EQ Magnum Heads!

I recently started working on some EngineQuest Magnum heads for the small block Chrysler engine and have to say that I am impressed. I won't go over any of the features that make these heads a great iron replacement head here because that info can be found anywhere on the 'net. What I will add here is that with a 2.02" intake valve (it was all I had at the time) and no valve job, and right out of the box they flowed quite well peaking @ 230 cfm at .550". I then applied a quick valve job to make the 2.02" valve at home where a 1.92" valve was supposed to reside and re-tested. Wow, flow was now registering 247 cfm with no loss anywhere in the lift curve. Now I had no real intention of making these into a full on performance head so I used one carbide burr only and opened the pushrod pinch, profiled the guide, blended the bowl and touched the short side. I also have on hand some derelict titanium valves in a 5/16" stem and a 2.19" head diameter to try and make work. After a quick trip to the lathe and valve grinder I now have a set of Ti 2.02" valves to work with. Here's the really eye opening part-Back on the SF-1020 and with a true 4.03" bore and tested @ 28". Peak flow is now registering 272.5 cfm @ .600" . I also cc'd that port and came up with 180cc's on the nose. I plan to install these on a .040" over 360 with a hydraulic cam and dyno test in the very near future. Check back for updates.

Problem solved

So, what is the solution to cheap offshore aluminum rocker arms? In this case the solution was even cheaper made in USA, stock stamped steel rocker arms. Until the solution sat up and presented itself to me I was contemplating replacing the aluminum rocker arms with some high end quality rockers. Names like Harland Sharp, Comp Cams, Crane, T&D, Jesel, etc.. come to mind here. I was about to pull the trigger on some of the new CompCams Pro-Magnum steel rockers even though the price was dear, when it dawned on me that the 440 Source heads were designed to use an all stock valvetrain. Knowing I had some brand new heavy wall rocker shafts on the shelf, the decision to order some rocker arms from Melling was easy. Yes I knew I would have to wait and measure for the correct pushrod length but that is no biggie. Once I knew the length I needed, the Melling catalogue was again the source for the correct part number. A day later with pushrods in hand and about 15 minutes of assembly had the engine ready for fire up again. The engine fired without fuss and a stethoscope on the valvecovers was used to verify that the valvetrain was quiet and happy. Which it was. After a quick warmup some dyno pulls were made and wouldn't you know it? Horsepower was down about 12 HP but it held on 300 rpm longer (lighter rockers than the aluminum ones) Low end torque was up about 5 ft/lbs but down the same at the peak. The aluminum rockers were a 1.6 ratio versus the steel ratio of 1.5 so giving up that bit of lift and duration cost the engine a little power but not enough to worry about in this case. I will sleep much better knowing the valvetrain is as solid as an anvil now. J.Rob

Cheap, Offshore parts + Engine = Broken Engine

I'm sure if you're reading this then you already have a strong knowledge of the internal combustion engine and the components and sub-assemblies that make them run. You may also know that the automotive aftermarket has been flooded with inexpensive, imitation engine parts. These parts are affectionately referred to as "knock-offs".  Today I got bit by knock-off parts. Some time ago I acquired a 511 inch big Mopar from a friend for a screamin deal. The engine had some collapsed lifters (hydraulic flat tappet cam) and just generally needed to be inspected and freshened, Or so I thought. The block was replaced with another 440 block, crank turned, and heads reconditioned. Parts replaced were, lifters, bearings, rings, oil pan, pick-up, pump, etc.. Everything else was re-used. When this engine was initially built by my friend it was not tested on the dyno so we did not have any hard numbers when it came to output. I was never hot on the camshaft choice but it was an extremely good deal and available at the time. I really wanted to know what this engine produced so I reused the original cam. After a long while, here it is on the dyno. After a careful break in we were ready to make some pulls. Then the distributor started acting up which was also a knock off. We dismantled the distributor, replaced some springs, adjusted,tweaked and reassembled. We made a total of 5 pulls and decided to pull the valve covers and try a different preload adjustment on the lifters in the search of a little more power. What we found was several of the adjusters were either broken, on the verge of breakage, or machined incorrectly. Check out the pics! In the one photo you can clearly see how crooked the thread was machined! The closer we looked at the adjusters and the rockers themselves, the decision to remove and replace became quite clear. We narrowly avoided having a catastophic valvetrain failure. The decision was made to replace the entire rocker and shaft assemblies with something of much better quality. The moral of the story is basically that old adage "You get what you pay for". Oh and if you want to know more about the engine's performance on the dyno-leave a comment. J.Rob

