I have another thought; why not consider making it a 2 valve/cylinder, single overhead cam design with cam followers and eliminate the pushrods and rocker arms. The head could easily be made to flow enough to make plenty of power. Just design a good intake and exhaust port and your there.
I built a 1952,302 GMC truck engine with 1950's, 308 Hudson connecting rods, Pontias wrist pins and a custom JE forged piston. I saved 1.25 lbs per piston/rod/pin. The engine turns 6000 rpm easily and makes 347 HP @ 5400 RPM on the dyno.
Ron
I have considered something along those lines before. Either just build up the 6 keeping push rods, or throw in a pontiac sohc 6. I have heard great things about both approaches and they make good numbers. However they are both simply not my "style"
I enjoy high winding Naturally Aspirated engines(like the 4AGE, and the BMW straight 6's) I know that with a good lump port design and bigger valves these heads can flow, but they still have their limits with only 2 valves per cylinder(look at the 240z,260z,280z crowd they can make a good 300+ hp with turbos but once those engines hit about 6000 the TQ plummets due to not enough high rpm flow)
Another thing that is stopping me from just shooting for a TQ monster is my stroke(3.25inches) not much of a throw there compared to your 302's 4inches. Plus the chevelle I own will be going through some major weight reduction(planning on a final weight of 2700-2800lbs((from about 3200lbs))) so all that low end grunt will not be needed cause a tall rear end and a nice manual 6 speed can get it going. I am also shooting for making hp/l comparable to a built 4AGE(somewhere around 90-100hp/l) which means I am going to have some pretty aggressive cams(sacrificing low end TQ but, the sheer size of the engine should make it have decent driving characteristics), something like an 8000 rpm redline, and about 11:1 compression...
You sound truly interested in my project and ANY help/ideas/construstive criticism is GREATLY APPRECIATED.
