Link to info on NHRA Pro stock engine tech

[Ron E]

The Ilmor push rod engine is pure art! We ordered it as soon as it came out. One camshaft. The shaft mounted lifters can easily confuse. It's a great book. It's not one of those fairytale deals. They discuss much about what didn't pan as well.

...ah, the book that is. Was going to order the actual motor too, until I discovered they needed an adapter to fit a powerglide. That, and Blackjack didn't even list headers for it.

[rmbuilder]

Two more shots of the valvetrain. Equally amazing as the engine, is the story of its development from clean sheet of paper to the Winners Circle at Indy, in under 10 months, in complete secrecy.

Bob

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[CamKing]

Equally amazing as the engine, is the story of its development from clean sheet of paper to the Winners Circle at Indy, in under 10 months, in complete secrecy.

Secrecy is the key.
This engine would have never been made if another engine was kept secret.
It wasn't Penske or Ilmor that found the rewritten loop hole in the Indy rule book.
Before anyone else had ever thought about it, Brayton Engineering was working on a 209ci V8 to take advantage of this rule. The problem was they shopped it around and word got out. The Brayton engine was sold to Menard Engine Development, and they continued development on it.
Their engine used a lifter and pushron that were one piece. The pushrod end ran through a guide in the head, and the rockers had rollers on both ends. The engine put out some unbelievable power numbers, but there were a few bugs that needed worked out. Menard decided to stick with their V6's for that year, and develop the V8 for the following Indy 500. They had no idea Penske would be showing up with the Ilmor 209. Thanks to the whipping the Ilmor engine gave the rest of the field, USAC got rid of the loop hole, and Menard's V8 209 was illigal before it ever turned a lap. I don't know what happened to the engines, but I've still got one of the cams.

[63 Nitrous Ratt Vette]

Great idea on how to keep the weight of the valve train down.....I would love to see some of the tricks inside of a modern day pro-stock engine.

[Darin Morgan]

Got a buddy who is just learning how engines work, I want to show him some elite info and boggle his brain. I read an article a few years back about no 2 Pro Stock engines are the same, pretty much hand crafted all the way up.


Any one got any info, Google aint helping me.

The camshaft technology has continued to creep along and the R&D it takes to developed each new core, base circle and layout is equally as slow. The designs discussed so far are neat to think about and ponder the all cool "what if" scenarios they offer but they are all illegal in NHRA P/S competition. They will probably never be allowed regardless of the fact that they have a single camshaft. NHRA does not want to police something so advanced that there tech officials have no idea what they are policing. They are also scared to death of escalating cost as they well should be. If F1 budgets where the norm in P/S they would be all over this stuff and making 1600HP at 11000+ RPM in a couple years. Yea, right. Don't hold your breath. LOL

Current P/S power levels are,

Dyno sheets from three weeks ago.
Peak TQ 8100-8200rpm 825-835ft/lbs
Peak power 9650-9750rpm 1430-1445HP (2.85 HP/cid)
Cam .585-.600 lobes 1.85 ratios 65-68MM cam cores
Max RPM 10300-10500rpm

The peak VE (peak TQ) is the same as it has been for more than ten years. All they did was move it from 7700 up to 8200

[CamKing]

Cam .585-.600 lobes 1.85 ratios 65-68MM cam cores
Max RPM 10300-10500rpm

That's not what I'm seeing.
I guess there's more then one way to skin a cat.

[steveD]

This is the Professors idea of the 'Ultimate' PS engine:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... ntent;col1

Interesting thoughts on the camshafts. One camshaft for each cylinder bank with short push rods.

The Illmore Mercedes Indy Penske engine had this in the late 1990's.

I think the "Harley" Pro Stock bikes also do that.

The Vance & Hines PS bikes definitely use this design.