My mother use to tell me. You know just enough to be dangerous!! That's where I feel I'm at when it comes to oiling mods on my present build up. I want to include every last one that sounds right from a logical stand point. But then they're those who come along and make you question everything you hold to be true. I'm speaking of those who seem to run fast and stay together without the above mentioned block mods or external oiling systems. Which I once felt very strongly that you had to have to make these motors live. These guys run mid 9's and some high 8's along with some 10 second one mixed in. I know several here in Texas. Wayne Emitt for one and some others I can't verify. but was told they have nothing major. except for the obvious block girdle and extra ordinary block prep and clearances. And the most Famous of them all. My favorite John Mussoud. So I guess I'm asking is the mods more an insurance policy than mandatory? Quote Terrance my motor was not internally balanced i really didnt have high tech parts in it either. the rods were eagle 6.635 BBC 2.200, The pistons were BME .038 over they were heavy 670 grams ,JE Taper wall pins also heavy. it had a JW flex plate and a Fisher balancer.the thing with this motor was the machine work, it was done like brain surgery the bob weights were all the same im talking all the same like i said all my clearances were the same to the tenths 3th on the mains and 2.7 on the rods also the crank was micro polished and it had a great 1/8 inch radius my rod and main bearings were also coated the rod bearings were clevite V bearings and the mains were clevite also. as for oil mods i ran a stefs oil pan 8 quarts this is the key to keeping these things together you need good oil control i run penzoil 25/50 racing oil my block had no extra oil holes or any holes drilled out i just lined up all the main bearing holes with the bearing holes and smoothed everything out with a die grinder, as for the front cover i ran a NOS GM cover no drilling any hole larger i just maid sure everything was real smooth and radiused the oil pump gears were glass beaded and a 1/8 inch hole drilled in the idler gear i also run an oiler that was taped into the pressure side on the inside of the cover to oil my dist. gear cuz i run a roller cam. NOW i spun this motor to 6800 and at the traps i had 80 # of oil pressure, i maid about 250 passes then id tear it down and when we checked it you could still see the marks from the bore gauge in the bearings from when we checked the clearances.this motor would still be together i i wasnt in such a rush to put it back together i should have waited for my machine shop to check the clearances in stead of me just putting the same size bearings in the rods just to make the race at cecil its a hard way to learn, after 5 passes it came apart hard and i lost everything it even broke the trans in half anyone that was there could tell you it was a crazy ride at 1000 feet out it spit all the oil on to the rear tires and it was sideways for the rest of the ride !!! I will be building that same combo again with a few more tricks be cause i want to take back the record of being the WORLDS FASTEST STAGE 1 (IRON HEADS) IVE RUN 9.57 @ 139 AND THE TIME TO BEAT IS 9.43 @ 140 ( ROB C) SO i hope this helps everybody out, and for the guys that cant keep these things together to bracket race them i have shoe boxes of 9 second time slips to prove you can with the right care taken putting these things together. P.S I also drive this thing on the street.(TORQUENS OVER) Later __________________ John Massoud 67 GS - 9.57 @ 138.90 Stage 1 (IRON HEADS) 2002 GS -NATS SUPER 16 @ KING OF THE HILL WINNER
Terrance, I guess it all comes down to your comfort level. Do you need $50 bucks worth of life insurance or do you need $50,000 or $500,000.???? It took me several years to understand the dynamics of the internal combustion engine and the 455 Buick. The whole combo has to work together and compliment the other parts of the engine. The more compresion the harder its going to be on the bearings. The wrong cam with a low compression engine is going to be hard on the bearings. I would never build an engine again that doesn't have the two extra oil holes in the bearings. It makes wayyyy to much sense. Is an external pump needed for 500 hp??? Probably not. But an exteranl pump with all of the oil mods has a better chance at keeping a 10.5:1 compression engine together if the cam is too small. A typical 500 to 600 hp engine will cost you around $10,000 to build. Are you willing to run this engine with no oil mods?? Or with the oil mods that cost $500 or the oil mods with external oiling system for $2000? You have to decide. Knowing what I know now.... I want the best possible oiling system I can buy. I will sacrifice the $$$ for HP to buy a better oiling system. Later
thanks for all of the info. i never thought i would get so much help. you guys are so cool. but now i am confussed. i am on a budget so that is the reason i have a pretty lite car. here is my combo 78 malibu g-body 2900lbs with driver 10;5 comp. poston 110 cam 252-272 .050 540 lift. 110 lobe center ported iron heads 296 int. 214 exh. @600. 58cc. all head work done by jim burek. 1.60 rr. sp1 intake port matched 950 hp carb. 35degrees of timing. 4000 conv. turbo 350 trans. 29.5 by 10.5 slicks. south side lift bars. 9 inch ford 4.10 gears but i think it needs more gear.want to put 4.30 or 4.56. best pass to date is 11.27 @ 116 mph. 60 ft. is 1.54. would like to go 10.50-10.70 with this combo. HELP WANTED!
11.27 @ 116 ????? I wouldnt change the gears either (like jeff said) you could get away with 373 gears in that car at 2900# well if your heads flow what you posted there better than mine. my heads flow 272 in @ 213 ex at 650 lift and ive gone 9.57 @ 139 at 3250 # but thats with a roller cam and 14 to 1. right now i have a junk motor in my car all used parts (you could look up my posts it tells what the motor has in it post is what do you think it will run ?) and i only got to run this motor one time 1/8 mile cuz the track was to cold but it ran 6.4 @ 105 so a full pass would be right around a 10.15 @ 130. if you would like you could call me at 5085270543 and i know i could help you out with your combo. later john
whats feeding the 950hp?fuel pressure?fuel line size? ignition? valve springs? maybe with that info someone can suggest where the bottleneck is? what is the launch rpm,shift,and end of track rpm. i think if you feel it needs more gear that could lead you to the problem describe what it feels like that you think it needs more gear? i agree with the other posts about the gears maybe even going up to a 3 series. andy
