Innehållsförteckning för April 2015 från Hot Rod

A bit of advice for car guys this Valentine’s Day—treat your girl like she’s one of your hot rods. Even if it’s just for the day, she’ll always remember it and love you for it. Of course, don’t ever tell her that’s your inspiration. It’ll be our little secret. To the uninitiated, that suggestion may sound cold, but in truth, the time and resource most of us devote to our cars and projects would please any woman. Just ask my wife, Rachel—she’s pretty sure that whatever I keep in the garage is my mistress. I can understand why she thinks that every time I find myself under the hood of the car at 2:30 a.m. while she’s asleep in bed with the kids. I’m sure you…

Hot Rod Anything! WHO MAKES ELECTRIC RACE PARTS? Where do you go to find an electric drive train for a race car? Much of the technology is proprietary (think high-voltage Mystery Motor), but if you’re looking for new power plant or motor control unit technology, check out: McLaren, MclarenElectronics.com Williams, WilliamsF1.com Yeas Motors, YasaMotors.com The time has come when we can no longer ignore electric motors as a performance option. Sound far-fetched? It used to be, but it’s hard to argue with the recent developments electric power has gone through—in fact, electric motors are stealing from our playbook. Hot rudders have always been all about power-to-weight ratios, and at a peak of 270 hp and 1,957 pounds, the Spark-Renault SRT_01E or FIA Formula E cars (shown here) are extremely capable…

2016 Ford Mustang GT350 Ford has been teasing us with the GT350 version of its new S550 Mustang platform since the car was first spied testing on the Nürburgring in July 2014 and everyone freaked out about the exotic sound of the engine. Finally, we have confirmation of many of the GT350 rumors: yes, it has a 5.2L V8 with a flat-plane crank, yes, it’s naturally aspirated, yes, it was built with track-day triumphs in mind. We got our first glimpse of the white-and-blue racer during a press launch at the Carroll Shelby Foundation in Gardena, California. There was smoke, and lights, and a very peculiar grumbling sound from behind a curtain as the new pony car came fishtailing into the garage. It came to a stop in front of…

The Street Prototype/5S003 toured major shows during the summer of 2014 alongside the first competition GT350, 5R002, which was recently restored by John Brown at Thoroughbred Restorations. Among the venues were the Amelia Island Concours, MCA Mustang 50th Anniversary, SAAC 39, Mid America Ford and Shelby Nationals, and The Quail Concours, PNW Concours d’Elegance ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS As explained in the main text, the Street Prototype was identified in its earliest days at Shelby American as SFM5001, via hand-scrawled lettering on the firewall. The two earliest competition models received similar 002 and 003 markings in the same location. This, of course, was prior to decisions being made about how and where production cars were going to be serialized. The first three cars remained in this condition, the under hood…

The SEMA Show is the automotive afermarket’s trade show (held in Las Vegas every November) where our industry goes to show of the latest and greatest stuff we have to offer. Te SEMA Show is centered around parts manufacturers and new product debuts, but has increasingly become the venue of choice to unveil high-end custom car and truck builds from the muscle-car era to the present. It seems like many of the popular trends that we see spread through the hobby get their spark from cars first seen at this massive industry show. Here are the highlights of what we expect to see more of in 2015. 01 NON-METALLIC PAINT HOT ROD noted this in 2012, and now it’s widespread. We’re still seeing some bass-boat glitter here and there, but…

RM Competition’s Randy Mali came to the competition with the lone 385-series big-block Ford, fresh out of his Fox Mustang (like Barry Rabotnick’s 433ci FE you’ll see on page 73, this Ford sees in-car miles, not just dyne racing). Tees’s later big-blocks were the replacement for the older Ford FE series of big-blocks, coming from the factory in displacements of 429 and 460 chi Tey have the capacity for large displacement from long-stroke crankshafs and feature large ports from the factory. Randy’s engine put the crankshaft stroke right in between the factory 429 and 460 specifications of 3.590- and 3.850-inch, coming in at 3.700-inch for a displacement of 450 chi from an offset-ground original-equipment (OE) 429 crank. Te engine breathes through a set of older Ford Motorsports’ Super Cobra Jet…

