This Chevy Small-Block Engine Gave The Camaro Its Street Cred – SlashGear

The large-ish 4-inch bore of the 302 eclipsed its short 3-inch stroke, resulting in what’s known as an oversquare design that was capable of revving to very high RPMs — approximately 7,000 rpm in an era where lazy big-blocks were lucky to rev past 5,500 or 6,000 rpm.

But high revs weren’t the only weapon in the 302’s arsenal. It was also fitted with a camshaft (often considered the mechanical “brain” of the engine) developed by famed engineer Zora-Arkus Duntov, cylinder heads lifted from a fuel-injected Corvette, and a high-rise aluminum intake manifold with a big 780 cubic feet per minute (cfm) Holley carburetor.

For durability, all of the internal components were forged steel as opposed to the weaker casting method of construction. Chevy conservatively rated the Z/28 at 290 horsepower, but subsequent independent dyno testing indicates that figure was more than 350 horsepower in reality.