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The vacuum pump and alternator setup hangs low, leaving the head area clean.
Belt tension adjustment on radius tooth setups don’t require much tension at all, which removes a bit of stress from the crank. The tooth engagement alone provides a positive pulley drive.
Routing the -12 plumbing from the vacuum pump to the valve covers allowed a simple path for the hoses that doesn’t obstruct anything.
A Jegs billet aluminum water neck housing features a 24-pound Moroso cap and three available threaded ports on the backside for attaching extra water lines and/or a temperature sensor.
Yes, I checked rocker arm clearance at the valve covers. No problem. The Moroso welded aluminum covers are very light and sleek.
Why is this guy smiling? Hey, the assembly is done and it’s been a long time coming. Maybe I can sneak in a day or two for some fly fishing.
As usual, I performed the entire build on a Goodson engine cart. With a roll-around design, an upper drip/work tray and lower storage tray; these carts are my favorites.
Our engine at Gressman Powersports during dyno mounting.
Gressman’s Superflow dyno features a cooling tower through which our cooling system was managed.
Gressman’s exhaust headers are fitted with thermocouplers to monitor exhaust gas temperature at individual cylinders.
Following the first test-run at low RPM, Scott Gressman makes a minor fuel mixture adjustment. Our Holley Dominator performed superbly, virtually out of the box. We made no jet changes at all during our brief dyno session.
The BG fuel rail performed perfectly, with no leaks. The three O-rings in the sliding tube system do indeed provide proper sealing. We adjusted the Race Pumps fuel pressure regulator to settle at about 9 pounds pressure.
After test running and full warm-up, Gressman re-checks valve lash, setting intakes and exhausts at 0.028 inches.
Gressman ran the dyno board. Here he makes a few last-minute system checks. Our first pull yanked 1,098 horsepower, not bad for an out-of-the-box run. Our best pull netted 1,115 horsepower.
Following a couple of test runs to perform our pre-flight checks, the air feed stack is installed and we’re ready to make our first hard pull.
THE DYNO RUN
For better or worse, the moment of truth was finally upon us. In the later afternoon of September 19, I transported the engine to Gressman Powersports in Fremont, Ohio (only about 90 miles from my shop). Scott Gressman maintains a SuperFlow engine dynomometer. On the way to Gressman’s shop, I stopped at a race fuel distributor and picked up 10 gallons of VO 114-octane leaded race fuel (at a whopping $13.86 per gallon!).
The next day, Gressman’s crew mounted the engine to the dyno stand and connected the fuel and cooling plumbing, wired the Meziere electric water pump, installed their thermocoupler-equipped exhaust headers, etc. Prep took about one hour.
After adding 7 qts of 30-weight oil to the sump, the distributor was removed and the oil pump drive shaft was rotated with a cordless drill to pump oil through the engine for priming. Initial timing was set at 25 degrees. All timing adjustments were made at the MSD crank trigger sensor (by moving the sensor in relation to the trigger wheel).
With everything in place, Scott hit the starter and much to my relief, she fired and ran (I’m always antsy whenever a fresh motor first comes alive). Scott allowed her to run for a few minutes at around 1,400 – 1,500 RPM while monitoring the vitals. We immediately had about 65 lbs of oil pressure (which bumped to 80 psi during pulls), and no leaks occurred anywhere on the motor.
After allowing the engine to warm up, Scott shut her down and re-checked hot valve lash, setting all valves at 0.028”.
The first hard pull, with timing set at 27 degrees, with a pull netting 1,098 HP at 7,150 RPM. A second pull, with timing at 30 degrees, yanked 1,105 HP at 7,150 RPM. The final pull, at 32 degrees timing, and with the camshaft retarded 3 degrees, produced 1,115 HP at 7,150 RPM.
Torque wasn’t as high as we had expected, to be honest. The best we pulled (on the first run) was 882.0 lb-ft. On our best horsepower pull, the highest torque reading was 863.4 lb-ft. We had expected torque to be in the mid-to-high 900 range. But again, these are still respectable numbers, and with further tweaking, we feel very confident that there’s more to be had.
OUR FINAL DYNO PULL
RPM TORQUE HP
5200 844.4 836.0
5300 846.8 854.5
5400 851.9 875.9
5500 855.8 896.2
5600 860.5 917.5
5700 863.9 937.6
5800 864.2 954.4
5900 863.3 969.8
6000 862.5 985.4
6100 863.7 1003.1
6200 860.1 1015.4
6300 858.5 1029.8
6400 855.5 1042.4
6500 854.0 1056.9
6600 850.5 1068.8
6700 848.0 1081.8
6800 842.5 1090.8
6900 835.9 1098.1
7000 829.5 1107.6
7100 823.0 1115.5
7200 811.4 1112.3
7300 798.1 1109.3
In the 5700 – 6200 RPM range, average Fuel A lb/hr was 174.5. Fuel B lb/hr was 170.9. A/F ratio was 14.79 (max 15.31). Average volumetric efficiency was 113.6%.