Carlo Aghbashian’s Raceheads team made its way into qualifying with a small-block Mopar entry based on a factory 340ci block. As Carlo tells us, the block was junk with corroded bores, so it was resurrected with eight-cylinder sleeves, reducing the bore in the process to 3.997-inch from the factory 4.04. An ancient set of iron W2 cylinder heads were expertly reworked by Carlo. Funneling the air is an Edelbrock Super Victor intake manifold and Holley 1,000-cfm carb. While the W2 heads were somewhat out of the mainstream, by all external appearances Carlo’s engine looked as conventional as they come. //The Kellogg Crankshaft Company was founded in 1956 and still makes cranks today! Performing repeated air-bleed changes between runs stacked on power, as did an unusual change of spark plug on…

Jesse Robinson and the Robinson Rutters Auto Machine team brought a serious-looking Molar R3 59-degree small-block topped with Molar W9 heads and the matching Molar big single-plane intake. Te small-bore combo makes use of 4.040-inch cylinders and a 4.250-inch stroke crank to displace 436 chi Te frst runs sounded ragged—clearly down on power. Robinson worked the fuel mix on the Holley HP series crab, raising the feats to richen the mixture. Finding no improvement, the timing was looked at next, but the problem persisted. Ignition interference proved to be the culprit, with a re-routing of the wiring cleaning things up through the rev range. For the remainder of the qualifying session, Robinson strategically ran down the clock, letting the Mopar cool for the power runs. As time expired for qualifying…

Adney Brown of Performance Crankshaf looked toward the big block Chevy’s proven ability to make power for his entry this year. Te factory block featured 4.325-inch bores, with an unusual stroke dimension of 3.680 inches. It seems that when you grind crankshafts for a living, cutting a ’shaft to exactly the stroke you desire does not present a problem. Te resulting 433 cubes were topped with a ported set of Broadax BB2X cylinder heads, connected to a Holley crab via a Holley single-plane intake manifold. Deep breathing was censured by the 0.750-inch life custom Comp hydraulic-roller cam. During the 35-minute qualifying session, the short-stroke big block ran cleanly through the dyne pulls. Te team richened the jetting in steps until the power started to drop off, putting the jetting back…

RM Competition’s Randy Malik entered a 401-cube Chevy that could be any hot rudder’s project. Based on a stock 350ci block, the straightforward combo features Broadax 10x cylinder heads, a single-plane Holley intake, and a Holley 4150 crab. Granted, Randy employed numerous custom tricks ranging from piston coatings to full porting of the fowl system, but overall we are looking at a basic small-block. Randy’s Chevy delivered impressive results. Te hunt for power during the 35-minute dyno session was limited to the routine timing and mixture adjustments, and Randy didn’t expect any miracles to be found here. As Malik puts it, “It is what it is, and once you get here that’s not going to change.” What Randy had was a solid 600hp small-block, which returned a score of 2,677.6.…

Mark Dalquist and the Throttle’s Performance team brought one of the most elaborate engine assemblies. Te big-bore Pontiac bottom end was covered with some of the latest high-tech components available. Te Chad Speyer–worked Delbruck heads ensured ample airflow, and the radical Mega squirt engine-management system was state of the art. Te star component, however, was the Performance Design Carbon TR induction intake manifold featuring individual equal-length runners feeding from a large tapered full-length upper plenum and a giant Injector Dynamics throttle-body. Working the tune on an individual cylinder basis incrementally added to the power tally with each tuning change. About midway through the 35-minute test session, the team decided to remove the eight individual Lambda sensors from the exhaust primary pipes. Te idea was to eliminate any fowl disruption caused…

