Hidden Horsepower.

  Back in the day, Muscle Cars were high performance factory hot rods. If you were like me,when you got your hands on one you always played with it to see if you could get more power. I remember my first car. It was a 76 Chevy Nova with a two barrel 350. It took me all of a few hours to have a set of headers on it. Within a few weeks I had found a 4 barrel manifold and read up on how to port match a set of heads to the manifold. This is a basic D.I.Y. performance boost that can really help your engine breath better by smoothing the flow of the air-fuel charge while it goes into the intake runner. You'll want to gently smooth out any rough surfaces and casting flash that are usually under the valve seats and the short side of the exhaust ports. Of course if the cash flow is there,having them done professionally is always the best way to go about it.

Ported Cylinder Heads

The other side of porting is done on the exhaust manifolds or headers. While there's no replacement for a good set of headers,you can realize horsepower and torque gains from a well done porting and blending job on the inside of the exhaust runner. Blending or smoothing the inside of the runner helps the exhaust gases flow out more efficiently greatly helping with scavenging all the spent gases from the combustion chamber.

  These modifications were all fine and good, for a little while. Then of course I wanted more...lots more!
So,the small block was bored and a set of 10-1 flat tops were installed. After removing any sharp edges from the pistons and combustion chamber and properly adjusting compression by milling the piston boss and leaving the decks of the block alone. I wasn't interested in not being able to use other combinations of parts with my block. I rebuilt a set of 1970 2.02 factory angle plug heads with a porting and polish job.
A set of 1.5-1 roller tipped rockers were used as well. These were cheap so they seamed like the logical course of action. Most factory rocker arms are actually a smaller ratio then advertised and as a result,give less lift.

   With the camshaft grinds available back in the 80's pretty much anything with performance sounded like it too..lol. Modern camshafts are vastly superior and allow for more accessories with much less effect on power brakes. And of course the option of 1.6-1 rocker arms can increase lift from a stock lift to a performance lift. And with lower costs of roller camshaft grinds,it just makes sense to get rid of more friction and increase life of the engine at the same time. A full roller valve train allows for more rpm and better fuel economy. Another benefit is faster valve open and closing times that can help with more precise timing too.

  While you have the bottom end apart,think about using a windage tray to help keep oil where it's supposed to be. The more oil you have sloshing around the more weight you have moving inside your engine. It just makes sense to control it.

  Now I never did use a spacer plate on any of my carbureted engines until I needed to adapt a Holley carb to a spread bore intake manifold on a crate motor I installed in an 85 S-15. I build a spacer plate for my throttle body application with very good results. I added a bit of a twist when I used a large fine thread tap in the holes. I believe the benefit came from the air-fuel charge bouncing off the threads along the outside of the holes. On the dyno my throttle body spacer made 20 horsepower on the stock 350 in my 1990 Chevy truck. While I do have the paper to prove it,I have no idea where it is. However I digress. On Carbureted applications you want to smooth out the air flow going into the carb as much as possible to increase air flow efficiency.

  There's a couple other things I want to mention like back cutting the intake valves to help with flow and removing the excess material under the valve seats to help increase the velocity or the air-fuel mixture into the cylinder. Consider the ride height of the vehicle you're building too. Drag co-efficiency plays a big roll in over all performance. The less air you have going under your Muscle Car,the less drag it's going to have and the faster you're going to accelerate! Hope you all had a good weekend,more later.

Parking on the C-Train Concrete Divider.

 As I was making my way home today from the gym I spot a Toyota Tundra with its front wheels hanging over the concrete divider between west bound Crowchild Tr and the C-Train tracks. I thought to myself that there's got to be a better place to park that thing. I was not fortunate enough to get a pic due to not excersising my right to drive distracted. The roads being as slick as they are due to the seamingly endless deep freeze us Canadians have been in probably didn't help the situation. I also remember a few months back that the same issues that contibuted to this particular parking job also contributed to a couple deaths in Canada this winter.

  When I see snow piled against the concrete divider in the middle of a road my first thought is to use the middle lane as much as possible. The reason is simply this. The snow generally ends up pretty packed against the cement and therefor creates a ramp. And truth be told,I have seen this all over the city. It must be common practice all over the country because its halped cause more than just a few accidents in other cities and provices too. Now if I were to really nit pick here I would simply say that its a result of the companies contracted to remove snow from our city streets and roads are too cheap to do the job properly. And yes,they are too cheap plain and simple,not to mention the fact that you'll never see a sanding truck or snow plow out when it starts snowing at 3 am like you used to when Alberta Transportation handled the snow removal on our highways and byways.

  Now a days it seams that people don't really want to take responsibility for themselves and do a little thinking,sorry if that ruffles a few feathers but,its time for some honesty. Its March people,unlike a few other cities in Canada that does not mean its spring in Calgary! Drive according to the road conditions. Personally,if you're giving someone a rash when you're driving a 100 kph on a highway and you end up wearing their vehicle for a hood ornament then YOU deserve to pay the price. If you plan on texting on Crowchild Tr while you're driving 90 in the left hand lane and you clip someone because they didn't get out of your way then you deserve to pay the price. My question is this...what gives you the right to make or cause someone else to pay the consiquences of your actions?

 By the looks of things,winter just might hang around for a little while longer and we've had all winter to get familiar with how we need to drive during this season.

Saturday Afternoon Hotrods.

 Now this is interesting,I haven't seen a bug built like this before. Kinda cool with the old school hotrod look.

 Ya,twin turbo mmmm.....lotsa power!

 I don't care if you have a hemi in that truck,it ain't big enough!

 Yup, that is a 1970 LS6 SS Chevelle. I haven't seen one this original in years.

70 Chevy truck anyone?

 If I remember this Turney Valley Trans Am has around 37,000 original klicks on it.

 This is what happens when some crazy nut in Medicine Hat gets a hold of a Camaro. This conversion is for sale at a cool $48,000. Now don't ya wish I could remember who it was that built it?

 Yup,that is a "Dog House" fuel injection unit on the original 283 in that Corvette.

 This is a 90' Chevy pick up that had a heart transplant from a small block to a 454 and even features some cool ghost flames that you pretty much have to rub your nose in to see.

 Now think of how cool it would be to stroke the TC in a 2000 C-series Corvette that looks like a 1960 Vette!

 This street rod features over 70 hand built pieces to the grill alone and yes,those are twin turbos!

Just a quik question...when was the last time you saw an RS Camaro that looked this good up on blocks with mirrors under it?

And the view from the windshield of your Mustang! Till next time...