Inside Nitrous Oxide Engines
The recreational use of nitrous oxide as a horsepower-enhancing compound first came into prominence in the 1960s. But its first application to internal combustion engines was for far more deadly purposes. During World War II, the Germans reportedly were the first to install nitrous oxide systems on their fighter planes. The Allies soon followed and
High-Performance Engine Failure Analysis
As often as not, a high performance or race engine is built to replace one that already exists. When that
Rebuilding Hot Rod Honda Engines
Traditionally, hot rodding has been as American as apple pie, baseball, hot dogs and Chevrolet. Certainly, imported vehicles have been "hopped up," but serious hot rodding has always been dominated by enthusiasts who believe that engines have eight cylinders, pushrods and 16 valves. For the past 40 years, machine shops catering to devotees of high
High Performance Valve Jobs
Valve jobs are like a number of other automotive machining operations
Mopar Engine Platforms – 318, 360
Chrysler Corp. hasn’t built a rear wheel drive, V8-powered car (with the exception of the Viper) since the turn of the decade. And the cars that harbored V8s beneath their hoods during the late 1980s were about as appealing to performance enthusiasts as the front-wheel driven vehicles that replaced them. In spite of that
Why Parts Get Coated
I never would have believed you could get those kind of resultsfrom a glorified paint job. With those words, another skeptic(in this case, a NASCAR Winston Cup engine builder) had come toaccept the value of special coatings applied to engine components. At the time, such skepticism was not totally unwarranted. Likeany emerging technology, the coating
Building Horsepower Through Dyno Testing
Pick up a copy of any racing-oriented automotive publication andas you thumb through its pages you’ll notice a smorgasbord ofads from engine builders. Most of them will have an assortmentof horsepower figures large enough to rival the national debt. Of course, all the numbers are suspect because, in most cases,they were obtained on the advertisers’
Piston Rings and Surface Finish
Horsepower is always paramount in the minds of customers who salivatelike a Pavlovian dog when the terms "high performance"and "engine" are used in the same sentence. Unquestionably,horsepower is heady stuff, capable of not only moving a vehicleto obscene speeds, but also of propelling its owner to a positionof prominence in the eyes of performance enthusiasts
Tackling High Performance Work
Obviously, there are many questions to be answeredbefore a shop enters or expands its activities into the high performancearena. There are moderately successful performance-oriented machineshops scattered from one end of the nation to the other. Thereare also a significantly smaller number of VERY successful shops. Typically, the difference between the formerand latter is notoriety; owners
Performance Small Block: Chevy Engines
Small block Chevy engines long ago became mainstays in both thetraditional and high performance marketplace. So many of themhave been rebuilt over the years, and so much has been writtenabout the rebuilding process, it would appear that nothing moreneed be said. But the small block engine has changed over the years and so haveconsumer preferences
The 1995 Camaro That Served As The Basis For Project Road Rocket
As noted previously, the 1995 Camaro thatserved as the basis for "Project Road Rocket" receiveda change in rear end gearing and that, in combination with therepair of an exhaust system leak really brought the car to life.Froma best quarter-mile performance of 12.87 at 109.27 miles per hourthe Camaro blasted to a 12.24 at 113.55 miles
Making Power From Big Block Fords
As noted last month,the first part of a big block Ford power program is to selectthe appropriate components and machine them properly. Part twoentails coordinating the camshaft and valvetrain with an engine’sintended use, and then bolting everything together using provenhigh performance techniques. According to high performanceFord specialist Norm Wizner, Wizner Performance, Lilburn, GA,improper camshaft selection