Te Stone/Roycrof team stepped into qualifying with a stout 435ci version of the Chevy LS series. Built on a 6.0L iron production block, the team made use of production cylinder heads, running the largeport LS7 units. Feeding the air is a single four-barrel-style All-Pro single-plane intake manifold topped by a huge Enderle singlebutterfy throttle-body. Te healthy LS posted big numbers right out of the gate, leaving the team with plenty of time to focus on the tune. Dialing in the LS came down to working the fuel and spark tables on the Holley EFI from a remote laptop in the dyno control room. They repeatedly performed tweaks and test pulls until the 35-minute qualifying clock ran to zero.…

Outside of the tall, high-rise, All Pro single-plane intake manifold, John Lahore’s “Also BES Racing” entry looked like it barely had enough parts on it to run. A closer look showed individual coil packs hidden on plates behind the headers. Topped by a Holley carburetor, the combo seemed simple enough, and the iron 6.0L truck block seemed like nothing special. Hidden inside was BES porting on RHS heads, bringing the head fowl to a peak of 375 cams. Te custom Comp Cams hydraulic-roller shoves the valves open over 0.760 inch. Still, when seeing this 400- cube engine rocket up to the 668-peak-horsepower mark, we had to wonder where all that power was coming from. What was even more impressive was the tremendous torque throughout, climaxing at 590 lb-f of torque.…

“Watch this,” Corvette engineer Chris Barber said, seconds before punching the throttle at the entry of a tight turn leading into Road Atlanta’s terrifying back straight. Te car shimmied slightly, its full-throttle soundtrack briefy interrupted, then it roared back to life, pointed in the proper direction. As far as we could tell, Chris worked the steering wheel during that little stunt, but the 2015 Corvette Z06 has so many modes and automated assistants, it might very well be capable of steering itself. Chevrolet has offered a Z06 in four out of the seven generations of Corvette, starting with the “tanker” Z06 in 1963—so named for its large-capacity fuel cell. Te Z06 has always been an amped-up version of the base Vetted, dropping weight, adding horsepower, and promising improved handling and…

HOTROD.COM/Thom-Taylor…

What does “late model” mean to you? There was a time I thought it was anything newer than 1972, but more recently I’ve seen it as, say, an EFI Fox Mustang or newer. As in, cars approaching 30 years old. I think many car guys sort of draw a line around their high-school years; on the older side is “cool,” on the newer side is “not so much.” That was certainly me, but it seems my line is being pushed closer to the present day (though it might have leapfrogged the performance coulee of 1975 to 2005). In the mid-1980s school years, I recall cruising Los Angeles and spotting Duster 340s and SS396 Cheerless as standouts in traffic, but still commonplace. Today they’ve all but vanished,…

HOT ROD Archives Carroll Shelby needed a facility in 1962 to construct his Cobras, just as the feds were closing in on Lance Reventlow and his Chevy-powered Scarab race-car operation at 1042 Princeton Drive in Venice, California. Reventlow exited and Shelby entered, without so much as an employee change. Reventlow’s mastermind, Phil Remington, stuck around to help Shelby ramp up production of his Cobras, develop the Shelby Mustang, and give Ford a hand in developing Ferrari-beating GT40s. Even Reventlow’s Fiat car hauler was part of the deal. This shot from a week after New Year’s, 1965, shows plenty of Shelby Mustang action as stock fastbacks were being converted into 306hp GT350s and GT350Rs. HOTROD.COM/Thom-Taylor…

Cancel your plans, you’ve just received a better offer! HOT ROD wants to hang out with you this year and see your car at the biggest cruise, road trip, street-car drag race, and prestigious engine-building competition in 2015. Online registration for all of our events is open now, so go to HOTROD.com for the latest updates on the Car Craft Summer Nationals, HOT ROD Power Tour, HOT ROD Drag Week, and AMSOIL’s Engine Masters Challenge—we can’t wait to see what you’ve been working on all winter. 2015 Car Craft Summer Nationals The biggest car show of the season, the Car Craft Summer Nationals, has expanded into the Wisconsin State Fair Park, July 17–19, 2015. More than 6,000 performance cars and 35,000 enthusiasts from across the country are expected over the…