Scott felt comfortable that with more timing tweaks, and perhaps switching to dual 1050 carbs, we would likely hit somewhere between 1,150 to 1,200 HP. Unfortunately, we had only a limited timeframe to use the dyno, but for an initial out-of-the-box run, 1,115 HP isn’t bad at all. I was surprised at how incredibly responsive the engine was. She snapped revs quicker than a hungry dog chowing-down a bowl of Kibbles. And the horrific shriek she made at high revs was both scary and wonderful. She’s definitely a nasty lil’ rat.
I have no illusions that we’ve created the best of anything. I know full well that many of our readers could pull bigger horsepower and torque with various tweaks to cam profile, ignition timing and fuel delivery. But, what we’ve accomplished in this build series definitely lays the groundwork for this type of build. We hope you’ve enjoyed the project and above all, we hope that the information we’ve provided is of some benefit. I think that the information (in terms of component selection and prep) provides a very good guideline for a similar build that you may have in mind, or one that is requested by a customer.
PRODUCT SUPPORT
Thanks to the following for their involvement in this project…
ARP INC.
1863 Eastman Ave.
Ventura, CA 93003
805-339-2200
ATI PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS
6747 Whitestone Rd.
Baltimore, MD 21207
410-298-4343; 800-284-3433
BG FUEL SYSTEMS
1450 McDonald Rd.
Dahlonega, GA 30533
706-864-8544
CAM LOGIC
(Bolton Conductive Systems)
1164 Ladd Rd.
Walled lake, MI 48390
248-669-7080
CAM MOTION, INC.
2092 Dallas Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
225-926-6110
CLEVITE ENGINE PARTS
1350 Eisenhower Place
Ann Arbor, MI 48108-3282
734-975-7938
CRANE CAMS, INC.
530 Fentress Blvd.
Daytona Beach, FL 32114-1200
386-252-1151
DART MACHINERY
353 Oliver St.
Troy, MI 48084
248-362-1188
DIAMOND RACING PRODUCTS
23003 Diamond Dr.
Clinton Twp, MI 48035
586-792-6620
FALL AUTOMOTIVE MACHINE
3519 Jackman Rd.
Toledo, OH 43612
419-473-1557
GEAR HEAD TOOLS
P.O. Box 21887
Carson City, NV 89721-1887
877-245-0014
GOODSON TOOLS & SUPPLIES
156 Galewski Dr.
Winona, MN 55987
800-533-8010
GRESSMAN POWERSPORTS
904 Lime St.
Fremont, OH 43420
419-355-8980
HOLLEY PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS
1801 Russellville Rd.
Bowling Green, KY 42101
270-782-2900
JESEL VALVETRAIN INC.
1985 Cedarbridge Ave.
Lakewood, NJ 08701
732-901-1800
JONES RACING PRODUCTS
72 Annawanda Rd.
Ottsville, PA 18942
610-847-2028
LUNATI
(see Holley Performance Products)
MANTON RACING PRODUCTS
558 Birch St., Bldg 4
lake Elsinore, CA 92530
951-245-6565
MEZIERE ENTERPRISES INC.
220 S. Hale Ave.
Escondido, CA 92029-1719
760-746-3273; 800-208-1755
MOROSO PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS
80 Carter Dr.
Guilford, CT 06437
203-453-6571
MSD IGNITION
1490 Henry Brennan Dr.
El Paso, TX 79936-6805
915-857-5200
PRO-FILER PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS
P.O. Box 217
New Carlisle, OH 45344
937-846-1333
RACE PUMPS
222 Hillcrest Dr.
High Point, NC 27262
336-476-9583
ROYAL PURPLE, LTD.
One Royal Purple Lane
Porter, TX 77365
888-382-6300
SUNNEN PRODUCTS CO.
7910 Manchester Ave.
St. Louis, MO 63143-2793
800-772-2878; 314-781-2100
TRICK FLOW SPECIALTIES
285 WEST AVE.
TALLMADGE, OH 44278
330-630-5560
Tags: ATI, DART, DYNO, ENGINE ASSEMBLY, HOLLEY, JONES RACING, MOROSO, PROFILER, VACUUM PUMP
