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* TURBO CAM SWAP * LS NITROUS BOOST
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PLUS: OIL MYTHS DEBUNKED * DETROIT SPEED * TORQUE VS. HORSEPOWER
Shop TALK FROM THE EDITOR These are dangerous times I’ll admit, I’m not as young as I once was. I really try not to make the same curmudgeonly statements that people expect out of those of us who have somehow survived long enough to experience real change. (My favorite characters on The Muppet Show were those two old guys in the balcony — Statler and Waldorf.) Perhaps nearly 40 years in the performance industry gives me that opportunity — but I just can’t sit back and complain. I avoid this only because I don’t really want to be like those old guys I knew growing up who always took the opportunity to tell me my generation was full of hippies, draft dodgers, and malcontents. Nevertheless, it seems that even in the high performance industry that few things remain the same for long. Jeff Smith The story often comes down to two big areas of concern. The first is the problem of cheap parts. In this case, the line my friends like to use is that R&D used to stand for Research and Development but now it stands for Ripoff and Duplicate. The real problem isn’t with someone making a spark plug wire loom that looks just like MSD’s version. It’s much more dangerous than that. The real problem is when unscrupulous companies outright copy a properly engineered part then use poor material and components just so they can make more money on a cheap product. Now to be fair, not all the parts from a boat that has just sailed across the Pacific are junk. Many U.S. companies have their major parts made overseas, but they at least pay attention to quality by performing the demanding machine work here in America. You can make an argument that it really doesn’t matter where the machine work has been done and you might have a valid point. But at least these parts are being manufactured correctly with an eye toward proper design and manufacturing quality. The ones I have a problem with are the ones whose only goal is to separate the neophyte consumer from his money by delivering sub-standard parts. The second and more dangerous threat is counterfeited high performance parts. This is not a new issue, but it appears to be getting worse. Examples abound. My good friend Doug Norrdin owns Global West Suspension, a company he has spent the last 35 years building. Apparently at least one fly-by-night company was making cheap imitations of his tubular upper control arms and selling them as original Global West arms using Global’s own decals on the counterfeit parts. These parts used substandard ball joints and plastic bushings that quickly failed. Worse yet, Doug has to field phone calls from angry customers who thought they were buying a Global West part. The best way to protect yourself from these ripoff artists is to apply the classic defense mechanism of “if the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” The logical step is to buy your parts from wellknown dealers or directly from the manufacturer. That way you know the parts are legitimate and that the manufacturer will stand behind them. Networking is an over-used term but for the benefit of newcomers, it is nothing less than essential. Find an enthusiast you can trust, who has spent his money wisely, and had good success with applying his high performance knowledge. Use him (or her) as a sounding board for your next adventure. The great thing about hot rodders is they are passionate about their hobby and love nothing better than to talk for hours on the subject. Just be forewarned, these folks also tend to be extremely brand loyal. The good news is it won’t take long to figure that out.
Staff Group Publisher
Shawn Brereton
Editorial Director Jeff Huneycutt Senior Tech Editor Jeff Smith Contributors Richard Holdener Dan Hodgdon Manufacturers
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Power & Performance News is published biannually to promote hardcore automotive performance as well as recognize the parts and services from participating manufacturers. The magazine consists of dedicated information from partner companies with the mission of disseminating unfiltered editorial on companies, products and services directly to automotive enthusiasts. Editorial and advertisements for each issue originate from partner companies participating in the magazine. Power & Performance News is a hybrid of content that was originally published at PPNDigital.com as well as original content that was created for this biannual print magazine. Magazine distribution occurs through direct distribution from parent company Xceleration Media and partner companies. Power & Performance News is a property of Xceleration Media. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written consent from Xceleration Media. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.
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Editor Jeff Huneycutt snapped this photo of Patrick Barnhill’s XRE Hemi from Xtreme Racing Engines at last year’s PRI show.
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YATES ON YATE S Robert Yate in his own s words
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TECH 18 FLOWING FUEL
FEATURES 12 FENDING OFF PIRATES
22 NOT ALL ABOUT HORSES
28 THE LIFE OF YATES
32 BUMPSTICK WITH BOOST
38 THE 6TH SENSE
36 BETTER BRAIDS
54 SIZZLIN’ ‘STANG
42 PRESSING NEED
84 ENGINEERED FOR SPEED
It’s easy to retrofit an in-tank pump Torque shouldn’t get overlooked A turbo LS gets more cam
Quality hoses and fittings for the masses Changing springs is easy with the right tool
44 BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS Put your valvetrain in harmony
50 WIRE WALKING
Upgrade your drive-by-wire
62 DOUBLE CLUTCHIN’ Bringing race tech to the street
66 NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE Listen to the engine, before it’s too late
72 THE RUMOR MILL
Don’t believe everything you hear about oil
76 SHOT IN THE ARM
A little 4.8 takes a hit of the funny gas
80 CONTROLLED IGNITION
Not it’s easier than ever to tune your EFI
88 IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES Not all gears get along
94 DYNO DISSECTION
How TCI triple-tests transmissions
2 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Fighting off-shore counterfeiters How he got to where he is
Introducing the all new GEN6 Camaro Mario De Leon’s 66 burns like the sun Take a tour of the DSE shop
CONTENTS SPEED SHOP
Phantom Fuel System Aeromotive................................ 58 Ford 6R80 High-Stall, Lock-Up Torque Converters TCI.................................................... 58 BR30 Conventional Break-In Oil Driven Racing Oil..... 59 Ford Coyote Valve Spring Kits COMP Cams................ 59 Super Damper for 2015 HEMI Hellcat engine ATI Performance................. 59 HEI Conversion Kits Crane Cams................................... 60 XR-1A LS-Style High-Output Ignition Coil Set FAST..................................................... 60 10.4” Optimum-SR Two-Disc LS Clutches Quarter Master......................... 60 Lunati 6-Counterweight Voodoo BBC Cranks Lunati.... 61
DEPARTMENTS 01 SHOP TALK Letter from the editor
04 SPEED NEWS 06 DIGITAL GUIDE
Power and performance sites, apps, and social media
07 SOCIAL MEDIA SOUND OFF
Stay connected through social media
10 VIDEO REWIND
Racing, product and entertainment videos
52 TOOL SPOTLIGHT
We put SmartStraps Retractable Tow Strap to the test
90 ADVENTURE/ LIFESTYLE
Dad the gearhead
96 PARTING SHOT
Even more features, videos, & event coverage
@PPNDigital.com
PPNDigital.com 3
Speed NEWS NEWS / HEADLINES / HOT TOPICS
SPONSORED BY
2016 Camaro establishes new benchmarks The sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro revealed in May offers higher levels of performance, technology, and refinement and is designed to maintain the sporty car segment leadership earned over the past five years. The Gen Six Camaro
provides a faster, more nimble driving experience, enabled by an all-new, lighter architecture, and a broader powertrain range. Six all-new powertrain combinations are offered, including a 2.0L Turbo, an all-new 3.6L V-6, and the LT1 6.2L V-8, which
is SAE-certified at 455 horsepower (339 kW) and 455 lb.-ft. of torque (617 Nm) — for the most powerful Camaro SS ever. Each engine is available with a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic transmission. Camaro’s leaner, stiffer platform, and
slightly smaller dimensions are accentuated by a dramatic, sculpted exterior. Only two parts carry over from the fifth-generation Camaro to the new Gen Six: the rear bowtie emblem and the SS badge. See more on the 2016 Camaro on page 38.
2016 Viper to be fastest street-legal track version ever Viper enthusiasts excited about dominating their local road course, but wanting the ability to drive their vehicle home from the track, can now place their orders for the fastest street-legal Viper track car ever built. The next chapter in the history of the ultimate street-legal, track-focused, hand-built American supercar begins with the return of the new 2016 Dodge Viper ACR. Certified for public roads and engineered to wring every last 4 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
hundredth of a second out of road course lap times, the Viper ACR combines the latest in aerodynamic, braking, and tire technology — a recipe designed to carry on the
ACR’s lap-time busting reputation that has made it a legend on race tracks around the world. The American Club Racer model of the iconic, hand-built American supercar will have a starting MSRP of $117,895 (excluding destination and gas guzzler tax) and will be powered by a handcrafted, all-aluminum 8.4-liter V-10 overhead-valve engine, rated at 645 horsepower and 600 lb.-ft. of torque — the most torque of any naturally aspirated sports-car engine in the world.
Speed NEWS
NEWS / HEADLINES / HOT TOPICS
Xceleration Media to sponsor giveaway at Street Machine National events Post car images to Facebook to be eligible for Gearhead Powerpack Giveaway
Xceleration Media, parent company of Power and Peformance News, has just announced the Gearhead Powerpack Giveaway, in conjunction with the Street Machine Nationals. Contestants can submit photos of their car on the Power and Performance News, Street Rod Life, or, Gearheads4Life Facebook pages. Prior to the event the editors for each site will choose the car which they feel best represents their brand. Eligible contestants must be able to attend the event with their car, where they will get the VIP treatment: Free registration for the vehicle and one free passenger into the Street Machine National event. Free VIP parking in a designated area within the event
signifying you are the Gearhead Powerpack Giveaway Winner. The winning car will be highlighted in the Xceleration Media print magazine correlating to the website from which it was chosen.
Winners will receive:
One gift certificate for $150 from COMP Cams One gift certificate for $100 from FAST One gift certificate for $100 from TCI One gift certificate for $100 from ZEX One gift certificate for $100 from RHS One free case of Driven Hot Rod Oil
Ford boosting power of Focus RS Ford engineers are working feverishly on the all-wheel-drive Focus RS to get the super-compact ready for sale next year. Its power is rising above the already-announced 315 horsepower from a 2.3L EcoBoost four-cylinder engine. Work also continues to wring the last dram of performance from the new performance-oriented AWD system with supplier GKN. The
system reads steering angle, suspension travel, throttle position, wheel slip and other factors to direct power for maximum traction. The RS hot hatchback will feature Brembo brakes, launch control, a drive mode specifically for drifting, Tenneco two-stage shocks and the ability to shift 70% of its torque to the rear wheels. Ford will initially only build the RS
with a manual transmission, but could add an automatic if sales take off. Ford expects the U.S. to be the largest market for the RS. The car will go on sale here next spring, shortly after it debuts in Europe. Ford will sell smaller numbers in other markets all around the world. The 2016 RS will be the first time Ford’s sold a Focus RS in the United States.
Date set for 26th AETC in Indianapolis Now more than a quarter-century old, the Advanced Engineering Technology Conference has become the premier meeting place for the exchange of engineering information and new technology trends. The nation’s top engine builders and performance industry experts will descend on Indianapolis, Indiana, in December for the 2015 edition of the event. This years event is set to take place just prior to the PRI Trade Show on December 8–9 at the Indiana Convention Center. The conference brings together a wide variety of engine builders, design engineers, business owners, media members, parts manufacturers and racers. Seminars on front-line engineering topics by some of the brightest minds in the performance industry fill the two-day conference, while a variety of networking opportunities encourage the exchange of information and relationship building. A total of $30,000 in prizes and certificates are presented throughout the event as well. PPNDigital.com 5
Digital GUIDE WEBSITES / FORUMS / APPS Searching for informative websites is getting increasingly difficult. We weeded through a few of our most recent finds to save you time and help spread the word of a few quality sites and helpful forums we have found lately.
Websites On The Dyno
OnTheDyno.com is a unique, interactive online information source that combines the most desirable aspects of enthusiast’s magazines, automotive forums and extensive product evaluation with weekly, monthly and yearly prize packages. You don’t just learn what performance parts work best, you have a chance to win them. onthedyno.com
Forums Pro-Touring
If you have a pro-touring car or are looking into building one, then this website/forum is where you need to spend your time. They have news, events, new products, tech articles, and videos. If you have any questions concerning your build, the folks on this forum will be able to provide you with some great answers and advice. Do yourself a favor and sign up to this forum today. pro-touring.com
Gearheads4Life
Muscle Car of the Week
NASA
Ford Muscle Forums
DragStuff
Speedtalk.com
If it’s automotive and it’s considered cool, you’ll find it at Gearheads4Life. Fueled by high frequency news, commentary and original video content updates, this unique automotive lifestyle publication covers the hobby, its history and the iconic personalities that make it such an ingrained part of the American culture. gearheads4life.com
If you’re into Ford Muscle Cars, this forum has everything you’ll need. The forum is broken out in different Ford models and years which makes it easy to ask questions and see answers. The general Ford Techboard appears to be one of the most active threads on the forum in case you have one of those questions that is not specific to a certain model. If you’re a Ford guy then this is the forum for you. fordmuscleforums.com
Power and Performance at your fingertips Power & Performance News has made it as easy as possible for you to receive the information you are looking for in the format you feel most comfortable with. Whether you get your information on a laptop, tablet, or your phone, we have several avenues for you to get info straight from the source. Our content is updated daily, so check often with Power & Performance News through any of the social media options on the right.
6 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
If you love muscel cars, be prepared to spend a lot of time in front of the computer screen. This website has a large video collection of incredible Chevy, Ford, Mopar, and B-O-P iron ranging from rare cars to one-off racers. You can search through a list of your favorites or just sit back and start watching them all. musclecaroftheweek.com
Are you a drag racer? Then you’ll enjoy spending your time on this forum. They have technical threads covering categories from engine to body. The forum also has pretty active general threads consisting of bench racing to new products that racers may be interested in. If you are a drag racer this is a one stop shop for all your drag racing questions. dragstuff.com/forum
No, not that NASA. We’re talking about the National Auto Sport Association. They are a business dedicated to organizing and promoting racing activities for both the aspiring or accomplished racer. NASA has created programs that allow owners of both racecars and high performance street-driven vehicles to enjoy the full performance capabilities of their cars in a safe and controlled environment. nasaproracing.com
This forum is one of the best for engine tech. Many of the forum users are professional engine builders and are generally very helpful. If you head over there to ask a question be sure to a do quick search first as there are already thousands of questions with excellent answers. It doesn’t matter if you are new to turning wrenches or you’re already an expert engine builder, this site will be helpful next time you have an automotive related question. speedtalk.com/forum
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Speeding to the finish Robby Unser wheels the Team Speedway G-Comp ’65 Nova around the Goodguys Nashville Autocross course. Robby is splitting driving duties this year with cousin Al Unser Jr. at events across the country.
8 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Photo by Shawn Brereton
Video REWIND RACING / PRODUCT / ENTERTAINMENT Video Rewind is where we point out interesting videos found on the internet. Whether they are historical, funny, dramatic, technical, or whatever. We like them, so we thought you might too.
SIGN UP TO KEEP UP Subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with our original and curated video content that is updated daily by the Power & Performance News editorial staff. youtube.com/PowerPerformanceNews
Engines & TECH
Cool CARS
BUILT IN A BASEMENT Bill Akin has restored several classic Indy cars in his day. His latest restoration is this car that ran in the 1962 Indy 500 and finished 12th. It is powered by a four-cylinder Offy that produces approximately 400 horsepower. It fires up and sounds incredible in the video — but maybe most impressive of all is Akin has done all this not in a large, well-equipped shop but in the basement of his Tennessee home. youtu.be/RkfnQASsppQ
2,500 HORSEPOWER SMALL-BLOCK FORD Steve Morris Engines worked with Bullseye Turbo to build this methanol burning, 438c.i. Ford. The turbos are sized at 83mm each, pushing lots of boost into the billet cylinder heads to make an incredible 2,500 horsepower. It is all run by the same Holley Dominator EFI you can buy from your local speed shop today. youtu.be/uHVE7KfpWXE
Wild RIDES
HOONICORN TESTING THE FUTURE OF CARS The Oak Ridge National Laboratory 3D printed a full-size working model of the Shelby Cobra. It was an exercise to look into viable ideas to advance automobile manufacturing technologies in the future. What they came up with is pretty enlightening. youtu.be/HXvIMRklWiM 10 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
The “Hoonicorn,” if you aren’t aware, is the one-off, four-wheel-drive Mustang built to be the star of Ken Block’s Gymkhana 7 video. (if you haven’t seen it, it is definitely worth your time to do a search on YouTube.) But before all that, this is the video of the first test of the beast. We think we like it better without all the bodywork! youtu.be/oQmLbcsPjh4
ICELAND HILLCLIMB This is Formula Offroad from Iceland where 4WD machines with monster horsepower take on ridiculous obstacles. Here, two drivers take on this vertical cliff with less than ideal results. It was a bad day for axles in this clip. youtu.be/76ahoaVcUMk
- TELEVISION FOR WHAT MOVES YOU -
E H T N I E AD
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Many unscrupulous companies are taking advantage of consumers by passing off foreign goods as “Made in the USA” Words Jeff Huneycutt 12 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
“MADE IN THE USA.” If you are a patriotic United States citizen, this is
Photo by Shawn Brereton
most likely an important phrase to you, and finding this label on a particular product may even influence your purchasing decisions. After all, buying goods that are made in the United States is the best way we can guarantee jobs will also remain here. Of course, it is easy to talk the talk, but when money is tight and you can save a significant portion by not worrying about where something is made, that decision becomes quite a bit tougher. PPNDigital 13
Let’s just be honest here, it is especially true for hot rodders and racers, because the money spent on these pursuits is quite often discretionary income. In other words, money for the car comes from whatever is left over after the house payment is made, the groceries are purchased, and the credit card companies have been given enough to keep them off your back for another month. So you have to bargain shop, right? Consumer Reports magazine did some research in 2013 and the findings sound quite similar. The Consumer Reports National Research Center found that 78 percent of Americans (citizens of the United States of America) said they would rather buy an American product versus something made overseas. Of that 78 percent, more than 80 percent said their reason was mainly to help keep manufacturing jobs in the country. More than 60 percent said they would buy American made clothes and appliances even if the cost is 10 percent higher than an imported version. But here’s the rub, if the difference rose to 20 percent, that number dropped to just 25 percent of Americans willing to pay the difference. By that math, 75 percent of Americans would drop their “Made in the USA” pride and go for a $12.50 foreign-made thermostat, while only 25 percent of Americans would be willing to pay 20 percent more ($15 total) for an American-made one.
75 percent of Americans would drop their “Made in the USA” pride and go for a $12.50 foreign-made thermostat, while only 25 percent of Americans would be willing to pay 20 percent more ($15 total) for an American-made one. And it gets worse. Many unethical companies use shady techniques to get consumers to think they are buying American when they are not. Consumer Reports cited a company out of Mexico printing shirts with words “Made in the” with an Amer14 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Car guys (and gals) are pretty patriotic as a whole, but unethical companies have been known to mislead consumers into thinking they are buying American when they aren’t.
ican flag below it. You and I would almost certainly think that means the product is made in the USA, but it doesn’t actually violate Federal Trade Commission regulations. Fortunately, automobiles and auto parts — along with textiles, wool, and fur — must have a Made in the USA label if the majority of production is done in the USA. Otherwise, they must carry a label for the country of origin. But unethical companies still try to game the system. We’ve seen foreign-based companies use a logo that looks similar to something that screams USA, like an eagle carrying a red, white, and blue shield. Some companies will even simply rip off a trusted American company’s logo and counterfeit its product. We recently spoke with Vic Wood, the Vice President and GM of Aeromotive, who told us of the company’s efforts to fight counterfeiters. “Here at Aeromotive we have been very proactive in protecting our products and our trademark from offshore counterfeit operations,” Wood says. “That has been driven by people who have attempted to copy our products in many cases. They don’t re-engineer it, they ‘de-engineer’ it because they take away much of the quality. And they attempt to put our logo on their product. “We have gone to enormous lengths to register our logo in China
with the Chinese legal system. We have worked very hard on that, and that has not been an inexpensive exercise. We have had companies prosecuted now for copying our products, and we have no hesitation listing them on our website, so that our consumers can look and see what a copy product looks like and who it is coming from. “We patent all of our stuff whenever we can, so that we have some kind of patent protection as well,” Wood adds. “A great example is at last year’s SEMA show we found copy product in the show. So we worked through the SEMA legal system, which was fantastic. “We had enormous support from SEMA and their legal team at the show, and we had the people in the show served with legal paperwork. We had the product removed from the show and we followed that all the way through to the courts and achieved a prosecution on those people located in China. We are very proactive in sticking up for ourselves. “You’ve got to be alert for counterfeit product and you’ve got to be prepared to stand up. I have seen numerous companies say, ‘Well, we don’t know what to do about it. We don’t know how to work with the system.’ There are ways and means to do it, but you’ve got to be prepared to step up and go for it. I think the more of us that do, the
better off we are going to be. There are legal systems available, but you have to be committed to chase it. And unfortunately, you’ve also got to be prepared to spend the money.” One tactic some companies will take is instead of trying to copy a product logo, they will simply copy an existing product and sell it under its own brand name. This eliminates the cost of any engineering or even research and development. By manufacturing the product in China or some other country, they can cut costs even further. But this often comes at the expense of quality. “The biggest thing with going to places like China is they just go buy a part. They take it over there and set it on somebody’s desk — more often than not, they don’t even take it, they just ship it — and say ‘Hey, make me some of these,’” says COMP Cams’ Chief of Operations, Scooter Brothers. “And they have no development, no research, and no blueprints — none of that stuff involved in creating a product. “Yes, you can reverse engineer some products like that, but all you have are measurements,” Brothers
Aeromotive is very open about its fight against counterfeit products. On the left is a genuine Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator that is built to high tolerances and promises years of service. On the right is a counterfeit built to look like the real thing, but to cut costs, the counterfeit regulator also cuts many corners when it comes to quality.
