grumpyvette

http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?fid/68/tid/154821/pid/1124694/post/last/#LAST if your not aware if this you should be!! most soft metals tend to load up a grinding wheel and as the surface becomes loaded it tends to grab and shock load the wheel, which tends to either jam or throw the part or frequently the grinding wheel explodes from the sudden load/shock and large chunks get thrown at high velocity, getting killed/hurt is not infrequent "GALLING The damaging of one or both metallic surfaces by removal of particles from localized areas due to seizure curing sliding friction or impact welding under pressure of two similar metals http://files.aws.org/technical/facts/FACT-16.PDF http://www.safetyline.wa.gov.au/pagebin/mechhazd0001.htm http://danrrec.ucdavis.edu/ehs/safety_notes/15_grinder.pdf http://www.magion.com/Applications/Galling/galling.html

IF you really want to get the most out of that cam think about getting a 2800-3000 stall, yours will work at 2400rpm but youll pull deeper into the power band instantly with a slightly higher stall converter, a STOCK convertewr stall speed WON,T WORK with that cam BEFORE BUYing ANY CAM call and talk with the manufacturer, but be aware that most will be slightly conservative in suggestions as they know from experiance thats the smarter route 619-661-6477 crower

both my computer software and notes on similar engines show youll be looking for a cam like this, installed as suggested in the instructions on the cam card, at 4 degrees advanced http://www.crower.com/misc/cam_spec/cam_finder.php?part_num=00211&x=20&y=6 yes it will be a rough idle and give up some low rpm tq but THE Average POWER CURVE will be far better and youll pull noticably better mid and upper rpm power from the slightly restrictive heads

the best heads that your LIKELY to find in a salvage yard are the VORTEC HEADS off some trucks but youll need to upgrade the intake and get the rockers,and valve covers when you get the heads 12558062...98......350..........L31 Vortec, truck, 64cc chambers, 1.94/1.5, 170cc intake port http://www.mortec.com/castnum.htm http://www.classictruckshop.com/images/gmhead.gif http://www.crateenginedepot.com/store/Complete-Cast-Iron-Vortec-Cylinder-Head-Assembly-12558060-P752C0.aspx but ANY used head is some risk of being cracked or worn , LIKE MOST OF US YOUR BUDGET IS TIGHT! but a HUGE amount of your engines power potential comes from the HEADS, CAM and DISPLACEMENT so think about spending a good percentage of your budget on GOOD HEADS, you won,t be sorry in the long run! read thru all the stages and see what works http://www.rustpuppy.org/chp/Welcome.html http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=TFS%2D30400001&N=700+115&autoview=sku

I frequently get questions about realistically selecting cylinder head port size. Ok lets look at a few factors, first, the port can flow only up to the limits of the restrictions imposed on the flow, if the cam timing, duration & lift limit the valves max flow to levels below what the port can at least in theory flow, that’s your limit, if the exhaust savaging is not matched that will also limit your max flow, and while the port size/volume in CCs gives you a rough way to gauge its not an exact relationship to flow potential, the MINIMAL CROSS SECTIONAL AREA will also have a big effect on the flow potential, as will the angle of the port in relation to the valves ,the valve dia. and the combustion chamber shape and shrouding of the valve curtain area. OK lets assume your selecting heads for a 383 SBC, in most cases you’ll find the max effective rpm with that stroke will be between about 6200rpm-7000rpm(depending on the application and matched components due to limits on piston speed & stress. lets say 6500 rpm, at 6500rpm a single cylinder will in theory need 90 cfm in air flow if the valve was fully open 100% of the time , but the truth is that out of the 720 degrees in the cycle you’ll be very hard pressed to have 250 degrees of meaningful flow into the cylinder, that jumps the minimum flow required to about 259cfm at 100% efficiency, and that assumes the valve instantly opens and closes, and can flow that as a minimum, but the valves have both mechanical limits to lift and acceleration rates, so while the valve and port might flow enough at peak lift its unlikely at lower lifts. keep in mind that flow below about .050 lift is minimal and your valves only at peak lift for a very short time, at 6500 rpm, the valve goes from fully closed to fully open to fully closed in under 1/60th of a second at 54 times a second. lets look at curtain area, if you have 2.02" intake valves that reach .600 lift that in theory is 3.8sq inches of flow curtain, at max lift but your AVERAGE flow curtain is more like 2.3 sq inches (look at the info and calculators below) http://www.engr.colostate.edu/~allan/fluids/page7/PipeLength/pipe.html http://www.rickwrench.com/bunchofcalculators.html http://www.bgsoflex.com/intakeln.html http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/runnertorquecalc.html here’s a chart FROM THE BOOK,HOW TO BUILD BIG-INCH CHEVY SMALL BLOCKS with some common cross sectional port sizes (measured at the smallest part of the ports) ...........................sq inches........port cc edelbrock performer rpm ....1.43.............170 vortec......................1.66.............170 tfs195......................1.93.............195 afr 180.....................1.93.............180 afr 195.....................1.98.............195 afr 210.....................2.05.............210 dart pro 200................2.06.............200 dart pro 215................2.14.............215 brodix track 1 .............2.30.............221 dart pro 1 230..............2.40.............230 edelbrock 23 high port .....2.53.............238 edelbrock 18 deg............2.71.............266 tfs 18 deg..................2.80.............250 Potential HP based on Airflow (Hot Rod, Jun '99, p74): Airflow at 28" of water x 0.257 x number of cylinders = potential HP or required airflow based on HP: HP / 0.257 / cylinders = required airflow http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/runnertorquecalc.html