Rob MacCachren has raced every Baja 1000 since 1985, except one, and he only sat that race out because he had a broken bone. He won overall in 2007, and again this past race in 2014. He’s escaped booby traps, bad weather, and even once had an arrow shot at him. It’s not like the SCORE Baja 1000 is an easy race under any circumstances, but the 2014 competitors faced the longest route ever from Ensenada, Mexico, down the peninsula to La Paz. Not only was the course long but the 1,275-mile race went right through areas recently ravaged by a massive hurricane. Rob wasn’t even sure they’d be able to run, let alone take a victory. “Before the rerun, we were hearing all these rumors that the area was…

Can we all agree that AMC’s AMX was Kenosha’s finest? Tees short-wheelbase smokers were one of AMC’s proudest moments—if not the proudest. Introduced at the height of the muscle-car era in 1968 and only available in this configuration for three years, they were a higher level of AMC nirvana than the similarly styled Javelin. For Kamloops, British Columbia’s Kevin Mervin, it must be heaven, as he’s owned this X for 31 years. Purchased for $600 (less engine and seats) it was an original 390, four-speed, posy rear 1968 in relatively good condition. Kevin was 17 and wasn’t about to let originality get in the way of having some X-games, so he scored an AMC 290 (the smaller version of the 390) in a bone yard and hooked it up. Says…

Gary Grillo of Evergreen, Colorado, grew up during the heyday of the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) Trans-Am racing series. “I was lucky enough to attend a few races when I was younger and was very impressed,” said the 59-year-old, auto-detail shop owner. “When Pontiac introduced its 19701⁄2 Trans Am, I was blown away. I knew I had to own one someday.” Gary joined SCCA during the mid-1970s while attending the University of Florida. “I wanted to compete against my friend, Phil Curran, whom I credit with the inspiration for getting into road racing. I crewed for him at a six-hour [endurance race] at Daytona and have been hooked on the sport ever since,” he added. By 1976, Gary bought a 1974 Formula and traded it for a 1972…

It’s not a stretch to say that engines are the core of hot ridding expression, whether they’re displaying your handiwork in the exposed engine bay of a Deuce Ford or whittling down your eat. at the track. Te annual AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge was conceived to showcase engines and their builders, and the ability to do one thing: produce horsepower. This yearly competition strips away everything else. There are no cars, transmissions, tires, or drivers to influence the results. Here the builder stands alone with engine and dyne—out to prove mastery of the craft. WHERE IT ALL BEGAN The roots of the Engine Masters Challenge go back to our former sister publication, Popular Hot Roding (PHR). In 2001 it held an invitational dyne shootout featuring three big-block engines: a Molar…

Veteran EMC competitors Weingartner Racing came to the show with a 540-cube Chevy big-block combination featuring RHS cylinder heads, which received a full porting treatment by Eric Weingartner. Feeding the heads is an Edelbrock SV 565 intake manifold with extensive fling and reworking of the plenum and ports. Te big Chevy ran smooth and clean through a few preliminary pulls. Weingarten then tweaked the ignition timing, finding power with a move from 35 to 37 degrees. Te team focused on dialing in the 1,050-cfm Quick Fuel carburetor, working the jetting up in steps until the Chevrolet had no more to give. Te effort paid of with a peak of 783 hp, with 692 lb-f of torque. HOT ROD’S PLAN FOR THE 2015 ENGINE MASTERS CHALLENGE The Engine Masters Challenge will…

Robert Peters’ Midnight Express team brought a 401-cube smallblock Chevy with a set of AFR Eliminator cylinder heads and Delbruck single-plane intake manifold. Early on the Peters’ engine seemed rich on the roll in, noticeably burbling at lower rpm. Te team went to work on the Holley crab with a quick air-bleed change, which helped, and then followed with several valve-lash adjustments. Tough the lash adjustments were performed with impressive skill and coordination, time was quickly ticking away on the 35-minute qualifying period. With only seconds to go, a quick reset of the ignition timing for a final dyne pull proved the engine was still not quite in its zone. It delivered a peak output of 569 hp, finishing qualifying with a score of 2,517.9.…