SBC Dart Iron Eagle 180's

As the title says I am currently working on a set of Dart Iron Eagle 180cc runner heads. This set of heads was actually on a 385 small Chevy and even though coupled with a very mild hydraulic flat tappet cam it produced healthy power. As tested on our SF 902 this engine produced a best of 436 hp @ 5200 rpm and 460 ft/lbs @ 4200 rpm on pump gas of course. Considering how tame (think stock) this engine was on the dyno you wouldn't really think it could make that kind of steam-but it did. So not being able to leave well enough alone we elected to give this engine a kind of EMC treatment. This 385 SBC will retain the same basic short block and intake manifold (RPM Air-Gap) but will receive a roller juice cam and thoroughly worked over cylinder heads. The goals for this engine are heady- 500 hp @ 6000+rpm/ 480 tq @ 4800-4900 rpm, pumpgas, mufflers, 750-830 cfm carb. Camshaft specification will be decidedly mild-duration @ .050" (expressed in degrees) will not exceed 240 and valve lift won't exceed .600" so it will remain a truly driveable and reliable street engine. Flow testing of the heads today revealed that there is much work to be done! All flow testing was done @ 28 inches of water, 4.030" bore, 2.02" valve. Flow built quickly peaking @ 220cfm at a low valve lift of only .400", stalling at higher lifts. After some mild guide profiling and some short side (s.s.) work  flow rates are now 232 cfm @ .500" with flow flat lining. I'm sure that more s.s. work and maybe a 2.055" valve with no back cut (b.c.) are in the cards. Velocity readings reveal that the s.s. is over loaded with readings of 450+ fps (feet per second). No wonder when we tested the engine on the dyno power hit a wall @ 5300 rpm-the heads are choking it. I suspect the runners are much smaller than the 180 cc moniker, probably closer to 170cc. I'll measure them for volume in cc's next, so I know what I'm dealing with. The video is a short clip of a flow test for anyone who has never experienced one. J.Rob

EMC footage in Ohio

So as the title says here is some actual footage from the University of NorthWestern Ohio taken outside of the dyno cell. I believe this engine was Cory Short's big 514 cube Hemi. It made over 800+HP and it rattled your rib cage and made your eyes blur, all through 15 feet of 3.5" exhaust system. I remember having to put down the camera on the cement barrier so that I could block both ears! I'm behind the camers and that's my buddy Joe in the black and instructor Paul Higgins relaxin and drinkin his coffee. Check back daily and leave a comment. J.Rob

Testing for the EMC '09 @ Home

So as the title implies I figured I could add more about the engine featured in the most recent issue of PHR. As you can see in the first photo we had to get creative when we had to come up with a cost effective way to mount our air turbine to two Holley carburetors. I came up with the idea of a simple box with 3 holes in it, the boss supplied the tool box, and Joe my compadre made it all work. How did it work? I would have to say that it worked much better than it had any right to. Once that was mounted we were able to record and monitor a lot more data. Although the real important one was air/fuel ratio. As you can  also see the engine was in full drag, wearing mufflers, the actual chassis style headers and ignition system.