http://www.csgnetwork.com/compcalc.html http://hotrodworks.net/hotrodmath/engine.html http://www.kb-silvolite.com/calc.php?action=comp

first please understand I have near zero BRAND LOYALTY, Id build FORDS,MOPARS, PONTIACS or CHEVYS with equal success if the cost and parts availability were nearly equal, and if cost was no object ID build SOHC FORDS and 392 HEMIS over most other engines... why is it I seldom see guys build the big ford engines? or more correctly who can afford too! am I just looking at the wrong suppliers or does it really cost 75%-150% EXTRA JUST TO BUILD A FORD over a CHEVY yeah Im well aware you can make decent power with the 351 and a turbo,or 4.6 liter basic engines, but they ARE NOT the BIG BLOCKS I like to work on. now understand I build mostly big block CHEVY,CADDY and MOPAR engines and rarely bother with anything under 396 cid, as its just easier to build serious power if youve got some displacement to work with, Ive built or worked on 390-460-514 fords on occasion, while my ford experiance is rather limited I have worked on some excellent ford engines and cars, years ago,... none, lately as I rarely see any local guys running them currently. I might have even gotten further involved if it were not for the insane way ford has consistantly made it difficult if not impossiable to aquire parts at a reasonable cost , and discontinued some of the better engines like the ... boss 429, SOHC 427 come instantly to mind. as soon as they get a world beating basic engine they drop support and parts became all but impossiable to obtain or priced to insane levels. mopar was slightly better in the parts support and prices area but as IM sure your aware GM and the aftermarket has generally maintained a wider sellection and much better long term support of the GM/CHEVY engine families I recently priced out the parts necessary to build a 700-800hp BBF, all I can say is YOUR $%$%^^ kidding me!

"You gonna come clean Grumpy? LOL" while IVE done far more than my share of less than bright moves over the years that story was not one of them, I just thought you might like seeing it posted

Ive ALWAYS REGRETED selling my 1967 firebird, about 12 years after I sold it I found it on a dealers used car lot.....unfortunately it had a deposite already on it and the guy refused to negotiate OR let me know the other bidders name, and I lost the chance to buy it back...damn I was PISSED

