To anyone that has a 502 GM crate engine or a Merlin 509, I am wondering what kind of times that you have had at the drag strip if you have raced it. I am going to take mine in the next week and am wondering what I can expect. Also, has anyone had any trouble from these engines yet?

They (502) typically run low 12's to high 11's in a street / strip car that's setup properly and weighs 3600 - 4000 lbs. The best I've seen to date is 11.70's.

I have one of the early non-roller 440hp motors. With a 750 double pump, 2" pri. headers to 3" pipes and flowmasters, 3000 stall, 3.73 gear, 28x11.5 tire, shifting at 5300 RPM, I've run a best of 7.54 in the 1/8th. There are no 1/4 tracks around me. By generic conversion charts (and I really doubt that they are accurate) that is supposed to be around 11.65 in the 1/4 mile. With a stock motor and the arguably small carb, the power falls off pretty fast after 5600 RPM so I don't believe it will actually pull that number. Let us know what you actually run. Dave

I don't have a 1/4 mile track that is close to me either. I will be racing on an 1/8 mile track and have to drive my car an hour just to get there. I have a Gen 6 502 long block, with the aluminum heads, Edelbrock Performer RPM, 850 double pumper Demon, and 2" Super Comps into three inch exhaust. My car is a four speed with 4:10 gears, and am also wondering with the massive low end this engine has, if I would be faster with higher gears. I have some 3:73's I can run, but am looking at 3:55's. I also have the close ratio four speed, and I hate that high first gear it has.

Is there only one person in Chevelle Tech that has raced his 502???

I think Aug98 said the right conversion from 1/4 to 1/8 ( or vice versa ) is .63. Diveide by that number to convert 1/8 to 1/4 and multiply to convert 1.4 to 1/8. So 12.00 = 7.56.

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Chaas
Gold #62/ACES
67 SS396/L88
www.chevelles.com/showroom/chaas1.jpg (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/chaas1.jpg)

I'm going thru the lights in high gear at 5000-5100 RPM already in the eighth. With the way my motor falls off at 5600, I'm guessing that 12.0's are a bit optimistic too. In real life I'm guessing I'm looking at 12.3-12.4's. Street Racer, email me once you have run. I would be interested in hearing how you run. Dave

You might want to search some of the previous postings on 502's. I posted the information below last summer in the Performance section concerning 11 second combinations. I don't think you will be disappointed with your 502!

Cubic inches are the answer! I have an all steel '68 Chevelle SS that ran low 14's with a very mild 396. Instead of spending a lot of money building a radical BB for more power, I decided to spend a lot of money on a crate engine. My combination is very simple.
The engine is a stock ZZ502/502 premium engine kit. The engine has a relatively mild hydraulic roller cam (224/234 @.050), stamped steel rocker arms, aluminum oval port heads, 9.6 to 1 compression ratio, HEI distributor, and an 850 CFM vacuum secondary Holley. Two-inch Dynomax headers, Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers and 3" Torque Tech head and tail pipes take care of the exhaust gases. The engine idles fairly smooth at 800 rpm and pulls strong from idle to the 5800 rpm redline. The transmission is a Turbo 400 with a 2000 rpm B&M Holeshot converter (flashes to around 2300 rpm). The rear-end is a stock 12-bolt with a 3.55 posi. The front suspension is completely stock with a 1-inch sway bar and new Monroe shocks. The rear is also stock (non-boxed control arms, no sway bar) with the exception of air bags on both sides. The only other changes are a line-lock for burnouts at the track and a trunk-mounted battery. The car drives better and is just as quiet at idle and cruise speeds as it was with the 396.

I went to the Muscle Car Show & Go at Englishtown, NJ a few weeks ago to see how well it runs. I drove more than 2 hours to get to the track and simply installed a set of 26" tall, 10-inch wide Mickey Thompson slicks before running. Even with a little tire spin, I ran 11.79 @ 115 mph on the first run with the transmission in drive shifting at 5400 rpm! The car weighed 3780 lbs. with me in it right after the run. Needless to say, I had to limit the throttle movement approximately 3/8" to slow it down to 12.0 sec. the rest of the day since I don't have a rollcage.

So, if you want a very mild engine that can easily put a heavyweight Chevelle in the 11’s without NOS, you can’t beat GM’s ZZ502/502!

Tom