Best engine??

General engine tech -- Drag Racing to Circle Track

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rfoll
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Re: Best engine??

Post by rfoll »

Re-reading the original post, the word cost is used. That pretty much eliminates all of the exotics. V8 eliminates the bikes and Honda 4 bangers. Sorry Mike, That Offy was an incredible piece.
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Re: Best engine??

Post by Ron E »

Truckedup wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:34 am
Frankshaft wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:28 am Other criteria remember, is availability. Sure hemi's are great, but good luck finding one. If you do, you could send one of your kids to college for a year or 2 for what you will pay for it and redo it. Same with the ford, as far as availability for the trick heads they had. I get it, the ford has a 4.9 bore space and a bigger cam core stock, bot, I didn't say you can't machine the tunnel for a bigger core.
You mean a old school Hemi with a 90 degree valve angle?
Stock 426 hemi valve angles are 35° intake and 23° exhaust. (+,- 1/2 degree or so) So around 58 included.
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Re: Best engine??

Post by Truckedup »

Ron E wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:54 pm
Truckedup wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:34 am
Frankshaft wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:28 am Other criteria remember, is availability. Sure hemi's are great, but good luck finding one. If you do, you could send one of your kids to college for a year or 2 for what you will pay for it and redo it. Same with the ford, as far as availability for the trick heads they had. I get it, the ford has a 4.9 bore space and a bigger cam core stock, bot, I didn't say you can't machine the tunnel for a bigger core.
You mean a old school Hemi with a 90 degree valve angle?
Stock 426 hemi valve angles are 35° intake and 23° exhaust. (+,- 1/2 degree or so) So around 58 included.
I was thinking of the 1950's Hemi...
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Re: Best engine??

Post by Ron E »

Truckedup wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:29 pm
Ron E wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:54 pm
Truckedup wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:34 am

You mean a old school Hemi with a 90 degree valve angle?
Stock 426 hemi valve angles are 35° intake and 23° exhaust. (+,- 1/2 degree or so) So around 58 included.
I was thinking of the 1950's Hemi...
The early 331/354/392 hemi angles were symmetric at 26.5° each for a 53° included angle. But, I've seen some of the early European engines close to what you're talking about. They had to have healthy (ugly) domes to get to 7 to 1. I can't remember any specific brands. But, they were some of the "exotic" engines of their time. (When most everything is a flat head its not that hard to be exotic.)
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Re: Best engine??

Post by Frankshaft »

Ron E wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:07 pm
Truckedup wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:29 pm
Ron E wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:54 pm
Stock 426 hemi valve angles are 35° intake and 23° exhaust. (+,- 1/2 degree or so) So around 58 included.
I was thinking of the 1950's Hemi...
The early 331/354/392 hemi angles were symmetric at 26.5° each for a 53° included angle. But, I've seen some of the early European engines close to what you're talking about. They had to have healthy (ugly) domes to get to 7 to 1. I can't remember any specific brands. But, they were some of the "exotic" engines of their time. (When most everything is a flat head its not that hard to be exotic.)
Stupid question regarding a flat head. If you ran it upside down, would it be an overhead valve engine, and make more power?
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Re: Best engine??

Post by Momus »

Ron E wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:07 pm
Truckedup wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:29 pm
Ron E wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:54 pm
Stock 426 hemi valve angles are 35° intake and 23° exhaust. (+,- 1/2 degree or so) So around 58 included.
I was thinking of the 1950's Hemi...
The early 331/354/392 hemi angles were symmetric at 26.5° each for a 53° included angle. But, I've seen some of the early European engines close to what you're talking about. They had to have healthy (ugly) domes to get to 7 to 1. I can't remember any specific brands. But, they were some of the "exotic" engines of their time. (When most everything is a flat head its not that hard to be exotic.)
Things like Porsches and Alfas that are hard to get more than 100hp/litre from.
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Re: Best engine??

Post by Ron E »

Yep, and some open wheel race engines from the 1930's-40's. I don't think the gas was worth a damn. And some were under-square. Both helping the absurdly deep chambers(by today's standards)
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Re: Best engine??

Post by MadBill »

A shop I frequent specializes in Hemis. He's found the best way to reduce the need for Matterhorn-like domes to get good compression ratios is to punch the engines out to the 572"-676" range..
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Re: Best engine??

Post by Truckedup »

Momus wrote: Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:04 am
Ron E wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:07 pm
Truckedup wrote: Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:29 pm
I was thinking of the 1950's Hemi...
The early 331/354/392 hemi angles were symmetric at 26.5° each for a 53° included angle. But, I've seen some of the early European engines close to what you're talking about. They had to have healthy (ugly) domes to get to 7 to 1. I can't remember any specific brands. But, they were some of the "exotic" engines of their time. (When most everything is a flat head its not that hard to be exotic.)
Things like Porsches and Alfas that are hard to get more than 100hp/litre from.
About the exact same limit on 90 degree valve angle bike engines even after raising port floors etc...That's also the wedge head limit other than for short duration racing? And maybe the 426 Hemi?
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