From an e-mail I got: I had this idea that I was going to rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that since they congregated at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away) that it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home. I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, who had seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes my deer showed up...3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold. The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it. It took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope and received an education. The first thing that I learned is that while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope. That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope with some dignity. A deer, no chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I originally imagined. The only up side is that they do not have as much stamina as many animals. A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point I had lost my taste for corn fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope. I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in, so I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death. I managed to get it lined up to back in between my truck and the feeder...a little trap I had set beforehand. Kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and started moving up so I could get my rope back. Did you know that deer bite? They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody so I was very surprised when I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head...almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts. The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective. It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now) tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the bejesus out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose. That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day. Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp. I learned a long time ago that when an animal like a horse strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape. This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond I devised a different strategy. I screamed like woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and three times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down. Now when a deer paws at you and knocks you down it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head. I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. Now for the local legend. I was pretty beat up. My scalp was split open, I had several large goose eggs, my wrist was bleeding pretty good and felt broken (it turned out to be just badly bruised) and my back was bleeding in a few places, though my insulated canvas jacket had protected me from most of the worst of it. I drove to the nearest place, which was the co-op. I got out of the truck, covered in blood and dust and looking like hell. The guy who ran the place saw me through the window and came running out yelling "what happened" I have never seen any law in the state of Kansas that would prohibit an individual from roping a deer. I suspect that this is an area that they have overlooked entirely. Knowing, as I do, the lengths to which law enforcement personnel will go to exercise their power, I was concerned that they may find a way to twist the existing laws to paint my actions as criminal. I swear....not wanting to admit that I had done something monumentally stupid played no part in my response. I told him "I was attacked by a deer." I did not mention that at the time I had a rope on it. The evidence was all over my body. Deer prints on the back of my jacket where it had stomped all over me and a large deer print on my face where it had struck me there. I asked him to call somebody to come get me...I didn't think I could make it home on my own. He did. Later that afternoon, a game warden showed up at my house and wanted to know about the deer attack. Surprisingly, deer attacks are a rare thing and wildlife and parks was interested in the event. I tried to describe the attack as completely and accurately as I could...I was filling the grain hopper and this deer came out of nowhere and just started kicking the hell out of me and BIT me. It was obviously rabid or insane or something. EVERYBODY for miles around knows about the deer attack (the guy at the co-op has a big mouth). For several weeks people dragged their kids in the house when they saw deer around and the local ranchers carried rifles when they filled their feeders. I have told several people the story, but NEVER anybody around here. I have to see these people every day and as an outsider...a "city folk"...I have enough trouble fitting in without them snickering behind my back and whispering "there is the idiot that tried to rope the deer."

any more progress or problems? tunning issues? track times,etc.

well I guess they were due! BUT I still run CRANE,CROWER,LUNATI and ERSON over all the others.... I sure hope thats not a sign of things to come.....crane was recently purchased by a large company http://www.cranecams.com/?show=mikroniteAcq CRANE CAMS ACQUIRED BY MIKRONITE® TECHNOLOGIES Crane Cams, a leading manufacturer of camshafts, valve train and electronic ignition components, has been acquired by Mikronite Technologies Group, Inc. of Eatontown, New Jersey. Mikronite is an industrial technology firm with contracts in the aerospace, automotive, commercial and medical fields. Crane Cams and Mikronite have enjoyed a business association for over a year, utilizing Mikronite’s proprietary surface finishing process on a number of valve train components. Jeffrey H. Coats, President and CEO of Mikronite and now Executive Chairman of Crane Cams, is pleased to announce that R. Lance Harris has joined Crane Cams as Chief Executive Officer. Coats said, “Lance has a solid track record in operating manufacturing companies engaged in sales, engineering and production of powertrain and driveline products, and will a great asset to Crane Cams.” Prior to joining Crane’s management team, Harris held executive positions at FormTech Industries LLC, GKN, and MascoTech Inc. He started his career as an engineer with General Motors Corporation. Gene Ezzell, formerly President and CEO of Crane, has now become the President of Mikronite Automotive Technologies and will focus on developing new business for Mikronite in the automotive and industrial fields. All other current Crane Cams personnel will essentially remain in place, and customers should enjoy a seamless transition. The company will continue operations at 530 Fentress Blvd. in Daytona Beach. Commenting on Crane’s future, Harris said, “We are making a significant investment in inventory, manufacturing capacity, and product development to drive performance at every level. We will demonstrate our commitment to the industry as we execute a strategy that is focused on positioning Crane Cams as a dominant supplier in the marketplace.” The company was founded in 1953 and has accounted for an unprecedented number of industry innovations and racing wins.

sorry those sites seem to be off line now, its a shame because they had a good deal of info, heres some that help http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/runnertorquecalc.html http://www.chevytalk.com/tech/101/Cam_Theory.html http://www.symuli.com/vw/camp1.html http://www.symuli.com/vw/camp2.html