Te W-series engine broke new ground for Chevrolet as the company’s frst big-block. Tat legacy lives on through a core of dedicated enthusiasts who produce the parts to keep these legendary engines alive. At the forefront of W-engine development is Lamar Walden Automotive, designing, building, and improving parts that make building a brand-new, high-performance 409 possible today. Naturally, Walden wanted to take the opportunity to showcase its W-series wares. Te beautiful 409-cube competition engine featured a Walden block and intake, and cylinder heads cast by Delbruck but machined and ported by Walden. In Engine Masters Challenge competition form, the Chevy was equipped with a custom-made intake manifold and Holley’s modern fuel-injection system, greatly easing the tuning process. Walden’s W worked through qualifying, delivering a healthy 597 hp on its way…

With tremendous afermarket support and racing popularity, the big-block Chevy is the go-to engine for big power. Eric Weingarten’s second big-block in the competition illustrates this perfectly. Starting with a Dart block and topped with a capable set of AFR heads fed by an Delbruck 454R intake and 1,050-cfm Quick Fuel crab, this Chevy makes power the conventional hot ridding way. Eric stepped up with full porting of the as-cast cylinder heads, bringing peak fowl to a mind-boggling 417 cam. Also, the bore and stroke of 4.500 and 3.750 add up to a big-bore, short-stroke combo that was never used by the factory, but fairly easy to do with off-the shelf parts. Despite the custom work, Eric’s engine looks like it would be at home in the average enthusiast’s garage…

Semco specializes in Poncho power. Its 409ci combination uses a vintage Pontiac block fatted with readily available aftermarket products. Kaufman Racing heads provide the airflow, with noted cylinder-head man Darrin Morgan porting to extract everything the castings offer. Te induction is traditional: a single four-barrel Edelbrock intake fed by a Holley 4150 crab. Te remarkable aspect of this engine’s performance was the broad and fat torque curve. Power came on strong and level, without the sharp peaks and dips of a more temperamental combination. Te Pontiac delivered a wicked 637 hp at peak. With strong output over a broad rpm range, the Semco Pontiac posted an Engine Masters Challenge score of 2,680.6. Considering this engine would look right at home in a traditional muscle car, that’s impressive.…

Joe Carroll, with assistance from PTS Engines, came to compete with a simple but stout small-block Chevy combination, basically mirroring the bore and stroke of a factory 400, with a 4.125-inch bore and a 3.750-inch stroke. Te engine relies on the normal hot rodder’s bag of tricks to up the power, including a bulletproof Dart block, high-flowing Racer Pro cylinder heads from the BES Racing winning combo a few years ago, an Delbruck single-plane manifold, and a Holley 4150 crab. From all appearances, Joe just loaded up everyman’s small-block. In dyno testing it was clear this small-block was more than the sum of its parts. Te engine easily crested 600 hp and was showing a lean air/fuel mixture. Expecting an easy bump in power, Carroll and crew made a jet…

Te Almost Kaase team is comprised of some of the crew from the Jon Kaiser Racing shop, and its nearly 600ci Boss Nine engine is representative of a big-inch street motor Kaiser builds for street cars. Te Boss Nine top-end package was designed to retrofit onto a common 429ci or 460ci Ford block; however, this engine used a passenger car-style block from Ford Motorsports. Toes huge Boss heads are capable of funneling in a monster 520 cam of peak airflow. Te big Boss features a FAST EFI system, meaning tuning action was confined to fingers on a keyboard, hunting for a razor-sharp tune. Te monster Ford required resetting the torque limits on the dyne to handle the massive twist—enough to send a cloud of steam from the dyne’s absorber, as…

