EnginePower: Banks Baselines A Chevy Small Block….
Also posted to:
Banks baselines one of his Twin Turbo Gen1, 427′ SBC engines….without the turbos. We’ve all heard that there’s no substitute for cubic inches, but cubic inches of what? Is it cubic inches of engine that count, or cubic inches of air in the combustion chamber? It’s obviously the latter. So consider 15 psi of boost effectively doubles the size of an engine. That means 15 psi of boost will make a 350-cubic-inch performance engine behave like a 700-cubic-inch performance engine!
However, if you consider engines for a moment, you’ll immediately realize that 15-psi boost more than doubles the performance an normally aspirated powerplant. This happens for two reasons: first, the internal friction of the engine remains largely the same regardless of boost, so the extra power from turbocharging is almost totally available to power the vehicle; and second, the 15 psi of boost in the induction system actually helps push the pistons down on the intake stroke.
The upside represents good news for the small-block Chevy V8 folks, and almost all of it comes down to durability over power.
