Chevrolet Bel Air 396 SS specs

@fastestlaps please delete the performance

@ Viking : I heard this Bel Air is quite rare model because it's able to reach such a high speed in standard condition. It's look like, this 396 solid lifter is created for battle against 250 GTO if it fitted in Corvette

Thanks Super8, cool link. Yep, that is the solid lifter version of the 396. It is the same as the one used in the 1965 Corvette. The solid lifter also had stiff valve springs for high rpm use. Interesting website, I will have to explore it.

Yes this is was tuned by Chevy. You might want to look the usual source: http://www.automobile-catalog.com/
Section Chevrolet USA, full size 1965 and Bel Air 2 door

As for comparing sixties gross hp numbers to modern net, the easiest way to think about it is this: take a modern engine to a tuner, have it balanced and blueprinted, put tuned headers and straight exhaust on it, cold air intake, computer tune, replace hydraulic accessories with electric, and then run it in a carefully air conditioned room on an engine dyno. The result is the gross horsepower of that modern engine.

Engines with hydraulic lifters usually experienced valve float before they reached 6000 rpm, but solid lifter engines with stiff valve springs like the 396 could rev well above their horsepower peak. Small block engines with their shorter strokes could frequently rev high as well, but most didn't breath efficiently enough to take advantage of the revs. The Chevy LT-1, and Ford's 351 Cleveland engines (and some others) did have efficient high rpm breathing however.

If you rev an unmodified 396 with its 3.76 inch stroke to 7400 rpm you will throw a rod, too much piston speed. Chevy big blocks were the highest revving big blocks, but the peak power was at 5600 rpm and at the 6200 rev limit it had already fallen past its peak. Metallurgy was better than the fifties at least, and so newer engines could rev past 5000 rpm without valve float. NASCAR teams got special over the counter parts, and used blueprinting and tuning to reach 7000 rpm for the speedways. Chevy 396, 427, and 454 engines were some of the few capable of safely going over 6000 rpm in the sixties. I have lots of period info regarding engine technology from the fifties and sixties. However I do admit that if one re-builds one of these engines with modern parts you can increase the rev range significantly.

It might be better to use 427 L72 version to run on drag strip rather than this one

This one probably the fastest Bel Air all the time. It fitted with high revving 396 big block from corvette. This engine had about 7400 redline and enough to run this car about 156 mph with 3.31 final ratio. It's best for high speed cruising rather than drag racing.