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Engine Masters Magazine Winter 2015 (Digital)

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13 Articles

4 min.

MISSION CREEP

It is something that we all have to come to terms with once in a while—a project that starts off with a simple and achievable goal but transitions into something that is just on the edge of reach. It is all part of the rationalization process, where there is always something just a little bit better, something more to do, or more ambitious goals to strive for. I am all for making the most of an engine build, but perspective and keeping sight of an achievable outcome can make the difference between success and failure. A good example is a lowly 225ci Slant Six I recently pulled from my ’68 Dodge Dart hardtop. I have had this car for about 10 years, and it has been a beater jalopy since…

4 min.

2015 EM CHALLENGE PRODUCTS

AEROMOTIVE – REGULATORS Making power requires that the engine and its support systems are all working exactly as they should, and at the most basic level this includes getting a reliable and consistent supply of fuel to the engine. While consistent fuel pressure is important with a carburetor, fluctuations in pressure with an EFI system can create havoc with the tune. We could not compromise in the quality or ability of any of the fuel system components when contemplating the requirements of the Engine Masters Challenge. Our requirements were the same as those of any serious performance enthusiasts, a system that could deliver fuel with the utmost in reliability and accuracy. We selected Aeromotive as the exclusive supplier of fuel pressure regulators to outfit our testing equipment. With these components…

7 min.

NEW PRODUCTS

COMP – RETAINING PLATE This new 3-Bolt Camshaft Race Retaining Plate Kit for LS Race Engines is a thrust plate kit that offers bolt-on performance along with quality and style upgrades over stock cast iron and steel aftermarket thrust plates. It is compatible with stock LS applications. The new retaining plate kit is a must-have for race cars equipped with LS engines. It features an upgraded cam thrust plate along with a lock-bolt plate for 3-bolt LS cams. The thrust plate is made from a high-quality billet bronze alloy that is much stronger than the stock component. The exclusive COMP Cams design is CNC-machined and double-disc ground to precision tolerances for an excellent surface finish and significantly reduced friction. It also features a CNC machined O-ring groove for a positive…

15 min.

Up Front

READER’S LETTERS AFFORDABLE ENGINE BUILDING Steve, I read your editorial in the fall issue, and I could not agree with you more! It is all too easy to armchair someone else’s “budget rebuild” into a 500hp street monster. Some things we recommend from experience, and some just off our own wish list. The key is to listen to the original poster and determine his budget and goals. If the OP has a large budget, it’s easy to offer some well thought out suggestions. On the other hand, if the OP has a meager budget, we really need to try and work within their limitations. Like any other facet of our lives, the Internet experience runs the gamut—from the budget novice, to the overfunded know-it-all. Sometimes it’s difficult to discern the…

11 min.

IDENTITY CRISIS

What do you do when you notice a retailer is having a fire sale on limited-production racing parts? If you have the spare change, you step up to the plate and buy—just to take advantage of the deal and put it in stock. That’s just what a customer of Jessy Robinson’s SKMFX Engines did when he spied an R3 Mopar Performance block on offer for seven hundred and fifty bucks. Mopar’s R3 was a seriously beefed race piece, offered in a vast array of configurations based upon the production LA engine architecture. This particular block, produced with the larger 360-sized main bearing bores, two-bolt main caps, a 59-degree lifer bank angle, and featuring non Siamese bores, is one of the less desirable examples of the breed. Be that as it…

11 min.

BIG, BAD, AND BLOWN

Itmight be the current economic situation, or possibly because it’s an election year, or maybe we have all just taken a good look at our waistline, but America seems to minimizing their propensity for super sizing. Small is the new big, with a call to arms to shrink everything from the government right down to the size of a New Yorker’s favorite carbonated beverage. One might question the logic behind imposing limits on a Big Gulp, but who among us wouldn’t like to drop a few pounds? In many cases, less really is more, but this particular buildup isn’t one of those instances. In fact, this build is all about more, as in more cubes, more cam, and more compression, but we didn’t stop there. In keeping with the theme,…

8 min.