"I was under the impressin that the stock cranks wouldn't be strong enough, much like the rods and pistons." theres a WORLD of differance in size weight and strength between MOST stock small block components and MOST BIG BLOCK COMPONENTS ITS rare for EITHER the BBS OR SBC ,CRANK TO FAIL, ITS USUALLY THE CONNECTING RODS,AN INCORRECTLY SET UP LUBE SYSTEM OR VALVE TRAIN,that fails first,while the connecting rods in both engines are less than ideal, they are not really compareable in strength, a stock small block rotating assembly is fairly high stressed at 450 hp, with the usually upgrades like cams, headers,higher compression pistons,etc. a stock big block with the usually upgrades like cams,higher compression pistons, headers,etc. will operate nearly forever at 550hp if its built correctly, and since most big blocks operate at lower average rpms the valve trains even though heavier still tend to have less failures WHEN correctly set up. power is closely related to air flow potential and displacement, and a big block can potentially have a HUGE advantage in each area, the SBC vortec heads are a very good STOCK cylinder head and they flow about 230cfm STOCK, there are a few STOCK BBC heads that come close to 300cfm the largest standard SBC had 400cid, the big blocks had 496cid or 572 displacement (depends on if crate engines or production engines are counted as stock)

read thru these http://maliburacing.com/ovalvsrect.htm http://maliburacing.com/patrick_budd_article.htm "Not long ago there was an article in one of the car mags about what it takes to build and maintain a ten-second street and strip car. The article made it sound like getting a ‘real’ street car into the tens was akin to splitting atoms, and a bank heist would be required to fund the operation. Well, I can promise you it isn’t so, and I’ll detail two similar, yet different examples to back it up. The average home assembler can build either engine for far less than $5000 from carburetor to oilpan. Heck, one of these tanks goes 9’s, so it can’t be all that hard. Money and car crafting have long gone hand in hand, and the crafter with the most of it tends to win the most trophies. Brains, however, especially the kind I call ‘woodchuck engineering’ can be the great equalizer. Tuning, the patient one change at a time variety, can transform a lazy also ran to the kind of car that leaves you scratching your head asking, “what does this guy know� So too can some extra thought placed into the combination and compatibility of the parts selected. I’ve often said that if racers spent half as much time researching the right part, instead of researching the cheapest price, they’d be much further ahead, both in terms of performance and budget. Before we go and get our ‘Woodchuck Phd.’ however, lets cover some of the real basics of street hero construction. First of all, throw most of your pre conceptions of what makes a car streetable right out the window when you decide to go fast. All those weak-kneed vacuum secondary, dual planed induction systems need to be on your tow unit, not your Saturday night bruiser. All those handy-dandy cam charts that suggest paltry little lift and duration figures? They’re perfect for the birdcage. Torque does have it’s place, and it’s very important when we’re dealing with a heavy street legal car, but it needs to be higher in the rpm range than these suggested grinds will offer. We need torque at the shift recovery point, to accelerate the car off the bottom of the gear change. We can still have a reasonable idle, predictable brake feel, and good low end throttle response. We may not be able to fire up the air conditioner and lift the headlight doors while we pump the brakes, but we really want to go drag racing, not autocrossing, right? I also suggest a rather high compression ratio; and this is where I part company with many of the ‘purists’, that insist a street car must run pump gas. Well, since this build-up requires using heads that don’t have hardened seats, (they require leaded fuel to avoid seat recession) and it’s the compression that allows the use of more aggressive cam timing, (without murdering low speed torque) it’s the cheapest power adder we can use. Look at it this way- the average race gas costs 1.50 more per gallon than premium, and even if you burn up three 55 gallon drums a summer, that’s a $247.50 upcharge a year. We don’t even want to talk about how much it costs with trick parts to recover the lost power from high compression. We don’t need a roller, but solid lifter flat-tappet cams are a big help, and we’ll need a somewhat loose converter. Many of the better trans shops can now build you a piece that will ‘flash’ high while maintaining decent part throttle manners. Both of the engines we are going to discuss here are garden variety, low buck, oval port Big Block Chevrolets, one a 468 inch open chamber engine and the other a 432 inch closed chamber mill we’ll use a bit of nitrous with. We’ll be discussing them together because most of the concepts and operations apply to both engines; I’ll specify where and why the buildups differ. The ideas we discuss here will cross over to most marques, so you Ford and Mopar guys don’t