[ZacharyDouglas1992]

Thanks! Feel free to ask me anything you need since your build will be similar to mine, at least hyd roller big blocks if nothing else. Plus, chances are you'll ask me something and someone much more knowledgeable than I will have great answers. That's why I love this forum.

I am currently making a list of the parts I have, or will buy. Along with the machine work, etc. I'll post that tonight as I finish it.

As for your build,

sounds like a pretty good set of heads, if you aren't going to go with aluminum ones. I had the peanut ports on mine. By the time I would have picked up good bbc heads, and had the machine work done, it would have eclipsed the 800 I paid for new aluminum head, assembled. So I went that route.

I have heard mixed reviews on the cranks that use the stock length rods. Not from a performance aspect so much as that it can be a pain when it comes to clearance and balancing. but, you'll have more pistons to choose from, to look on the bright side.

To choose pistons for your application, summitracing has a fairly simple, but useful compression calculator. You will have to measure your deck clearance as it may be slightly different with the new crank. Mine was as follows, for an example.

My 454
Bore: 4.25
Stroke: 4.00
Cylinder Head Volume: 115cc
Dome Volume: -22 (22cc dome pistons)
Deck Clearance: .020
Compressed Gasket thickness: .039 (safe avg to use)
No. of cylinders: 8

That will give me about 9.7:1 compression, probably like 9.6 with valve reliefs.

your 496 (498 really haha)
Bore: 4.320
Stroke: 4.25
Cylinder Head Volume: ~118cc
Dome Volume: what you need to determine
Deck Clearance: you'll need to measure
Compressed Gasket thickness: .039 (safe avg to use)
No. of cylinders: 8

plug and play with available dome cc heads and find something around 9.5 you like. Keep in mind that If your heads have been shaved down at all you'll need to measure the chambers to get this to be accurate. I plugged in a 10cc dome piston and with your bore and stroke that was 9.36:1. That would be a great streetable CR with iron heads.

Since you have an 80's truck block, it will already be drilled for the cam retainer used for the Gen VI camshafts. Save yourself a world of headache and use one of those. This will help you avoid cam buttons and special timing covers and/or eating into your block with the cam gear. Summit sells the Gen VI timing set for like 60, comes with the retainer. It's only a single roller, but for a BBC that makes most of its power south of 5000 RPMs, should be plenty strong. its in the 502 crates after all. If you are dead set on a double roller, I think they have just the retainer available as well. Also, you'll need a melonized gear for the distributor. 40 bucks on summit. the part number will be on the list I post later on.

Good luck on your build! And congrats on the family.