More Power muahahahahahahahaha

[AZMARK]

My personal moment was when the little voice in my head was telling me "Do you really want to stuck in a 1800lb rollerskate, with 9000RPM, 3000HP screaming Hemi by your feet, the family jewels hanging over a(potentially) self destructing transmission, while 15 gallons of liquid mayhem sitting in front of said sceaming hemi, that's all but guaranteed to go up in a rather memorable fireball if said hemi decides to "hiccup"

This is why I like slingshots, all the maiming bits are behind you.

[HTRN]

Not to mention the nice thick aluminum plate between the driver and said engine, or the fact that fuel cell is in front of you, and Engine Trans is behind you?

Course, a 200" WB digger won't fit on the typical car trailer...


HTRN

[MiddleAgedKen]

AA/FA all the way.

[HTRN]

Except that they'res no national sanctioned competition for them anywhere in the US - the only racing opportunities for "Awful Awful/Fuel Altereds" is either "Exhibition", Match racing, or the Outlaw circuit.


HTRN

[Highspeed]

I've been thinking about engines a lot recently - it's where I'm going next ( a lot more earning potential ) and they are kind of like my first love.

I've always had a liking for big Yank V-8's but it's based on emotion rather than anything else.

I really can't understand why your engine designers have clung to that centre cam pushrod iron motor for so long. The valve train layout means you are stuck with two huge valves if you want to get the motor breathing properly and that also means the combustion chamber is a really lousy shape which won't permit a high compression ratio on normal fuels.
And the 'Hemi' head - it's talked about as if it's the holy grail but it's 1950's technology. I don't know who came up with it first but Jaguar used it in the D-Type Le Mans cars.
I battled with it when I was tuning British motorcycle engines, the nicest thing you can say about it is that it's a product of it's time.

The dead engine I pulled out of my track car project is a case in point when it comes to proper engine design. It's a twin cam motor which has a huge amount of valve area and is happy on normal pump fuel at a 10:1 compression ratio. OK, it's French, but when heavily breathed on and turbocharged it could do this :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBl4jG-IGSw
I'm rebuilding it and I reckon I'll see 225hp without going to forced induction ( from 115 ci )

Big news over here is the LS1 engine. Seeing as it's not steamship technology, doesn't weigh 3 tons and actually makes some horsepower out of the crate it's getting swapped into all sorts of vehicles.
The conversion I like best is the one for Porsches - those Beetle engines on steroids attract insane repair bills because of price gouging on parts, all the mystique about ordinary mortals not being able to work on them, and the fact that they are woefully unreliable ( in production car terms ) in the first place. The LS1 will apparently fit quite nicely in the space vacated by the glorified Beetle motor and this makes Porsche fanatics extremely angry, which is good

[arctictom]

I did have a little accident and the transmission did burn my arm as it cam through the floor board , I liked it better when I was immortal, which I was cured of in 1968, bummer.

[HTRN]

And the 'Hemi' head - it's talked about as if it's the holy grail but it's 1950's technology.

A Hemi head is the ULTIMATE configuration when used with a Supercharger - it's basically a straight shot into the cylinder - a Fueler hemi intake tract will typically flow at least 500CFM@28" The other big advantage to them is valve size: because of the convoluted valve arangement, they can use tremendous valves - valves over 2.5" are common in the race engines, and 2.42" intake valves are fairly common on street/strip motors.

I will say that they have lousy scavenging properties(something they share with most 4 valve head designs) compared to most wedge heads. They also suffer from fuel distribution problems, hence the common twin plug setup in Top fuel motors. When it comes to being the best design to shove air and fuel through, they're still the king.

The reason why you don't see that many 4 valve motors is... Because at lower rpms, the 2 valve design actually works better. Keep in mind, that because of significantly longer strokes, Most American V-8s run at much lower RPMs, which favors V-8 designs. If I was designing a short stroke V8 that was going to spend alot of time at 9000RPM, Sure, 4 valve is the way to go, but with four and half inch stroke V8 that will never go past 5500RPM, and spend 99% of it's life below 2500RPM? the 2valve motor makes more sense.


HTRN

[HTRN]

I wouldn't want an aluminum block motor - they simply don't seal as well.

Hell, I want to see the engine manufacturers move to a "half jacket" design - most of the cooling takes place in the cylinder head and top 2" of the block anyway.


HTRN

[HTRN]

And oh, the real thing you want to pay attention to is torque, not HP in a street motor - High RPM make lotsa HP, but very little torque(HP= TorquexRPM/5252, if you know this formula, you can check the accuracy of any dyno pull, as HP and Torque are exactly the same at 5252 rpm). Because of Scavenging advantages, a 2 valve motor produces alot of torque. Case in point, the Beck Racings 496CID "Pro street" engine. "Only" makes 608HP.. But also makes 594 foot pounds at 5300RPM. I'd bet it made north of 450 foot lbs at idle.. using carburetors and running on 91 octane!

This is why these cars have such gut wrenching acceleration in such big cars.



HTRN

[HTRN]

Stop engineering aluminum as if it was cast iron, and you stop having the problems.

Chris, Making aluminum V-8 blocks is a mature science. Even the the solid blocks have sealing problems occasionally(admittedly, this is with exotic fuel/forced induction..) No matter how you cut it, Aluminum has a much larger coeffcient of thermal expansion, lower ability to dampen, and has less rigidity.. Then there's the fatigue issue..

Now, considering that the typical aluminum block runs north of 4 grand, and only knocks 200 pounds out of the car, versus, say, replacing the factory steel hood with a glass one, for roughly half the weight savings, and about a tenth the price. Now, remember, the hotrodders rule of thumb: 100lbs=10hp. It's far cheaper to add 20hp when building an engine, than to lighten it by using an aluminum block. When racing, and every ounce counts, sure, an aluminum block(along with a monocoque chassis, carbon fiber body, etc) makes sense, because winning is more important than cost, and they have rules to meet, but runwhachabrung boulevard warriors? Not happening.


HTRN