engines 377 cubic inches or larger. The most popular big-inch Small-Block has to be the 383 and that combination is addressed in detail. The author spends time on 406es and the really-big, Small-Block, a 454-cuin. monster which makes over 600-hp.

One of the most powerful parts of <u>How to Build Big-Inch Chevy Small Blocks</u> is at the end. The final chapter, called "Power Packages", is a database of seven different, big-inch SBV8s. Each engine is listed by major parts, engine dyno data (both graphic and numerical) and a brief description of each engine.

Other sections which are worthwhile for anyone building a high-performance Small-Block are Chapters two (on the theory of stroker motors), seven (camshafts) and nine (cylinder heads).

No doubt, Hansen's <u>How to Build Big-Inch Chevy Small Blocks</u> is a top-notch information source and a great read, even for those looking for general performance engine information rather than big-inch SBV8 specifics. It's taken a prominent spot on the book shelf in my shop.