GOOD ENOUGH

So, what does it take to put together a successful engine building project? The target here can be pretty broad, depending on what you are trying to do. Maybe the goal is to get your street/strip machine to finally deliver a 9-second timeslip, or maybe the objective is just getting your car down the road. In the case of engineering student Grant Pitt and his little Ford 289, it was simply another step in bringing his ’68 Fairlane back to life. When faced with the costs of education, room, and board, a part-time job only gets you so far, so taking on a project like this is not something that is going to be as easy as whipping out a wallet and bankrolling it. The goal was to take it…

8 min.

IS BIGGER BETTER?

We have all heard the bench racing and been warned about the dangers of over-carbureting an engine. While there certainly are cases where too big can cause problems, when it comes to high-power engine combinations, there is also the perils of going too small. If you look at some of the old carb sizing tables that have been around since the 1960s, you’ll see puzzlingly small size recommendations. As far as we know, the physics of carbs hasn’t changed since those days, so what gives? Tose tables have as there x and y axis cubic inches and rpm. If you may recall, back in those days, making 1 hp per cubic inch was pretty good for a street piece. These days, power per cube has escalated dramatically, and ultimately, the…

8 min.

ENGINE AUTOPSY

Part of the fun of a new engine project is digging in to see what you have. When the engine is a type that you have never worked on before, it becomes a real adventure. So it was with the Cadillac 429 that recently landed on this editor’s desk. Well, actually my desk tends to be a workshop, and the Cadillac in question belongs to my boss, Hot Rod and Engine Masters Publisher Jeff Dahlin. There I was, peacefully bolting together another nice Mopar big-block when the sound of a tailgate slamming down disturbed my concentration. I turned to hear Jeff bark out the orders, as he tends to do, “Dulcich, build this Caddy, and make it quick.” Before I could even start making excuses, he punctuated the situation by…

6 min.

BEARING BASICS

“Bearing clearance is one of the most important aspects to the longevity of an engine.” Engine bearings are one of those critical parts of an engine assembly where cutting corners will often mean taking everything apart and starting the build all over again. So, what’s the big deal, you may ask. You know the crank is ground 0.010 inch undersize on the journals—and maybe it was done at a shop you fully trust. That box of bearings says 0.010. So what could go wrong? Bearing clearance is one of the most important aspects to the longevity of an engine, and therefore an important specification to measure and confirm. The bearing clearance is a product of several elements, including the bearing design itself, the diameter of the bearing housing bores, and…

5 min.

MEASURING PISTON DOME VOLUME

An engine’s compression ratio is the product of many interrelated factors, but it all boils down to total volume above BDC divided by total volume above TDC. In round numbers, if there is 1,000 cc of volume above the piston at BDC, and 100 cc at TDC, the compression ratio will be 1,000/10=10:1. The calculation is very simple, but getting together all the data for an accurate compression ratio calculation is not always so straightforward. While calculating the ratio used to take some basic mathematics, these days most rely on easy-to-use online compression ratio calculators. To get the ratio, you simply input the required specifications, and the calculator spits out the ratio. Normally, we have the bore and stroke in fractions of an inch, the combustion camber volume in cc,…

3 min.

ENGINE MASTERS TECH TIPS

STRETCHED TIGHT When you get down to the details on holding things together with nuts and bolts, what makes it work is actually the elasticity of the fastener. As a bolt is torqued, it will actually stretch a very small amount, putting a clamping load on the part. Yes, steel alloys will stretch a small amount, and then bounce back to the original length once the torque is removed. When they are stretched to this state, you are using the elasticity of the metal, and as long as the elastic zone is not exceeded, everything is good. Go too far, and this zone is exceeded—you will permanently distort and elongate the fastener, making it weaker and prone to fail. Bolt torque really just estimates how tight the fastener needs to…

2 min.

ON THE WEB

BREATHE DEEP When power goes up, the wrong carb can slice serious power off an engine’s potential. A stock 350 might run just fine off a 800-cfm Quadrajet, and you might try a shelf full of carbs, both big and small, with virtually no change in peak power output. Now, look at a serious powerplant, say a 750hp big-block, and the situation changes dramatically. A high-powered beast needs to be fed massive quantities of air. If your carb isn’t capable of serving up the needed flow, you are throwing horsepower away. In our test on a big-block Chevy, we found almost 50 hp between a 750 Holley and its big brother 1050 Dominator. That 300 cfm of flow was worth about as much as a good port job or a…

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Engine Masters Magazine Winter 2015 (Digital)

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