Bradley Nagel’s Gen III Hemi certainly looked like a serious competitor. From the towering Mopar Drag Pack intake to the layers of high-tech electronic engine controls, this engine was destined to display the potential of Chrysler’s third-generation Hemi. Te Fuel Tech EFI system worked fuel and spark at each cylinder individually, with a full array of digital displays showing the num- bers. Mechanically, it had a factory 5.7L block taken to 417 cubes with a 4.250-inch K1 crank. An LSM hydraulic-roller cam delivers 0.850-inch life—more than enough to tap into serious fowl from the Titer-worked production 6.4L heads. During the 35-minute qualifying session, the mighty Mopar immediately crowded the 700hp mark right out of the chute. With tuner Scott Clark working the keyboard, the high-tech Hemi poured on more power,…

Start to Finish The Ringbrothers’ LS7-powered “Recoil” 1966 Chevelle made its debut at the 2014 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Built for Richfield, Ohio’s Chris McPhie, it’s a car he’s always wanted. His instructions to Ringbrothers was for a simple-looking car that would show off all of the details the Ringbrothers are known for, and it needed to have a lot of horsepower. Chris was so confident of what he would get that he never saw the car until its debut at SEMA. The name Recoil has no direct meaning for the Chevelle, other than builder Jim Ring likes guns and liked the name. HOT ROD got access to some of Recoil’s build photos to bring you exclusive construction shots of the build, which the owner is seeing for the…

What is Turbo Lag? Turbo lag is the time between mashing the throttle and feeling the rush of torque from a turbocharged engine. The lag comes from the time it takes the engine to create enough exhaust pressure to spin the turbo and pump compressed intake air into the engine and is longest when the engine is in a lowrpm, low-load cruising situation. If you’re wondering why somebody doesn’t make a turbo that makes full boost from idle on up to redline, there’s a very simple answer for that: like all engine parts, a turbo has to be matched to a specific rpm range to function correctly. A turbo that’s small enough to make a significant amount of boost under low-rpm situations would over speed and possibly explode as soon…

Thom On Design Why did the 1932 Ford, better known as the “Deuce,” become the ultimate hot rod embodiment? Some of the reasons are from an engineering and mechanical side, but a lot has to do with its styling. The 1932 Ford was the first affordable car with a V8, and though hot rodding was conceived around Ford’s Model T and Model A four-bangers, once the 1932 Ford came out, hot rudders saw the obvious advantage of four more cylinders. But looks played an important part too. Automotive styling was slowly ramping up in the late 1920s, and by the early 1930s aerodynamics were on the horizon. Once aerodynamics became part of the styling vocabulary, a certain amount of superfluous elements and details became part of every design, right up…

Courtesy of Cadillac For 2016, the CTS-V’s horsepower and torque ratings come in at 640 hp and 630 lb-ft, thanks to its Corvette-derived LT4 V8. With a curb weight of 4,150 pounds (6.5 lb/hp), that will help deliver 0–60-mph acceleration in an officially quoted 3.7 seconds. Like the Camaro Z/28, the CTS-V gets an increase in total front grille area and adaptive cruise control is not available, because the radar unit would block too much cooling air form the heat exchangers. Te carbon-fiber hood (bulged for engine clearance) features a big air extractor, as do the fared fenders. And the rest of the styling flourishes are all similarly functional, including the front splitter and deckled spoiler that reduce life on all CTS-Vs. An optional carbon-fiber package extends the chin splitter…

Automotive Archaeology As awareness of Automotive Archaeology spreads, people tell me about cars they have sitting around. A young hot ridding enthusiast named Paul recently contacted me via Face book and said he’d been given a 1966 Dodge Polara two-door that was sitting in an old garage in Detroit. I enlisted friend David Hakim to venture out with me, as he has a database of Mopar knowledge well beyond mine in his cranium and knows the area. As we poked around the Polara, we came across two build sheets: one glued right to the transmission tunnel and one stuck behind the back seat. We left Paul and his family a wealth of new information and, hopefully, a bit of a push to get the car together in time to get…