adds. “You don’t know the metallurgy, or why a certain alloy was used. You don’t know specifics on the machining process. And more often than not, these guys don’t care anyway. “So then they ship it back over here, and they sell totally on price, and what we have to do is make sure that people understand that it isn’t the same. It might look the same, and it may bolt up and work
at first, but it probably won’t work as well, and it probably won’t last as long either.” Brothers points out that an often overlooked consequence of copycat products produced overseas is that it lowers the perceived value of goods engineered and produced in the United States. If consumers are continuously duped by knockoff imports with
lower prices, they don’t have the experience to know just what they are missing out on. When a product is well-engineered, manufactured to tight tolerances, and checked over by a scrupulous quality control department, the outcome is better results all around. Examples of those better results include bolt-ons that actually bolt on without having to drag out the band saw and welder, a knowledgeable tech support department that can actually answer questions and assist with the install, and performance that meets the expectations, durability, and even a warranty. All these ancillary benefits costs money, but U.S.-based companies are willing to invest in these services and features, because the compaies won’t last long if they don’t. Offshore companies building copycat product are known to make returns incredibly difficult, or even impossible. From what we understand, the typical thinking on their end is that by the time consumers realize their “too good to be true” cheap product isn’t any good, they will have moved on to make something else. “Quality of materials is an area where these knockoff products can really hurt the consumer,” Brothers explains. “They are missing out on that side, because they don’t know. Anybody that has ever been over to any of the Asian countries — excluding Taiwan and Japan, which have pretty much gotten past this — will
see that the prevailing thought is ‘Good enough is OK.’ That is the thinking dimensionally, metallurgically, cosmetically — everything is OK as long as it looks good and it will perform. But it doesn’t have to perform well for very long. “From my experience many of these places have serious issues with metallurgy. They have serious issues with heat treat. And not all the time, but quite often, they have issues in manufacturing with the quality of machine work. “Now some of them are getting up to speed on that, but it is still the fact of the matter that when a U.S. company goes over there and says, ‘I want a wheel bearing, and I want to pay a dollar for it,’ then they are going to get a dollar’s worth of wheel bearing. What they will get is something that will look like a bearing, and will install like a wheel bearing, but will it last? Will it perform properly? Will it do all the other things that you need from it? Probably not.” Brothers says that the solution that COMP Cams — and all the companies working under the COMP Performance Group umbrella — have come up with, is to innovate faster than they can be copied. “I don’t worry too much about the short-term, but I do worry about the long-term benefits,”Brothers says. “That’s what we have to be careful of. Companies like ours just have to move faster than [the copy-
Odds are an engine build this extreme uses the highest quality components throughout. But any performance engine is an investment. Is saving a few bucks on, for example, a knockoff oil pump, really worth the savings if it fails and destroys your engine? 16 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
cats] can move. The way that they do it is just go buy one of my products, then go somewhere and have it knocked off. “The very best they can do is be about a year behind. So if I move fast enough, they are only going to copy what I used to have. That’s the biggest advantage you got as a manufacturer. “So the best they can do is be second. Now if that is good enough — being second in time, second in performance, and second in quality — if that is good enough for the consumer, if he makes the conscious decision that he’s willing to sacrifice those things, then he should buy the cheaper one. “But I will suggest to you that most people in our industry are not going to make that decision.” Of course, this is a world economy that we live in. The manufacturers based in the United States often have to source pieces for their products that come from other countries. Just take Ford and General Motors for example, both have invested heavily in plants to continue production of most of their vehicles right here in the United States. But both also source products that go into their vehicles from companies that produce in other countries. Not knockoff products, mind you, but products that meet their engineering specs. Any company that hopes to produce a quality product at a competitive price must look for every option, and sometimes working with a foreign manufacturer is an ethical answer. Brothers notes that RHS uses a foundry in China for one of its cylinder head castings. “Probably one of the best aluminum casting houses I’ve ever seen,” Brothers explains. “They do 250,000 cylinder heads a month, and almost all of them are staying in China as OE cylinder heads. We get ours from there not for the price, but for the quality of the castings. “The price of aluminum is a commodity price on the materials, and that doesn’t change. Then you’ve got the aggravation with the freight, the shipping time, and all the other stuff that you have got to factor in. However, sometimes you just have to go to whoever is the best at making what you need. “But they are horrible at machin-
If being second in time, second in performance, and second in quality is good enough for the consumer, if he makes the conscious decision that he’s willing to sacrifice those things, then he should buy the cheaper one.
ing the heads. So we have them just do a quick machine to cube them off before they send them over here, and we do the rest of it here in the United States.” So what can we as consumers do? How do we balance value to make sure we are getting the best on both price and performance? Both Wood and Brothers encourage their customers, both current and potential, to do their homework. Brothers points out that ethical motorsports and performance automotive companies operating in the United States aren’t trying to gouge consumers. But research and development, engineering, product testing, a tech support staff manning the phone banks, and even warranty repairs and exchanges cost money. Still, if you look around, similar products from similar companies will sell their products for similar costs. For example, Crane and MSD are both reputable manufacturers of ignition equipment that make quality products, and their prices are in line with each other. If you see a newcomer come in with an ignition box that looks
suspiciously like MSD’s venerable 6AL for less than half the price, you know something is up. “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys,” is the colorful phrase Wood uses, but it makes sense. “We are happy to tell people which companies are Aeromotive official distributors,” Wood adds. “If you want branded product and to make sure you aren’t getting ripped off by a counterfeiter, you need to shop recognized distribution channels. Don’t just by off the Internet from the first guy you come across. “We’re not talking about the JEGS and the Summits of the world. Those people don’t do it. It’s the guy that sets up an ebay store or a backyard speed shop who gets stuff from who-knowswhere and starts throwing it into
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the market. If people buy that, they usually get a sub-par product with no tech support and no warranty. They are out on their own.” Wood and Brothers both stress that consumers should consider overall value and not the price. In other words, if you find a great deal on an engine oil pump, — that’s awesome — but if the pump fails and leaves you with significant engine repairs, was it really such a great deal after all? Value is getting the right part for the right price and using it to squeeze maximum performance from your hot rod or race car with minimum headache. That may sometimes cost a little more money, but the results are usually worth it.
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PPNDigital.com 17
In memory of Jim Beattie
®
PHANTOM
FLOW
THE ADVANCEMENTS IN TECHNOLOGY that make
today’s self-learning electronic fuel injection systems possible for hot rodders are fantastic. Several manufacturers are on board with systems that bolt right up, can handle tons of power, and eliminate the old torture of spending untold hours with a laptop plugged into the car just so you can fiddle with confusing fuel maps. There are a few issues hot rodders may run into when they try to upgrade their carburetor to one of the new EFI systems. One of the most important is that the fuel system must be reworked in order to handle the demands of electronic fuel injection. EFI requires a much higher fuel pressure than a typical mechanical fuel pump can provide. Even many electric fuel pumps designed for use on a carbureted engine cannot provide enough pressure to keep an EFI system happy. Unfortunately, upgrading the fuel system opens up an all new can of worms. Because it has a low vapor pressure, gasoline should always be pushed and not pulled. 18 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Words Jeff Huneycutt
Aeromotive’s in-tank fuel systems solve your biggest potential headache Any time you place the electric fuel pump above the fuel tank, you have to pull fuel by creating a vacuum with the pump in the pickup and fuel lines. That negative pressure can cause the fuel to flash to vapor, which creates cavitation at the fuel pump that starves the engine, resulting in a poorly running engine at the least. Fixing this typically requires mounting the fuel pump so it is lower than the fuel tank. This creates all sorts of issues because the fuel tank is already pretty low. Now you are dealing with plumbing and a fuel pump that is exposed very low on the car, difficult to work around for the suspension and exhaust, and if it is visible, cluttering up the clean look of your great car. The solution is to place the fuel pump in the tank, which is what the OEM manufacturers have been doing for decades now. Fuel pumps inside of fuel tanks can be set up so they are always pushing fuel to eliminate the issue of flash
vaporization. It also provides the pump a layer of protection from the elements, hides it from view, muffles the sound of operation, and keeps the electric motor cool so it will last longer. That’s the idea behind the engineering in Aeromotive’s Phantom fuel pump systems. Previously, some hot rodders avoided putting an aftermarket fuel pump into a stock fuel tank because it could be pretty tricky or require a lot of fabrication. Let’s face it, welding on a tank that’s had gasoline in it is not something many of us are comfortable with, but the Phantom systems fix all of that. “The Phantom series is the byproduct of years of frustration trying to help people get their fuel systems right,” Aeromotive’s Brett Clow explains. “I talk with car guys and racers every day, and I was hearing their frustrations from all these different issues they were having with their fuel systems. I think our Phantom line of products can really help solve those problems. “Aeromotive’s Stealth technology is anything we do when the fuel pump is in the tank,” he adds. “That includes our Stealth fuel cells and the new Phantom series. The Phantom is an installation technology that allows you to put that pump into practically any fuel tank.
The Phantom series is the byproduct of years of frustration trying to help people get their fuel systems right. “The point of the Phantom is to give people the technology they need to easily — and I mean very easily — set up their fuel system to be able to handle just about anything. The tool requirements are a set of quarter-drive sockets, a hacksaw, a bread knife, and a cordless drill. That’s it. You can literally cut the foam to the size you need it with a bread knife.” Aeromotive’s new Phantom in-tank fuel systems are really quite innovative. For example, they require no welding. That may not seem like such a big deal until you realize it also includes installing the system in a corrugated tank, which may not have a flat area large enough for the sealing ring. But that’s not a problem with the Phantom — the method Aeromotive’s engineers have come up with to seal the fuel pump in the tank can actually account for variances in height. “It really was a challenge trying to develop this system so it can work with practically any fuel tank,” Clow says. “Number one, you’ve got to suspend it or support it in the tank so it does not leak. Also, you have to have a way to get the electrical power (power and ground) to the pump inside the tank. And making an electrical bulkhead that will safely pass the power and ground through the tank wall that will be hearty, robust, and seal, and not potentially leak — is a technology not available to just anyone. “The key thing about the Phantom is when you install it, you are given a proper high-current draw, pos-
DUAL PHANTOM One of the more interesting products in Aeromotive’s Phantom lineup is the Dual Phantom in-tank unit. The Dual Phantom places two of Aeromotive’s 340 pumps (340 liters per hour at 40 psi) in the tank, and our immediate question was “Why use two pumps instead of just one BIG pump?” It turns out there are a couple of reasons for running two fuel pumps in your tank. The first is for efficiency. With a little clever wiring, you can use a single pump to provide fuel for regular driving and not activate the second pump until you hit wide-open throttle when it is needed to provide additional fuel. This reduces the amount of unused fuel pumped through the return lines and helps keep everything cooler. One way to do this is to run a vacuum switch to the intake manifold. When the manifold sees vacuum, it means you are operating at part throttle and the switch stays off. But when you hit wide-open throttle the vacuum drops in the intake manifold, kicking the switch on and firing up the second fuel pump to ensure you have plenty of fuel at the injectors when you need it most. The second reason can be pretty useful to long distance and endurance racers. Clow says many off-road racers have fallen in love with the Dual Phantom setup, because it gives them a switchable backup pump that allows them to keep racing in the event of an issue, without ever getting out of the truck. The Dual Phantom isn’t just two pumps, it’s practically two of everything. “The off-road guys really appreciate being able to have redundant systems,” Clow says. “With twin electrical systems on the Dual Phantom, you have complete control of the pumps. You also have a separate fuel port outlet for each pump, so they can route one of our fuel filters for each pump and then go to a common line that runs to the engine. A pump failure is pretty rare, but a clogged fuel filter is more common in the conditions they are racing in, so if a filter clogs they can just switch to the other pump and keep racing.”
itively sealing, electrical bulkhead assembly. Also, we supply the outlet port and the return port, as well as an auxiliary vent. “So when the Phantom is installed into the tank, it includes all the other modifications that need to be made to the tank in terms of ports and the electrical PPNDigital.com 19
The basis for all of the Phantom systems is (at least) one of Aeromotive’s super-efficient fuel pumps.
bulkhead. You don’t have to worry about it because it is already engineered into the Phantom.” One of the most interesting facets of the Phantom intank system is how the baffle is designed to maintain a sufficient supply of fuel around the fuel-pump pickup. Especially with EFI, anytime the fuel pump isn’t able to provide a constant supply of fuel at the right pressure, it can cause a dramatic drop in performance. The Phantom system is easily adjustabe so the height of the baffle, as well as the pickup for the fuel pump, can be placed near the tank’s floor, no matter what tank you are using. Each baffle is properly sized so it holds a reservoir of fuel specific for the pump. In other words, the baffle for a Phantom 200 (that can handle up to 750 horsepower) is a different size than the baffle on a dual Phantom, which has two fuel pumps and can handle 2000 horsepower. “The baffle is what is so incredible on this system,” Clow says. “I have thought for years about how we can design a baffle that can be installed into a tank so it does not require the guy to have a welder. If you have to get out a welder, now you are talking about welding on this galvanized thin-gauge steel. “Not just any guy who can weld can do this. And even if you are a fantastic welder, after you have welded on the tank, now you have burned away the coating and created an area where the steel can rust and corrode
One of the cool things about the Phantom system is it doesn’t require a perfectly flat spot on your fuel tank for mounting. Notice where the access hole is being drilled across a corrugated portion of this tank. The Phantom collar can seal across the variances in height.
over time. It just isn’t a good situation.” The bladder itself is fabricated from unique aerospace fabrics. It’s more than simple rubber and is completely compatible with gasoline, ethanol, and methanol. In fact, there is no fuel currently on the market — other than nitro methane — that has any ef-
If you need a fuel tank, Aeromotive has a line of Stealth tanks that already incorporate an in-tank pump, with the electrical bulkhead and even outlet, return, and vent ports built in. 20 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
The point of the Phantom is to give people the technology they need to easily — and I mean very easily — set up their fuel system to be able to handle just about anything. fect on this material. The same is true for the foam used to help the bladder hold its shape once inserted into the fuel tank. “I have talked to some guys that were worried about the foam breaking down, because they have had a bad experience with the foam in a cheap fuel cell,” Clow says. “But be assured, this is not the same stuff. “These are very high-end materials that we are using for both the foam and the bladder. We realize once it goes into the tank it’s not going to come back out — and we don’t want it to come out. So we have done our research to ensure that it is a quality product, and it is a long-term solution for your fuel system.” Everything about the Phantom system is designed around ease of installation and helping the fuel pump to do its job as well as possible. The pumps, of course, are Aeromotive’s innovative high-flowing units. “All these pumps are what we call turbine pumping mechanisms,” Clow says. “It is not a rolling vane, sliding vane, or a gerotor. In other words, it’s not a
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gear-meshing type of mechanism. It is just a disk that’s highly machined with a turbine kind of cut. “These types of pumps will not make any measurable type of vacuum. They are not positive-displacement type pumps. But because of the way they work they are whisper quiet. There is no meshing sound as the pumping system moves the fuel, it’s only a spinning disk. Because there are many very tiny cuts in the disk, it can be sped up and slowed down much more easily than a typical positive-displacement pumping mechanism. They don’t clog when you stop and start them. It’s amazing how much volume they can move.” Source: Aeromotive, aeromotiveinc.com
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Here’s another angle of the Phantom system. Notice how the electrical bulkhead is engineered into the system. It’s just one less task you have to worry about.
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THE GREAT DEBATE
TORQUE vs.
HORSEPOWER
The street car guide to better acceleration IN THE PERFORMANCE GAME,
the talk is all about horsepower. It’s splashed across magazine covers and horsepower numbers are prominently displayed, especially now when the numbers are over 1,000. It seems that we are forever being indoctrinated into believing that horsepower is the great solution. And most of the time, that’s correct, but not always. If you are building a Bonneville car or a top speed race car, 22 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
then peak horsepower is a powerful thing. But for a street car, a big peak horsepower number is not always the best solution if you’re trying to improve acceleration. We might want to define the terms we’re working with here just so there’s no confusion. Internal combustion engines are rated using two different types of power: torque and horsepower. These ratings are directly related yet different.
Words/Photos Jeff Smith
Torque is a measurement of a twisting motion, like what’s generated by the output of an engine’s crankshaft. This torque is expressed in pound-feet (lb.-ft.) so that 1 lb.ft. is the force required to twist a shaft with one pound of effort over a one-foot radius. What this measurement doesn’t describe is the amount of time required to perform this effort. Once we introduce time into the equation, we can define that
Photo by Shawn Brereton
amount of effort (torque) over a given amount of time. This is the definition of work. In an internal combustion engine, the time is expressed as revolutions per minute (rpm). This amount of work was given the term horsepower by James Watt back in the 1700s to compare the amount of work his improved steam engine could produce compared to the amount of work performed by a typical draft horse,
something his customers were intimately familiar. The equation Watt created has been simplified to:
Torque x RPM / 5,252 = HP To give this an example, let’s say our engine makes 300 lb.-ft. of torque. This means at 3,000 rpm the engine is only making 171 horsepower (300 x 3,000 / 5,252 = 171). Now, if we add performance parts
and spin the engine a little faster, it now makes that same 300 lb.-ft. of torque at 6,000 rpm. By doubling the rpm at which the engine makes power we now have twice the horsepower at 342. The reason for this doubling of horsepower is that the engine makes the same torque in half the time of the first engine — 6,000 rpm instead of 3,000. Given the choice, most hot rodders would choose the more powerful engine. PPNDigital.com 23
But in the performance world, it’s not always that simple. Large displacement engines are so popular with enthusiasts because as displacement increases, the engine makes more torque at lower engine speeds. A typical performance V8 engine can make 1.2 to 1.25 lb.-ft. of torque per cubic inch of displacement. For a 300c.i. engine, 300 x 1.25 = 375 lb.ft. of torque. Apply that same 1.25 lb.-ft. per cubic inch to a 520c.i. bigblock Ford and suddenly the numbers get a bit more Kong-like: 520 x 1.25 = 650 lb.-ft. of torque. This is no secret and also puts numbers to what hot rodders have known for years — big engines make big torque. Torque is what really moves the car, but it gets lost in the bench racing sessions when everybody only wants to talk about horsepower. Let’s go back a bit and look at engines like the Buick and Pontiac 455c.i. engines. They made great torque but because of their limited cylinder heads size and greater internal friction from long strokes, these larger displacement engines were not as efficient in terms of horsepower per cubic inch. There are exceptions of course, like 500c.i. NHRA Pro Stock engines that spin to 10,000-plus rpm and make upwards of 1,400 horsepower. At 2.8 hp/c.i., these normally aspirated monsters are exceptional engines but also somewhat peaky engines. This means that race engines
Big displacement engines, like this 520c.i. Jon Kaase Boss 9, make building a car that accelerates briskly very easy. Even a heavy car with an automatic will be a thrill with an engine that can make over 900 horsepower with an astonishing 700 lb.-ft. of torque way down in the rpm curve.
like these tend to have relatively narrow power bands where all the power is concentrated into a 1,000 to 1,200 rpm range. We’ll define this power band as the rpm spread between peak torque and peak horsepower. A common problem with race engines is that escalating horsepower and rpm are accompanied by an increasingly narrow rpm range where the engine really makes its power.
This also occurs with street engines. Making power with any internal combustion engine is a compromise between torque and horsepower. The search for additional horsepower for a normally aspirated engine follows the path of the horsepower equation, which states that if you make the same torque at a higher engine speed, you will make more horsepower.
The same approach to good average torque also works with track day cars like this Camaro from TCI Automotive. A wide power band combined with a manual transmission with an acceptable rpm spread between gears will make any car accelerate better off the corners. 24 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
GEAR RATIOS
This little Chevy II has a blow-through centrifugal supercharger on a small block. Centrifugal power-adders require rpm to spool up to make boost, but often this can be an advantage since instantaneous boost can make so much power that traction can be an issue.
