Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines 194 or upgrade

I own 1965 chevelle 300 deluxe that I would like to do something different with. The original engine is a 194 inline 6 with powerglide transmission. I would like to have about 200-300 hp with an inline 6. I guess my questions are can I achieve this with a 194? If not what engine do I need to upgrade to 230-250, or 292. If I do need to upgrade will any of the parts on my 194 be interchangeable with the other block sizes? Sorry this is so long. I am probably the newest member and don't know too much about inline 6's. Thanks for all the help.

65 Chevelle 300 Deluxe
Steve (Schub71)

do you plan on running the engine naturally asperated or using a turbo/supercharger/nitrous? a 200 hp 250 motor is real reasonable, but 300hp is a tougher task. the engine will become less drivable or tempermental. tom

I will most likely run the engine naturally asperated until the money is there to add the turbo. Does the 200hp 250 motor include having the turbo or is that naturally asperated. Thanks for the help. steve

schub71,

Have you read the HRM article about the 250-292 sixes? A similarly modified 194 should put out at least as much HP/cu. in. I hope that this link still works!

Hoyt, theh link works here (I had forgotten 'the joy of 6' article, neat stuff).

FWIW if you plan to apply boost to the engine later you will want to keep the static compression lower (as compared to if you don't). I don't know how much boost it would take to geta 1945 to 300 HP (primarily because it depends on how much you start with) but I can' immagine it's too much (8 maybe 10 psi w/a charge air cooler?).

According to the article there doesn't seem to be much difference between the 194 and the 230-250. What are the differences between the three? As I understand it all the parts are interchangeable between them. Just wanting to understand my engine a little better. Thanks for all the great information. - Steve

The link isn't working for me. I get this: https://www.inliners.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=newreply&Number=17160

Hi, Schub.............
The basic difference between these 3 engines is fairly simple. The 194 is the basic engine that GM started with. The 230 is a bored out 194, and the 250 is a bored and stroked 194. That's a bit of oversimplification, because you can't do that at home. The factory increased the bore in the casting process. However, you CAN make a 250 out of a 230 by changing the crank, rods, and pistons, and you can theoretically stroke a 194 using a 250 crank, but the cost, time, and effort isn't really worth it, and you only get 215 cubes that way anyhow. It's usually less expensive and a lot faster to just find a larger displacement block and go from there. The cylinder head is the same for all 3 engines, but the combustion chambers on the 194's are smaller than the 230/250, but the bolt patterns are identical, and any head from that family will fit any block, even the 292. And not ALL the parts are interchangeable, but most of them are, especially the external bolt on parts. And with a blower and nitrous, you could possibly get around 300 horses out of a 194. For a few seconds, just before it exploded. 200 horses from a 250 is a much more reasonable goal, and that will still give you very decent performance on the street.

Here is a more direct path to the link. The link was embeded in the post that the original link led one. Not all that obvious. These images were posted last fall.

Since nobody has mentioned it yet, if you go to the "club stuff" on the left sidebar, you will find a book by Leo Santucci about these engines. Its the most comprehensive source for this series of engines to date.
and get a factory shop manual too...

no replacement for displacement...being a 292 isnt hard to find, Id probably go that route...

Schub, several posts back, you asked if the 200 hp figure was for a normally aspirated engine. Yes, it was. One of the guys in Inliners, Walt Pearce from up in Washington state, runs a '32 Chevy coupe with a 250 in it, and he is getting 250 hp from his 250 on the dyno. He was running a single Quadrajet and then switched to a pair of them, but the 250 hp was with the single 4-barrel carb. I'm not sure what he's getting with 2 4-barrels now. His coupe turns mid-13's in the quarter with a built 200r4 trans behind the 250 motor, and it's driveable on the street.