11-22-2012, 04:44 PM
Yep, Horsepower stories are often like fishing tales, I am really careful to quote only dyno figures and always to note whether it is a flywheel or roller figure. So many guys make up numbers "calculated" from how quick their car is over the local "Quarter mile" street run and anyone that has ever raced knows that this is more like guessing than calculating, a difference in any one of a hundred factors will affect the outcome of these calculations by hundreds of BHPs per ton.
And the biggest thing is that Horsepower matters much less than Torque anyhow, but as anyone that builds race engines for a living knows that you've got to supply horsepower figures to make a sale, Leading responsible Race engine builders to use a practice known as "Post holing" where an engine is set up for ultimate horsepower at only one point on the operating range of the engine and then Torque at all of the areas that matter when actually racing,
This technique is also used by the manufacturers when building performance variants of production cars that need to comply with emission regs, so they can quote a high BHP and then tune every other area for low emissions. I used to work in a GM owned engine test facility and was continually amazed by the questionable ethics of all of the manufacturers when it comes to type approval.
It's a funny game, engine building, where even now some of the best known names don't really understand what they are doing, but rather build to formulas laid down fifty years ago during the hot rodding and muscle car era, neglecting the little things like pushrod length but claiming BHPs that were achieved on a different engine with different valve train geometry.
Wow, Nissan back in supercars, are they being forced to use V8s, or have they opened the formula back up? After that fateful Bathurst race where the crowd wanted to kill Jimmy Richards, I didn't think we'd ever see the Japanese back at Bathurst. I haven't watched Bathurst since, I too was disgusted, and then when they rewrote the rulebook, meaning that Ford couldn't use their OHC V8s and had to use US produced Crate motors rather than the showroom product which would have been awesome, they lost me forever, just a political ploy to keep the redneck yobs happy, rather than developing the breed through competition.
Personally I have always been a Ford "Cleveland" fan, having built some twin turbo streeters and more than a few naturally aspirated semi drag engines for customers, but when Ford built the Boss quad cam I just had to have one, so I bought an XR8 Ute with a 290kW(390BHP) Boss, with all the trimmings, I even brought it with me when i emigrated to England. The thing with the Boss is that despite the power it is really quite boring to drive as it has this big flat massive torque curve, inlike a Chevy LS which is comparitively peaky, so with the Chev you get the sensation of coming in and out of the power and torque which makes it feel like you are doing something, the Boss just goes, smooth and easy, but with the big unrestricted exhausts in the local Baldock tunnel there is just nothing like it.
Any way rant over, One day I hope to get back to building my dream engine, I have most of the parts already, but I just need to finish the manifold and get some pistons.
Ford Cleveland, thick web four bolt main block +0.030", with aftermarket 4340 chrome moly Main bearing saddles, Billet steel 4340 3.75 inch stroke crank balanced polished and knife edged, 4340 H beam con-rods, Aluminium cylinder heads with raised inlet and exhaust ports S/S 4V valves on double valve springs and titanium retainers, with quench chambers and to top it all off my own design of fuel injection system using a base manifold I cast from a Detomasso Pantera copy and then fitted with Air horns I designed and had my guys machine on our old CNC gear, it is designed so that each port has it's own injector that squirts directly down the centre of the air horn as per F1 and Indy cars, giving the most even cylinder filling possible with the most even fuelling possible as well.
It will come in at about 383 Cu Inches and have ultra smooth torque across the range. Power? it'll be enough, but as I said before only the dyno will tell the actual figures.
I will post some pictures of the manifold and other parts when I find them they are in some obscure folder on my old laptop, I will start looking right away.
Regards
Rick
And the biggest thing is that Horsepower matters much less than Torque anyhow, but as anyone that builds race engines for a living knows that you've got to supply horsepower figures to make a sale, Leading responsible Race engine builders to use a practice known as "Post holing" where an engine is set up for ultimate horsepower at only one point on the operating range of the engine and then Torque at all of the areas that matter when actually racing,
This technique is also used by the manufacturers when building performance variants of production cars that need to comply with emission regs, so they can quote a high BHP and then tune every other area for low emissions. I used to work in a GM owned engine test facility and was continually amazed by the questionable ethics of all of the manufacturers when it comes to type approval.
It's a funny game, engine building, where even now some of the best known names don't really understand what they are doing, but rather build to formulas laid down fifty years ago during the hot rodding and muscle car era, neglecting the little things like pushrod length but claiming BHPs that were achieved on a different engine with different valve train geometry.
Wow, Nissan back in supercars, are they being forced to use V8s, or have they opened the formula back up? After that fateful Bathurst race where the crowd wanted to kill Jimmy Richards, I didn't think we'd ever see the Japanese back at Bathurst. I haven't watched Bathurst since, I too was disgusted, and then when they rewrote the rulebook, meaning that Ford couldn't use their OHC V8s and had to use US produced Crate motors rather than the showroom product which would have been awesome, they lost me forever, just a political ploy to keep the redneck yobs happy, rather than developing the breed through competition.
Personally I have always been a Ford "Cleveland" fan, having built some twin turbo streeters and more than a few naturally aspirated semi drag engines for customers, but when Ford built the Boss quad cam I just had to have one, so I bought an XR8 Ute with a 290kW(390BHP) Boss, with all the trimmings, I even brought it with me when i emigrated to England. The thing with the Boss is that despite the power it is really quite boring to drive as it has this big flat massive torque curve, inlike a Chevy LS which is comparitively peaky, so with the Chev you get the sensation of coming in and out of the power and torque which makes it feel like you are doing something, the Boss just goes, smooth and easy, but with the big unrestricted exhausts in the local Baldock tunnel there is just nothing like it.
Any way rant over, One day I hope to get back to building my dream engine, I have most of the parts already, but I just need to finish the manifold and get some pistons.
Ford Cleveland, thick web four bolt main block +0.030", with aftermarket 4340 chrome moly Main bearing saddles, Billet steel 4340 3.75 inch stroke crank balanced polished and knife edged, 4340 H beam con-rods, Aluminium cylinder heads with raised inlet and exhaust ports S/S 4V valves on double valve springs and titanium retainers, with quench chambers and to top it all off my own design of fuel injection system using a base manifold I cast from a Detomasso Pantera copy and then fitted with Air horns I designed and had my guys machine on our old CNC gear, it is designed so that each port has it's own injector that squirts directly down the centre of the air horn as per F1 and Indy cars, giving the most even cylinder filling possible with the most even fuelling possible as well.
It will come in at about 383 Cu Inches and have ultra smooth torque across the range. Power? it'll be enough, but as I said before only the dyno will tell the actual figures.
I will post some pictures of the manifold and other parts when I find them they are in some obscure folder on my old laptop, I will start looking right away.
Regards
Rick
Whatever it is, do it today, Tomorrow may not be an option and regret outlasts fatigue.