need to flip the page just yet. My good friend Mike Nerwin has been a hardcore footbrake racer for as long as I can remember. He’d also been ‘the chased’ for equally as long, meaning he left first at the Saturday night brackets because he was fairly slow. Mike came to me last fall with a desire to go quicker, and faster, so he could keep the competition in his view a higher percentage of the time. He also wanted a package that had the necessary street manners to allow him to cruise it whenever he chose. Lee Martin is a die-hard street enthusiast that only goes to the track to see how quick he can go. He already owned a wounded 427, and his budget demanded we make good use of it. His 10†street tire Regal needs to be dead reliable while quick enough to part in the ‘front row’ of the local cruise night. My first question, as it is with all customers, was how fast do they want to go? That question needs to be answered honestly, because you can’t build a 6000 square foot mansion on sand, as you can’t make 800 horsepower with 3/8 rods. My next question was how much money do you have? This has more to do with feeding the beast once it’s completed than it does the cost of the build-up. A finished car that’s too expensive to race or enjoy doesn’t do anyone any good. Third and last, I ask how skilled an assembler the customer is, because I may be able to give them an assembled shortblock and have them save money by completing the rest of the work themselves. Mike wanted to go high tens, and had a fairly short budget, although he understood the flexibility some compression allowed me so he’d buck up for ‘cheap’ race gas. He also has a tank for a car, 3600 lbs of second generation f-body. Since it’s virtually impossible to get him to lighten anything up, I knew I’d need around 600 horsepower and 550 ft/lbs. of torque to reach his target. Lee’s goals were a bit more modest without N20, but once he turned the bottle on, the wanted a solid nine second timeslip. He also has what amounts to a battleship, a 3500 lb. Regal. This meant we needed at least 550 horses before we engaged the spray. I again explained the added flexibility of race gas and how higher compression would make the package less peaky and easier to drive, and he agreed the added cost of fuel wasn’t a deterrent. I figured we could get him in the nines, and run a few high tens on horsepower, as well. Within a week, I had a couple of cores cluttering up my garage. One was a cast crank, oval port 454 and the other a wounded, albeit complete, 427. The 454 was a two-bolt block, 781 headed smog era deluxe. Lee’s 427 core came with closed chamber heads, and a steel crank. He also had the right lowbuck intake, an un-ported Holley Strip Dominator. While it’s nice to be able to work with the latest aftermarket heads and the like, this project is about making do with what we have. We were definitely polishing a couple of sneakers, but that was part of the challenge. After dis-assembling everything, we found the 454 had a nice, straight, virgin crank and a .030 over block. The 427 wasn’t quite so lucky. It had a couple of cracked pistons, broken rings, and significant bore wear. It would require at least a .030 overbore to clean up the mess. After inspecting the head castings, I didn’t see any major flaws or cracks. They both had the typical seat recession, but they were receiving 2.19/188 valves, so it didn’t necessitate new seats. Since I consider myself just slightly better than a horrible head porter, and consider them both very good friends, I figured this would make a good exercise in what we could get done by investing the one thing a low budget guy can afford: time. The key to any good engine is its induction package. Good heads flow large volumes of air yet have a conservative enough cross sectional area to assure good ‘recovery’ or velocity as the engine speed transitions on gear changes. If we were racing a 1600 lb. dragster, these castings would have hit the dumpster. The reality was these cars weigh 3500 lbs or more and both carry a streetable 4.10 gear. When matched with 30+ inch tires, these combinations are a bit steep for a big intake runner. I knew there’s not a good short side in the factory heads (the area under the valve where it transitions the port floor) and the finished port volume would limit high rpm breathing. I therefore concentrated on straightening and blending the port to the valve job, working a consistent taper down the runner. We were trying to emphasize low lift flow and velocity, because the cams that would live on the street have less than .600 net lift, once you subtract lash and deflection. Keep in mind, we’re not trying to emulate Sonny Leonard here, so we’re leaving the general shape of the port as GM created it. I took both set of heads to Ronnie Jewell’s place, a fellow graduate of the Woodchuck University, and had him rough in the new valve jobs of the previously small valve castings. No trick Serdi’s here, just a hand held grinder and some patience. This gave me an interior angle to port to. The open chamber heads on the 468 received the more radical port work, as I felt the swept volume of the engine would require more volume to fill the