It's been a week long project but this one got finished up on the dyno yesterday:
It's a SBC (kinda'
) based on a G.M. 'Aurora' Oldsmobile (kinda' )block originally designed for IRL racing. The block isn't cast iron..it's a CG (compacted graphite) block. The blocks were delivered with no head bolt holes or lifter bores so the builders could put them where they wanted to. This one was originally done by the late Bill 'Grumpy' Jenkins as a spin off from the NHRA Pro Stock Truck program. Pretty cool to be working on something that 'The Grump' had layed his hands on! 
Anyway, it uses a set of splayed valve heads (basically a big block Chevy head on a small block Chevy block) with very small combustion chambers. Small enough that the compression ratio is 18:1 with a flat top piston. Engine speeds are a tick over 9,000 at peak rpm. With 358 cubic inches, it made 934 h.p. which is 2.6 h.p. per cubic inch! No power adders, spray stuff or funky fuel....just race gas per NHRA rules.
I spent one full day on the lathe and mill just fab'ing up throttle linkage from a box of odds and ends laying around my pal's race shop. There's not a lot of room with the shear plates under the carbs....the geometry with two 4500 series carbs can get you in trouble quickly. There's something about watching all that linkage work in harmony that makes me smile.
Hope you enjoy this stuff. -Al
It's a SBC (kinda'
) based on a G.M. 'Aurora' Oldsmobile (kinda' )block originally designed for IRL racing. The block isn't cast iron..it's a CG (compacted graphite) block. The blocks were delivered with no head bolt holes or lifter bores so the builders could put them where they wanted to. This one was originally done by the late Bill 'Grumpy' Jenkins as a spin off from the NHRA Pro Stock Truck program. Pretty cool to be working on something that 'The Grump' had layed his hands on! Anyway, it uses a set of splayed valve heads (basically a big block Chevy head on a small block Chevy block) with very small combustion chambers. Small enough that the compression ratio is 18:1 with a flat top piston. Engine speeds are a tick over 9,000 at peak rpm. With 358 cubic inches, it made 934 h.p. which is 2.6 h.p. per cubic inch! No power adders, spray stuff or funky fuel....just race gas per NHRA rules.
I spent one full day on the lathe and mill just fab'ing up throttle linkage from a box of odds and ends laying around my pal's race shop. There's not a lot of room with the shear plates under the carbs....the geometry with two 4500 series carbs can get you in trouble quickly. There's something about watching all that linkage work in harmony that makes me smile.
Hope you enjoy this stuff. -Al
-Al