For most engines, in order to make more peak power, a longer duration cam will push the peak torque point higher in the rpm curve. Combine that longer duration with larger cylinder heads, a better intake manifold, and large tube headers and you have the makings for high rpm horsepower. All these components also contribute to shifting the engine’s power band to a higher engine speed. A common power band spread will be 1,500 to 1,700 rpm. In the quest for more normally aspirated power, bigger heads and cam generally narrow the power band and to higher engine speeds. To take advantage of the higher rpm power, this also means adding a deeper (numerically higher) rear end gear. Street-driven cars usually don’t have the luxury of running 4.88:1 gear ratios. Narrowing the power band also demands maintaining the engine speed within this limited area. This is where additional gears in the transmission really help. So in the case of an NHRA Competition Eliminator car with a high horsepower engine with a narrow power band, this could call for a five-speed manual transmission instead of a four speed. The difficulty with street-driven cars is they are often compromised by the demand for more street-oriented rear gear ratios and limited to three- or four-speed automatic transmissions. An overdrive transmission can help by allowing the use of a deeper rear gear to help
acceleration, but the overall limitations still apply. This brings us to the question every performance enthusiast needs to investigate if he is interested in improving acceleration. We’ll use the drag strip as our test bed for power improvements. What you’ll discover might change the way you think about adding power, and where your efforts will do the most good. For example, we put a 355c.i. small-block Chevy on the dyno and compared the power produced by a single plane versus a dual plane intake manifold. We equipped our engine with a classic combination of Edelbrock aluminum heads combined with a mild COMP Cams hydraulic flat tappet 268 Xtreme Energy camshaft, with 224/230 degrees of duration and 0.477/0.480-inch valve lift. We also added headers and a 750 cfm Holley carburetor. The two intakes we tested were the Edelbrock Performer RPM dual plane compared against the Edelbrock Victor Jr. single plane. The tests recorded the torque and horsepower numbers for both intakes. Many engine guys will naturally look at the higher horsepower number as the winner, with the Victor Jr. making 401 horsepower versus 398 for the dual plane. But when we plot both torque and horsepower curves on a graph, it becomes obvious very quickly that while the Victor Jr. made more peak power, the Performer RPM dual plane was clearly
The following is a comparison of the Chrysler 8-speed automatic versus the old school three-speed 727 Torqueflite. We list the ratios as well as the percentage of rpm drop between shifts. As the number of ratios increase, the rpm drop between gears decreases, maintaining the engine speed within a narrower power band. The additional gears also allow a much deeper first gear, as evidenced by the 4.71:1 first gear in the eight-speed. Also note how third gear in the eightspeed is nearly the same ratio as first gear in the 727. The opposite effect is what many drag cars with very high torque and horsepower engines are using. For example, the Rossler TH-210 refers to a 2.10:1 first gear ratio in a TH-400 transmission that reduces the amount of torque multiplication over the tires. With a 2,500 horsepower engine, you don’t need to multiply the torque yet you still need a decent gear ratio to help launch the car. Second gear is around 1.30:1, which splits the difference between first and third gear. This is still better than using a Powerglide with its large rpm drop between first and high gears. Trans 727 RPM 8HP90 RPM Ratio Torqueflite drop 8-Speed drop 1st 2.45 4.71 2nd 1.45 33% 3.14 33% 3rd 1.00 31% 2.10 33% 4th — 1.67 20% 5th — 1.29 22% 6th — 1.00 29% 7th — 0.84 16% 8th — 0.67 20%
better at making torque — especially between 3,000 and 4,900 rpm. In this range, the dual plane made as much as 39 lb.-ft. of torque more than the single plane intake. That’s a huge gain in torque and something you would certainly feel in the seat of your pants. We plugged these two power curves into the Quarter Pro drag strip simulation program. Once we added the two different power curves into the program, it was easy to compare the differences in the projected acceleration rates. By now you’ve probably already figured out that the dual plane’s PPNDigital.com 25
Besides the usual e.t. and speed results, the Quarter Pro program also includes an interesting option called an RPM histogram. This chart reveals the amount of time the engine spends at various rpm points. This chart reveals very valuable information. For example, according to the graph this engine spends much of its time between 4,600 and 5,600 rpm. Armed with that information, it would seem like a good idea to concentrate on improvements in that rpm area because the power will deliver the greatest benefit.
torque delivered much stronger acceleration with an average of 19 lb.-ft. more torque, which pushed our simulated Chevelle to run 0.15-second quicker and 1.4 mph faster. The specific number is in the accompanying box. The reason for the quicker quarter-mile e.t. has as much to do with our test car as it does with the additional torque. In this case, we are using a relatively heavy 3,600- pound Chevelle with a three-speed automatic, a conservative 3.31:1 rear gear ratio, and a tight torque converter. If we were to plug these same comparisons into a lighter and smaller ’32 Ford coupe with a fourspeed manual trans, deeper 4.10:1 gears, and big tires, the added torque from the dual plane would still be quicker, but the differential would not be as great. That’s because the closer spread in the fourspeed transmission decreases the rpm drop between gears and the car will accelerate better because the engine speed remains within the engine’s power band compared to the wider rpm spread with a threespeed automatic transmission. As you can see with these examples, average torque is a much better way to evaluate an engine’s performance than just using peak horsepower. As we’ve mentioned earlier, these examples are all 26 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
aimed at a typical street car, not a dedicated drag car. In the case of a dedicated drag car, the power band will tend to dictate the type of transmission used. So with a narrow power band, a manual trans with more gears is a good idea. In the case of a class legal car where a two-speed automatic transmission (like a Powerglide) is required by the rules, this would dictate building an engine with a wider power band in order to compensate for that huge rpm drop.
Actually, from what we hear, some Powerglide racers use a very loose converter to keep the engine speed high even after the shift. To condense this down to its logical conclusion, if performance and acceleration are the primary goal, then the street car builder has essentially three approaches. The first is to build the drivetrain around the engine’s power curve to optimize performance. The second is to build the engine to take advantage of the car’s existing drivetrain. The third option — where most projects exist — is to optimize the engine as best as possible within the limitations of the current drivetrain. From this starting point, the builder can begin to approach the way the car needs to be constructed. If your plans call for a heavy car with an automatic transmission and a relatively tight torque converter, the ideal engine would be a large displacement one or a possibly a small block with positive displacement supercharger that will make lots of low-speed torque. If you really want to build a high-winding, small displacement engine that will spin to 7,500 rpm, it would be best served in a lightweight car equipped with a manual transmission, preferably with a deep rear gear ratio to keep the engine in the rpm range where it makes best power. Another example for that high rpm small-block engine might be an open road race, top-speed car
This Magnuson supercharged LS engine may not look like much, but on Ken Duttweiler’s dyno it made 1,023 horsepower at 6,200 rpm and was still making over 900 lb.-ft. at 3,600. With a power spread like that, you don’t need a deep gear crutch to accelerate hard. Engines like this make building a fast car really easy!
440
DUAL VS. SINGLE PLANE
POWER
390 340 290
TQ1
HP1
TQ2
HP2
240 190 140
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 2,6 2,8 3,0 3,2 3,4 3,6 3,8 4,0 4,2 4,4 4,6 4,8 5,0 5,2 5,4 5,6 5,8 6,0 6,2
RPM
TQ TQ1 HP1 TQ2 HP2 Diff
HP Diff
2,600 2,800 3,000 3,200 3,400 3,600 3,800 4,000 4,200 4,400 4,600 4,800
308 312 330 332 339 350 355 363 370 380 385 388
152 166 188 202 219 240 257 276 295 318 337 354
337 347 365 366 371 376 382 385 390 396 405 408
167 185 208 223 240 257 276 293 312 331 354 372
+29 +35 +35 +34 +32 +26 +27 +22 +20 +16 +20 +20
+15 +19 +20 +21 +21 +17 +19 +17 +17 +13 +17 +18
5,000
390
371
407
387
+17
+6
5,200 5,400 5,600 5,800 6,000 6,200
393 388 380 370 367 360
389 399 405 408 419 425
401 390 381 365 353 342
397 401 406 404 403 403
+8 +2 +1 -5 -12 -18
+8 +2 +1 -4 -16 -22
This graph and chart plot the power comparison of our small-block Chevy dual plane vs. the single plane intake. Note the major torque improvements of the dual plane over the single plane below 5,000 rpm. For a mild street car, it’s clear that the dual plane is the better choice even though it loses as much as 22 horsepower to the single plane at the top.
where you can choose a rear axle gear ratio and tire size that will put the peak horsepower rpm at or near the vehicle’s top speed potential.
Conclusion None of the material presented here is shockingly new. But sometimes the proper approach can get lost in a world of horsepower
hype. Building an engine with lots of peak horsepower will always be a fun goal, just don’t forget about the torque that gets you there in the first place.
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THE HORSEPOWER LIFE:
ROBERT YATES
ROBERT YATES is one of the most beloved personalities in racing. His
down-to-earth manner and Southern charm, which makes many race fans feel like they know him, shadows a brilliant mind and an intense desire to win. Many people know about Yates’ NASCAR race team, Robert Yates Racing, and the great drivers who have raced for him, including Davey Allison, Ernie Irvan, and Dale Jarrett. But few are aware that Yates got his start at Holman Moody, that he helped Junior Johnson build a Chevrolet for that nameplates successful return to the Cup Series, or that he didn’t really want to be an engine builder, but a bulldozer driver. We recently had an opportunity to sit down with Yates to talk about his great history in racing. Here are some of the highlights in his own words.
Childhood
I was a little bit different kid than the rest of my family. There were nine of us, and I was the ninth kid — six girls and three boys. I had a twin brother but he was born before me. My dad was a preacher and my older brother was a preacher. My sisters were all missionaries or into Christian work. One sister was big into home economics, teaching students how to cook and things like that. I wasn’t into any of that stuff. I always found stuff to do outdoors, and I loved sports, but I had rheumatic fever when I was a baby and didn’t end up walking until I 28 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
was 5 years old. That kind of stuck with me and even though I was good at sports, by the eighth grade I couldn’t get a doctor’s note allowing me to play. So I ended up enjoying working on cars. That became my hobby. With nine kids my parents never had money to spare. They just didn’t have it to hand out other than school supplies and things. But that was OK because I was working on other people’s cars and always had money in my pocket.
Getting his start in racing I was working at Western Carolina Tractor Company, working on
Words Jeff Huneycutt
bulldozers. To me that was a glamorous job. I had always wanted to operate bulldozers and build roads and things like that. I wanted to be a civil engineer, so I was going to college and working on tractors in the evenings. I couldn’t afford to go to school and not have a job. So I got a phone call from a guy I knew that worked at [NASCAR racing team] Holman Moody, and he said, “Hey, they are trying to find somebody to hire that’s got some math in college. You told me about the courses you’ve taken, and they are trying to find somebody to hire like that.” I thought, “Well, I’m not that good at math,” so I didn’t even think about going to the interview. But really, I had a plan. I was going to be a civil engineer. I go to work the next day, and I told a guy I worked with about the phone call. He’d been trying to get a job there
forever. He was a big Ford nut, and he said, “You can’t get a job there.” Don’t ever dare me on something! Because he said I couldn’t do it I went to that interview. So I went out there, and they walked me through the shop. Jack Sullivan, who was Fred Lorenzen’s crew chief, was running the shop at the time. He showed me some of their equipment and had me measure some cranks and rods and bearings before they went to the engine builders. When we got done with that he said, “What do you think?” And I said I didn’t know, I’d have to think it over. So then he told me they could start me out at $4.50 an hour, and [at the time] I’m making $1.60! You earned your money working at Holman Moody. They worked from eight in the morning to 10 at night, and Saturdays and Sundays quite often, too. But everything over 40 hours was time-and-a-half. So I go back to the bulldozer shop and told him about the offer, but that I hadn’t made up my mind. My service manager was a great guy and a big race fan. He told me, “I’ll kick your butt if you don’t take that job!” So I took the job and I never looked back. And that was the best education anyone ever could get.
John Holman John Holman had a reputation for being pretty ill tempered. One night I was running three grinders, grinding connecting rods. It was probably 3 o’clock in the morning. I heard this voice, and I knew it was John Holman.
Davey Allison driving the famous Robert Yates Racing number 28 in 1989.
I’d heard him chew people out before, oh my goodness he was like a bear! He’d scream at someone right in front of everybody, and I’d always think I don’t think I could take that. Well, now it’s my turn. And he’s screaming because one of my machines was running over with some oil and there was oil on the floor. There was hardly nobody in the machine shop that night, and I panicked. I was trying to get it all cleaned up. Well, he saw the oil before he saw me, and as soon as he saw me he quit yelling. I was going around trying to get the oil cleaned up and he said no, we will get (the cleanup guy) to do it. And then he stayed there and talked to me. I was trembling, because I just knew he was going to fire me. But what he told me that night I’ll never forget. He said, “I wasn’t born a son of a bitch, it’s people who made me one.” After that he was so good to me. Holman Moody was a great experience, getting to work on engines and grinding and porting heads. That opportunity really helped me understand what makes engines tick.
Racing a Chevrolet
At the time there wasn’t a Chevrolet in Cup. Richard Howard, who was actually in charge of Charlotte Motor Speedway back then, told me he was concerned nobody was coming to the track. He told me his plan, and I told him they needed a Chevrolet. He said, “There’s not one.” So I said, “Get me some money and I’ll build you one.” I was still working at Holman Moody, but they had scaled back and I had plenty of time. So I took my old dirt car, which was a Chevrolet, and took it up to Junior Johnson and built the car that went to Charlotte. I’d work at Holman Moody during the day and then go to Junior’s and work on the Chevrolet at night. But it worked, the fans in the stands went from 30,000 to 65,000, just from that competition between Ford and Chevrolet. That was 1971 and LeeRoy Yarbrough was the driver.
Hiring a hippie I worked for Junior Johnson for five years after I left Holman Moody. I
Dale Jarrett was the most successful driver for Robert-Yates Racing with 29 wins and the driver’s championship in 1999. PPNDigital.com 29
was always an admirer of Junior’s. As a driver, he never just rode around, he always drove hard. So I moved up to Wilkesboro [North Carolina] and ran the engine shop there. I was working day and night. I worked probably a hundred hours a week. So I was trying to hire Harold Elliott, because he had experience, and I was desperate for help. I was building something like 10 to 12 engines a week and working all the time. The only aftermarket part on the engine back then was a Crane rocker arm. Everything else was stock, so we had to modify just about everything to make it work for racing. But Harold had long hair and looked like a hippie. Flossie [Junior’s wife] said, “You are not hiring that hippie.” So I called Harold and said would you mind cutting your hair off and come back up here? So he cut his hair and came back, and they didn’t know it was the same person! So Harold came to work for me and he was a huge help. But we still worked some crazy hours.
A week at DiGard I had left Junior’s and gone back to Charlotte where I had a house. I wasn’t going to the races on the weekend so I could be with my family more. I was working for a guy named Parky Nall building engines for race teams, and I built an engine for DiGard right when Darrell Waltrip got there. Well, he went out and won his first race with that engine, and then Darrell wouldn’t leave me alone. He came back and said, “You’ve got to come down here [to DiGard, the team he was racing for].” I had agreed to work with Parky for one year to help him get his deal set up, and my year was up. I had plans to start my own deal, but I told Darrell, “I’ll come down there to help you for two weeks, and then I’m going to come back and start my other project.” I had plans to start my own shop with an investor. So Darrell said OK. I had about a $100 truck and I didn’t think it would get me from Charlotte to Florida where the DiGard shop was, so I borrowed my wife’s car. I put my toolbox in the back seat and drove down to there. 30 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Yates still owns the car Jarrett drove to the Daytona 500 victory in 1996.
When I pulled up to DiGard, Lou Larossa met me. I said, “Where is everybody at?” And he said, “We fired ’em all because you’re coming.” I said, “I’m coming down for two weeks, I’m not coming here forever!” I ended up there forever. I stayed there 10 years until 1986.
The Yates head
Because of my education at Holman Moody, and the fact that they weren’t afraid to cut up and move stuff around, I got a pretty good understanding of what an engine likes. I was always trying to make an engine that was easier to work on and made good power. When I started working on the Ford engine it had brackets for brackets. A lot of nuts and bolts, a lot of stuff, and a lot of extra weight. You couldn’t hardly change a manifold. You could change an engine in the amount of time it would take you to change out a manifold. So I cleaned it up to where I could pull the manifold off without pulling other parts off, just made it simple. You wanted to be able to change the manifold, because you can move the torque around with different manifolds and how they are ported. So you needed to be able to change it just about as quick as the carburetor. I learned a lot of stuff by chasing an idea until I could prove it. If I couldn’t prove it, then I turned around and went the other way. I think a lot of guys missed out, because if they couldn’t prove an idea they just gave up. I was chasing the idea of how to make an engine work efficiently with a flat-top piston, because it
just took forever to make a domed piston. We didn’t have CNC machinery back then, and you had to do everything by hand. It was just aggravating because it took up so much time. We had a flat-top piston and were working on the cylinder head to work with it. I was working on the flow bench one night and the intake port was going right where the pushrod needed to be, so I ran a tube through the port for the pushrod to go through, which was common to do back then. I noticed that it was causing the air and fuel to separate right there were it hits the tube. I thought, “I’ve got to get rid of that.” So I made a set of heads with straight walls and nothing in the way. I ended up putting an engine with the new heads on the dyno about 11 o’clock one night and made a pull. And just listening to it I thought something was wrong, my dyno is messed up. I’m making 700 horsepower and back then 650 or 660 was the average. So I made another run, and it did it again. I put another engine on the dyno, and it made 660. Put this thing back on and 700 again. And by the way, it likes 28 degrees of timing and everything else was running 34 degrees. So I’m thinking it’s got to be a better engine. We took this new design to the track and we’re just kicking their butts. But it was only a matter of time before NASCAR noticed. They ended up taking our engine and one of [Rick] Hendrick’s engines after the spring race at Michigan, I think. That really hurt because I only had three or four
engines at the time! They took a lot of time to build, because they were so different. The heads, we would weld solid, and then re-cut them the way we wanted them. Then when we went to Daytona for the July 4 race NASCAR called me into its room. So Bill France, in his wisdom, he said, “Nice engine. It looks good, but the only way you can run it is if everybody has it. That’s the only way it is going to be fair for everybody.” I knew it was coming. I had seen him do that before. So I said, “Well, we can make that happen. In fact, I’ll write a book on it. I’ll tell you what cam and what piston and everything else.” So he said “OK, we will make it legal.” Some of the other teams had already seen my cylinder head, but that’s how all the Ford teams were able to start running it.
Starting Roush-Yates Engines We were in Atlanta when they announced that Toyota was coming into NASCAR. It was a Saturday morning, and we were all standing there watching the announcement in
the garage. So I walked over to Jack [Roush], tapped him on the shoulder and said, “We need to talk. I’ll see you at your motor home in 10 minutes.” So I went down to his motor home and he was there. I said, “Toyota is going to throw the money at racing, and they are going to kick butt if we don’t do something about it. We better gang up.” And he said, “I agree with you.” So I said, “All right, you write out 25 things that you want, and I’ll write out 25 things that I want, and tonight we will compare them.” That afternoon I wrote out the 25 things that I thought we should do, and when we got together again we compared our lists and 23 of the 25 were right on the money. We think so much alike I couldn’t believe it. So we talked about it some more and worked out some other issues and decided to go into business together building engines. I called it “to the dirt.” In other words we were in business to the dirt — no half deals about it. We went in 50/50 on it. He paid for half of everything: the equipment, the building, and even the dirt un-
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derneath it. I paid for the other half. That’s how we went into business. So we combined what we learned to help our engine program. No secrets. We were making good power, and he had invested a lot into lightweight rocker arms and other valvetrain pieces. He had an engine that would spin up to something like 13,000 rpm. It was good for both of us — and it was good for Ford. They didn’t need to be spending money in two different places, and we didn’t need to be fighting each other. We were already in Charlotte, and Jack was already considering moving his engine program to Charlotte, so it made sense to be here [RoushYates Engines is located in nearby Mooresville, North Carolina]. It is to our advantage to be in Charlotte. We have engines apart sometimes before people are out of the grandstands. We have guys coming in to start the teardowns all the time at three in the morning. That just gives you another day before the next race for you to look at what’s going on and see if anything needs to be changed. It’s been a good deal.
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BUMPS
FOR
BOOST
How much does a cam swap affect an LS motor? BY NOW CHEVY ENTHUSIASTS should be well aware
of the fact that the single best performance modification for any LS motor is a cam swap. Unlike the previous generation of small blocks, the LS comes factory equipped with plenty of head flow and a powerful intake manifold. With displacement and compression, the only thing restricting the output of an LS motor is the mild factory cam timing. Add a cam to just about any LS motor and watch the power soar. The question now is, as effective as cam swaps are on a normally aspirated LS motor, is a bump stick the hot set up once you add boost? After all, aren’t boosted motors supposed to run mild cams to eliminate overlap? In fact, much of the information on turbo and supercharged motors recommends simply running the stock cam profile. Well folks, we are here to show you that even when you add a turbo to the mix, LS motors still respond amazingly well to performance cam swaps. The only 32 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Words/Photos Richard Holdener
difference is that the turbo application will respond best to a dedicated turbo cam. To illustrate the power gains offered by a cam swap on a turbo application, we needed two things: a dedicated turbo cam, and a suitable turbo ready LS to test it on. Our turbo cam came from the turbo LS experts at Lil John’s Motorsport Solutions. Since we would be testing the Lil John’s stick on a 4.8L, we decided to try the mildest Stage 1 grind (though they are currently testing milder ones). The Stage 1 cam, which is ground by COMP Cams, offered a .601/.598 lift split, a 222/227-degree duration split and 113-degree LSA. Mild for most LS applications, even the Stage 1 was a healthy cam on the tiny 4.8L. The motor for our turbo cam test started out life as a high-mileage 4.8L plucked from a local wrecking yard. After a quick bore and hone, the LR4 was treated to a fresh set of rings and bearings along with a forged piston upgrade that included a set of SRP Profession-
1. The test motor started out life as a high-mileage 4.8L LR4. The motor was bored .010 over, honed, and decked to make way for some minor upgrades.
2. With turbo power in the cards, the stock injectors were ditched in favor of a set from Holley that flowed 83 pounds per hour.
3. Controlling the 83-pound injectors, and critical ignition timing was this Holley Dominator EFI system.
4. In anticipation of boost, upgrades to the 4.8L included forged JE pistons (with 7- cc domes), Fel Pro MLS head gaskets, and ARP heads studs.
al-series JE pistons. Each .010-over slug featured a 7cc dome to add some much needed static compression to the little 4.8L. Though the 4.8L could get by with a set of stock 706 heads, we decided to treat the turbo test mule to a cylinder head upgrade. The small 3.78-inch bore employed on the 4.8L (and 5.3L) required a suitable cylinder head. What the small-displacement 4.8L needed was cylinder heads that maximized flow while minimizing port volume. The heads in question would also need to have the proper combustion chamber volume to work with the small-bore motor. The ideal heads for our turbo motor came from Trick Flow Specialties (TFS) in the form of its CNC-ported Gen X 205s. The Gen X 205s offered a number of desirable features, including altered valve angles (from 15 to 13.5 degrees) to improve flow, increased structure below the rocker pedestals to improve valvetrain stability, and relocated spark plug holes to further enhance mid-lift flow. The Gen X 205 heads also feature 58cc combustion chambers designed for the small-bore LS applications, a 2.0/1.575 valve package, and a dual valve spring package capable of supporting our .600-lift, Stage-1 cam.
According to the flow data supplied by TFS, the 205cc intake ports flowed 284 cfm, or enough to support over 550 normally aspirated horsepower. The Gen X 205 heads were installed using a set of Fel Pro MLS head gaskets and ARP head studs. To test a turbo cam, we obviously needed a turbo system. Rather than use a complete turbo kit, we assembled one for dyno use. The major components of the kit included a set of tubular exhaust manifolds and a GT45style turbo from DNA Motoring. These were combined with an air-to-water intercooler from CX Racing, a pair of 45mm Hypergate wastegates, and a blow-off valve (BOV) from Turbosmart. The stainless steel DNA exhaust manifolds featured V-band clamps that we used to connect our custom Y pipe. The Y pipe featured a T4 turbo flange, the necessary V-band flanges and provisions for the dual wastegates. The manifolds exited forward toward the front of the motor and the Y pipe channeled the exhaust from both sides to feed the turbo. Exhaust exited through a 3.5-inch exhaust pipe, while boost was fed from the compressor to the 3.5-inch inlet into the air-to-water intercooler. Exiting the cooler, PPNDigital.com 33
6. The single turbo system was something we threw together based on these turbo headers from DNA Motoring.
5. Additional head flow came in the form of a set of Gen X 205 heads from Trick Flow Specialties. The Gen X 205 heads feature 205cc intake ports and a dual spring package capable of supporting our intended cam upgrade.