cylinder. Keep in mind as you look at the photos, we didn’t have the aid of a flowbench as I modified the ports. I had to rely on common sense and educated guesses as I removed material, and admittedly, some good cuts may have been offset by bad ones. The 468’s combustion chambers also received more aggressive work, as I laid the quench side back to aid in the blowdown of the cylinder. Exhaust gasses are purported to actually flow backwards on the GM heads due to the nearly non-existent short side radius. The cut into the quench area aids the gases negotiation of the tight turn. This mod may have been even more beneficial on the nitrous aided 427, but truth be told, I did those heads first and didn’t get as involved with the combustion chamber mods until I did the 468 heads. Lee got the short end of the stick, in that respect. I raised the roofs of both heads’ exhaust ports to the gasket, and blended back into the bowl. I removed significant material on the longside radius, directly under the venturi in an attempt to enhance the low-pressure area beneath the valve seat. This low-pressure area helps draw the spent charge out of the engine and the material removal gives the turning gases more room to make the turn. The accompanying charts show how effective this move was. I directed more of my efforts on the 427’s heads to providing a bit more room on the spark plug side of the chamber to facilitate intake flow. The intake runners of both heads received essentially the same cuts, which are detailed in the accompanying photos. (It is important to note that the heads were flowed only after they were complete, and no modifications to them were performed after we had the flowbench data.) While I was fiddling with the heads, the blocks were at Carl McQuillen’s machine shop in LeRoy, New York. Carl was a real hitter back in the beginning of the street legal movement, and has parlayed his notoriety into a thriving ‘compound’ in Western NY. He fleshes out many of GM’s brainstorms with his 5 axis CNC machines, EDM’s and skilled help. His shop is spotless, and the work dead-on. We ordered Mike some new pistons, and brought the ones we scored out of the classifieds for Lee’s piece. Once Mike’s pistons arrived, both blocks were over bored to their respective diameters (the 468 to 4.31 and the 427 to 4.28, bringing the cubic inch to 432) and the decks squared and to zeroed. Since Mike’s 468 was a bit higher buck, we had the edges of the bores oblonged to the edges of the gasket’s bore. We then hand blended the cuts to .100 away from the top ring. The chambers of GM heads hang over the bore edges, so while I’m not positive this trick aids airflow, it makes sense on paper. Both blocks were bored and honed with torque plates to ensure good ring seal. Low buck doesn’t mean low effort- meaning attention to the details can make even a modest effort piece run better than expected. Why port the heads and not do what it takes to seal the cylinders? I found them each a set of 7/16 GM rods to replace their ‘peanut butter’ 3/8 rods and had the assemblies balanced to a new ATI damper. While the lower end components were away, I had Ultradyne grind up a custom cam for Mike’s 468 and Comp Cams whip one up for Lee’s 432. I am a strong believer of big, soft exhaust lobes and crisp aggressive intake lobes. This accomplishes two things, it allows the exhaust plenty of time to get out of the cylinder, and the quicker action of the intake lobe can hold the intake valve closed a smidgen longer reducing dilution while having enough valve opening at peak piston velocity, critical to good cylinder filling. The more controlled exhaust valve action is extra insurance against piston-smacking clearance problems as well. Both cams are similar, with duration in the mid 260’s on the intake and upper 270’s on the exhaust. Gross lift is in the .650 range on the intake and the .630 range on the exhaust. The main difference is in the lobe separation angle; the naturally aspirated 468’s cam was ground on a 108 lsa while the nitrous aided 432 received 110 degrees of separation. A lot of really wordy articles have described the reason for running different separation angles, so let me try to describe the way I understand it very briefly. A tight, or numerically smaller angle delays the exhaust valve opening and closing, trapping more cylinder pressure and increasing overlap, or the time both valves are open. This makes use of the engine’s escaping exhaust gases to pull in fresh charge. The negative is that rpm increases, it takes work for the piston to push the exhaust out and some of the charge starts to fly out the exhaust port during overlap. The 110 lsa on the N20 cam opens the exhaust valve earlier, blowing the cylinder down quicker, and saves the piston from having to push all the extra junk created when the nitrous is on. We don’t want the overlap, because there is so much more pressure with nitrous that there is a tendency for the charge to fly back up the intake tract if the valve is opened too soon. (This is hardly a ‘max effort’ nitrous grind, as Lee won’t be using more than 200 horse of the stuff out of respect for the swap meet forgings.) The 468’s cam was installed at 105 