Big horsepower 318 builds

Bret Tschacher said
HP #'s are just that, just #'s, only way to get those is calculating Torque and RPM ! In the case of making Huge HP #'s with ANY SB, you are going to have to turn RPM and this where the SB's always ran into problems, not that they can't or won't do it but they will not live doing it. The blocks crack in the front main webs because of the iron missing where the oil passages are drilled out. That very reason is why 340's are as hard as they are to find mostly. At least ones that are not cracked. Many people don't even realize their blocks are cracked there. People destroyed them building them to turn too many RPM's. For all the factory did to make them so good at making HP, they dropped the ball in the oiling design. If I could only get ahold of a block that had not had the front passages drilled?

Yes your correct hp is just a calculation of the combined output of torque and rpm. And since torque is mainly a results of displacement we'll need to turn up the rpm, If you look at hp per displacement in each of those examples especially the small blocks we're talking about 1.25hp per cid which should be able to be made at a peak of 6000 rpm give or take a few hundred rpm which is a street strip territory type engine but far from full race and a crack the block type thing. That's why to me, that's the upper end for those engine some people might to love to make peak power a 500/1000 or more rpm higher so they will get a lot more power out of each many would like peak power at a lower rpm so less power why the hp range I gave.