7. The headers were joined by a custom Y pipe that featured a pair of Turbosmart wastegates and T4 turbo flange.
8. In addition to the tubular headers, DNA also supplied this GT45style turbo. Capable of supporting over 800 horsepower, the DNA turbo offered plenty of power at an affordable price. Despite keeping the test pressure down to just 7 psi, we opted to include this air-to-water intercooler from CX Racing. The intercooler was fed ambient dyno water, though ice water would up the power ante.
the chilled charge air was fed to the Accufab throttle body on the stock truck manifold. Fuel for the turbo motor was supplied by a set of Holley 83-pound injectors and controlled by a Holley Dominator EFI system. The wastegates were configured with 7 psi springs and no wastegate controller was used for this testing. To properly test the merits of the Lil John’s turbo cam, we first needed to run the 4.8L with the stock cam at 7 psi, then again after performing a cam swap. The 4.8L was installed on the dyno and configured with the homemade turbo system. After tuning the combination, we were able to run the turbo motor with the Turbosmart wastegates keeping a consistent and repeatable 7 psi with the stock cam. The turbo 4.8L produced peak numbers of 574 horsepower at 5,800 rpm and 566 ft.-lbs. of torque at 4,900 rpm. Despite the limited displacement, this turbo 4.8L pumped out power like a big block. Torque production 34 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
9. The turbine housing on the DNA turbo featured a 3.5-inch V-band flange. We welded up this simple exhaust system that included a provision for the air/fuel meter.
10. After establishing our baseline with the stock cam, it was time for an upgrade. Lil John’s supplied this Stage 1 turbo cam (ground by COMP Cams) that offered a .601/.598 lift split, a 222/227-degree duration split, and 113-degree LSA.
exceeded 550 ft.-lbs. from 4,500 rpm to 5,400 rpm, nearly a 900-rpm spread,. It exceeded 500 ft.-lbs. from 3,800 rpm to 6,000 rpm, making for one sweet torque curve,
but now it was time to see what a dedicated turbo cam had to offer. Out came the stock cam and in went the stick from Lil John’s. Even with a turbo, a cam swap on the LS was quick and easy. Once the new cam was in place, we dialed in the air/fuel mixture to 11.8:1 and kept the total ignition timing at 24 degrees (running 100 octane). Keeping the air/fuel, timing, and boost level the same between tests is a critical step to ensure accurate data. One thing that became immediately apparent was the new cam would push peak power much higher in the rev range. Where the stock cam made peak power at 5,800 rpm, the Stage 1 cam pushed things to 6,700 rpm. The new combo produced peak numbers of 648 horsepower at 6,700 rpm and 572 ft.-lbs. of torque at 5,200 rpm. The new combination not only increased the power output by nearly 75 horsepower, but sounded amazing doing so. The power gains exceeded 110 horsepower at 6,700 rpm. The combination of turbo power and the extra rpm made this little motor sound considerably bigger. We knew things were going well when the owner of the 900horsepower big block testing in the next dyno cell came over to tell us how wicked the little turbo motor sounded. He was amazed at the combination of displacement, power output, and boost level. When it comes to LS motors, I guess boost and bump sticks go hand in hand. Sources: Aeromotive, aeromotiveinc.com; COMP Cams, compcams. com; CXRacing, CXRacing.com; DNA Motoring, dnamotoring.com; Holley, holley.com; JE Pistons, jepistons.com; Lil John’s Motorsport Solutions, liljohnsmotorsports.com; Lucas Oil, Lucasoil.com; Trick Flow Specialties , trickflow.com; Turbo Smart, turbosmartusa.com
11. Equipped with the Stage 1 cam, the turbo 4.8L now produced 648 horsepower and 572 lbs.-ft. of torque. Measured peak to peak, the turbo cam increased the power output of the little 4.8L by almost 75 horsepower, but the gains exceeded 110 horsepower at 6,600 rpm. For more info, pics, and charts on this article search “Bumps for boost” at PPNDigital.com.
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HARDCORE HOSES
Brown & Miller is one of the most trusted brands in racing, now you can have them on your ride EVEN IF YOU have been involved
in racing for years, you may not have heard of Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, which manufactures lightweight, high quality hoses and fittings for race cars. That’s because for years the very specialized company did business almost exclusively with Formula 1 and NASCAR Cup teams. Oh, and don’t forget the high-end sports car teams running Le Mans and other road courses. Lately Brown & Miller has been pushing to make its products more readily available to hot rodders, as well as race teams at all levels, and the company’s commitment to quality is being noticed. Brown & Miller ’s hoses are ultra-light, and have a huge variety of fittings, so you can find something to work for practically any situation. Brown & Miller also use a unique hose that is impervious to any type of fuel currently on the market, which 36 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
means no leaks, decaying hoses, or gummed up fuel systems. To find out more we made a visit to Brown & Miller’s shops in Concord, North Carolina, where hoses and fitting kits are assembled for teams throughout the United States. You may think that all hoses and AN fittings are basically the same, making them essentially commodity items, but that certainly isn’t true with the pieces we were shown. Brown & Miller machines, bends, and heat-treats its own AN fittings to a proprietary design, and sources all its hoses from a single manufacturer that sells most of its products in the aviation industry. Every hose assembled in the location we visited was made-to-order, and the attention to detail was quite amazing. Brown & Miller’s John Harper told us the company has no intention to try and be the cheapest product on the market. “People in China wanted to sell us fittings for less than we
Words Jeff Huneycutt
Brown & Miller’s John Harper measures out a hose sent in from a customer to be remade in the company’s lightweight components. Brown & Miller builds complete hose sets using its lightweight crimped fittings for teams all over the country.
Although Brown & Miller mostly sells the lighter-weight crimped-fitting design (bottom), it also offers a reusable fitting (top) you can assemble in your own shop that has the same one-piece high strength features.
All of Brown & Miller’s hoses use the same unique internal structure. The inner two layers are carbon to help ground any static electricity, followed by two layers of PTFE, which isn’t affected by today’s caustic fuels, next comes a layer of convoluted fiberglass, and then finally the outer protective braid (that isn’t actually connected to the hose). Here, you can see the three main types of braids B&M sells.
A proper crimp on an AN fitting is more than simply smashing a collar over the hose and barbed end of the fitting. Brown & Miller uses this press to provide a precise amount of even pressure all the way around the fitting for maximum seal with no damage to the hose.
Finally, before it is shipped, the hose is inscribed with a part number. A build sheet is included with each order to help verify exactly what you’ve got. Brown & Miller is constantly developing new fittings and uses rapid-prototyping equipment to help speed the process. Here’s one for a fitting that made it into production (background).
We know you don’t want any moisture in your new brake lines. After the pressure check, any remaining droplets of water are blown out using dry, high-pressure air, and then--just to make sure--the hoses sit for a while in this heated cabinet where any last bit of moisture is allowed to evaporate.
can purchase the raw materials,” Harper says. “There’s no way we want any part of that. Our quality is the most important thing. We won’t sell one grade of hoses to our Cup customers, and another grade to everyone else. “When anybody buys anything from us — no matter what class they race — they can be confident that we are providing them the same quality the Cup teams depend on.” One of the more interesting things we learned is that Brown & Miller makes all of its own AN hose end fittings in England, and they
make an absolutely huge variety of fittings. Unlike many brands, a Brown & Miller fitting is machined from one piece of aluminum — instead of the typical three — and heat-treated afterward. Constructing an AN fitting from multiple pieces requires them to be brazed together, which can affect the quality of the heat treatment. Harper says this is why Brown & Miller fittings won’t suffer from seized nuts because the seat flange won’t spread if the fitting is over-tightened. The hoses, meanwhile, will last
virtually forever if they aren’t damaged. Harper says the PTFE used to construct the hoses will never be affected by the fluid that’s inside it. “We normally tell people that a visual inspection (for damage) is best,” Harper says. “Broken braid wires can cause damage to the hose. Also, in vacuum applications (such as in dry-sump applications from the oil pan to the pump), if the hose is ever kinked it will then be susceptible to collapsing.” Otherwise, unless it is punctured, you should be good to go. Source: Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, bmrs.net PPNDigital.com 37
THE NEXT
GENERATION Words Dennis Pittsenbarger
Photos copyright of General Motors
38  Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
WHAT DOES IT MEAN to the
world to be the next generation? If you’re the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro then it means the performance world has just been loaded onto your shoulders, and you have no choice but to take a deep breath and start to prove why you deserve it. This was my gut feeling once I landed in Detroit for the launch of the sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro. The level of excitement and fanfare was evident and Chevrolet knew it too. Imagine taking over the inside of the Belle Isle track for a weekend that included not only the launch, but over a thousand current Camaro owners showing off virtually every variant there is from first-generation base cars to several variants of Z28s ... and this was only the beginning. Day one started per the normal, with hundreds of fanatical Camaro owners chomping at the bit to get inside the paddock to see, hear, and get their hands on the all-new car. This in itself was a treat and one of the best parts of launching the new Camaro in Detroit. Car after car filed in, found their place, and in the controlled chaos
the owners registered their respective car. Then like a wave of excited kids about to enter Disneyland they took to the various displays. Groups from Chevrolet Performance showed off their latest crate engines, the folks from BOSE had the music pumping, and all the while there was the “museum” filled with twenty-five milestone Camaros. The first of which started with VIN 0001, a 1967 Camaro — one of the 49 hand-built cars. For most, it was a shrine more than a vehicle and never would have made it to the unveiling if it was a breathing celebrity. Also in the museum was Mark Donohue’s 1968 “Acid-dip” race car, Bill Jenkin’s “Grumpys Toy,” and the actual fifth-generation Z28 that did 7:37:40 at the iconic Nurburgring in Germany — in the rain. All of the cars were smothered in affection from the time the doors opened until late into the night. But it was not all about static displays and cool collectibles, it was also time for a ride. The team from Chevrolet gathered up drivers from Spring Mountain and let them loose on the rain-
soaked Belle Isle track with 2015 Camaro Z28s. We all took the ride of a lifetime. A lifetime you ask? Well the drivers held NOTHING back. From the moment you strapped in and headed out onto the track, you knew this was no average Sunday drive. Sliding into corners, blasting down the straights, and feeling the carbon-ceramic brakes giving it their all to scrub off speed was just part of the dynamic driving and subsequent “thrill-ride” attendees enjoyed for hours on end. This was all fun, entertaining, and even educational, but everyone knew we were there to see the allnew 2016 GEN6 Chevrolet Camaro. Approaching the four o’clock hour you could feel the excitement in the air, and Chevrolet did everything they could to make it last as long as possible. After some insightful and heartfelt words from Alan Batey and Mark Ruess, Chevrolet finally did what everyone was waiting for and unveiled the car. I’ve been to a hundred launches and all types of automotive hoopla, but this was different, it was true PPNDigital.com 39
to the heart of the Chevrolet brand, and more importantly to the love of the Camaro. I’m a big guy with all kinds of bravado, but even I found myself getting a little choked up looking at the faces of Al Oppenheiser and Tom Peters as they watched the crowd go crazy when the three GEN6 cars entered the stage. It was magical and you could feel it. Yes, there are all types of automotive love in the world, but I stood back and watched not the cars, but the faces of the men and women truly responsible for bringing this car to life, and it was just that magical. “This is like getting married, having your children, Christmas, and your birthday all at once,” Al Oppenheiser told me. Tom Peters added, “it’s proof that if you put your heart into what you love, it will be rewarded by making customers happy.” And it showed more than ever in those first few minutes. As the crowds gathered around the parked 2016 Camaros, which were positioned at different corners of the arena, I stood back and paused for a moment at each one, taking in the comments and buzz around each car. Comments about style, wheels, and interior design filled the air. Of course, once the hoods came up the performance junkies dove right in. 40 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
As I made my rounds to congratulate all of my colleagues at Chevrolet, I made sure to grab one of my favorite people in the GM family to see what he was thinking and how this new Camaro would impact his world. Here is a little question and answer session with the one and only Dr. Jamie Meyers, Marketing Director of Chevrolet Performance:
What roll will the 2016 Camaro play in the scope of Chevrolet Performance?
Chevrolet Performance — since its inception in 1967 — has always supported performance parts and motorsports applications for the Camaro. This car is such an amazing new platform, there are several directions we can take this car.
How will you go about developing products for the 2016 Camaro? Development for performance parts and accessories for the new Camaro have been in development for several years. Jim Campbell, Jennifer Goforth, Mark Dickens, and their entire teams have been in lockstep with the Camaro team. These are exciting times for Chevrolet Performance and the support that our entire team is lending to the vehicle platform team.
Will the 2016 Camaro be the star of the upcoming SEMA show for Chevrolet/Chevrolet Performance?
You will see Camaro out in force at this year’s SEMA show. It’s an incredible new platform that lends itself to performance parts and ac-
GEN6: CAMARO Here is a condensed version of my thoughts on the new Camaro. POWER: Granted these were only the 3.6L automatic, but it was more than enough to have fun. Throttle response was crisp, mid-range torque was strong, and it was more than willing to bounce off the 7000 rpm fuel cut-off.
cessories. You’ll have to stay tuned on this one. Camaro will be the talk of the industry in October and November.
How will the 2016 Camaro differ from the 2015 Camaro in regard to marketing to the public, as a sports car vs. pure power/muscle?
This really started with the GEN5 Camaro — how we got away from calling it a “muscle car.” Al Oppenheiser has built such a well-rounded performance car that it really deserves a better description. I love muscle cars as much as anyone, but this new Camaro is much, much more well-rounded than any previous generation. Al’s team has built a lighter, leaner, meaner car. And, don’t forget how amazing the powertrain line up is. The four-cylinder is fascinating for me. How will people leverage that light weight and torque? The V6 is world class. And, I’m in love with the LT1. My personal ’15 Stingray runs 11.80s/120 mph in the quarter and the new Camaro won’t be too far behind. Power, with amazing handling, and an interior that will blow minds, no, this is much more than a muscle car.
Will Chevrolet give the 2016 Camaro customer the ability to upgrade, and is there a plan in place?
You’ll see us roll out more details on the accessories and performance parts. Mark Reuss mentioned this portfolio in the launch, but the plan was to always hold this to have more news on the car as we get closer to it being available for purchase.
Yes, you’ll be able to make this your car, just like every Chevrolet at your local Chevrolet dealership.
What is your favorite part of the new Camaro?
I’m a powertrain guy, but the interior takes me to a different place. The seats are trick. The dash looks like a jet. And, those subtle little leather pads for my right knee and left elbow — brilliant!
What has it been like working with the passionate Camaro team (Al, Tom, Mark, and Alan)? I’m used to it now. But, it’s very difficult to know what’s coming but not be able to talk about it. With this car, you could see the team working so hard to get the car ready, work up the accessories and performance parts portfolio, and then craft an amazing communications and marketing play. Great cars make my job easy. The design team, the engineering team, the product team — they’ve built a Camaro that will get a lot of attention. My team will help the Camaro marketing staff position this car in the market for the enthusiast, as well as for folks who just want to feel special behind the wheel of a car. Camaro has it all, my friends. With that I shook Jamie’s hand and thanked him for some great insight into the future of the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro. Now there was just one very important thing left to do — drive the new car. Being lucky is part of it, being blessed is another, but I was both this day as I jumped into the driv-
BRAKES: The mules had the standard brake package, which would give the average driver more than enough braking power. I purposely dove into the two larger braking areas with only my palms on the wheel. The car was settled and under control even in threshold conditions and the brakes performed wonderfully. However, Brembo packages are standard on some, but optional on all levels of the new car and would certainly be even more impressive. Note: I COOKED the brakes after only four laps — it could have been new pads or worn rotors — either way I worked them like an old piece of farm machinery and they took the abuse. SUSPENSION: This is where I was most impressed. Chevrolet has been talking about weight savings and the new Alpha architecture for months, and all I can say is they nailed it. I’ve driven the 5th generation Camaros at Gingerman Raceway and though the 3.6L/automatic is no Z28, you could instantly feel the different personality of the new car. Light on its feet is an understatement as it rotates with ease. Where you previously had to man-handle the car, it can now be done with much more finesse. BOTTOM LINE: The 2016 Chevrolet Camaro is now a more mature allaround sports car for the masses to enjoy. I’m sure Al, Mark, Jamie, and everyone involved with the new car will wow us with the (hopefully) inbound 1LE, ZL1, and Z28, but for now we will all have to wait and see. – Dennis Pittsenbarger er’s seat of one of the development mules sitting on the paddock wall inside the Belle Isle road course. Once strapped in, I was ready to see if what the team responsible for developing the new car said was true. They were. PPNDigital.com 41
Better COMPRESSOR A JEGS LS Valve Spring Compressor makes spring removal a piece of cake
Words Jeff Huneycutt
Here, we’ve already removed the rocker arms and started installation of the compressor body onto the cylinder head. It bolts right to the head using the two supplied 8mm bolts and threads into the same holes that secure the pivot support bar for the rocker arms.
VALVE SPRING CHANGES are
just a fact of life for racers and horsepower fanatics who do their own engine work. New builds, rebuilds, cam changes, and a variety of other normal (at least for a car guy) tasks require removing the valve springs. If you have one of GM’s many LS engine variants, the task is relatively easy with the LS Valve Spring Compressor from JEGS. This simple tool, can be used with the engine in or out of the vehicle, and actually handles two valve springs at once, which cuts your job time in half. There are two variations of the tool due to variances in the LS line. However, both sell for less than $85, and come with free shipping and handling from JEGS. If you are working on an LS1, LS2, or LS6, go for part number 805020. But for a set of heads on an LS3, LS9, L92 or L99 engine, you will need to go with part number 805021. We tried out the tool on an LS2 we were stripping in preparation for a rebuild, so you can see for yourself how it works. Source: JEGS, jegs.com 42 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
The JEGS LS Valve Spring Compressor is simple, but exactly what’s needed when changing valve springs on your LS engine — even when it is still in the car. It consists of a main plate (or compressor body) that bolts to the cylinder head, a threaded stud, some fasteners, and the plate that pulls the springs down, which JEGS calls the “H-beam”). The first step, which we’ve already done, is to thread the stud into the compressor body and install the jam nut to lock it into place. A little anti-seize on the threads of the stud will help protect them when you are cranking down on the valve springs later.
1. You will need to be able to pressurize the cylinder you are working on. JEGS can sell you an Air Hold Fitting for $12, but we used the fitting out of a leak-down kit. This is necessary to hold the valve up and keep it sealed against the seat while you compress the valve spring.
2. Install the H-beam (the oval plate with two holes cut in it) over the threaded stud so it rests on both the valve spring retainers. If you are using taller valves you can gain a bit more clearance by installing the H-beam with the reinforcing ridges facing up. Next, drop the stainless washer over the stud and thread on the nut. Tightening the nut will force the H-beam down to compress the valve springs.
3. Once the springs are compressed, the valve locks should pop free from the retainers. Using a magnetic pickup tool makes grabbing the tiny steel locks a lot easier. If the valve opens, try increasing the air pressure inside the cylinder. And if all else fails, a light tap on top of the retainer with a dead blow hammer (with the H-beam off and out of the way) can help “unstick� a lock that has galled to the retainer.
4. Now unthread the nut from the threaded stud to release the pressure on the H-beam.
5. With the H-beam out of the way, both the intake and exhaust valve springs can be removed from the head. You are now ready to install new springs, or move the compressor body over to the next pair of valves to continue stripping the cylinder head. Like we said earlier, piece of cake.
PPNDigital.com 43
How to install, measure, and otherwise obsess over high performance valve springs
Words/Photos Jeff Smith
BACK IN THE Eisenhower days of the late 1950s, ev-
eryone thought by 60 years in the future we’d certainly be piloting flying cars, living on the moon, and sending men to Mars. Clearly that was a bit optimistic, but if a writer back in the day had taken a shot at predicting 21st Century performance engines, the expectation would have been that hot rodders would be using some kind of exotic pneumatic, magnetic, or electronic valve control. 44 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
But as we plow through the century’s second decade, our engines still rely on valve springs and even pushrods just like our grandfather’s engines did. The big difference is our second century engines spin a wee bit faster. But don’t be fooled, there’s plenty of science in valve springs. The evolution of cam lobe profiles is really a study in the ability of the spring to control the valve. This means as valve spring quality has improved, so has
As engine power and rpm rev limits continue to escalate, valve springs and valve train blueprinting will become increasingly more important — even for street engines. Set the springs up to complement the rest of your engine package and you will be rewarded with more power and a more durable engine.
Much of this demand for valve control is based on several variables, including valve size and weight, rocker ratios, and lifter velocity rates to name a few. Flat tappets are limited to a finite rate of lift (in terms of thousandths of an inch of lift per degree of lobe rotation) that is defined by the tappet diameter. Smaller diameter lifters have a lower velocity limit than larger lifters. This gives advantage to Ford lobes enjoying a 0.875-inch tappet over the Chevys that are only 0.842. Chrysler engines are better with a 0.904-inch diameter tappet. Each larger tappet allows a higher lifter velocity, which increases the tappet’s maximum velocity potential. This can be viewed in terms of increased lift for the same amount of duration. So a Chrysler flat tappet cam might demand slightly more spring pressure than a Chevy because the surface area of the lifter is larger, reducing the unit loading pressure on the lifter. Roller followers as a family will require more spring, mainly because of the roller’s ability to generate very fast valve opening rates, compared to flat tappet followers. It’s the spring’s job to maintain control of the valve. As you might imagine, it’s a demanding job.
Installed height
Photo by Shawn Brereton
engine speeds and durability. Unfortunately, higher engine speeds place even greater demands on the valvetrain to retain control over the valves.