degree intake centerline and the N20 cam went in at 108. Once the bottom ends for these two engines arrived back home, we gave each of the parts a final close visual inspection. Lee’s 3.76†427 crank had some scores in it from a sloppy prior assembly, as whoever owned it previously didn’t protect the journal from the rod bolts during assembly. They weren’t deep enough to require a turn, but I polished them with 400-grit sandpaper and a leather strip to be sure. We then mocked everything up to see if either of the engine’s clearances needed adjusting. All the bearing clearances were fine, and there were no exotic tricks as we assembled the shortblocks. Top endgaps for the rings were .018 for the 468 and .022 for the 427 (now 432). The wider gap on the 432 is to reduce the chance of the rings butting with the nitrous on. Nitrous increases cylinder pressure, which creates heat, and encourages the ring to expand. The second rings were .016 for both engines. Piston to valve clearances dictated how much we could cut the heads in search of compression, and we wound up lopping off .030 from the 468 and .060 from the 432. Final compression ratios wound up being 11.83:1 for the 468 and right at 13:1 for the 432. The Strip Dominator Lee had needed a cut to fit the chopped block and heads, but the Edelbrock 454R was just fine as we laid it in place on the 468. Out of respect for the plate nitrous system being installed on Lee’s motor, I radiused the port entries and dividers in the plenum of the Holley. With all the fuel flying around the plenum, nice radiused dividers and walls are cheap insurance against fuel shearing and fallout. The Edelbrock probably would have profited by such a move, but we elected to leave that 5 or so horse on the table and get these things in the cars. Carburetion for both engines followed suit with the rest of the buildup, as Mike spent a few more bucks and popped for a fresh Pro Systems dominator. Patrick James has a knack for prepping pieces that fit a wide range of applications. The expensive carb may seem out of place with a build such as this, but we saved money in other areas to afford the carb. I’ve personally installed a half dozen or so of his pieces on my customer’s engines, and every one has picked up the program. Lee’s budget dictated we use a box stock carb, so we went with a 950 HP from Holley to top the 432. After break in, we took them both to the dragstrip to see how we fared. The 3600 lb. Camaro went a spinning 10.51 at 129 miles an hour on its second visit to the track! Mike was shifting the 468 at only 6500rpm, a testament to the oval ports’ ability to generate power without high engine speed. Some quick math shows the engine was producing 650 horsepower, in average summer air! Chassis tweaks and launch techniques should put this car in the mid 10.30’s judging from it’s mile per hour. Bear in mind, this car had a tight (by race standards) converter, stalling at 4800 rpm. Part throttle streetability is excellent. Lee’s Regal, sporting a 10†TCI swap meet converter behind the 432 and 10†wide dot tires, reared up and went a 10.95 at 124 on steam, and when we put a 73 pill in the Big Shot plate (about 150 horsepower), it whipped out a 9.98 at 135! We hadn’t even changed a jet or started digging for the hundredths. This thing was making all of 700 horsepower with the nitrous engaged, and since it 60 footed 1.38, there’s plenty of torque to get the car rolling. We’re sure that when the targeted 200 horsepower pills get inserted and we get to the nitty gritty tuning the little 432 will find its way into the 9.50’s. While these numbers aren’t astounding, they are more than acceptable for the limited cash outlay and scope of the buildups. Small money and respectable et’s aren’t mutually exclusive, and the beauty of these two engines in particular is their ability to create power with very little rpm, reducing the cost of maintenance down the road. Neither of these will ever see the other side of 7000 rpm. Often your competition is overpriced and under thought, leaving you room to exercise your greatest speed part: Your brain. Viva the Woodchuck! Post Script: Mike Nerwin, always the “tinkerer†decided to try a set of Merlin rectangular ports he scored for a reasonable price from another friend of ours. I performed a very mild bowl blend on them in the past, and knew them to be sound castings. We cc’d the chambers, and they turned out to be 8 cc smaller, resulting in a 1.25 point increase in compression. (11.83 vs. 13.08) A plenum blended Weiand Team G was placed on top, and the rest of the combination was left as is. Weeks of consequent testing were disappointing; the rec ports were consistently .2 slower with an average loss of 2 mph. Mike even removed 75 lbs. from the car in search of the et, but the car still refused to run as it had with the GM oval ports- lighter weight, increased compression and all. Perhaps the intake was the problem, maybe the cam didn’t like the Merlin heads. I really don’t know. I just thought this an interesting twist to throw into the mix… Remember, when bracket racing or cruising the streets, it’s the mid range torque that does the work, and I think this example backs that up. "

