Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

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midnightbluS10
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Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by midnightbluS10 »

Just picked this up on Google Play since I had $18 in credits and needed to use them. Being that I don't know near as much about this stuff as most of the regular guys here, I figured it'd be a good place to start.

Is this a pretty good book to read to get a better grasp of this stuff that seems to come so natural for most of you? Reviewing the sample pages before my purchase, it seemed to be very technical, yet not over my head. Anybody read it? It was between this and a couple of David Vizard's books. I'll probably pick those up next. Thanks.
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bigjoe1 wrote:By the way, I had a long talk with Harold(Brookshire) last year at the PRI show. We met at the airport and he told me everything he knew about everything.It was a nice visit. JOE SHERMAN RACING
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by midnightbluS10 »

One other quesrion

https://www.amazon.com/Engine-Airflow-H ... 1557885370

Thinking of getting this one, as well. Would that be a good choice? That's not UDHarold, is it?


Thanks!
JC -

bigjoe1 wrote:By the way, I had a long talk with Harold(Brookshire) last year at the PRI show. We met at the airport and he told me everything he knew about everything.It was a nice visit. JOE SHERMAN RACING
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by John Wallace »

Harold Bettes wrote that book.
(he might be on SpeedTalk?)

I liked that book.

:)
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by hoffman900 »

midnightbluS10 wrote:Just picked this up on Google Play since I had $18 in credits and needed to use them. Being that I don't know near as much about this stuff as most of the regular guys here, I figured it'd be a good place to start.

Is this a pretty good book to read to get a better grasp of this stuff that seems to come so natural for most of you? Reviewing the sample pages before my purchase, it seemed to be very technical, yet not over my head. Anybody read it? It was between this and a couple of David Vizard's books. I'll probably pick those up next. Thanks.

It's very good and I think gives better information about engines than David's.
-Bob
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by midnightbluS10 »

I appreciate the input. That's the impression I've gotten so far.
JC -

bigjoe1 wrote:By the way, I had a long talk with Harold(Brookshire) last year at the PRI show. We met at the airport and he told me everything he knew about everything.It was a nice visit. JOE SHERMAN RACING
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by RevTheory »

midnightbluS10 wrote:I appreciate the input. That's the impression I've gotten so far.
Totally depends on what information you're looking for. There are a few guys on here who are extremely biased against Vizard no matter what.

I've got probably every book David has written for V8s and it's proven to be worth far more than the book price by multiples of hundreds but there are some things he hasn't gone into depth on (limited cover-to-cover space) so I have the book you asked about in my Amazon cart for further reading.

I would never be so foolish to suggest that one author gives better information than another (especially when the topics aren't even the same :roll: ).
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by SMITHBERGRACING »

Lots of info in this book. I was a major contributor for the book. The last chapter has 3 projects that I did but the final result never made it to print. Here are a few pics.


Single Plane Hemi Intake finished
Image

The 409 Intake Project
Image
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by John Wallace »

NICE!

:)
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by 1989TransAm »

John Wallace wrote:NICE!

:)
I agree. Very nice. =D>
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Re: Practical Engine Airflow by John Baechtel

Post by pcnsd »

I have a number of porting specific titles including those referenced and they are all very good or perhaps useless depending on where you are in your understanding of airflow.
I thought some of D. Vizzards explanations of practical flowbench airflow phenomena to be insightful and easier to understand than that of either H. Bettes or J. Baechtel, but the Vizzard book is almost void of math, where the Bettes book contains many useful formula as does the J. Baechtel book. All the books contain many useful photos of good ports, but if your don't have experience with a flowbench, you may not know what you are looking at and why it represents something worthwhile to understand.
If you want to understand air flow, build or buy a flowbench. Then spend your free time using it to probe and modify different port types. (Use junk heads, good ones cost more to ruin and you will ruin at least some). There is a lot of hidden information in the photos.
Despite its limitations, there is a no more practical tool than a flowbench to understanding engine airflow at a personal level. Unfortunately it is also addictive.
- Paul
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