Spring selection
The type of camshaft the engine will use will determine valve spring selection. Flat tappet cams do not demand as much valve spring pressure as roller cams, and hydraulic rollers are typically softer than their mechanical cousins.
Most professional engine builders will agree that the installed height, dictated by the cylinder head and valve length, is the most important criteria to begin the process of selecting a spring. The installed height is defined as the distance from the spring seat in the head to the bottom of the valve spring retainer. When a spring is compressed to this height, it creates the seat load exerted on the valve that keeps it closed. Right here it’s important to emphasize that spring pressure or load is expressed in terms of pounds of force — not psi. The term pounds per square inch (psi) is used to express pressure exerted in all directions, as in pressure exerted on the inside of an air tank. When expressing spring load, the pounds of force we are talking about are exerted in a single, uniform direction. PPNDigital.com 45
Retainer
Must be greater than valve lift
Valve Lock
Installed height
Valve stem seal
Installed height is the distance from the spring pocket to the underside of the retainer with the valve on the seat. This illustration also shows the relationship between the bottom of the retainer and the valve guide seal. If this distance is less than the net valve lift, this will require machining the guide or changing installed height to remedy.
Installed height has a tremendous effect on spring performance if set up properly. Height mics are an easy way to measure installed height. They are not expensive and are readily available through Powerhouse or Summit Racing.
off the seat upon closing. This is a critical event, because when the intake valve bounces after the desired intake closing point, a certain amount of pressure already building in the cylinder is lost. If this loss of control continues — the valve bouncing several times — more cylinder pressure is vented back up into the intake tract and power drops dramatically each time. Based on this, seat pressure is a very important part of blueprinting valve springs to ensure that loss of control does not occur within the engine’s intended power and rpm band.
Coil bind
This beehive retainer is small enough that it drops inside the top of the mic. Depending upon the micrometer, this step will be either 0.100 or 0.150-inch. This must be subtracted from the indicated height because the retainer height is reduced by that amount.
Coil bind is another critical valve spring spec as it helps define the total amount of valve lift possible with the spring. Coil bind is the height of the spring in its fully collapsed position. This is an important spec because the spring must be compatible with the overall lift created by the combination of the cam lobe and the rocker ratio.
Dealing with valve springs and spring catalogs also means you need to know the terms used in reference to these springs. Spring rate is expressed in pounds per inch (lbs./in.), and is determined by a multitude of factors including wire diameter, overall spring diameter, and the spring’s height. A typical valve spring might have a rate of 500 lbs./in. As you can imagine, as the spring is compressed, the load increases. A spring’s installed height load is the amount of force created by the spring at a specific height. As an example, a spec of 120 pounds at 1.700 inches means when the spring is compressed to the height of 1.700 inches, it will require a force of more than 120 pounds to open the valve. Most enthusiasts think valve float occurs when the spring loses control of the valve and launches the lifter off the nose of the lobe in a ballistic curve. This is referred to as lofting, which can and does occur. But Spintron research has proven that the most common loss of valve control begins when the valve bounces
If you have an unknown spring, you can measure coil bind by carefully collapsing the spring between soft aluminum jaws of a vise and measuring its height. You may discover the spring binds at a slightly lower number than listed in the catalog. That’s why it pays to measure. (Never place a spring in a vise where the jaws can contact the outside of the coils as this will damage the spring.)
46 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
One of the latest innovations in spring design is the conical spring. This is a slight deviation from the beehive with the same advantages. A conical spring uses a gradual reduction in outside diameter over a greater distance than a beehive. This can be viewed as an improvement in strength and durability over a beehive, yet the conical still enjoys the benefits of a variable rate and a small retainer versus a conventional spring.
Specific springs also require dedicated retainers to adequately locate the spring and to ensure optimal performance. It’s important that the step in the retainer contacts the inner spring on a dual spring application to create the proper spring loads. The retainer should fit snugly into the spring. Never use a screwdriver to pry on a spring as even a small nick in the spring can cause a failure. Use only a soft plastic pry tool to free the retainer.
As an example, let’s use a big-block Chevy with an installed height of 1.900 inches and our camshaft maximum lift is 0.650-inch. We found a COMP Cams spring that seems to fit the requirement for the seat pressure, but we need to know if it will handle the 0.650-inch valve lift. The coil bind figure for this spring is 1.200 inches. Subtracting the maximum valve lift from the installed height (1.900 - 0.650 = 1.250) tells us we will have 0.050inch of clearance at maximum valve lift before the spring is fully collapsed. COMP’s recommendation is 0.060-inch, but many engine builders say they will tighten this clearance for rpm engines because a shorter stack at peak lift tends to help dampen spring oscillations at high engine speeds. Generally speaking, a clearance of 0.050-inch ends up roughly 0.012-inch in between each of the active spring coils.
Retainer-to seal
Besides coil bind, selecting a valve spring also requires a dedicated retainer. Generally, the bottom of the retainer will come closest to the valve seal located on the guide. When measuring for installed height is also the best time to measure for retainer-to-seal clearance. This is a simple procedure where the distance between the retainer and the seal should be at least 0.050-inch more than the total valve lift. This prevents the retainer from bottoming on and damaging the seal, and preventing the valve from opening fully. This interference will cause major damage such as bent pushrods, damaged seals, cracked or broken valve guides, and a host of other maladies that will be expensive to repair and best to avoid.
Retainers and locks
Always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for matching the retainer to the springs. This is important not only for the outer spring, but also because the step in the retainer is used to locate the inner spring on
Production cylinder head valve guides are often too large and too tall. COMP Cams offers arbors and cutters to reduce both the outside diameter and the height, while also cutting the guide for a performance Viton-style valve guide seal. These tools are especially useful when modifying a production small-block Chevy head. The guide in the foreground has already been cut. Head to PPNDigital.com and search “blueprinting” for even more info, charts, and pics on valve springs. PPNDigital.com 47
Valve locks must be matched to a specific valve stem diameter and to the retainer. When the locks are correctly installed, there will be a small gap between the two halves. If there is no gap, the valve diameter is too small or the locks are for a larger valve stem. The step in the top of these locks are designed to accommodate a lash cap that fits over the end of the valve but does not touch the locks.
Spring seats can be either id or od style and come in a variety of sizes. The od style (under the spring on thi engine) is shaped like a cup and may require head machining to fit in the spring pocket. More common are the id style (left) that locate the spring using an inside step, which is sized to snuggle up to the spring’s inside diameter. These seats can also be used as spacers to reduce installed height if necessary.
dual and triple spring applications. A critical issue is retainer weight, especially when it comes to big-block engines with large diameter springs where the weight of the retainer is especially important. A common misconception is that locks use the tang to prevent movement of the retainer. The reality is that the tang is only used to temporarily position the locks in relation to the retainer. Once load is applied to the retainer, the taper angle (7 or 10 degrees) serves to nest into the matching angle in the retainer and the whole assembly binds itself in place. The more force applied to the locks, the more load is applied to retain their position, but not necessarily on the tangs. The important consideration is to choose a lock designed for the valve stem diameter. With so many different valve stem diameters, from 5/16- to 3/8-inch and metric size like the 8mm LS valve stem size, a specific lock is required for each valve size. Retainers are also intended for both a given valve stem size and for the angle of the locks. This makes choosing these components critical to ensuring your valve train will function as intended.
different height valve locks. For example, within the 10-degree Steel Super Locks, COMP offers two different locks that can adjust the installed height either up or down by 0.050-inch. These locks are only for 11/32-inch valves, but it does offer another option for adjusting the installed height. Keep in mind that adding 0.050-inch of install height will reduce the clearance between the retainer and the rocker arm and also the distance the valve tip is above the level of the retainer. What you want to avoid is the rocker arm hitting and possibly unloading the retainer from the valve stem. Lash caps can be used in this case to increase the height of the valve stem tip to increase this clearance.
Applying what we’ve learned
Let’s put all of our new-found knowledge to work with a 496c.i. big-block Chevy we want to run with a hydraulic roller camshaft. According to our accompanying
Blueprinting techniques
When it comes to installing a valve spring, you can run into all kinds of small issues that may require creative solutions. A common issue is a 0.100-inch taller valve is added to the heads, which increases the installed height by that amount. This is normally done to accommodate greater valve lift, but this might be too much installed height for the spring you want to use. Purchasing new valves with a lower lock position is one solution, but that can be expensive. Another avenue is to use a spring seat. Spring seats are used to locate the spring, but can also be used to decrease the installed height. Spring seats are differentiated from basic shims in that seats also locate the spring either from the inside or the outside. Some engine builders may prefer one more than another, but the idea is to securely position the bottom of the spring to minimize the chance of it dancing, or moving, its seat location at high engine speeds. Another technique to adjust installed height is with 48 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Shims can be used to dial in the installed height. Thinner shims should be placed at the bottom. If combined with a spring cup, the shims should be placed under the cup to allow the guide to locate the spring.
chart, a good place to start would be 180 pounds of seat load with 420 pounds open pressure. These generic recommendations do not specify the actual valve lift or an installed height. Our AFR heads came with valves that placed the installed height at 1.900 inches. This is 0.100 inch taller that the standard big block because AFR expects us to combine these heads with a big camshaft with lots of lift. Now that we have a goal for our seat pressure and an installed height, this narrows the selection of springs. We decided to go with a traditional (non-tapered), dual spring combination that offers 178 pounds of seat load against the recommended 180. The hydraulic roller cam we selected is an Xtreme Energy XR294 with 242/248 degrees of duration at 0.050 with 0.540/0.560 valve lift. Looking at the 26094’s spring chart in the catalog, spring force is listed every 0.050 of inch of valve lift. Our cam is nearly 0.550 lift, meaning this spring will deliver 425 pounds of open load, which is nearly spot-on to the recommendation. On the exhaust side, the open load becomes slightly higher due to the added lift. We wanted to know how much additional lift adding a 1.8:1 rocker ratio to this beast would generate. To do this simply divide the base lift number by the rocker ratio. In this case, on the intake side the cam card lists 0.540-inch for intake lift. Divide this by the rocker ratio of 1.7:1 and we get 0.3176-inch for lobe lift. Then multiply this number by the desired 1.8:1 rocker ratio and we come up with 0.571, which is roughly 0.030 inch more lift. So now with a max lift of 0.571, we can estimate our open spring load will be halfway between the rated 0.550
Small-Block Street Engines Flat Tappet Hydraulic Flat Tappet Solid Hydraulic Roller Mechanical Roller
Seat Load (lbs) 120 130 160 220
Open Load (lbs) 280-300 350 380 550
Big-Block Street Engines Flat Tappet Hydraulic Flat Tappet Solid Hydraulic Roller Mechanical Roller
Seat Load (lbs) 150 150 180 250–300
Open Load (lbs) 350 380 420 600–650
This generic chart is a starting point for selecting valve springs for serious street engines. These are not one-size-fits-all numbers but rather recommendations you can use as guidelines when selecting a valve spring. This chart does not differentiate between traditional, beehive, or conical springs. But keep in mind that a conical spring with a smaller retainer will experience a substantial reduction in inertial load due to its small retainer and reduced upper mass.
load of 425 pounds and the 0.600 lift load of 447 pounds, which gives us around 436 pounds of load. That is less than 5 percent over our 420 open load recommendation, which will work just fine. As you can see, there’s quite a bit of material to deal with when selecting and blueprinting valve springs. If you follow these recommendations, you will be leagues ahead of many other enthusiasts who don’t realize how important valve spring selection and installation is to engine performance. But now you know, which makes you powerful in your own right. Sources: COMP Cams, compcams.com; Powerhouse Products, powerhouseproducts.com
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JETFLOW Jet Performance’s new throttle bodies may be the perfect performance upgrade for your drive-by-wire LS engine Words Jeff Huneycutt
WOULD IT SURPRISE YOU to learn that General Mo-
tors has been using drive-by-wire throttle systems for nearly two decades now? It’s true. General Motors began using drive-by-wire technology with the 1997 Corvette and quickly adapted it to other cars and trucks from there. Drive-by-wire means the throttle isn’t mechanically connected to the pedal. Instead, a position sensor in the pedal communicates your commands to a computer, which gets translated to the throttle body via an electronic signal. We’re living in the digital age, baby. 50 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Today, almost all new cars utilize a drive-by-wire system because it is useful for popular features like adaptive cruise control, parking and lane assist, and even traction control. Engineers are taking advantage of the technology to package the engine in increasingly smaller areas, because the mechanical linkage is no longer taking up space. Even though many car guys will complain about the systems added complexity, most have accepted that — like reality TV and teenagers staring at cell phones — drive-by-wire is here to stay. Of course, if adding
By utilizing modern electronics and a mind toward performance, Jet Performance has been able to engineer a drive-by-wire throttle body for LS engines that will improve pedal feel and horsepower.
performance is your goal, then this is actually an easy opportunity to do that. Like any modern technology, advances are coming quickly. “The GM drive-by-wire throttle bodies go back a little bit now, and they all use the same electronics,” says Jet Performance Product’s Dan Nicholas. “They all have a little bit of throttle lag on them, because the electronics aren’t as fast as they could be. And like any carburetor or throttle body, over time the bushings and the bearings wear, which compounds the issue. So we put a lot of effort into finding a way to improve on the stock throttle body. “We are an electronics company, and we are able to use faster electronics. We speed up the resistors, the capacitors, and all that, to get them to react quicker and get rid of some of that throttle lag that has been inherent in the GM vehicles.” To build the throttle bodies for LS engines, Jet starts with a 356 aluminum casting chosen for its strength. The casting starts out with the dimensions to be a direct replacement for the stock unit, but during the machining process, Jet opens up the bore for additional airflow. The amount varies by the part number, but the difference is typically 4mm extra diameter. It’s not a lot, but every little bit helps when talking about airflow. Plus, Jet machines the inside of the bore to help develop additional flow versus the stock unit’s smooth bore. “We bore them out, put our own throttle blades in them, as well as our own bushings and bearings,” Nicholas says. “It allows our throttle body to be smoother [than stock]. When the stepper motors click over to open up the throttle blade, our unit can be a lot quicker and a lot more precise. We are able to give you a better pedal feel as well as get more air into the combustion chamber easier.” Jet’s improved throttle body has practically identical exterior dimensions to the stock unit, so installation (even if you already have other modifications under the hood) is relatively simple.
Installation is as straightforward as unhooking the battery, unplugging the electronic and vacuum hose connections to your stock throttle body, removing the four bolts connecting it to the intake manifold, removing the throttle body, and then reversing the steps to install the Jet unit. “There’s nothing that you have to do to reprogram the car’s ECU for the new throttle body,” Nicholas explains. “Our unit comes with the electronics pre-installed, so you don’t have to do anything other than bolt it up. Everything you unplugged on the old unit goes right back into the same spot on our piece. “When you fire the car back up you may notice a little bit of a high idle. That’s nothing permanent, and there’s nothing you have to do to fix it. That’s just the ECU relearning with the new throttle body. We recommend you drive the car for about 100 miles to give the computer time to sort everything out, but usually everything is good before 50 miles.” Nicholas says this new throttle body is perfect for the performance enthusiast who may have already upgraded his exhaust system and intake manifold, but the throttle body will improve performance if it is the very first upgrade on an otherwise stock vehicle. The good news is Jet has jumped through hoops to get the throttle body CARB approved, making the Jet Performance Throttle Body 50-state legal, and everything is made here in the USA. Jet is working on similar throttle body upgrades for Fords and drive-by-wire Hemi engines, both should be available soon. Then Jet will be working on a new line of performance throttle bodies driven by old-school cables. In our experience we’ve seen improvements in throttle responsiveness make a huge difference in how a car drives — even if the modification doesn’t add an ounce of horsepower. So to be able to bolt up a new throttle body in less than an hour and gain both throttle response and power seems like a great deal. Source: JET Performance Products, jetchip.com
The throat of the throttle body has been machined with this pattern to help improve air velocity into the intake manifold. PPNDigital.com 51
Put it to the TEST
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SUGGESTIONS: Like to see a heavier-duty one, and maybe a handle on the block.
I absolutely love this strap. I call it my “snatch block” and keep it in the van or hanging on the shop wall. It’s been more than helpful unsticking cars in the winter and around the yard with my various projects. Brandon Flannery is a globe-trottin’ automotive photojournalist, content developer, and certified shop rat now living in Hernando, Mississippi, with a herd of projects and a daily-driven ’73 Satellite Sebring known as The Blue Goose.
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Family
Heirloom Mario De Leon’s fantastic ‘65 Mustang has always been a part of the family WHEN YOU GET RIGHT down to
it, most cars are no more than a big pile of steel, rubber, glass, and various other materials. But some cars just seem to have soul. It’s those cars with soul that seem to get adopted by their owner, and they become less a tool for mobility and more a part of the family. When new cars are sitting on the showroom floor waiting to be adopted by a family, it’s impossible to tell how long that relationship will last. But when a car and an owner — or a 54 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
car and an entire family — can survive the test of time it’s a beautiful thing. That’s the case with Mario De Leon and his very orange, and very eye-catching, ’65 Mustang. But De Leon isn’t the original owner. That honor actually belongs to his mom, who bought the car new in 1965, complete with the 298 V8, AM radio, and — best of all — Cruise-O-Matic all for $3,147.35 plus tax. Sounds like a steal, even back then. The car is now 50 years old, which averages out to less than $63 a year for the ’Stang.
Of course, Mario’s mom no longer has the Mustang. As a teenager, De Leon must have had an eye for great iron, because he somehow managed to claim the car for himself. “I sort of took the car when I was 16,” De Leon says. “It was never actually ‘given’ to me. I just assumed it would be mine. I guess that makes me partial to Fords. But everything is cool in my book — except for a Prius!” De Leon says although the car is still in the family, with all its modifications his mom would never drive the Mustang now.
He estimates the car is on its fourth major build, and he has no plans to stop modifying it. The current list of upgrades is pretty long, but this is no anemic beauty queen. The mods under the hood are just as impressive as what you see on the outside, and De Leon has done most of the work himself.
“After graduating from the Ford ASSET Program after high school, I was a certified Ford Tech for about 10 years,” De Leon says. “From there I spent many years in car audio, and am now VW sales manager for TMI Products. I get to help people ‘design’ new interiors, evolve with the trends, and start new ones.
“I built the car for the first time when there was no Internet to teach you about things. This is now the fourth restoration and probably not the last. I did about 95 percent of the work in my garage. It’s never ending, so I don’t know how long it took.” When De Leon says he did most of the work himself, he means it. PPNDigital.com 55
Previously he had sent the Mustang out to be painted, but had trouble getting the work done, and getting his car back. A cancer diagnosis made him reassess the value of his time, and De Leon says during his chemo treatments he decided to “get the car back, done or not.” It turns out the painter had done more harm than good. When De Leon did get the car back to his house — after approximately a year — it arrived mostly in boxes with several components missing. De Leon calls the arduous task of rebuilding his car while he recovered from cancer “home therapy.” As it sits now, the Mustang is definitely a head-turner. It all starts with the engine, which is a 349 stroker with a roller cam. The heads are aluminum, CNC-machined Avengers that were ported by Dr. J’s. Instead of a carb, De Leon chose an unusual combination of a Retrotek Powerjection III fuel injection throttle 56 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
body that’s fed pressurized air by a Master Power 70mm turbo. Routing the air fuel mixture to each cylinder is an Edelbrock Victor Jr. intake, and MSD handles firing off the air/fuel mixture. On low boost the package produces 521 horsepower and 588 lb./ft. of torque at the rear wheels.
To help in the handling department, De Leon installed Maier Racing springs with Shockwaves Shocks out back, and Shelby coils with Edelbrock IAS shocks on boxed control arms up front. The brakes are from Master Power with billet calipers. Twelve-inch
drilled and slotted rotors nestle inside the rear wheels, while the fronts get larger thirteens. Rolling stock are a set of Valencia wheels (18x8 inches in the front and 18x9.5 in back) wrapped in Mickey Thompson Street Comp tires. The retina-searing orange covering this fastback was painted by De Leon himself after the fiasco with the previous painter. To get that look required several steps. He used House of Kolor Tangelo Pearl over a gold base. There are also pearl white ghost flames in the Le Mans stripes. To keep everything smooth and uncluttered, the emblems and door handles have all been shaved. Besides the paint, the biggest eye-catcher is the pair of Spyder Halo projector headlights that give it a 21st-century vibe. A more subtle touch, that only those with a sharp eye may notice, is the grille from a ’66 and not the ’65. Inside, the interior is filled with components from De Leon’s employer, TMI. Everything is done in ’05 Mustang Saddle and Suede for a definite upscale look.
This is certainly a long way off from the car that De Loen’s mom drove off the lot back in 1965, but we bet she’s happy with the results. We were happy with the results too, choosing De Leon’s Mustang as the Power and Performance News winner of our online Gearhead Powerpack Giveway for the Street Machine and Muscle Car Nationals in Pomona, California. Along with free entry into the
event, De Leon received a prize pack with gift certificates worth $750 for goodies from the COMP Performance Group. For details on how you can win the next Powerpack Giveway, visit our Facebook page! To see more pics of this awesome car and to enter your car search “Gearhead Giveaway” over at PPNDigital.com.