Shelby Mustangs are a special breed. From the first generation to the new 2016 GT350, pairing Shelby with Ford’s pony car transforms a mass-produced car into an auto enthusiasts’ sensation. Along the way, there have been many winners: rev-happy small blocks, SCCA championships, aesthetic home runs, big-block brutes, and the most powerful engine ever fatted to a production Mustang—the 662hp 5.8L in 2013–2014 GT500s. But it all started right here—in a car built more than 50 years ago. Recognized by Shelby cognoscenti as car SFM5S003, this Mustang’s official serial number breaks down as SFM (Shelby Ford Mustang), 5 (1965), S (Street version), and 003 as the consecutive production number. Also known as the “Street Prototype,” this Shelby is arguably as special as one gets. It would be easy to figure…

The secret to a successful custom build is to have a solid plan. It also helps when you start with a solid car. Dave Zocchi readily admits that he had neither when he first began work on his 1962 bubbletop Bel Air. “I bought the car sight-unseen,” he told us. We all know how those deals turn out, right? Same for Dave, the Chevy was a mess. He really loved the body style, though, so he decided to press on. He wanted something radical, something low and mean and distinctive, maybe inspired by an old-school low-rider or a show-car custom. What he ended up with was a partially completed car with a 3-inch channel, a 2½-inch chop, and such a stiff air-bagged suspension he could barely drive it. He almost…

Daniel Boshears brought a fen-looking Gen III Hemi, a 5.7L version beefed up by replacing the 3.58-inch stroke factory crank with a 4.125-inch Molnar piece, a fully ported set of factory “Eagle” cylinder heads, a Ritter single-four-barrel intake, and a 0.637-inch life Lunatic cam, all making Daniel’s engine one to watch. Unfortunately, as the hot Hemi was ready to display its real potential on the dyne, a sudden clanking in the valve train indicated trouble. With the valve covers pulled, it became clear: the rocker-shaft fasteners had pulled the threaded stands right of the head. This one will do battle another day, but not this time, exiting the ring as our only did not finish (DNF) at Engine Masters Challenge 2014.…

Buck Hinkle of Hinkle Performance kicked of the EMC with a hot street-spec Gen II Hemi. Te big Mopar was actually a destroyed version of the famous 426ci elephant, featuring an old Kellogg (KelloggCrankshaf.com) NASCAR crank with a stroke of 3.535 inches rather than the factory 3.75 inches, giving him a total of 409 cubes. Te crank had been in his shop for decades, and the block he got for free—he just had to repair it with eight sleeves (Buck is a master of homegrown machine work). With the Engine Masters test rpm range spanning 3,000–6,500 rpm, the short stroke Hemi may have actually been below its ideal rev range. Peak power came in at the very top data point showing 613 hp right at the 6,500-rpm mark. Te combination…

Barry Rabotnick from Survival Motorsports is a Ford FE guy, and pretty much always shows up at Engine Masters Challenge with a Ford-Edsel engine. For 2014, he came with the same 433ci mill he competed with in 2013, but here’s the kicker: the engine has been in Barry’s Torino all year. He didn’t even freshen it up before this year’s EMC. He did, however, swap in a smaller cam to take better advantage of 2014’s lower 6,500-rpm limit. Last time, this FE made 711 hp and 612 lb-f. This year, with less cam and a shorter rpm range—as mandated by the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge rules (6,500 rpm versus 7,000 rpm)—it made 636 hp and 562 lb-f. With a little 236 duration at 0.050 cam, Barry says his key to…

Chris Henderson of Henderson Power Sports has gained recognition for making big power from the small-block Chevy. He built a 407ci combination featuring a big bore and short stroke using a factory GM 400 block, topped with a set of Chad Speier–ported Profiler heads hogged out to a massive 250cc intake-port volume. Chad also worked his magic on the Delbruck Super Victor intake for a free owing induction pathway. Te “big” approach follows through with the cam, with nearly 0.800-inch life and a gulping Acura throttle body controlled by an Ace DFI system. Henderson deserves kudos for employing a novel Cam-A-Go variable cam phasing system, a hydraulically operated system originally developed and sold in the mid 1960s. Henderson integrated the Cam-A-Go with electronics from the Ace DFI, allowing precise control…

