Fellas,
My only experience with bridgeported engines comes from the late 80's using IDA type carbs. This made the engines difficult to drive on the street due to rough idle quality,etc. Using modern fuel injection, like a Weber Redline system or TWM throttle body, how street friendly would an engine with a small bridgeport be? If I kept the porting conservative on the bridgeport itself, with decent porting on the primaries and secondaries, would the engine make more power than a good streetport engine or do you need to go big with the bridgeporting to really make the extra power worth it versus the loss in the lower end?
Thanks,
Peacedog

 

A bridge is a bridge is a bridge is a bridge. There's no "small" bridgeport.

That said, a modern bridge is easy to drive with EFI. Mine doesn't buck, starts everytime and is stronger throughout the entire rev range then any stock/street port car that I've driven. No problems at all creeping through town at 2K. Though the idle is still 1200-1500 RPM.

 

My bridge needed to be shifted at 9200. Proper gearing for that rpm was 5.14's with 26 inch tall tires (and that was still kinda high *long*). It would drive relatively well even with a carb (no fancy EFI). On the freeway in OVERDRIVE (5th) I was at 4000 rpm. And if you muffle a bridgy down to where you wont get pulled over anymore, it loses all its power anyway. Through 3 ich and one muffler it ran good, through 2.5 inch and 2 mufflers, it was a pig. Can you drive it around? Absolutely, but I think its only fun in a weekend car, not a daily driver.