A 406 in a Cutlass??

[71chally416]

Its a SMOG motor  ....in a light weight car body, with  light weight wheels, brakes and wide tires with a computer to help hook up the power....you just floor the gas pedal and the computer takes over. Thats why it runs fast....you take that motor and stick it in a old Cuda, there be a big diffance in track times.

Not saying the Z06 isn't nice...heck its the car to go to Las Vegas with, lol....but GM saying its the "best", "fastest" car they sold to the public is not be fair to the great cars they sold long ago.

A newer "normal" vette is a joke going from say 75 mph to 120 mph....for how much they cost and they still aren't too heavy and have light wheels also, after they get 15,000-20,000 miles on them, they are like "used up"...maybe if the owner spent another $5,000 on aftermarket parts it make a much quicker, I don't know.

Now for 2008 I believe the motors are a bit bigger, hopefully much better but a 2006 Vette I would not buy for sure....unless say it was, oh like $15,000...cause it needs work, lol.

I'd take a Z06 too.  I just don't think the motor is as "revolutionary" as everybody says it is. Smog or no smog, it has 11 to 1 comp, CNC ported heads that supposedly flow 350 cfm, a big roller cam and the dry sump and titanium rods and many other things. I've seen tests on the truck version of the 5.7 Hemi and they got 491hp from it just bolting a cam and headers on.  Obviously with CNC'd heads and a bit more compression it would easily eclipse the "Revolutionary" Z06 with over 80 less cubes, and if you pick one up at the boneyard it can be built for less than half the price even if you put forged pistons and rods in it. They want over 17K for the crate Z06 and another grand+ for the controller, and you'll need some very expensive headers too. Figure 20K for that 505hp.    

[dodge freak 2]

Don't forget how thin the castings are too. Don't be surprise if you like bump the Hp up it crack somewhere...the mains, the cylinder walls, etc. Many motors today can not be bore out even .030...its .005 max now...something with the EPA making them keep the motor the same size forever for smog reasons.

For $20,000 you can get aftermarket everything thats made for race.... many GM crate motors are know to be junk too..and Mopars.

[74 340 4speed]

  Didn't the 400 sbc get too hot on the simiased bores even with the extra drilling for water flow?     They can make good H.P. but really only for short bursts.   

The reason heads have steam holes in stock 400s is so that they will idle all day long without an issue with a stock radiator, water pump and crappy 87 gas.  Mine stays on 180 degrees with no issue.

[74 340 4speed]

Didn't say it was.

Previous posts before yours were suggesting it was.  I wasn't trying to correct you because you had it right. 

[74 340 4speed]

They are notorius for cracking. 

Especially when they are bored without torque plates.  I used a canadian casting block for my build which has approximately 10-15 lbs more material in it unlike american casting 400s.  My block also has 2 freeze plugs in each side and the block sides are smooth like a 350.  American casting 400s have 3 freeze plugs and the blocks have ridges in the sides of them for the larger bores.

[74 340 4speed]

I'd take a Z06 too.  I just don't think the motor is as "revolutionary" as everybody says it is. Smog or no smog, it has 11 to 1 comp, CNC ported heads that supposedly flow 350 cfm, a big roller cam and the dry sump and titanium rods and many other things. I've seen tests on the truck version of the 5.7 Hemi and they got 491hp from it just bolting a cam and headers on.  Obviously with CNC'd heads and a bit more compression it would easily eclipse the "Revolutionary" Z06 with over 80 less cubes, and if you pick one up at the boneyard it can be built for less than half the price even if you put forged pistons and rods in it. They want over 17K for the crate Z06 and another grand+ for the controller, and you'll need some very expensive headers too. Figure 20K for that 505hp.    

A crate LS7 from summit is 14K, but the controller and headers would be another 2 grand.  I think motor that powers a 10 second street car in stock form other than tires is pretty respectible.  A guy on one of the vette forums bought a new Z06 and drag races it all the time.  By the time he got about a 100 passes under his belt, he whittled his E.T. down to a 10.85 @ 129 with no modifications other than drag radials.   http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1794944 A year or so before the Z06 came out, it took 505 c.i. from the Viper V-10 to get 500 hp, yet I see street races all the time of C6 Z06s walking vipers with the same power.    Is a viper that much heavier? Its definately cheaper to build a 408 LQ9 based motor and you'll make a ton more power, but its something about a 427 to the Chevrolet enthusiast that is magical just like Chrysler's 426 Hemi.  I love GM and Mopar muscle cars and own some of both, so I'm not trying to start a thread war here.  Just stating some facts that I've come across since I've been in the GM LS community.

[71chally416]

There's a big Covette dealer right down the road here. I'll pick a new Z06 out and if somebody can drive it down to Atco (a very good sea level track) and click off a 10 second ET, I'll believe it. I know Vette owners like to trash the Viper, but the Vette community should just be happy the Viper was made by Chrysler to push GM into making a better car. We all know they took it under the chin for a decade. 

[74 340 4speed]

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showpost.php?p=1562974169&postcount=219 

This is the only C6 Z06 that I've seen on the net do a 10 second et in completely stock form on street tires.  He posted his time slip in the post.

I like to see stuff in person too, but there are only two C6 Z06s in my area and only one guy drag races his.  He's not a great driver so I have to search the net to find out what the cars are capable of. I'm not a vette owner and probably won't ever be due to the price of the cars but there is no doubt I would love to have one.  Your right.   Chevrolet didn't get their act together until they introduced the LS series engines, and they really came to life in 01 with the introduction of the 405 hp 346 c.i. LS6, which the viper still overpowered, but then it was replaced by the 505 HP 427 c.i. LS7 in 06 and now the LS7 has been replaced by the new powerhouse.  The 638 HP 376 c.i. LS9 in the ZR1 vettes.  It would be cool to see a factory forced induction viper.  I would guess that would be well over 700 hp, and it would be hard and very expensive to insure.

[71chally416]

I was at a tire place a few months ago and the guy at the counter was laughing about a guy with a new Z06 that came in to price some new back tires. Said he was shocked with the $1,600 price tag and asked if he had any used ones.   According to Edmond's the '08 Vipers do 125 in the quarter. That's 10 second MPH. I'd like to see someone like Ronnie Sox in his prime hop in one and give it a shot. Someone who doesn't launch it at 2K and spend a second between short shifts.

[74 340 4speed]

If only he were still around.  I always wanted to see him race a hemi car but I never got the opportunity because I'm not old enough.

[71chally416]

Everybody's probably heard about his legendary 440-6 4 speed RR test in June of '69. 12.9 @ 111.8 on the weiney stock bias tires when all the Super Stock magazine guy could do the same day was a high 13.