Building Drag Racing Engines and Modification Work
Although drag strips are far outnumbered by oval tracks in the United States – approximately 1,043 oval tracks to just 295 drag strips – the number of competitors in drag racing nearly equals those in the circle track ranks. The NHRA alone has more than 35,000 licensed members. One reason might be that virtually any
All About The Alloys – Valve Seat Selection For High Performance Applications
We can’t make any sweeping generalizations about what kind of seats work best in a performance engine application because “performance” covers a lot of territory, everything from hot street engines with stainless steel valves to top fuel drag racing and NASCAR engines with titanium valves. Seat requirements vary depending on the application, what kind of
Crankshafts:Stock and Performance
The crankshaft is the working arm of the engine. All the force generated by combustion and the downward motion of the pistons is focused on the crank throws. The leverage effect of the force exerted on the crank journals twists the shaft and converts the up-and-down reciprocating motion of the pistons into rotational motion of
Engine Boring and Honing Equipment
Cylinder boring and honing is the heart of most engine builders’ operations. The equipment you use will have a lasting effect on the quality of the product your shop sends out the door on a day-by-day basis. While equipment varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, so too do your needs for a specific type of machine.
Coretalk: PERA Promotes Profit At Tech/Marketing Meeting
The following is the agenda for the meeting: Friday, April 29 7:00 – 10:00 a.m. – Registration. 7:00 – 8:00 a.m. – PERA Continental Breakfast. 8:00 a.m. – Opening Remarks & Introductions. 8:15 a.m. – “Performance Market,” Scooter Brothers of Comp Cams. 9:00 a.m. – “Performance Market,” Ed Keibler. 9:45 a.m. – Refreshment Break. 10:00
Making Horsepower and Horse Sense From Your Dyno
A dyno can give an engine builder an enormous wealth of information and even separate the truth from lies. It’s one thing for a builder to have an idea of what the engine he or she is building is capable of and quite another to know exactly what’s been created. That’s because a dyno, more
Piston Ring Technology: Stock and Performance
Piston rings have one of the toughest jobs inside an engine. They’re slammed up and down between the ring lands thousands of times a minute; they’re subjected to searing temperatures and extreme pressures; and they’re constantly scraping back and forth against the cylinder walls. In spite of all of this, the rings are expected to
OBD II Shop
Having come from the era of the muscle car, it is extremely interesting to me to get out and look at the new vehicles, feel the performance and see the technology that makes the tailpipe emissions half of what they were in 1996. This technology is made possible by faster power train control modules that
The New Sport Compact Market
The most popular nameplates are imports such as Honda, Acura and Mitsubishi, but coming on fast are Nissan, Toyota, Mazda, Subaru and Volkswagen – plus domestic models such as Ford Focus, Dodge Neon and even Chevy Cavalier. Nobody is abandoning the small block Chevy or any of the other V8s that have traditionally been the
High Performance Piston Options
Ask the kid on the street what performance is and he’ll raise the hood of his Honda. Ask the Funny Car drag racer about performance and he’ll take you to the starting line to breathe the nitromethane. Ask the mother on vacation and she’ll tell you about driving to California from Indiana pulling a car
Preserving Performance – Helping Engines Keep Their Edge
Preserving performance should be a factor foremost in the mind of any performance engine shop. Taking steps to preserve performance not only preserves or enhances your reputation but it also has the same effect on your bank balance. When a high performance engine starts to lose its edge it can almost always be traced back
Back to Basics: Preventing Piston Problems
Burned pistons. Scuffed pistons. Cracked pistons. These are problems no customer wants to experience in an engine you’ve built. Warranty claims can kill your business, so here are some tips on how to prevent these and other common piston problems. First and foremost, if you’re custom building an engine that has already suffered some kind
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
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 that served as the basis for “Project Road Rocket” received a change in rear end gearing and that, in combination with the repair of an exhaust system leak really brought the car to life.From a best quarter-mile performance of 12.87 at 109.27 miles per hour the Camaro blasted to