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Speed SHOP PARTS / TOOLS / ACCESSORIES
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The Phantom knows Aeromotive, OEM Returnless Rail – Phantom 340 & Installation Kit
These new Phantom EFI Fuel Systems include all main fuel system components required to create a proper return-style EFI fuel system for engines with OEM “return-less” style fuel rails, including the desired Phantom Baffled Fuel Pump Kit with a 340 LPH fuel pump. Each system ships with a custom black EFI bypass fuel pressure regulator, high-flow billet fuel filter, filter mounting bracket, 3/8” Quick-Connect fuel rail adapter, plus all the required port fittings and o-rings, the deluxe wiring kit (not shown) and Aeromotive fuel pressure gauge. Ideal for late model engine transplants so hot with Street Rodders around the world. Suitable for naturally aspirated and blown, EFI engines producing from 300–700 flywheel horsepower, n the street or at the track. AN-06 style fuel hose and hose-ends are required for the installation of a fuel supply and return line, sold separately and not included. aeromotiveinc.com 913.647.7300
Lock it up
TCI, Ford 6R80 High-Stall, Lock-Up Torque Converters The latest bolt-together torque converters from TCI feature increased stall speeds and lock-up clutch torque capacity for 5.0 Coyote Mustang owners, while also allowing for easy stall changes. Their high-stall nature gets the engine to max torque and multiplies it as the vehicle starts to move. This improves vehicle launch and overall performance. The converters feature a triple-disc lock-up assembly with woven carbon frictions to handle more torque and dissipate heat more efficiently than the stock component. Each converter features a CNC-machined, billet bolt-together design. No
welding or cutting is required to access the converters’ internals, meaning that each unit can be unbolted and disassembled. This enables easy stall changes and rebuilds, as well as efficient replacement of bearings and lock-up components. These TCI Ford 6R80 High-Stall, Lock-Up Torque Converters do not require tuning and are available in 3100–3200, 3400–3500 and 3800–3900 rpm stall speeds. Custom options are also offered. tciauto.com 888.776.9824
For even more new products head to
PPNDigital.com 58 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Break it in right
Driven Racing Oil, BR30 Conventional Break-In Oil BR30 from Driven Racing Oil provides unmatched protection while also promoting proper surface mating of internal engine components. Used by Joe Gibbs Racing to break in and dyno all of its race engines, Driven BR30 is a conventional 5W-30 formula that is perfect for the first 400 miles on the street, one night of racing, or dyno power pulls. It features high levels of zinc and phosphorus, as well as a comprehensive additive package that promotes ring seal and provides the maximum protection available for cams and lifters during the initial break-in process. As a result, it does not require any additional ZDDP additives. Driven BR30 also features low levels of detergent for maximum anti-wear film formation. Compatible with Methanol and high-octane race fuels, it is specially formulated for hydraulic lifter valve trains, as well as those used in restrictor plate and drag racing. Driven BR30 is also ideal for OEM rebuilds and hydraulic roller camshaft engines. drivenracingoil.com 866.611.1820
Howl like a coyote COMP Cams, Ford Coyote Valve Spring Kits
COMP offers Ford enthusiasts two brand new valve spring options for late model Coyote engines. Two new valve spring kits from COMP Cams allow 0.550-inch or .600-inch lift as well as higher rpm and boost in late model Ford Coyote applications. These Ford Coyote Valve Spring Kits are designed to create higher load, rpm, and lift capacity for 2011–2015 and later Ford Coyote and Boss 5.0L engines in both N/A and boosted applications. An increase in load can handle more lift, which allows the engine to make more power. These Ford Coyote Valve Spring Kits also provide increased valve control over stock springs thanks to a performance-driven design and proven modular engine track record. The springs also allow for higher boost without concern for loss of valve control. Each kit includes springs plus matching titanium or tool steel retainers, seats, and seals, letting anyone upgrade their Coyote or Boss valve springs without having to guess which parts to use together. COMP Cams Ford Coyote Valve Spring Kits are required with all-new, highlift CY cams on 2011–2014 non-Boss heads. compcams.com 800.999.0853
Tame that Hellcat
ATI Performance, Super Damper for the 2015 HEMI Hellcat engine ATI Performance Products, Inc. is proud to introduce its all new Super Damper for the 2015+ HEMI Hellcat 6.2L Supercharged engine for street and high performance racing applications. The new aluminum-shell, steel-hub damper is a direct fit replacement for the stock OEM unit and is better capable of handling a wider variety of driving habits that Hellcat owners will put their new cars through. OEM dampers are optimally tuned to a narrow band of perceived normal driving conditions and do not perform well outside of those limits. This damper will handle any engine speed and driving conditions that get thrown at it. ATI Super Dampers provide balanced dampening of torsional crankshaft vibrations through all RPM ranges and exceed SFI 18.1 Safety Certification for competition use. atiracing.com 866.203.5094 PPNDigital.com 59
Speed SHOP PARTS / TOOLS / ACCESSORIES Go digital
Crane Cams, HEI Conversion Kits Crane Cams Ignition now offers conversion kits to upgrade your factory HEI distributor. If you wish to eliminate the HEI module and replace it with a Digital CD Ignition system, Part Number 60002500 allows the use of the factory HEI distributor, along with the Crane HI-6RC professional race design CD ignition system. This kit includes the HI-6RC ignition box, LX92 lightweight E-Core design coil and the matching coil wire conversion. cranecams.com 866.388.5120
Smarter coils
FAST, XR-1A LS-Style High-Output Ignition Coil Set This LS-style ignition coil set from FAST supports significantly higher horsepower than OEM coils. The new FAST XR-1A LS-Style High-Output Ignition Coil Set is designed specifically for high-compression naturally aspirated, boosted, or nitrous-equipped applications making more than 1,000 horsepower. This horsepower range is far beyond the capabilities of OEM coils. The spark energy of the FAST coils is comparable to CDI (capacitive discharge ignition) systems without the need to convert. The Smart Coil design also requires no ignitor module. The FAST XR-1A LS-Style High-Output Ignition Coil Set delivers up to 44,000 volts, 103mJ of energy, and supports a maximum of 19 amps of current and 17 volts. It is designed to work with all OEM equipment, as well as FAST products that support coil-near-plug applications such as the XIM and EZ-LS ignition controllers. fuelairspark.com 877.334.8355 60 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Double clutch
Quarter Master, 10.4” Optimum-SR Two-Disc LS Clutches Quarter Master brings race-winning clutch technology to the street with new Optimum-SR 10.4” Two-Disc LS Clutches. These clutches deliver a nearly stock pedal feel and are capable of handling 1400 horsepower and 1000 lbs.-ft. of torque. With lessons learned from racing and with the data from extensive driveability testing, Optimum-SR LS Clutches are now available for street use. They are currently offered for the C5 and C6 Corvette, Gen V Camaro, Pontiac G8 and 2009 and newer Cadillac CTS-V. Both the race and street versions feature a spring designed to require only a 10 percent increase in pedal effort over stock, with stock-type modulation control. The street version features sprung hub, marcel-type discs with organic rag-type friction for smooth engagement. A vented floater plate and grooved friction surfaces provide better cooling as well. Featuring aircraft-grade bolts and hardware with an all-billet construction, each clutch is completely rebuildable and can be used with OE hydraulic bearing systems or Quarter Master Tri-Lite II Hydraulic Release Bearings. quartermasterusa.com 888.258.8241
The Voodoo that you do
Lunati, Lunati 6-Counterweight Voodoo BBC Cranks New lightweight versions of Voodoo Series Crankshafts are now offered by Lunati. Available by popular request, they feature six counterweights instead of the eight found in most big-block Chevy cranks. Lunati 6-Counterweight Voodoo Series Crankshafts reduce overall mass and rotating inertia. Designed specifically for a 4.250-inch stroke in big-block Chevy engines, these new crankshafts can be balanced more easily and allow the engine to rev faster than standard designs. They are built
CARS
using a high-quality, non-twist 4340 forged steel, and are precision-machined to exact tolerances. They are then nitrided for lubricity and surface hardness. Lunati 6 Counterweight Voodoo Series Crankshafts are available for BBC applications with oneor two-piece rear seals. They weigh 65–66 pounds depending on stroke and length of counterweight. lunatipower.com 662.892.1500
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Quarter Master’s proven track record also translates to the street DAYTONA. LAGUNA SECA. ELDORA. These are some of the
most storied tracks in the United States, and to win at these prestigious tracks can make you a legend. For manufacturers, having a car with your product on board helps to build your reputation in the industry, thus growing your business. 62 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Some of the most important victories for Quarter Master have come at these hallowed grounds. The old saying “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” translates well to the company. It has developed and refined its products on the track, so that you can have confidence in its street offerings. We were able to corner Quarter Master General Manager Jeff Neal,
long enough to give us a little insight into the company and some of the latest offerings. But first, a bit of history. In 1958, a racer and machinist by the name of Ed Stoffels founded Quarter Master as a drag racing chassis manufacturing company (hence “Quarter” coming from 1/4 mile).
Words Dan Hodgdon
Eventually the company expanded beyond chassis building and starting bringing European multi-plate style clutches to the U.S. for race cars. The clutches worked great, but were in high demand and often unavailable to the racers who desired them. Stoffels realized his best business decision was to start pro-
Photo by Jordan Jones
ducing his own versions of the popular clutches, and by 1976 his company had become the industry leader in clutch and clutch component manufacturing in the circle track market. Today, Lake Zurich, Illinoisbased Quarter Master has evolved into the go-to driveline brand for a wide range of racing disciplines in-
cluding NASCAR, ARCA, TUDOR Sportscar teams, and K&N Pro Series competitors. Quarter Master is also used by drift champions, rally racers, touring asphalt and dirt Late Model operations, and even weekly Street Stock aces. Quarter Master offers both custom pieces and cutting-edge part-numbered components for nearly every level of motorsport. With that type of heritage, it’s no surprise that the lessons learned in all forms of racing have trickled down to the masses in the form of the brand’s ever-expanding lineup of street applications as well. “Racing can be the ultimate proving ground; the number one benefit from building products that race in extreme situations is the safety-and-reliability factor,” says Neal, a former racer himself. “Our customers race from venues like Daytona to the desert, which are all extremely demanding. When we design and manufacture these components, attention to details such as materials used and fatigue factors, which could affect the life of the product and safety of the end-user, are all extremely important.” Some of the most popular current examples of products directly resulting from racing come in the form of the company’s one- and two-disc Optimum-SR clutch opPPNDigital.com 63
When we build products for the street enthusiast they will be getting the same materials and/or processes used for the world’s top race teams. Photo by Jordan Jones
tions. These are true racing clutches that have been optimized for late model Mustangs and LS-equipped vehicles, while maintaining a nearstock pedal feel for the street. The two-disc version is capable of handling 1400 horsepower and 1000 ft.-lbs. of torque, while the single-disc offering can be used in applications making up to 700 horsepower and 500 ft.-lbs. of torque. “Road Racing correlates the closest in terms of product performance characteristics that will benefit the [street] end user,” Neal explains. “It taxes the engine, brakes, and drivetrain package like no other, especially in endurance racing. Our products compete in series that utilize everything from standing starts, to rule packages that require a near stock clutch-and-flywheel package. [Road racing] is by far our best proving grounds.” Quarter Master’s Optimum-RR Import Clutches (currently used primarily in Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru WRX applications, but available for a variety of imports) can trace their roots back to rally racing. However, Quarter Master doesn’t just deliver part-numbered products for street applications. While many high-end racing components are 64 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
purpose-built for their discipline, a significant portion of the driveline brand’s business on the street revolves around creating custom pieces as well. In fact, its staff can build a clutch for nearly any application, simply by drilling a special crankshaft pattern into a blank-button flywheel. It doesn’t matter if the vehicle is domestic or import, and the process is essentially the same as the racing model. The technicians will just need some information about a customer’s engine, transmission, starter, and bellhousing. They can then work to create a custom clutch setup with the friction type, number of discs, size, and weight that are optimal for an individual’s specific needs. Neal says the street flywheel design and friction materials are a couple of prime examples of components that either utilize racing technology or are a direct result of motorsports involvement. “The flywheels we design and manufacture see high rpm and heat,” he says. “We’ve been able to replicate the durability in street form with the same materials and processes we use in high-end racing.
“As far as friction, we’ve been building race clutches for over 40 years. Because of that we’ve learned the best compounds that offer both drivability and holding capacity for about any application.” Quarter Master’s arsenal includes more than just single and dual clutches though. Other offerings include a variety of multi-plate clutches, aluminum, steel, and carbon fiber driveshafts, quick-change gears, starters, hydraulic release bearings, and others. Each part is created with cutting-edge software and is built utilizing state-of-the-art engineering techniques. The staff also utilizes CNC-machining and sophisticated gear-cutting and broaching equipment. For these reasons, Quarter Master makes no claims that its custom (or even off-the-shelf) products are direct OEM replacements. Instead, Neal says that it builds performance products to enhance an individual’s driving experience
through gained horsepower and improved shifting characteristics, which can often be tailored to an individual’s style or performance discipline. As a result, the products command a higher price than stock parts, because Quarter Master is not a low-cost “me too” company. Neal admits that sometimes cost can be a hurdle to entry into the street performance market, but it fits the
overall strategy of providing nothing but top-of-the-line components to customers. “Quarter Master will never compensate safety over cost,” Neal says. “We will not build a ‘cheaper’ product in hopes of generating sales. When we build products for the street enthusiast they will be getting the same materials and/or processes used for the world’s top race teams.”
That is the type of philosophy that gives customers confidence and keeps them returning again and again. It may not be the quickest way to become the largest company, but giving the people who buy your product the highest quality will ensure their loyalty, and they will return the favor by spreading the word. That is the best way to ensure longevity. Source: Quarter Master, quartermasterusa.com
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Words/Photos Jeff Smith
BREAK OUT THE DEFIBRILLATOR and practice the in-
ternal combustion engine version of CPR — Cardio Piston Resuscitation. We’re about to embark on a journey that might save your engine’s life. Near-death experiences (NDE) are well documented on the human side of things. You’ve probably heard the stories: in near death, a bright light emits from a dark tunnel and in an instant your entire life flashes before your eyes. We don’t know anything about those psychological traumas, but we’ve been through more than a few Engine Near Death (END) experiences. We should warn you, this is not a feel-good story. Nothing warm and fuzzy will be discussed here. All these points are signs your engine is in serious distress. But if you catch these warning signs early enough, you might avoid the termination of internal combustion activity.
This is just a sampling of broken parts we’ve collected over the years. The broken blocks, torched heads, and melted pistons were too numerous and heavy to save. There are lessons to be learned from all of these broken parts.
66 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
If nothing else — caught soon enough after an END experience — you might be able to save a few parts and maybe a few coins along the way, too. We’ve compiled 10 warning signs of END traumas, in no particular order. All you have to do is recognize the signs and know what they mean. Once you do that, the engine life you save just might be your own! Or at least you can recognize the symptoms and shut your engine down before it turns all those expensive parts to a steaming pile of junk!
1. LASH CHANGES This might seem like a small thing, but it can be a subtle alarm. Mechanical lifter engines use lash (or clearance) between the rocker arm and the valve. Despite a common misconception, if everything is working properly warm engine lash clearance does not change. If the lash changes — something is moving. This is true for both flat and roller lifter camshafts. Generally, if the lash increases, this means something is wearing which has increased the clearance in the valvetrain. This can be a flat tappet lifter that is in the process of flattening a cam lobe, or it could mean a bent pushrod, or perhaps a fractured rocker arm. With roller lifters, a minor increase of 0.003 to 0.005-inch of lash could be a warning sign that the lifter’s roller bearings are failing. This is just about the only signal you’ll get that something is wrong before the bearings begin to disintegrate. When that happens, their exit is quickly followed by catastrophic engine
Checking lash is one of the best preventative measures you can take to stay on top of maintenance on your engine. Here’s where no news is good news, if the lash doesn’t change then you know at least the valvetrain is good.
damage as those little needle bearings use engine oil to transport themselves throughout the engine. If you’ve never experienced this, consider yourself lucky. Those tiny roller bearings end
up between the pistons and cylinder walls, which can cause serious cylinder wall scoring. Or, they can find their way into the oil pump and cause it to seize, which is never a good thing.
2. SHINY STUFF IN THE OIL Here’s the scenario. You’re at the drag strip and the engine is running great. You make a pass with a trap speed of 115 mph. You make a minor jet change and the car slows down 2 mph. You go back to the original jet and the car slows down another 3 mph. Now the car is slower by 5 mph. This is when you start looking for the cause. We like to start by pulling the valve covers. That’s when you will see it. There’s shiny stuff — like little silver and copper flakes — floating in the oil that’s still trapped on top of the cylinder head. Unfortunately, when you see this, the damage has already occurred. What you are looking at is either connecting rod or main bearing material that has been stripped off the bearings and is floating in the oil. The only intelligent solution is to put the car on the trailer, take it home, and yank the engine. This has happened to us on the dyno a couple of times. In the most recent example, we put a centrifugal supercharger on a 502 big-block Chevy crate engine. After making 800-plus horsepower, the engine quickly lost power and we pulled
These main bearings tell an interesting story. These are production aluminum main and rod bearings that have been pushed too hard. Instead of deflecting and wearing down to the babbitt material like softer tri-metal bearings, the aluminum versions peel and micro-weld, transferring material into the oil where it immediately scores and kills the downstream rod bearings. It’s never pretty.
the valve covers to find shiny aluminum flakes in the oil. We discovered the Number 2 main bearing had begun to pull bearing material and had scratched the main journal. This occurred because the stock production big-block aluminum main bearings couldn’t handle the extra load of the added 300-
plus horsepower and torque. This was a stock crate engine bottom end and the lesson learned was we should have replaced the stock aluminum bearings with softer tri-metal performance bearings before pushing this engine so hard. Luckily we caught the problem before it did more serious damage. PPNDigital.com 67
Dead main bearings that have been taken down can make noise. Unfortunately, by the time you hear it squeak, it’s usually too late.
This failed roller lifter started to machine the camshaft and the subsequent squeak was just a signal that the damage was done.
3. IF THE ENGINE SQUEAKS – SHUT IT DOWN This might sound weird but it happens more often than you might think. There are several reasons for this and none of them are good. The mechanical roller lifter failure mentioned in number one can cause an engine to squeak. A friend with a radical, 650 horsepower 434c.i. small-block Chevy street car called me one day and asked, “My engine started squeaking last night on the way home. What do you think it is?” It turned out he had lost the bearings in a mechanical roller
lifter and they went all through his engine. The squeaking was the roller follower banging against its axle. I’ve also heard engines squeak when suffering from disintegrating main bearings. In this case, it was a newly-rebuilt 406c.i. small-block that the balance shop neglected to put the dowel pin in the crank and balanced the assembly with the offset weight in the wrong position. When we assembled the engine, we placed the flexplate in the proper orien-
tation and the engine seemed to vibrate slightly. The car didn’t run well at the track and the engine began squeaking just as we returned home. The last few miles put so much heat in the block’s mains that the webbing turned blue, which destroyed the block. If you hear a loud squeak — consider yourself warned. Or you can do what Westech’s Steve Bule’ says and “perform the sign of the cross over your heart and sprinkle that motor with holy water ’cause it’s dead.”
4. SUDDEN OIL PRESSURE DROP
This is enough to give anybody a heart attack, but for once, this might not be a fatal flaw. In cases where the oil pressure does not drop to zero but instead falls 10 to 20 psi at higher engine speeds, there is a possible fix. The logical assumption is that it’s caused by low oil level that allows the pump to suck air. This is a common problem with high rpm LS engines with stock oil pans because the oil pump spins at engine speed, compared to previous designs where the pump spins at camshaft or half engine speed. The solution to this dilemma is probably a deeper sump oil pan with more oil. But let’s float an alternative solution. We’ve seen this oil pressure drop happen often with big-block Chevys, but it can occur with any engine. In most cases, the engine is fitted with a larger capacity aftermarket oil pan. 68 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
A combination of low or no oil pressure and high engine coolant temperature is a bad sign. An oil pressure warning light on the dash might help minimize the damage.
For this example, we’ll use a 7-quart capacity. The engine builder fills the engine with seven quarts, plus another for the filter. Later, with the engine running at high rpm, this extra oil turns into foam, which is easily compressed in the oil pump, creating lower oil pressure.
The solution is to simply reduce the oil capacity by a half-quart at a time until the oil pressure stabilizes at high speed. That’s the engine’s way of telling you what it wants. It’s that simple but it’s amazing the number of engines running right this moment with over-filled sumps.
5. IMPROPER FLAT TAPPET CAM BREAK-IN This can be potentially deadly to your engine because of the metal debris that wears off the dead lobes and lifters. Once this occurs, the common response is “all you have to do is change the cam, lifters, oil, and filter and you’re ready to go.” But that is not even close to what you have to do. When a lobe failure occurs, you won’t realize there is a problem until the engine has run for at least 15 to 20 minutes. The first indication might be when the rockers start clattering due to lost preload or excessive lash. By this time, quite a bit of metal has circulated throughout the engine for long enough that no number of oil changes will repair the damage. More importantly, the rod and main bearings have been subjected to all this debris in the oil and it’s guaranteed the bearings are damaged enough that they will need to be replaced. But even with a tear-down, you must remove the cam bearings (at least with most engines) in order to ensure all that metal has been removed with a thorough hot tank cleaning. So how do you avoid suffering from Flat Lobe Syndrome ? We have a procedure that begins with using high-quality break-in oil like the stuff from COMP, Driven Oil, Lucas, Amsoil, or others. Next, we pressure lube the engine just before startup, ensuring that all 16 rocker arms have oil. Next, we use lightweight valve springs or low ratio rockers to prevent excessive spring pressure on the lifters. This means removing the inner spring on dual springs until the cam is broken in, then the inners can be re-installed. It’s also crucial to vary the engine speed between 2,000 and 2,500 rpm for the first 20 minutes of run time and never let it idle in
A dead lifter like this will mangle the inside of your engine in a heartbeat. Most flat tappet lifter failures will occur during break-in and can be traced to poor lube at initial startup, incorrect lubricant, or excessive spring pressure for break-in.
those first crucial minutes. The reason is to improve the splash oiling of the lifter/cam interface. Higher engine speeds ensure plenty of oil is splashed around to lube the lifters. Following these suggestions along with correct ignition timing and air-fuel ratio during break-in will drastically improve a flat tappet cam’s chances of survival.
6. SPARK PLUGS WITH MELTED, DAMAGED ELECTRODES OR ALUMINUM FLAKES
Mangled spark plugs are another sign of engine distress. This plug has had nitrous damage, which hopefully didn’t hurt the pistons. A major warning sign that danger is imminent are tiny aluminum flakes.
