Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

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.

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!

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

I liked that book.

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.

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

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 ).

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


The 409 Intake Project

NICE!

John Wallace wrote:NICE!

I agree. Very nice.

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.