Jesse Robinson of SKMFX Engines brought an unusual big-block Mopar 440. Rather than a 440 the way Chrysler built it—a tall-deck block with a bore of 4.320-inch and 3.750-inch stroke—the SKMFX Mopar is based on a stroker low-deck combination derived from a 400 block. It forgoes the common low-deck striker 451ci or 496ci combinations, which use a 3.750- or 4.150-inch-stroke crank. Instead, this engine is based on a sleeved block, taking the bore size down to 4.184 inch from the standard factory 4.342 inch. Combined with a 4.00-inch-stroke crank, it arrives at the same 440ci dimension as Chrysler’s big-block wedge. Feeding the unusual short-block is a set of Delbruck Victor cylinder heads, extensively modified by SKMFX, with a Delbruck Victor manifold and Holley 950 HP crab. On the dyne for…

This 413 Ford Cleveland/Windsor “Clever” engine is the second of two Race heads entries. Te idea of using high-flowing, canted-valve Cleveland heads on a Ford Windsor block has been popular since Ford offered this combination as the 1969 Boss 302. With ever improving heads offered by the aftermarket and the demand for more displacement, this combination is a natural when applied to the 9.5-inch-deck-height 351 Windsor. Te tall-deck 351 blocks readily accepts a 4.00-inch stroke aftermarket crank, for a displacement of more than 400 inches. Carlo Aghbashian went one step further with a 4.100-inch stroke crank, for 413 chis Feeding those cubes is a pair of AFD Cleveland heads, worked by Carlo to deliver a peak intake flow of 350 cfm. In dyno testing at qualifying dyno rounds, it was…

Ford pulled out the stops when the canted-valve Cleveland engine was introduced in 1970. With huge ports and valves and a redesigned block, the Cleveland took Ford small-block power potential to the next level. Although the Cleveland was phased out of domestic production afer the 1974 model year, Ford of Australia continued Cleveland production until 1982. As a result, the Cleveland has strong aftermarket support Down Under. For our competition, Ron Stanislawczyk of RCS Racing Engines built on the Cleveland Ford’s potential, taking advantage of an Australian CHI cylinder head and intake manifold combination. Ron’s Cleveland uses an aftermarket 351 block with a 3.930-inch stroke and a 4.022-inch bore to displace 400 ci. With nearly an inch of life, this Cleveland hit like a sledgehammer once “on the cam,” with…

Kaase’s second Engine Masters Challenge engine is based upon his Boss Nine package, an aftermarket top end mimicking the legendary Boss 429 semi-hemi big-block offered by Ford from 1969–1970. Kaiser actually brought these components into production to fulfill a desire to run a Boss in the EMC. Te Boss Nine components ft standard 385-series Ford big-blocks and their aftermarket derivatives, making a nearly extinct engine readily available once again. Te odd combo uses a 1970 Ford Super Cobra Jet block sleeved from the stock 4.360-inch to a tiny 3.695-inch bore size and an enormous stroke length of 4.700 inch (a stock Boss 429 is 3.590 inch) to arrive at 404 chi A custom Comp hydraulic-roller cam works the valves to a life of 0.860 inch via a set of Kaase…

Multiple Engine Masters Challenge winner Tony Bischof is always a serious player, and he blasted the crowd with a trouncing dyno pass, which put him in the distant lead at the end of qualifying. This year Tony brought a Gen III Hemi based on a production 5.7L block, with the displacement pumped to 401 cubes via a 4.050-inch stroke Eagle crank. Tony tells us one of the most attractive feature of the Hemi is the dual-spark-plug system, which he credits for dramatically reducing the timing requirements. An intimidating fabricated belt drive dual-distributor setup frees it off. Trite cylinder heads prepped by Bishop handle the fowl, supplying 360 cam of peak intake airflow. A Drag Pack–style manifold feeds the heads, and although the tall manifold was bunged for EFI, Tony found…

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