cygnusx1 brings up a good point I should go into, in more detail. carbs generally don,t work well unless the fuel pressure entering the carb falls roughtly in the 4psi-6psi range so you can,t stick a 14 psi pump on the fuel line WITHOUT a pressure regulator,(as close to the carb as is practical) return style regulators tend to both work more precisely, plus in most cases they can flow more volume due to the basic design and allow the pump to run cooler than dead/head style regulators. pumping the fuel from the tank to the regulator at higher pressures has advantages

http://users.taylortel.net/~jcampbell/489.html another interesting bit of info (differant engine)

the 1/2" INSIDE DIA. gives you some extra flow capacity but its surely not mandatory at the 500 hp level, have a decent return style 3/8" INSIDE DIA.system and youll be fine at that level, yes IM only too aware every chart shows 375 hp as max for a 3/8" and 1/2" for 500 hp, and yes youll be better off doing it correctly with 1/2 INSIDE DIA. lines but Ive run several race cars at 500 hp levels running in the 10 second range with 3/8" INSIDE DIA.fuel lines http://www.centuryperformance.com/fuel.asp the confusion here may be that many guys look at the OUTSIDE DIA. and a 3/8"OUTSIDE DIA. has closer to a 5/16" INSIDE DIA and thats certainly not going to supply 500 hp

any sources for digital mics , I like a good NATURED FOOL I loaned out my set of digital mics the 4" TO 5" MIC COMES BACK LOOKING LIKE SOME IDIOT USED IT FOR A WELDING CLAMP, AND THE 2" TO, 3" IS MISSING, SO im IN THE MARKET FOR A COUPLE NEW digital micrometers ANY SUGGESTIONS?? THE LAST SET I BOUGHT COST SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS, SO I WAS HOPEING THEY ARE CHEAPER NOW??

"its a 496 bbc street combo DAVOAZ built with flat top pistons and ported edlebrock performer rpm heads , hydrolic cam, and an rpm intake to run pump gas, 850cfm demon carb." is all the info I have currently... __ drop the compression one full point (IE 9:1 from 10:1)and generally youll drop the tq/hp about 4%-5% MINIMUM

heres a 540 N/A big block chevy that runs on pump high test mike lewis built http://www.lewisracingengines.com/

http://www.bgsoflex.com/holley.html http://www.mortec.com/carbtip1.htm http://www.bob2000.com/carb.htm http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/rsrgauge.htm http://www.centuryperformance.com/vacuum.asp http://www.professionalequipment.com/extech-wide-range-infrared-laser-thermometer-161-ds-42540/infrared-thermometer/ http://www.fordmuscle.com/archives/2006/06/Innovate/index.php might help

thought you guys might find this of interest, its a 496 bbc street combo DAVOAZ built with flat top pistons and edelbrock heads, hydrolic cam, and an rpm intake to run pump gas

BTW I ran into that same FHP officer at a local coffee shop about 8 years later, and ask him if he remembered the call, he told me he did and was amazed at my restraint.....he also told me the guy started a fight in the FHP car when they tried to take hime away after we left and had several prior DWI arrests

theres ALWAYS a few total #$#$%%^ people on the road, I had a guy pull up behind me in the car pool lane at about 90mph,(i was doing the speed limit 70MPH) and start flasking lights and blowing the horn, well it took me about 10-15 seconds to move to the center lane, due to traffic in the center lane, which pissed him off royally, when I moved to let him pass he came along side and shot me a bird then swung violently into my lane trying to have his rear bumper impact his rear ....I jammed on the brakes and the wife started screaming, I told her to get on the cell phone and call the FHP, she got them on the line, and the guy kept repeating the move trying to cause an accident, I pulled over into the median and this jerk pulls over about 100 yards ahead and gets out and starts screaming and gesturing.....by this time my wifes freaking and screaming a running dialog to the FHP dispacher....about 10 minutes passed before the FHP showed up, by that time he had approached to about 30 yards ,carrying a lug wrench , they (FHP)came with three cars, the first stopped at his car the next at mine and a third at mine, a discussion insued where this guy claimed I hit his car.......I asked the hiway patrol guys to inspect each car as that was not true and ask them if he was crazy or on drugs...at that point the morron made the big mistake of punching the FHP guy......well you can pretty much figure out that the morron got arrested, and we got told we could go if we didn,t want to press charges (they listed a bunch of stuff he could be charged with) and yes it turned out he was out of his mind on several differant drugs. the FHP asked what I would have done if the guy had attacked....I said lets just say he would loose that option PERMENANTLY, if I was forced to protect my self, and ONLY if I was forced to defend myself and there was zero chance his lug wrench would win. the wife later ask how I remaind so cool under stress....I said look we had the FHP on the phone and I was fully capable of dropping this morron on the spot,, it was obvious he was nuts and help was on the way.....he was lucky he didn,t push over the edge into dirrect contact....he would be dead. cars can be replaced but you defend your family! I can,t believe morrons like that guy! I garauntee if he repeated that sevral times in the future he would eventually find someone who was far less restrained that I was that would have run him down or shot his dumb ass, well before the point I was waiting for him to cross