Skip White Performance 434 Small Block Chevy Engine

Skip White Performance 434 Small Block Chevy Engine

Skip White Performance is one of the biggest players in the industry pumping out an annual average of 900-1,000 engines each year. One of those engines, and one of the shop's more popular models, is this 434 small block Chevy engine. Find out the details of what goes into this 'All Out' engine package.

Skip White Performance is one of the bigger engine builders in the industry. The Kingsport, TN shop focuses on performance engines and pumps out an average of 900-1,000 engines a year.

Owner Skip White says the shop keeps $800,000 in pistons on hand at all times to avoid the six to eight-week waiting period, $250,000 in Scat cranks and connecting rods and puts together 3,000 rotating assemblies a year, all balanced on the shop’s three CWT balancing machines. Skip White Performance (SWP) keeps busy, to say the least.

“Our shop is filled with knowledgeable craftsmen and the most advanced machinery available on the market,” White says. “Our seven staff machinists and engine builders have many years of experience building racing engines and have been in this line of work for their entire careers.”

One of the more popular engines SWP builds is its 434 small block Chevy with the All Out package.

“This motor has a Dart racing block,” White says. “We do all the machining in-house and do the boring on our Centroid CNC machine. The honing we do on our Sunnen SV10 diamond hone machine. We deck the block, bore the block, hone the block and we block prep it. We do a lot of work on that block.”

SWP decks the block to an Ra finish of approximately 15 or better, and is within .001˝ accuracy from end to end. All the parts in the 434 Chevy engine are also top shelf and the engine gets balanced in-house as well.

“We use a Scat 4340 forged crankshaft and Scat Competition Series rods,” he says. “We use the best pistons money can buy – Wiseco 2618 aircraft alloy pistons. We also use AFR fully CNC’d cylinder heads, a COMP Cams camshaft, Howards Cams & Racing Components tie bar lifters and pushrods, a Quickfuel carburetor, and Scorpion race series rockers.”

A lot of engine builders sell these 427/434 small block motors, but it’s the parts SWP uses that put this engine a cut above the rest, White says.

“That includes the little things like the timing components,” he says. “We use race timing components from Cloyes. On the oil pump, we don’t just put a Melling oil pump in there like a lot of others do. We put a M-Select Melling oil pump in there. Believe me when I tell you, there’s a lot of people putting motors together who use cheap timing components and oil pumps. They weren’t intended to go in motors like this, but a lot of people do it. Even our damper now on these motors is an ATI super damper.”

The oil pan SWP uses is a U.S.-made Champ oil pan with a windage tray and trap doors. All the hardware is ARP and the engine uses Clevite bearings.

“This 434 engine features the All Out package, which has the biggest cam and intake, so you better not put this in a heavy vehicle,” White says. “This is for a medium to light car with a good gear and a decent stall converter. This also isn’t the setup that you would choose if you’re going to be driving across the country with your wife.”

The 434 can be detuned to give it better street manners, but White warns that you wouldn’t want to be putting this engine in a heavy vehicle with an overdrive transmission and a desire for it to cruise at 1,600 rpm on the highway.

“People don’t understand that the more you build that motor up in power, the worse the bottom end power becomes,” he says. “Gear ratios, stall speed and how the car is set up can make up for all that. Everybody sells horsepower. We sell horsepower too, but it’s got to go in the right application.”

Put into the right application with the All Out package this 434 small block Chevy engine makes 625 horsepower.

“We use good parts and we’ve learned our lessons the hard way,” White says. “Other people who don’t do a lot of the things we do, you’re asking for trouble. You end up just damaging the motor and killing power. You’ve got to put the right stuff in and a lot of builders out there are not doing it.”

SWP sells so many engines that if the shop were to get a bunch of engines back for failures it would kill the company on warranties.

“Why we build a motor a little better than we have to is because we’re an online seller,” White says. “We have a two-year warranty on there. This motor has got to operate. It’s got to hold up for a long, long time. Otherwise it’s going to cost a ton of money and then when it gets back here it’s a ton of work. It becomes a horrific nightmare if this motor fails, even if it’s a minor failure.”

Thankfully for customers and for Skip White Performance, the attention to detail, use of quality parts and equipment and skilled engine work mean engines like this 434 small block Chevy rarely come back with issues.

The Engine of the Week eNewsletter is sponsored by Cometic Gasket.

If you have an engine you would like to highlight in this series, please email Engine Builder magazine’s managing editor, Greg Jones at [email protected].

You May Also Like

408 cid Nitrous LS Engine

During a tour of SAM Tech, we also got a chance to speak to a few students. One in particular, Jaylon Victorian, was nearing completion of a 408 cid nitrous LS engine. He applied his new engine building knowledge and skill set to the build, and it shines through in our latest Engine of the Week.

408 cid nitrous LS engine

One of the spots we were excited to check out while we were in Houston, TX last fall was the School of Automotive Machinists & Technology, also known as SAM Tech. We’ve been able to showcase the automotive technical school, which has a focus on engine building and machining, in prior features and articles, but we hadn’t been to the facility in person – until now.

760 cid Billet Big Block Chevy Nitrous Engine

Despite what you may think about nitrous engines, and those that are stock big block Chevy bore spacing, these 4.840″ bore space big block Chevy engines have some significant R&D in them. Just check out this 760 cubic inch billet version done at TRE Racing Engines.

Naturally Aspirated 440 cid LT1 Engine

The folks at Late Model Engines in Houston, TX run a top-notch engine and machine shop. You don’t have to look much further than this naturally aspirated 440 cid LT1 engine build to see what we mean. It’s our Engine of the Week!

All-Billet 903 cid Pro Mod Engine

Pat Musi of Musi Racing Engines has been meticulously developing and tweaking his 903 cid Pro Mod engine combo since 2010. We got to see the latest and greatest version of this nitrous-powered billet beauty. Check out our first Engine of the Week of 2024!

Pat Musi Racing Engines 903 cid Pro Mod engine
Naturally Aspirated 540 cid Big Block Chevy Engine

After having issues with an engine built elsewhere, a customer came to H Squared Racing Engines to build him a streetcar combo. Utilizing an existing block and crank, H Squared was given the freedom to spec the rest of the engine. Check out the result!

Other Posts

Stuffing a Supercharged 572 cid SMX Engine in a Porsche 928

For Danny Humphreys, drag racing is a progressive disease. Ever since he watched Tom Cruise outrun a pimp in a 928 Porsche, he’s wanted the car for himself. As soon as he got one, he pulled the engine and the horsepower has gone up from there. Today, Danny has a supercharged 572 cid SMX engine

B&B Performance Adjustable Billet Timing Pointers

Available for SBC, BBC and SBF, pointers come with stainless steel pointer, fasteners and a black anodized finish.

timing pointers
Indy Cylinder Head’s Supercharged 588 cid Hemi Engine

We’ve been following Indy Cylinder Head and the engine work Ken Lazzeri for quite some time. We got a chance to speak with Ken on the final day of the PRI show when he was kind enough to walk us through the details of several of the engines they had on display, including this bracket

Ken Lazzeri Hemi Engine
Kaiju Motorsports’ All-Billet Subaru EJ 2.5L Engine

Hands down, this was one of the more eye-popping engine bays we saw during the 2023 PRI Show. The Kaiju Motorsports-built STi Subaru is a cool car in and of itself, but with an all-billet 2.5L EJ engine featuring titanium piping, this thing stopped you in your tracks and forced your head to turn. We