non-supercharged power building

[jonnyk]

Originally posted by jim_howard_pdx

The 428 had the largest physical camshaft that would fit without the rods interfering.

Wouldn't the pistons interfere first?

Originally posted by jim_howard_pdx
The cam was 326 duration 268 @ .50 inch and 640 lift on the intake and exhaust. The overlap was 110 degrees. When the car idled, the intakes and exhaust were open almost a half cycle.

268 degrees is more than 180 degrees. They are already open more than half a cycle. So is a stock 5.0HO cam.

Originally posted by jim_howard_pdx
You could smell the RAW gas and the flames out the exhaust at night were quite impressive.

Cams don't make a car run rich. Sounds like you need to rejet the carb and maybe lower the floats a bit? Explosions out my tailpipes are a personal safety concern, especially when it's from unburnt gasoline, let alone the safety of my exhaust system.

Originally posted by jim_howard_pdx
When we had the car at 7,000 RPM and up, the engine ran like a rotary.

You mean there weren't any pistons in it? Try again.

Originally posted by jim_howard_pdx
The only failure is that we punched holes through two cylinder bores and ended up sleeving those two cylinders. The water never seized the engine because of the overlap! (Lucky me).

You're lucky the chunks from the cylinder walls didn't wind up being dumped under the piston into the oil pan causing the pump to seize, and the oil pressure to go bye bye at one of your "8000 rpm" bigblock passes.

Originally posted by jim_howard_pdx
We lost just two races. One to a Hemi, and the other to a 500 cubic inch Chevy stroker. Both won by less than a door length. Both went through the trap at over 150 MPH. We finished all but two races we ran. One was the blown cylinder walls, and one was a transmission failure when the C6 case cracked and leaked tranny fluid all over the track. Every other race we won. CONSISTENCY PAYS DIVIDENDS.

Whoop-tee-doo. Bracket racing in rural Kentucky. Sounds like a riot to me, ya'll! Join a heads up class sometime.

I don't see how any of this pertains to the thread at hand.

For my contribution to the thread, a supercharger will be a true bolton, and will be the easiest way to make a lot of power and maintain gas mileage, driveability, and torque (compared to all motor). Boltons from thereon will pay bigger dividends. However, mileage of the engine becomes a factor, as does tuning, along with a lot of other things. My opinion is to build the motor first - torque down low won't be as bad as you think with a cam, and you will have topend power that screams, as well a reliable performer. I vote for a heads/cam/intake package with appropriate boltons (TFS or AFR 165 heads, Edelbrock Performer or TFS Street intake, TFS #1 cam or something simliar). Stang Runner's combo is a testament to that fact.