This is mainly for power-adder engines like nitrous, supercharged, or turbocharged engines, but we’ve seen nasty looking spark plugs, even with normally aspirated engines, that foretell evil doings in the combustion chamber. Mangled spark plugs have been called the fusible link in the combustion chamber, but often the damage to the plugs is quickly followed by greater carnage to soft aluminum pistons, combustion chambers, deck surfaces, head gaskets, exhaust valves, and other consumables when the heat is on. This is usually the result of an incorrect tune with too much timing, insufficient octane, or a too-lean air-fuel ratio. Other causes can be traced to the use of an incorrect spark plug. The most common error is using a projected nose spark plug where the longer ground strap becomes a glow plug, which can cause pre-ignition that is often instantly fatal. Anyone with a willingness to pull a plug and put it under a strong spark plug magnifier can learn a few things and perhaps save their engine. Tiny black specs on the white ceramic insulator are indications of detonation. If you see little shiny specs of metal it most often is melted aluminum off the piston or combustion chamber. If caught soon enough, you can calm this cylinder down with more fuel, less timing, higher-octane fuel, a cooler plug, or a combination of all of the above that might prevent further damage. But the only way you’ll know is to pull all the plugs and look at them — often. With enough experience, you will soon learn which cylinders are the trouble-makers. PPNDigital.com 69
8. HYDRAULIC LOCKUP
Causes of detonation are multiple. If the engine’s too hot, the heat will increase the temperature of the incoming air and require a higher-octane fuel than you have on board. Every 25-degree increase in inlet air temperature requires a full point of octane to control. Think about that when the inlet air temperature is 135 degrees. Other causes can be too much compression, not enough octane, over-advanced ignition timing, poor mixture distribution, and at least a couple dozen more causes. In some cases, you may not even hear the detonation, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I know a few older enthusiasts who physically can’t hear the rattle, because that audible range has long-since disappeared for them. In that case, the quick fix is to bring along a younger friend who can hear what the engine is saying. The engine is talking to you and it’s telling you it’s hurting, but you have to listen. It’s up to you to fix it before it breaks.
You’ll notice hydraulic lockup when the starter motor begins to turn the engine and then suddenly stops. Like the old saying, “it’s not the fall that kills you but the sudden stop at the end,” the same is true with hydraulic lockup. That sudden cranking stop is a clear message your engine is suffering. We recently spoke to a friend who had just taken on the challenge of repairing a big-block engine the customer wanted to run with a complete Hilborn mechanical fuel injection. The owner’s claim was the engine “used to run, but lately we’ve had problems.” Later, the customer admitted they’d suffered two bent connecting rods, which my friend quickly realized was due to the crankshaft attempting to push the pistons past a load of incompressible liquid. A sure indication of trouble is when water or coolant leaks out of the spark plug hole. The most likely causes are a blown head gasket or a cracked cylinder head/cylinder wall that’s allowing coolant into the engine. When head gaskets fail, you must do more than just replace the gasket. To prevent a reoccurrence, the search must include locating the source of why the gasket failed. Common issues include incorrect torque loads or perhaps uneven deck surfaces. The latest generation of multi-layer steel (MLS) gaskets are an excellent choice for engines with head gasket sealing issues. But regardless of the source of the problem, liquids in the combustion space are universally a bad omen — unless your idea of fun is burning monster loads of nitromethane.
clearance. We’ve also seen intake gaskets that are not sealed properly at the bottom of the manifold pull oil from the lifter valley into the intake port and cause the engine to consume oil. If the smoke is more pronounced under acceleration, the rings may be the source of the problem. This is a common problem with high mileage engines, and not entirely the fault of the rings because the cylinder bores are probably worn rather
badly as well, which will contribute to the oil consumption issue. Also falling under the category of gases emitting from the tailpipe, steam, or white smoke usually means head gasket or cracked heads are admitting coolant into the combustion chamber. This can be caused by detonation, or is the result of heavy detonation, which can cause serious engine damage such as broken cylinder walls. We’ve lost an engine that way, too. It’s not pretty.
Detonation and hypereutectic pistons are not a good combination. Keep in mind that hypereutectic pistons are still cast, which makes them brittle. This one rattled a little too hard and broke at its weakest point, just below the oil ring.
7. WHEN IT RATTLES — LIFT! Detonation is an uncontrolled, high-pressure spike in the cylinder that can cause significant engine damage. Detonation can be a deadly result of some kind of tuning problem, or perhaps just low octane fuel and too much timing or compression. Whatever the cause, the best thing you can do is lift off the throttle. Forged pistons can handle a little bit of detonation, but cast or hypereutectic pistons are especially vulnerable. We’ve seen hypereutectic pistons physically separate right below the oil ring land. The result is damage that requires a complete rebuild. Essentially the pinging sound is the pistons slapping hard into the cylinder walls. That’s not pretty and certainly not conducive to making power. Some enthusiasts tend to downplay detonation but that’s not smart. Even if we discount the potential damage, engines don’t make power when they’re detonating. Regardless, detonation is a serious threat to long engine life.
9. DEATH SMOKE They say that smoking isn’t good for humans and the same can be said for engines. A building cloud of blue smoke is the engine’s way to telling you that something is amiss. The way the engine smokes can also be used to help diagnose the problem. If the engine smokes on startup and tends to puff on deceleration the engine is trying to tell you the valve guide seals have gone bad, perhaps exaggerated by loose valve guide
Peak inside the mind of Jeff Smith with his Fast Talk columns at PPNDigital.com. 70 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Pushrods rarely bend without help. Start looking for piston-to-valve clearance, perhaps a stuck valve, valve float, or any number of other maladies that might cause a pushrod to turn into a pretzel.
Sometimes a noisy engine can make finding the knock a bit of a challenge. In this case, severe detonation has pinched the wrist pin in this Lunati rod. The piston looked fine, but this floating pin had to be heated to remove it from the rod.
10. NOISE AT STARTUP It’s the clanking or banging sound when the engine first fires that might be a very serious warning sign. Most everybody knows what a rod knock sounds like — heavy thumping coming from deep inside your engine. Some performance engines will do this when they are cold, and the noise can be traced to piston slap. We built a 355c.i. small block with 2618 alloy forged aluminum pistons, with
0.005-inch of piston-to-wall clearance, and the engine was incredibly noisy for the first five minutes of cold running time. The engine was so loud we actually took it apart to discover it was the pistons making the noise, as the rod and main bearing clearances were fine. We’ve also had a hydraulic flat tappet lifter sound exactly like a rod knock when the lifter had pumped down and the
extra clearance caused a heavy knocking sound. But apart from these anomalies, a heavy knock after engine abuse often signifies a problem especially if the noise is accompanied by a loss in oil pressure and shiny bits in the oil. The combination of a heavy thumping and a loss in oil pressure is a notice written in bold letters that your engine may need emergency surgery.
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OIL MYTHS
72 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Driven Racing Oil helps clear up some modern oil misconceptions WHILE MOST CAR GUYS and girls grasp the basic con-
cepts of how oil works and why it is necessary for any engine (high performance or otherwise) there are also a lot of myths associated with the black gold that keeps your engine lubricated and running. There are probably as many oil companies as there are gas companies out there providing a wide variety of lubricants. There are even higher-end lubricants offered by specialty companies like Driven Racing Oil, Lucas, Royal Purple, and Amsoil just to name a few. Even valvetrain companies such as COMP Cams, Crane Cams, and Lunati all offer their own blends and/or break-in oils and additives. Because technology has evolved over the years, and there are so many different choices for the consumer, there are a lot of myths that have been taken as “truth.” There is no malicious intent meant with these myths, rather they are rumors or conjecture that have simply seeped into gearhead culture. We went to the experts at Driven to provide us with some of the most common myths they hear while helping engine builders, racers, and even shadetree mechanics come up with the best lubricants to provide their vehicles with maximum horsepower, protection, and drivability. Over the years they’ve learned there is a lot of bad information out there regarding oil. Here, they help us separate fact from fiction.
Myth: Viscosity equals protection
Words Dan Hodgdon
Many gearheads use motor oil viscosities higher than necessary, simply because it is what they’ve always used. Engine technology and components are constantly evolving, and motor oils have evolved along with them. Because of advanced chemistry, a modern engine oil can provide superior protection even at lighter weight PPNDigital.com 73
viscosities, and that lower viscosity helps free up some horsepower, because the oil pump doesn’t have to work as hard to move the oil throughout the engine. Not only is this “viscosity equals protection” myth false, it also can be harmful to your engine in some circumstances. As much as 70 percent of the wear on an engine occurs at startup. That’s because while the engine has been off, the oil has an opportunity to drain back into the pan and away from the areas it needs to be. Obviously, you want to get oil back to the bearings, the cylinder walls, and all the way up to the valvetrain as quickly as possible to bring the protection back where it should be.
Myth: Once you use a synthetic motor oil you can never change back to a conventional
This is not accurate. It won’t hurt anything to switch between conventional and synthetic. What is not a good idea is switching between brands of oil. There are various chemical reasons for this, but essentially it breaks down to compatibility of blends. If you buy whatever is on sale each time, those blends may have different protection properties or detergents that could counteract what the previous oil was defending against. Beyond that, you also want to be sure to use the correct type of oil for your engine. Most high performance engines are initially broken in on conventional oil specially formulated for engine break-in, and then switched to a properly formulated synthetic for use afterwards. The key is to choose an oil specifically formulated for the needs of your application and then stick with that product.
Myth: Flat tappet engines can’t use synthetic oil because the lifters won’t rotate – the synthetic oil is too slippery
This myth has become popular since flat tappet camshaft failures began to increase around a decade ago. The origin is the result of the misapplication of passenger car motor oil. Over time, the ZDDP 74 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Be sure to use an oil that is specifically formulated for your application. Driven Racing Oil provides a full line of lubricants based on use.
It won’t hurt anything to switch between conventional and synthetic. What is not a good idea is switching between brands of oil. (zinc) levels in synthetic off-theshelf oils were reduced due to EPA regulations for passenger cars. Such a reduction caused synthetic formulas to be insufficient for protecting flat tappet cams. This implied that the problem was with synthetic oil rather than the lack of ZDDP; however, this is not the case. Choosing a synthetic motor oil with special formulation that includes more ZDDP will work to protect any flat tappet camshaft. Also worth noting is the myth that synthetic oil causes roller bearings to slide instead of roll, resulting in failure. This is also not true and came about simply due to the misapplication of passenger car oil in motorcycles. The power density of those vehicles’ engines places greater shear forces on motor oil than do passenger car engines.
Myth: Parts only need to “wear in” during the break-in process
One of the most critical times in any engine’s life is when it is first cranked after assembly. This is the break-in period when all those new
parts need to mate together. The common myth of breaking in a new engine is that new parts need to “wear” in. However, there is a difference between reducing friction and reducing wear. It is very important for the breakin process, especially if you are using a flat tappet camshaft, to use the right type and amount of ZDDP because it reduces wear. But ZDDP doesn’t reduce friction. As we touched on earlier, many people have been told not to breakin on synthetic oil because it is too “slippery.” This is because these oils are designed to reduce friction, and your engine needs friction to get the ZDDP to activate and help “chemically” mate the parts without wearing them out during the break-in period. Low-friction motor oils, especially synthetics, are designed solely to reduce friction, which will substantially lengthen the amount of time required to break in an engine. When an engine is fired for the first time, the engine is essentially finishing up the honing process begun by your engine machinist.
As the parts are moving together for the first time, especially the piston rings moving against the cylinder bore, they scrub off tiny pieces of metal that are carried away by the oil. All the things created by your engine during break-in are bad for your engine. This is why you want to complete the break-in process as quickly as possible so you can change the oil, as well as the filter, and flush out all the contaminants as soon as you can. Too much friction reduction means it takes longer for the rings to seat, and that’s more time the engine is putting contaminants into the oil. A well-designed break-in oil prevents excessive wear while quickly mating the parts. This approach reduces wear and completes the break-in process faster.
Myth: More additives are always better Since most high-priced “performance” oils advertise their super deluxe additives, and many companies are even selling bottles of
counteract the effects of others. So simply dumping in a bottle of additive into your engine during your next oil change can actually leave you worse off than if you had done nothing. Be sure to do your homework to determine which additives are ideal for your engine package.
Myth: Racing oil is better
While it’s important to research the additives you are using, supplements like Lunati’s Concentrated Break-In Additive are a necessary supplement to modern oils which have a low ZDDP content.
motor oil additives to add to whatever oil you like, then it must mean that more additives are always better, right? Wrong. Additives have to be carefully matched to one another to make sure they work together as a package. There are chemicals in many common additives that actively
It is true that auto racing is a great testing ground for new technologies and components. But that doesn’t mean something created to meet the needs of racers is also the best thing to meet the requirements of a street machine. This definitely includes your motor oil. Even if you have a high-horsepower engine built using a lot of racing components, that doesn’t mean an oil formulated for racing will be the best choice. Sources: Driven Racing Oil, drivenracingoil.com; Lunati, lunatipower.com To find out more about which oil is best for your engine’s needs check out PPNDigital.com.
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Little Motors
LOVE NITROUS True happiness is the combination of a $350 4.8L LS motor and a ZEX nitrous system Words/Photos Jeff Smith
THIS STORY STARTED out as a
complete accident when we stuck a simple plate nitrous system on a 140,000-mile 4.8L LS truck engine that ran as quick as 11.40 at 119 mph. We were so encouraged by the results, that now we want to see if we can push a 3,600-pound Chevelle underdog into the low 11s and perhaps into the high 10s. It has become something of a quest, and like many oddball projects, the original plan was something completely different. We originally went looking for a budget-based 5.3L motor to stuff 76 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
into our ’66 Chevelle. The 5.3L LS (RPO LM7) is the most common LS truck engine on the planet and we thought we’d found a longblock with no intake or coils for only $350. But after we bought the engine and took it back to the shop, closer inspection revealed our purchase was really a 4.8L. This tiny engine only displaces 293c.i. using a teacup-sized 3.78-inch bore and a short 3.26-inch stroke. Basically, this is GM’s Gen III version of the venerable 283 that
can trace its lineage all the way back to 1957. Since we were stuck with this little motor, we went ahead and bolted it in the car. The only mods we made to the tiny LS was a mild COMP hydraulic roller cam with 219/227 degrees of duration an 0.607/0.614-inch lift, a set of COMP beehive valve springs, an Edelbrock Performer RPM dual plane intake, a Holley 750 cfm vacuum secondary carburetor, a pair of Hooker’s cast iron exhaust manifolds, an MSD ignition controller, and a steel Champ oil pan.
This is the engine compartment with the carbureted 4.8L LS engine. In this photo, we have already installed the ZEX nitrous system. The fuel delivery system is a Weldon external pump and filter supplying fuel to the regulators mounted on the passenger side inner fender. Fuel enters the first regulator that sets line pressure at 15 psi and returns fuel to the tank. A second deadhead regulator limits fuel pressure to 6 psi for both the carburetor and the fuel solenoid for the nitrous.
This little junkyard orphan Chevelle weighs in at 3,650 pounds, with a 180-pound driver, and uses a California Performance Transmissions 200-4R trans with a tight converter. Out back is a Global West rear suspension with relocated tubular lower control arms to improve the instant center, along with a BMR anti-roll bar to keep the front end square on the launch. The 12-bolt rear end carries 3.55:1 gears, a limited slip, and 30-spline Moser axles spinning a pair of Mickey Thompson ET Street 26 x 11.50 x 15-inch tires.
What caught our attention was how well the car ran despite its diminutive displacement and incredibly slow 60-foot times. With its tight converter, the Chevelle’s normally aspirated 60-foot times were in the 2.02-second range — slow enough to be measured with a sundial. Yet despite that, our best 1/8-mile time was an 8.47 at 85.44 mph, which equates to quarter-mile times of 13.20s at over 105 mph. This showed us that the little 4.8 was making some decent horsepower, but it just didn’t have the torque to launch the car. While we could have put a deeper 4.10:1 gear in the car, this wasn’t what we wanted from a true street car. We knew that the easiest way to wake this baby up would be with a simple plate nitrous system and a 150-horsepower shot. We originally bolted on a Nitrous Oxide Systems kit for our original testing almost two years ago. The original test triggered the full 150 shot right off the starting line, but all this accomplished was smoking the Mickey Thompson ET Street tires. We had been talking with our pal Jason Haines at Lingenfelter Performance Engineering (LPE) about its new digital, progressive nitrous controller, so we decided to bolt the computer on and try it out. We’ll admit there were some teething pains with dialing in the
computer and making all the systems work together. Most of our issues involved learning how to work with the computer’s complexities. We had to configure the computer for an eight-cylinder engine and then learned that testing the unit with the engine off would only work if we disabled the fuel pressure sensor. It was stuff like this that took several hours to learn, but eventually we had the system operating as we intended. At least partially — but we’ll get to that. What makes this controller worth the effort is it allows you to pulse both the nitrous and fuel solenoids very quickly using an LPE-supplied electronic relay. The computer allows you to set the percentage of “on” time from 0 to 100 percent, in much the same way electronic fuel injectors operate. We decided to start the nitrous at 40 percent on the starting line. The computer then allows you to create any sort of curve, but we elected to ramp the percentage up with a straight linear line up to 100 percent at 1.7 seconds, which we felt would be roughly the 60-foot mark. We also received some excellent tuning advice from Steve Johnson at Induction Solutions in Florida. Our initial call was to ask how often we should change the nitrous solenoid seals (because we were pulsing them so many times), and he told us PPNDigital.com 77
This is the ZEX plate nitrous system complete with a 10-pound bottle, plate, solenoids, and all the necessary fittings and wiring.
We also built a custom aluminum plate to mount the nitrous solenoids and connected the wiring into a four-pin Weatherpack quick-disconnect to make it easier to remove and service. We mocked the plate up on a small-block Chevy intake manifold so the plate could be used on either LS, small-, or big-block Chevy engines.
Here is the ZEX perimeter plate installed on the engine. The ZEX system employs an annular groove around the perimeter of the plate so both nitrous and fuel is introduced in an even 360-degree spray rather than from spray bars. This circumferential delivery creates a more even delivery of nitrous to the intake manifold.
that installing a shut-off valve and a pressure gauge in the interior between the nitrous solenoid and the bottle would be the best way to improve seal life. Steve also says that constant bottle pressure on the seal is what reduces its service life. He added that the cycling of the solenoid on and off really doesn’t affect seal life nearly as much as the pressure. With careful attention to bottle pressure, tire pressure, launch rpm, and timing retard, early on we were able to lay down a really good 1.67 60-foot time that gave us an eighthmile time of 7.26 at 96 mph. This time became our benchmark pass that we were unable to duplicate or improve upon despite several attempts. 78  Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
This photo shows the entire kit installed on the engine along with the ZEX purge solenoid mounted on the firewall. Also note we trigger the system with a microswitch mounted on a homemade bracket bolted to the carburetor.
Usually, the problem was related to tire spin. This eventually demanded some work on the suspension with a set of QA1 double-adjustable shocks, along with an anti-roll bar from BMR, and tubular upper and lower front and rear control arms from Global West. We had previously installed a Global West rear lower control arm relocation bracket that changes the instant center on the rear suspension to plant the tires a little more aggressively. With tuning from the shocks, this helped the chassis tuning issue, but we still had problems with the nitrous. After our one good pass with the nitrous, the car mysteriously created a delay in the nitrous trigger on the starting line. Testing
the system with the engine off, the nitrous solenoids would trigger immediately and run through the intended linear progression to 100 percent on. But when hitting WOT on the starting line, there was a 1/2-second or so delay before the nitrous would hit. This took us several trips to the track to determine we had set the low rpm trigger point on the LPE controller to 2,500 rpm. On our good pass, we had preloaded the converter with enough stall that this low rpm point was achieved on the starting line. But later we changed the starting line rpm procedure without realizing this caused the little 4.8L motor to struggle to reach 2,500 rpm off the line — creating the delay.
Ignition control for our carbureted 4.8L engine is controlled by the MSD 6LS ignition controller (upper right). We mounted the Lingenfelter nitrous controller on the same panel that is located where the heater box used to sit. Eventually, we will move this controller to make it easier to access.
It’s critical to maintain bottle pressure at 950 psi for tuning. We use a ZEX electric heater blanket to keep the bottle warm. It has a thermostat that maintains the temperature, but it’s still wise to monitor it with the pressure gauge.
We finally worked out the solution by reducing the controller low rpm trigger point to 1,500 rpm, but we did this only after we had decided to try a different nitrous system. By changing to a ZEX perimeter nitrous system, we thought we could isolate the problem of the delay. Plus, we had a plan to eventually integrate the ZEX system with a FAST EZ-EFI 2.0 throttle body EFI system. But that’s down the road. For now, we installed the new ZEX system and were hopeful it would run as quick as the previous system. Our first runs at the track were less than successful, and a bit perplexing. On our first pass, the arming switch mysteriously turned off at 5.1 seconds into the run. Our time improved on the next pass, but when we looked at the data logging, which is automatically recorded on the LPE controller, it revealed the nitrous turned off twice during the run.
The controller can be tuned either with pushbuttons on the unit or by using a laptop. We most often use the laptop so we can view the data logging.
At first this was puzzling until we realized the computer again did what we told it to do, shut-off the nitrous at 7,000 rpm. The engine had in fact buzzed to 7,200, which was very strange since we shifted the trans into second gear at 6,500 rpm as indicated by the tachometer. We made another pass, shifting exactly at 6,500 rpm, and the same problem occurred. Not only was the nitrous turning off, but over-revving the engine way past the engine’s power peak. This could be one reason why the car slowed down from previous passes. After discovering the problem, we took the tachometer to our friend Shannon Hudson at Redline Gauge Works in Santa Clarita, California to test the accuracy of the tach. He found the tach was slow by 400 rpm when accelerated quickly. We also spoke to Kevin Dykyj at Auto Meter about tach accuracy, even though the tach we were using was not an Auto Meter. He told us that if there is some concern about an Auto Meter tach, you can send it into the company and they can test and adjust it for free as a customer service. He also mentioned that supply voltage and poor grounds are often a cause for inaccurate readings. Our problems are typical of any performance or racing effort in that all the supporting systems have to do their job in order for the car to run properly. We had several problems unrelated to the nitrous system that caused the car to slow down.
