Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

I thought the old "aluminum rocker arms won't live on the street" myth was just that. Ford put cast crane aluminum rocker arms on '93-'95 Mustang Cobras as OEM, so someone there figured they would last. Thanks for the info. A quick internet search, and sure enough Crane parts are in the S...

Search or ask this same question on the cuda-challenger forum. There are a number of people running 6-packs that probably have answers to your question.
I believe Mopar Muscle magazine did a detailed article on setting up a 6-pack. Maybe look in their tech articles.

SBC, valve lift under 0.550. Spring open pressure under 350 lb. Have thought about using Comp magnum rockers, cast chrome moly steel. NO needles to fall out, so sounds good to me. The local machine shop says I should stay away from Chevy's original ball-pivot design and should be using a full roller...

I'm building a show car/occasional cruiser. The car might sit for 9 months or more without being driven. Assuming priming the oil system prior to start up, do any of you suggest a preference for flat tappet vs. roller lifter for best durability in this situation? Vehicle is 360 mopar. I have not fou...

crazycuda wrote: Personally I would go with the later factory roller block and side step the cost of the lifter bore mods and go with a set of edelbrocks.

Thanks for the good info on block choice, and your yet another person suggesting using Edel heads.

Hi - I am considering a roller cam in either an old LA block or newer magnum block. I have easy access to older LA 360 engine blocks, but their lifter bores are 0.40 inches shorter than on the magnum blocks. Because of this would the older blocks be a poor choice for using a roller cam on the street...

If you go to an alu head and DO NOT raise the compression, you might LOOSE power.Of coarse, if the alu head has better flow and so forth, you might be OK. My own experience with small street heads, a stock Chevy Vertec that was cleaned up, will run as good as an Edelbrock rpm perfomer. even though ...

Given an street driven engine with cast iron cylinder heads, 9.4:1 static compression, and 8:1 dynamic compression running on regular pump gas. If I switch to aluminum heads, I have heard that the static comp ratio can be raised approx 1 point with the alum heads due to their rapid heat dissipation....

Some of the reverse "105" truck blocks were used as OEM 428 replacement blocks. These blocks also came with the triple main bearing webbing, and weigh about 20 pounds more than a stock block. Look for the 105 written backwords where the "352" normally is at left front of block ne...

I don't have a way to measure velocity. Your saying it would be nice to know the current velocity and if it needs reducing due to small CSA? Your comment on not worrying about swirl suggests I work at making the port cross-sections as uniform as possible. Thanks for the tip. I made silicone port mol...

Minimum cross section area is just downstream of SSR apex. This port area matches the valve curtain area at a lift of only 0.34 inches, so I assume lift above this being wasted. The current port shape at this minimum CSA is biased to the cylinder wall side of the port to promote swirl. The port roof...

Hi - I live a few hundred miles north of SLC. Can you recommend a few good machine shops for engine work that are located in your area or north of you? Shops that you would consider sending work to. I am tired of block align honing (how about align boring) that leaves oval or egg shaped bores, valve...

The heads have the thin walled guides, and they were reamed I'm guessing... by the loose fit. The valve visibly rock in the guides after 2000 miles, and valves are not sealing to the seats. They used a Sunnen machine to do the seats. I did better myself 20 years ago with a hand turned Neway cutter a...

I think my machine shop set too much clearance between valve stem and bronze guides. I'm using thin wall bronze guides on Ford 416 FE street engine. My books suggest 0.0015 intake, and 0.0025 exhaust; with 0.0045 and 0.0055 maximum. I would like to hear from you what has worked well for you. Do thic...

I asked a Boeing aero engineer what size dimples to use. Given a golf ball velocity of 130-160 mph, and a intake port flow of 230-330 mph. His answer: This is called boundary layer trip in the aero world. The dimples create a boundary layer trip, which is a small scale disturbance to transition the ...