How much horsepower can a 355 chevy engine crankout?

I you were to put everything availible to the open market and still have it be street legal, how much horseepower could a chevy 355 have?|||If you're saying "everything available", no budget, you can likely put easily over 1000 hp out of the 355.





You would need to bulletproof the bottom end, with aftermarket caps and the works, and run studs for the heads, with o-ringed gaskets. Pure ragged edge heads and a beastly cam. No standard fuel - set it up to run on E85, and a lot of focus on a powerful ignition system. On top of that, lots of boost - twin turbos matched to the hp curve, looking to make those numbers around 6000-6500 rpm.





A naturally aspirated 355 is easily capable of over 1hp without much on it in the way of mods. Nobody here thinks you couldn't double down under an ungodly amount of boost?





One man's "sick and unmanageable" is another man's "street legal". I know of a guy who runs a fairly radical minitubbed Nova with a Lenco on the street - his car is registered and legal to drive. Not that any normal driver would consider it remotely accommodating - he does.|||I build 1,000+ HP Naturally Aspirated 350's regularly. I also build them at that HP level and well above that with forced induction which will lend you the power at a more realistic RPM. However, there is just as much involved in making something at that output level live and stay together as there is in effectively "moving" that much worth of air through it to make that kind of power. In Naturally Aspirated form, it's NOT going to even remotely come close to that power level with a conventional cylinder head on it, and 14:1 + Compression, to start with.





While you can certainly accomplish it with money, other than the sake of the conversation or argument, it's insanely unrealistic.





For the money, a Big Block Chevy is the cheapest cost per HP in the engine business. And the most reliable, too.|||Grab a magazine like "HOT ROD" and you'll see lots of examples.





I've never built one up, but I've seen them dyno engines they have built. 700 HP, street legal is doable.





Most folks are able to get 400-450 BHP out of a 355. BUT.... if you have all the money in the world...





I heard someone was going to do a 900 HP small block. Dont' know if they were increasing the cubes using a small block or keeping it at 355 though.





If you put nitrous on a turbocharged 355 that's been bored and stroked to 400, you can get a ton of power. There are lots of weekend drag racers who do this stuff all day long.





I think if you're keeping the cubes at 355, don't care about making the engine last, use a blower and nitrous, you can get 600-800hp.





There is a rule of thumb. Getting 1 hp per cubic inch is pretty standard these days, even without a blower or nitrous. So 355 is almost a sure thing if you know what you're doing.





Another theory... Getting 100 HP per liter (355 cu in = about 5.8 L) is also not uncommon. That said, because a smaller engine is easier to spin faster, and since HP = (RPM * Torque)/5252, increasing RPM without doing anything else raises horsepower, so it's not uncommon to see a smaller displacement engine, like Honda's 2.0 L 4 cyl in the S2000 making more than 100 HP per Liter (naturally aspirated). The 2.0 L in the Honda S2000 makes 240 HP or 120 HP per L.





So in theory, you should be able to do the same with the 5.8L chevy - so, 5.8 multiplied by 1.2 is 6.96 - so I still say 700HP is possible and there are lots of cars in hot rod magazines to prove it.





I can't find any examples in my 2 minutes searching Google, but... I bet someone has used a turbo, super charger and or nitrous and I'm sure, someone has built a 900 HP maybe even 1000 HP street legal 355.





And they spent a FORTUNE to do it ; )





Most folks seem to be able to get 350hp to 450HP though.





Here's a 378 getting close to 700 HP


http://www.lingenfelter.com/engine-packa鈥?/a>








Good luck.|||over 1000 hp it might be street legal annd that is a street legal crap is a myth but at 1000hp it wouldnt be a car you would want to drive around on the street because all the power would be made at 5000 rpm and above so if you say didnt rev it past 4000 rpm a chevette could out run you|||A reasonable engine could produce 420hp naturally aspirated, 700+ turbocharged.|||550 horse power for the carbon fibre super car chevelet|||Your question has no backbone to it. Sounds like something a teenager would ask.





Be real and get real answers. Give more detail.





What does street legal mean? Street legal has alot of meanings based on the state you live in, the car engine is in, etc.





Have to have emission test on newers cars in most states so putting it in a 1986 monte carlo in CA. you might be able to get 400 HP and be street legal.





Put it in a non emissions tested car and your only limit is fuel





With no budget limit. I could do a 355 with 15* heads, twin turbos, water injection, nitrous cooled intercooler and get you about 1600 HP out of it





It will be street legal in non emissions car but would need 110 octane or better race fuel to run, and it would take a very skilled driver to drive it, couldnt drive it if there was any dampness to the roads at all, etc etc.. Oh and it would get about 3 to 4 miles per the gal of fuel





If you want more real world answers then with a fuel limit of 93 octane pump fuel, you can get around 800 HP out of a 355 with forced induction





Around 550 or so max N/A





My 355 is right at 600 HP N/A at the crank but to most folks its not streetable. Its street legal and my daily driver but as I said to most its looked at as a race engine/race car





idles at 1000-1100 rpm, wont run on less than 93 octane, needs a 3500 stall converter at min, makes its power between 3000-7500 rpm, not enough vac to run/work power brakes so have to run man. brakes