In this last case, we normally shift at 6,000 rpm but decided to raise the shift point to see if the car would run quicker. This put the engine at 7,000 rpm when our best pass had been when we shifted at 6,000. Our higher shift point put the engine a full 1,000 rpm past where it had run well. It does not appear we have hurt the engine, but we will change the tach so we have an accurate rpm count and double-check that with our data logger. Despite all of our setbacks, that 11.40/119 mph run dangles like a carrot in front of our donkey cart efforts to improve. But this pass represents an improvement of 1.21 seconds and 10.55 mph in the 1/8-mile. Calculating the improvements in the quarter mile, these jump to a reduction in e.t. of 1.89 seconds and a gain of an impressive 13.13 mph. This is all from a simple 150-horsepower shot of nitrous. If we can get all of our ducks beak-to-tail, the Chevelle has proven it has the potential to run low 11s. It’s entirely possible we will have to hit this package with more nitrous to run low 11s. Remember, this is only a 293c.i. engine and well used at that. We’re going to keep hammering away at this little motor and let you know how it turns out. Sources: Induction Solutions, inductionsolution.com; Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, lingenfelter.com; Redline Gauge Works, redlinegaugeworks.com; ZEX, zex.com Search “nitrous”at PPNDigital.com for even more info, charts, and pics. PPNDigital.com 79
EFI: IGNITION TIPS
Take advantage of ignition controls to unlock the most power and tunability from your EFI engine WE ARE LIVING in what may turn
out to be a golden age for horsepower enthusiasts. Sure, Dodge’s Hellcat Challenger and Charger with their 707 horsepower supercharged V8s have grabbed the limelight in the horsepower wars, but all three U.S. manufacturers have cars with more than 500 horsepower from the factory — and they all can be used as daily drivers. Of course, new cars aren’t the only ones enjoying the benefits of modern technology. Thanks to new self-learning EFI systems, lots of classic car owners are gaining the power and reliability of EFI while still keeping the look and feel of classic American iron. 80 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
These systems are relatively easy to install because they don’t require upfitting an entirely new intake to your engine. Instead, the injectors are built into the throttle body, so the only thing that needs to be changed is the carburetor and possibly the fuel pump. There are no worries about spending the money to swap out a manifold only to wind up chasing air leaks, or trying to modify an existing manifold for injector bungs. If you have been working with engines in race cars or hot rods any length of time, when you hear about fuel injectors built into a throttle body, you may think of
Words Jeff Huneycutt
GM’s old throttle body injection (TBI) systems from the late ’80s. Those TBI systems were notoriously tricky to work with. They had practically zero adaptability and were coded to work with a single set of engine parameters. Hot rodders who tried a cam swap or other engine upgrades were often left frustrated with an engine that actually performed worse than before. Don’t confuse the TBI throttle body with today’s modern technology. “We are worlds apart from the old GM TBI throttle bodies,” says David Page of FAST. “Our EZ EFI systems welcome modifications to the engine.
A GM 5.7 / 350 TBI throttle body.
Photo from warrperformance.com
We are worlds apart from the old GM TBI throttle bodies. Our EZ EFI systems welcome modifications to the engine.
For more information about EFI systems head to PPNDigital.com.
“Now there is a limit for any self-learning system,” he adds. “For example, you’ve got to be able to make at least 7 to 10 inches of vacuum at idle. So that limits how much camshaft you can put into the engine, but not too much. That still leaves you plenty of room for modification. “If we are talking about a 350c.i. engine with 10:1 compression, a camshaft with a duration in the mid-230s at 0.050 of an inch lift, and a 110- or 112-degree lobe separation should get you 7 inches of vacuum. That’s plenty of camshaft to give you lots of power and a nice, lopey idle, and it can still get the EFI system to work properly.”
Modern bolt-on EFI systems are now available from several different manufacturers, and each has its own benefits and quirks. The best systems are self-learning, meaning they are constantly updating the fuel tables based on readings from an O2 sensor in the exhaust path. This way, there’s no time spent hooking a laptop up to your car and fiddling with confusing fuel tables. Plus, the fuel supply to each chamber is constantly monitored and adjusted so the engine receives the ideal air/fuel mix no matter the weather conditions or elevation. Just by swapping out the existing carburetor for a modern bolt-on EFI system, many hot rodders report they feel like they are driving a different car. No more trouble starting the car on cold mornings, better performance, improved fuel economy, and greater overall reliability are all noticeable. It’s a great way to get more enjoyment out of your automobile. Of course, all bolt-on EFI systems are not created equally. The first units on the market usually controlled only the fuel system, and while they can still be worlds better than a finicky carb, they sim-
ply cannot match the level of control and adjustability provided by some of the newer, more advanced systems that also manage the engine’s ignition. While speaking with Page, he says FAST still offers both systems to provide customers with exactly what suits their needs. Some may prefer the slightly simpler fuel-only systems. “We actually offer both types under our EZ EFI brand,” Page explains. “We have the EZ EFI and the EZ EFI 2.0, and the primary difference between them is the conventional EZ EFI is designed to control fuel only. “When installing the EFI system into the car, the ignition system stays intact. You don’t have to modify it in any way. You just have to make sure the EFI system is getting a clean tach signal. It doesn’t matter if you are using mechanical advance, vacuum advance, or whatever type of ignition you are using, it stays in place. And that just simplifies the overall installation.” The idea of that kind of simplicity is definitely appealing to many people, but if you are looking for ultimate control over your engine, PPNDigital.com 81
The EZ EFI 2.0 controls both the fuel and ignition timing, and being able to control both definitely has its advantages.
bundling both fuel and ignition controls into the same ECU could be the answer. “The EZ EFI 2.0 controls both the fuel and ignition timing, and being able to control both definitely has its advantages,” Page says. “For
82 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
example, the ECU in the EZ EFI 2.0 can vary the timing above or below the base timing to help stabilize the idle and keep the idle speed at your preferred rpm. “If something happens that puts additional load on the engine while
it is idling — such as the air conditioner kicking on or the steering wheel being turned all the way to lock which puts a load on the power steering pump — the system will respond by adding timing. That helps the engine recover from those loading conditions without any input from the throttle. That’s something you can only do if you are controlling the timing with the ECU.” Another area where the EZ EFI 2.0 is good, because it can handle both the engine’s fuel and ignition systems, is increasing efficiency. For example, by monitoring manifold vacuum through a manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor, the EZ EFI 2.0 can simulate the good old-fashioned vacuum advance on your distributor, only better because it never clogs or wears out.
els. You can experiment with different timing just down low, or you can work with determining exactly where you want to bring the timing in on the rpm range.” In case you are wondering, the original EZ EFI is capable of supporting up to approximately 650 horsepower, thanks to four 85-pound-per-hour injectors built into the throttle body.
The EZ EFI 2.0, meanwhile, has eight 85-pound injectors and can be run with engines producing over 1,200 horsepower. Racers and crafty engine builders are finding new ways to use these systems every day. We’ve even heard of Ford Flathead engines being brought into the age of self-learning fuel injection thanks to these systems. We can’t wait to see what comes next. Source: FAST, fuelairspark.com
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When the car is at cruise or light throttle, where there is almost no load on the engine, the ECU can increase the timing significantly to help with clean burn for reduced emissions and improved fuel economy. Improved fuel economy is nice and all, but what got our attention was when Page discussed how the EZ EFI 2.0 can make your life easier when running power adders. “One example is if you are using wet nitrous and you are controlling timing through the ECU, which you should be, it will automatically retard the timing by the programmed amount. Also, you can target a richer or leaner air/fuel ratio when the nitrous is active. “It’s also very easy to program your own timing curve. With the hand-held programmer you can experiment with different timing at max load or max rpm without ever popping the hood. You simply make a run, change the timing a couple degrees with the programmer, make another run and see if it helped. “If you are on the dyno, it is even easier to experiment with your timing to see how it affects power lev-
PPNDigital.com 83 POWERHOUSEPRODUCTS.COM
house
of
Spe e d A look behind the scenes at Detroit Speed
Words Jeff Huneycutt
THERE ARE LOTS of companies out there making
products to help old muscle cars handle, but very few can even come close to matching the results produced by Detroit Speed Engineering (DSE). Practically every weekend at autocross events across the nation, DSE is pushing the limits. Detroit Speed not only designs and manufacturers suspension equipment for a wide variety of cars — both old and new — but it also has complete fabrication and paint shops for creating complete automotive works of art. You may remember seeing the white 1969 Camaro Detroit Speed built for Angelo Vespi that was the hit of the SEMA Battle of the Builders competition. We recently made a trip to Mooresville, North Carolina, where Detroit Speed’s Stacy Tucker gave us a tour of the facility. Kyle and Stacy Tucker are both former GM engineers who founded Detroit Speed over 20 years ago with the purpose of squeezing maximum performance from American iron. Since moving from Detroit to North Carolina over a decade ago, the company has taken off. Currently, the pair have over 50 carefully chosen employees helping fulfill their vision to build the best handling cars possible. 84 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
A first generation Camaro going together in Detroit Speed’s large fabrication shop. The company’s experienced crew of fabricators can — and have — built just about any kind of American muscle, but they are best known for Camaros.
Besides building cars for demanding clients like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Detroit Speed now designs and manufactures complete suspension systems for everything from Camaros and Chevelles, to multiple generations of Mustangs. For more information about Detroit Speed’s lineup of fully engineered suspension systems, or to contact the crew about building you a car from the ground up, head to the website at detroitspeed.com.
Adjacent to the fab shop is the body shop, which is nearly as spacious. On the right is a ‘41 Willys that Tucker says came in as a basket case. The car has a cool history — Tucker says it was once drag raced by Kenny Bernstein — but when Detroit Speed is done with it, the Willys will be a fun machine with great handling.
Another first gen Camaro receives the finishing touches in its own corner of the body shop.
Stacy Tucker was kind enough to show us around Detroit Speed’s shops when we visited. Here she is in front of a fifth-gen Camaro test car that ran the One Lap of America. PPNDigital.com 85
Photo courtesy JRi Shocks
Angelo Vespi’s ‘69 Camaro is one of Detroit Speed’s recently completed cars and took the prize at SEMA Ignited Battle of the Builders competition.
Detroit Speed manufacturers all of its components right here in the United States. While casting and other processes may be spread across different states, everything comes back to the home base in Mooresville, North Carolina, so it can go through final machining and a rigorous quality control program before being shipped out.
Several Detroit Speed anti-sway bar arms that have finished the machining process and are ready to get the OK from QC before they can be installed. 86 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Some of the CNC equipment employed to create Detroit Speed’s highly engineered suspension components.
Tucker stresses that Detroit Speed develops “engineered systems” for all of its cars. It won’t simply sell miscellaneous parts, because if they aren’t installed as a system the results on the road or track won’t be as good. Here, technician Josh Cline assembles a complete Detroit Speed front clip that will be shipped out to a customer ready to be installed in a car.
ZEX™ builds the most advanced, easiest to install nitrous systems on the market. With a host of exclusive safety features and vehicle specific kits, you can rest assured that ZEX™ nitrous systems deliver maximum performance and value.
A signature touch of Detroit Speed’s cars is that the engine bay is always as sanitary and is as well thought-out as the rest of the car.
Nitrous Nitrous Kits: Kits: Carb Plate • EFI Nozzle
Color Color Options: Options “ZEXy” Purple • Blackout
Detroit Speed owns a test car for every system it develops. Here’s the third-gen Camaro that was the test bed while Kyle, Stacy, and their crew developed a complete suspension update for 1982 through ’92 F-bodies. With its job as a test mule complete, the Camaro is being rewarded with some fresh paint and a full rebuild.
ZEX™ manufacturers a full line of top quality nitrous accessories such as our new Digital Nitrous Level Gauge, Bottle Heaters & much more.
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Both Kyle and Stacy stand behind their products by actually racing them. Here, Kyle’s famous second-gen Camaro that gets raced — and usually wins — at autocrosses every weekend gets a little TLC before its next outing.
FEARS FOR
GEARS
Make sure your gears mesh properly CAMSHAFT AND DISTRIBUTOR GEAR compatibility is one of the
most confusing elements of the valvetrain. With a variety of options available, it’s important to make the right choice to avoid erratic timing, contaminated oil, and costly repairs. Originally most OEM camshafts were flat tappet and made of cast iron. They were paired with iron or untreated steel distributor gears and worked well, until the OEM’s 88 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
upgraded to hydraulic roller cams in the mid-’80s. These new cams are made from a cast steel core material. Unfortunately, the electrons in steel will begin micro-welding themselves together under the heavy steel-on-steel contact between gears, and this is where the trouble starts. Instead of making two identical gears in different materials, the OEM’s developed a melonized steel
Words Brandon Flannery
version that could be used on both iron and steel cams. Melonizing treats the surface with a layer of diffused nitrogen that blocks the micro-welding. Though ideal, it’s a complex (and costly) process that currently limits selection to only big- and smallblock Chevys, and 302 and 351W Fords. Higher performance engines require stronger camshaft materi-
Melonized is preferred on all cams.
Composite gear
Bronze gear without damage (top) and with damage (bottom
als that include a Selectively Austempered Ductile Iron (SADI) material, billet steel, and tool steel. Never use an untreated steel distributor gear on any kind of steel cam unless the cam has a pressedon gear. Since many cam gears are cut right into the core, they take on the properties of that material, so chances are a steel distributor gear will not be compatible.
However, the cam can be modified to accept a press-on melonized gear that will work with all distributor gears. If the cam gear is a press-on, you can assume it is something other than steel. Acceptable distributor gears for steel cams are melonized, bronze, or the new composite materials. Bronze is very soft, and wears out quickly. Some people still use these be-
cause they are cheaper or it is what they have always done, but these are often found in racing and should be checked regularly. The new composite material is stronger than bronze and extremely lightweight, however melonized is always the preferred option when available. Iron camshafts like OEM flat tappets and SADI will work with any distributor gear. Source: COMP Cams, compcams.com PPNDigital.com 89
Adventure / Lifestyle
PRESENTED BY
Dad the gearhead By Rick Sosebee
Back in 1992, I made a call to my dad asking if he might loan me the money to buy a used car. His answer was an offer I couldn’t refuse. He said if I could find him a Corvette here in Georgia, he would drive over from his home in Shreveport, Louisiana, and give me his Chevy S10 Blazer he owned since new in 1984. Naturally, I began searching and finally spotted a bright yellow 1971 Corvette in a neighborhood of Snellville, Georgia. After a few quick meetings with the car owner and a mechanic, I determined it was a good candidate. Dad did just as he had promised. He drove out, handed over about $6,000, and away we went as I followed him back to my home in my gifted S10 Blazer. Dad would then head out to his home in Louisiana soon thereafter. He told me once that his goals for retirement were to move back to Georgia, buy a Corvette, and build a log home near his mom and dad. He had now gotten the dream started and it was up to him to complete it. Dad worked at the Shreveport GM plant building trucks and was a die-hard Chevrolet fan and customer. He had always told me that working on your own car and taking pride in what you do is important as well as gratifying. Dad loved wrenching on his cars, and the Corvette would need plenty. We were all surprised that the 1971 Vette even made the trip back to Louisiana, but Dad wasn’t. To him it seemed to be more of a challenge to make it, even if it meant wrenching in parking lots all along Highway 20 West. He carried a small box of tools along everywhere he went so he would be prepared should a challenge arise. He would even help complete strangers wrench on their cars if needed. 90 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
My father lived in Louisiana for many years, so we didn’t get to see him much. With almost 34 years of dedicated service, he finally retired from GM and moved home bringing his bright yellow Corvette with him. My sister and I would listen to my father as he spoke of his Corvette like it was new. He could see nothing wrong with this car. We used to joke that it was his one true love, because just like a marriage, Dad had to work on it every day. Truth be told, to me the car needed so much work that it was a bit dangerous to even drive on the road.
The steering was worn out, but Dad would drive along sawing the wheel like it was supposed to be that way. The car was perfect in his eyes. He refinished the interior, completely restoring the seats himself, and dreamed of other repairs. He would sit in the garage and look through high performance catalogs like a kid searching for Christmas gifts. Now on a retirement budget, he would order one part at a time, setting goals for the finished product. Dad finally finished the second part of his retirement goals in 2007, moving into a log home he built with his own hands. Of course Dad
had some help along the way, but the gearhead in him was determined that he was going to wrench on this house himself, even if it killed him. He built a 2.5-bay garage for his lovely Corvette and it was time to
sit back and enjoy the quiet of his 9.25 acres in North Georgia. In late 2010, Dad was diagnosed with a form of Sarcoma Cancer. He wouldn’t let on to my sister or me that the signs were not good, and instead pressed on. He tried every
treatment he could to lengthen his stay here on earth and even had the mass removed. The surgery had strained his neck and made it difficult to turn his head to see very well when backing up. One evening he accidentally PPNDigital.com 91
backed his Corvette into his own truck trying to get in the garage. Dad was devastated and covered the right rear of the car to hide his mistake from the world. The quarter is still damaged to this day. On November 2, 2013, just four short days from his 65th birthday, my dad passed away. He had fought a good fight for almost two and a half years. I didn’t know how life was going to be after Dad passed, but I knew I had to press on. I was determined that my fathers love for his Corvette would now be my responsibility. It is just those simple thoughts of Dad’s love for his car, and wrenching on it in the cool of the evening, that drives me to want to let his dream live on. Every time I would visit my father’s home after his death, I felt a nudge to just go out and start the car — if for nothing more than to breathe a little life into something he loved. Just a few short weeks ago, the
92 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
nudge turned into a shove, so I returned to his home and rolled the bright yellow Corvette onto a borrowed trailer. Springtime was coming on fast and I had a strong desire to get the ride out, and hopefully roadworthy, before all of the local car shows started coming up. Dad loved going to the local shows and was a member of the Empty Pockets club in northern Georgia. It didn’t matter to him that his car wasn’t finished because he was around others who would appreciate the love of the automobile itself just like him. Some very good friends and trusted mechanics at Tower Automotive in Dawsonville, Georgia, agreed to help me get the car as close to road worthy as financially possible. The steering was one of my primary concerns, but we also discovered the clutch was nearing certain death. I’m sure there are many other items that need attention on the old Vette, but for now it resides in a section of the garage at my home.
I want to keep my father’s dream alive. I plan to someday get the fiberglass repaired on the right rear and possibly repaint it the bright yellow color my father had fallen in love with. For now, I will take my dad’s approach to the car and keep it safe while buying a few things at a time to get it back in shape. I have been asked many times if I would sell the car, and my answer is always no. This is a part of my father that made him who he was. I may never travel long distance in the Vette like him, but I will get it in shape so I can go out cruising to visit a few car shows from time to time. That’s what helps me feel close to him again. Raised in rural Northern Georgia Rick Sosebee is an avid hunter and is an Offroad Powersports Adventure/Lifestyle writer for Outdoor Life magazine, as well as several other ATV industry magazines. Rick enjoys wrenching on ATV’s and Sideby-Sides, as well as his Chevrolet 2500HD Duramax Diesel.
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AXILINE DYNO
A LOOK
INSIDE
People who are familiar with TCI have probably heard about its legendary Triple Testing and its Axiline dyno, but what exactly does that mean? We stopped by the TCI facility in Ashland, Mississippi to find out. TCI employs 100 people in its two buildings comprising 55,000 square feet. It is the county’s largest employer and its employees take great pride in crafting the best transmissions on the market. At any given time, TCI has around 800 transmissions in stock and each one is dyno tested on the Axiline 97000 transmission dyno. TCI prides itself on having two of these high-tech machines and we were anxious to take a closer look. Check it out.
Words Brandon Flannery
After the transmission is bolted to the adapter plate, the Eddy current power absorption unit is slid into place with an output shaft. Once the transmission is brought up to speed, braking is applied for dynamic load testing, to simulate real world driving conditions. The transmission is run through all gears.
94  Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
Tony runs between 20 and 25 transmissions a day. He also checks each one for external leaks and other failures.
Data is displayed on the control panel. Readouts are taken for maximum psi (in all gears, including park and reverse), gallons per minute (GPM) for cooler flow, and operating temperatures. All solenoids on electronic transmissions like a 4L60E or the 6X are also tested. The 97000 not only tests line pressure, but also shift point, shift response, downshift, converter lockup, stall speed, and more all under simulated load conditions. Each transmission ships with a printed results sheet from the dyno session. This shows the customer exactly how their transmission performed and is logged into TCI’s database.
The heart of the Axiline dyno is a high-output, electric drive 40 horsepower motor able to spin the transmissions between 2,500 and 2,800 rpm. This is a solid “working range” that ensures the pump and all systems are in operating range for testing.
Hoses are run from the cooler lines to check cooler flow and fluid temperature.
Transmissions are tested with a “shop mule” converter. However customers ordering a transmission and converter package will have their trans and converter tested together as a unit.
PPNDigital.com 95
Parting SHOTS EMBLEMS, ORNAMENTS, AND DECALS. IT’S WHAT MAKES A CAR DISTINCTLY AMERICAN.
96 Power & Performance News / Vol. 6, No. 1
“Garage Easy” EFI
NEW
Two EFI Systems From FAST™ Make Converting Easier Than Ever. With two proven EZ-EFI® systems now available from FAST™, the conversion to self tuning electronic fuel injection has never been more attainable. Both systems are available for carb conversion and multi-port applications, as well as in multiple fuel system configurations to fit practically any engine/vehicle setup.
• 4 Injectors; Handles Up To 650 HP • Value Priced & Easy To Install • Multiple Kits Including Dual Quad
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DETAILS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
Unlike other EFI systems, FAST™ includes every bolt and fitting needed for a hassle-free install that can be performed by the average enthusiast.
Scan this QR code to watch our video tutorial on selecting the right self tuning EFI system, or learn even more at our new website: www.ezefi.com.
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