Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Dyno'd this yesterday, this is what our little old holden engines can do even with a pretty basic build.

She's 355 cubes - 3.48" stroke, 4.03 bore.

Motor runs factory block, factory iron heads, flat tappet cam (in the 260's @ .050"), scat crank & rods, cp pistons, manley valves, crane valve train with scorpion rockers.
Intake is a harrop, carb is 850 quickfuel.
1 3/4" primary tri-y pipes.
Runs on our pump 98 - about the same as US 92-93 octane.

Made 582hp @ 7200rpm, holds 470hp from 6600-7800rpm, 479ft/lbs @ 5400rpm.

It's a street/strip engine, but will spend most of it's time on the street.

Dyno sheet is not real clear - printer was having a hissy fit:

Dyno pull on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8ya-sL ... e=youtu.be

Damn Heads are like BBC on a small Chevy...... Nice #'s

These are the heads on it:

That's nice work. Would certainly make my worn out old BT1 VP sit up and take notice.

What sort of dyno is that? Don't recognise it at all.

It's a Stuska dyno, with all motec logging & bells & whistles - nice setup.

hey tony,congrats on the plastic fantastic,great work as always,that engine puts my 383sbc to shame by 50 hp but thats another story.i am amazed how the 308 has transpired over the years none of us wanted to touch them with a barge pole.i do have one question and that is -what is your opinion cost wise and parts availability compared to sbc or sbf,it seems to me that the holden engine including the 6 cylinder stuff has been getting real popular,keep up the great work regards steve c

Nice work!

I have great admiration for someone that can do what you do. Beautiful work. Over the years I have moved away from the polished intake port. Do you find extra power for the many hours of polishing work? Thanks, Charlie

Did GM own Holden at that time, would have been nice to see that tech in north american chebbies.

Carnut - it's not actually polished, that's an 80 grit sanding roll finish, feels quite coarse if you run a finger over it. I get that satin finish on it with a chunk of 6mm steel rod with a slot cut in the end & chunk of scotchbrite in the slot in the grinder, a squirt of WD40 & go over the ports quickly - takes 10 minutes & gives that nice consistant satin finish - it's just a cosmetic thing.

GM did own holden, you can see some of the tech from the holden engine in the LS engines.

IMHO the holden 304's are just about the best 'old tech' small blocks around, they have their downsides, but the basics are there to make very good power with a lot of factory parts.

what is your opinion cost wise and parts availability compared to sbc or sbf,it seems to me that the holden engine including the 6 cylinder stuff has been getting real popular,keep up the great work regards steve c

The cost of building a holden compared to SBC is closing the gap, still more expensive, but not by the margin that it used to be, whole bunch of new stuff has come on the market over the last few years & some of the US companies have been getting in on making stuff for them.
You can get pretty much whatever you want now, other than more exotic stuff like cam belt drives, crank triggers & bolt on vac pump kits etc - a lot of that stuff still has to be adapted/fabricated from SBC stuff.

The head degree is amazing!

6 degree valve angle, if they had the runners raised an inch or so the potential would be huge, as it is the short turn is too low for the valve angle, chamber on the short turn side is not particularly active, the ports favour the long turn by a big margin.
Great for piston to valve clearance tho, I've run solid rollers in the 260's duration & .700" lift with no valve reliefs in flat top pistons.