ISO 577 Ford pro stock engine.

[Force]

19 hours ago, pontiac.maniac said:

Andy, that's what I've figured out with research. I was thinking maybe being 577 cubic inch it may be a larger engine,but,it's all internal stroking that makes the 429 a 577. I feel it's a very cool car as well! I'm drawn to the car by itself,then there's the facts of it was driven by Ronnie Sox and won the championship that season,was powered by the cat in the hat Jack Roush and owned by Dean Thompson! It's a piece of history. 

Cheers,Adam

The engine in the Revell-Monogram Pro Stock Thunderbirds is 500 cubic inches but based on regular 429-460 blocks, and 577 is not that difficult to get out of a 429-460 block with longer stroke and larger cylinder bores.
One thing that can be different for the very large cubic inch mountain motors is the deck hight and bore spacing (center to center of the cylinders) and the centerline of the cam shaft is often moved up to allow for longer stroke, and most of them, if not all, are based on aftermarket blocks as the OEM blocks do not allow that large displacement within the OEM specs.
You can bore out the cylinders but not too much so to do much larger bore you have to extend the bore spacing, and that will need a completely new block, crank and heads.
Another way to gain more cubic inches is to have longer stroke but the deck hight limits how much you can go there so some large engines have engine blocks with taller deck, wich is quite easy to do in kit form, put in a shim of plastic between the block and heads to move the heads upwards and you also have to shim the intake manifold as the heads gets further appart with this modification.
The engines used today in NHRA Pro Stock are loosely based on factory engines but the DRCE (1, 2 3 and 4) is specially developed for racing with 4.900 bore spacing and a modern 500 cui Pro Stock engine has short 3.600 stroke and large cylinder bores at 4.700 inches and revs 10.500 rpm.
To compare it with a OEM Chevy 454 wich have 4.250 bore, 4.000 stroke and 4.840 bore spacing.

[pontiac.maniac]

6 hours ago, Force said:

The engine in the Revell-Monogram Pro Stock Thunderbirds is 500 cubic inches but based on regular 429-460 blocks, and 577 is not that difficult to get out of a 429-460 block with longer stroke and larger cylinder bores.
One thing that can be different for the very large cubic inch mountain motors is the deck hight and bore spacing (center to center of the cylinders) and the centerline of the cam shaft is often moved up to allow for longer stroke, and most of them, if not all, are based on aftermarket blocks as the OEM blocks do not allow that large displacement within the OEM specs.
You can bore out the cylinders but not too much so to do much larger bore you have to extend the bore spacing, and that will need a completely new block, crank and heads.
Another way to gain more cubic inches is to have longer stroke but the deck hight limits how much you can go there so some large engines have engine blocks with taller deck, wich is quite easy to do in kit form, put in a shim of plastic between the block and heads to move the heads upwards and you also have to shim the intake manifold as the heads gets further appart with this modification.
The engines used today in NHRA Pro Stock are loosely based on factory engines but the DRCE (1, 2 3 and 4) is specially developed for racing with 4.900 bore spacing and a modern 500 cui Pro Stock engine has short 3.600 stroke and large cylinder bores at 4.700 inches and revs 10.500 rpm.
To compare it with a OEM Chevy 454 wich have 4.250 bore, 4.000 stroke and 4.840 bore spacing.

Force,thanks for the info and tips! I think I will try the thin strips of styrene to shim things up. I want to do this project justice and be as correct as possible.

Cheers,Adam

[iBorg]

I hope to see this build as a WIP.

[pontiac.maniac]

On 3/19/2023 at 1:12 PM, iBorg said:

I hope to see this build as a WIP.

iBorg, I'm on the hunt for a Mustang body currently. I will be sure to make a wip thread. It's going to be a fun labor intensive build. It's hard getting models that are 40 plus years old and finding information and reference photos for a lot of older pro stock cars. Thanks for your support it means a lot!

Cheers,Adam

[Force]

On 3/19/2023 at 1:28 PM, pontiac.maniac said:

Force,thanks for the info and tips! I think I will try the thin strips of styrene to shim things up. I want to do this project justice and be as correct as possible.

Cheers,Adam

For a 577 it might not be necessary, you can have a longer stroke inside a stock engine block, I have built a stroker engine based on a FE 390 and the stock stroke is 3.78 inches and I now have a crank with 4.25 inches stroke without doing anything to the stock block, its also bored out 0,030 inches from 4.05 to 4.08 and instead of the stock 390 cu it's now 445 cu.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Force