In case you wondered our dyno  cell is actually installed below ground level forcing us to route the exhaust system upwards then outwards. All told the length of the exhaust is considerable, terminating into no less than six large truck mufflers. Here's a little vid of one of the last tests before packing up and heading to Lima, Ohio. Enjoy and please feel free to comment and ask any questions. J.Rob

More Resurfacing

Well it's Monday and I received some ProComp Ford heads from a customer that wanted .060" removed from the deck surface. Simple enough right? Yeah this job was a very straightforward no surprises kind of job. Perfect for a Monday really. So with the CBN cutter in the fully retracted position and the PCD lowered it was a matter of 7 cuts and sixty thou of aluminum was turned into "snow flakes". You can see in the pics and video just how nice of a finish modern CBN/PCD cutters can produce. That's about all I've got for this Monday, check back soon and please leave a comment. J.Rob

Reconditioning Big Mopar Iron Cylinder Heads

So as the title says today I am working on getting a set of '452 castings "Bagged & Tagged". These particular heads were used on a friends 452 stroker build that I originally built in 1999. Well the engine recently expired due to a failed rod bolt. Really what can you expect with stock rods / ARP bolts and heavy KB hypers + 10 years of frequent street use as well as dragstrip abuse? Anyways the heads survived relatively unscathed and are now back in my hands for repairs and refreshening. What was really neat about this job is back in '99 these were home ported in my garage and were my first real crack @ porting.  I remember how much work it was and how cautious I was about messing with the shortside (s.s) and how the pushrod pinch and port matching were "useless" to grind on. So I didn't touch either of those areas and just worked the bowl and guideboss into a nice radiused form. I even had the foresight to take these to a local "guru" that had built himself a flow bench and had 1intake port flowed. The results were very pleasing as his bench was later found to be about 30-35 cfm above what the standard of the industry SF-600 would read. Why am I telling you this? For the simple reason that I now have at my disposal a bonafide SF-1020 ProBench! Well curisosity got the better of me and I set a head up and checked it. Now, before I share the results I should make it clear that I had a pretty good idea of what kind of flow rate to expect due to the fact that the 452 was dyno'd twice with cams being the only real change and that it produced a best of 532 HP /559 TQ. So all along I figured flow to register around the 260-265 cfm mark. The first head before treating it to a modern valvejob (VJ) came in at a whopping 248 cfm @ .500". So knowing just how much of a difference a well executed VJ can make I went ahead  and chose some angles that I have found to work very well on these heads. Post VJ numbers are 261 @ .550" with no changes below .450"! Now I'm thinking all I need to do is take out the "Huber Hump" in the floor, open up the pinch, etc... Whoa! Lets not get carried away! Flow is not everything you know-But that's a whole other blog topic. These heads are being relegated to a spare engine and the premier engine will be getting some modern aluminum castings. For now here's some pics of our SCHOU resurfacer which I converted to CBN/PCD tooling for the latest and best surface finish. If the video works and you have never seen or heard a CBN resurfacer than take a look-you'll wonder how something that sounds so "lumpy" can produce a finish superior to a segmented grinder. J.Rob

Popular HotRodding December 2010 issue

Wow, what a great way to start my first blog post with! Today I received the December 2010 issue of PHR magazine (Popular HotRodding). Why is that significant you ask? Well for starters it contains a six (6) page article featuring our 471 low deck Mopar we built for the 2009 EngineMasters Challenge. But it's 2010 right? Yes it has been a long time coming indeed, but it is here and it is quite a thrill to be in a major automotive enthusiast publication. Hopefully with the article creating awareness we can sell this monster which has been slightly detuned for a less intimidating demeanor. It is now wearing a Edelbrock SuperVictor 383 with a single Holley 1000HP carb, on pumpgas and through the mufflers it "only" makes 656 HP @ 6600 rpm and 612 ft/lbs @ 4300 rpm, and yes I know that a powerband of 2300 rpm is VERY unusual. Hey I didn't expect VE (Volumetric Efficiency) to be 105-107% either, but it is. Like I said the very same engine in the article is still for sale and is an outstanding example of an engine that could put any B or E body in the low 11's if not 10's with ease. Oh and the best part about all of this magazine business is that we have another feature coming up in the same magazine which puts the spotlight on our EMC 2010 engine! Pretty neat huh?  J.Rob