dynoman

[Egoracing]

Our first 604 we ran (a 2003 or 04 production motor) was best at 6400. Don't know why but that motor ran REALLY REALLY good. The second one we bought was not happy at all at 6400 and liked to run in the 6800 area MUCH better, That is why I was asking. It may be the better heads on the newer motors but we knew people that we raced against that had motors turning 6800 with the old heads and the engines were good.

[dynoman14]

Well as far as "SnakeOil", I have an offshore boat engine customer in California that is purchasing 6-8 55g drums of my oil on a monthly basis and re-marketing as his private label stuff. Seems like 1000HP boat engines like the snake oil. I know the numbers off of my chassis dyno and have gotten in 20-30 confirmations from other engine builders with chassis dyno's. Rather than argue with folks about does it make 7 or 10 or 15 RWHP, I have chosen to sell it to existing customers and Mr.OSB.

My gear and transmission oil is even better than the engine oil but it takes a lot of time to build it and selling for $99qt. does not even cover the raw materials and costs to manufacture. On recent trip to Italy to work on Serdi machines at a cool motorcycle shop I was able to test my "SnakeOil" in a WSB and MotoGP drivetrain and was within 1-2% of their qualifying oils on their chassis and engine dyno. Their stuff is manufacture by Petronas Chemical at $240euro per liter. ( US conversion is about $1440GAL.) Not to bad for a little dude from a hole in the wall in GA.

Now getting to Fastrak #001403 which was originally sold to Larry Hoover, and then sold by his driver Joe Loudin to Mr.Keplilnger all the while I have never been paid for the engine because the check for final payment from Mr.Loudin bounced after the engine left the shop. This issue has been in litigation between Mr.s' Hoover & Loudin for almost a year now and the matter has been settled in Mr.Hoover's favor, so maybe I will finally get paid. Much of Mr.Hoovers' race car and race assets have been sold by Mr.Loudin in the interim and I am hoping to help him get back into racing if he decides to in 2012.

I discuss this to try and get clarity about how many racers are so screwed up when it comes to dealing with paying what they owe. An in reference to anybody that has to pick up an engine at my shop, all they have to do is come up with the cash to pay of the final balance and come on down and get them. I have SEVEN completed engines waiting to be picked up and some of them have been completed for 6+ months.

Now lets get down to performance issues on Engine #001403. The first race the engine ran it sat on the pole at Roaring Knob and led every lap but the last one
( nope, I can't drive the things to victory but I always get blamed in the last lap pass ). Next race the car developled a miss and the carb was taken off and then it ran half decent but was down on power. Turns out the driver thought the car would run better on 110 rather than the Crate98 my carb was built for. The carb was sent back to me and the floats were adjusted all the way to the top and the jets were about 10 higher than I sent them out...once the bugs were worked out the car won a few races and was in the top3 almost every night out. Engine ran fine at 6800-7200rpms with my carb on it. When the crap hit the fan at the race shop my friend up there got both of my carbs off the shelf and shipped them back to me as neither of them had been paid for either. So even after a bounced check and waiting for payment on it for almost 1 year I was still working with these guys to get them winning races.

I guess it was around Christmas last year when the engine changed hands for a used car and some other race parts, and an outstanding balance on a debt from Mr. Loudin to Mr.Keplinger.

The engine since then has had one year of racing on the springs, plus whatever Mr.K has put on it. When he got the engine last year I told him the existing springs needed re-treatment or replacing as they were well past due on that.

The carb running on the car is either a Stealth or Willy's both of which I dyno'd and they were about 20% rich on the bottom and about 20% lean on the top and down about 30HP to both carbs I sent up with the engine originally.

I am also sure the timing has been changed as it left my shop set at 30* where it was making killer torque and power with Yellow Crate 98 ( Renegade ). I also removed the lock-out on the advance and had 25* advance in the engine from 1500rpm to 6800rpm. I had both 650 and 750 carbs jetted at 65 and the engine made 431hp on a DTS dyno. We also had a custom set of Beyea headers built for this engine along with collectors optimized for High RPM use. 6000-7000. I was told by one of the crew guys the car was wrecked and the pipes got messed up on the drivers side and both collectors were cut off and replace with a 26" extension recommended by another engine builder. Right side header also replaced with a STD Tube Beyea. The header and extension work yielded +27HP 6000-7000rpms.

Having spent 2 days on the engine dyno to optimize all this stuff, I am sure not one thing remains the same as it was on the dyno so what should be expected as far as performance???

Water in the cap usually comes from pressure washing the engine without bagging off the carb and dizzy.

The engine will come back to life, it the right plugs are put back in, timing dialed back to 30*, Renegade Crate 98 put back in and a decent carb that keeps the engine lean and clean is used. The engine also needs a new set of 'Treated" Springs, retainers and locks on it to prevent dropping a valve and getting the top end back. The headers need to be sent back to me so I can put the proper collectors on them and I would put a stock out of the box 650hp on it and will bet it picks up .2-.3 tenths. That combination would probably pick the engine up the 30-40hp it is down.

Mr.K, like I said on the phone...you need to maintain the engine if you want it to perform, otherwise it will be flat. You also need to talk real nice to Larry or Lyle to see if he will sell you the air breather I built for the engine, that alone was worth about 12-14RWHP.

Now you can see how easy it is to go from a front running big power making engine to a flat running no, pulling turd...sorry but that is probably the truth. Pretty sad one of my engines running like a turd can keep up with most of the pack and almost win races.


EGO
You pretty much hit it on the head ( pun intended ). I have flow tested probably 100+ pairs of 604 heads in the last 8-9 years and you would be amazed at the variations head to head and year to year. I have had the same engine with heads 20cfm difference. I have had intakes off stock GM bolted engine +/- 25 cfms runner to runner. I just got 25 intake manifolds in from a customer in TX and after about a week of getting them all tested there was a variation of 27% from best to worst on total CFM and runner to runner comparisons varied from 5% to 35% and all of the intakes looked pretty much the same to the untrained eye. Intake manifold alone on a dyno swap in this case would be an easy +20HP. Customer kept Manifolds #1, #2, #3 and I kept #4,#5,#6,#7,#8,#9,#10. Engines will dyno over Christmas and will be going to big Pavement Races, like ASA, Viper, Snowball.

With that said you can see how selecting parts on a re-freshened engine can result in +20-30HP, if you add a great set of heads, intake and headers designed to match the added flow you can see more like +50HP. I know it is hard to believe but when you dyno to make power from 6000-7500 like I do the numbers are way different than the folks looking for torque on the bottom. Just about no matter what you do you will have 425# on the bottom and if you do good 450# or even more.

I am sure you also know that replacing the seats in stock heads usually results in +10-20HP if done properly. With a Serdi or Newen is it common to be able to be slightly off on istalled location .020"-.030" and then you can also put the valve job where you want to on the seat. Once you get all that done it make the engine think it is running a 2.08" valve on a 2" seat and with that extra velocity comes and increase in port acceleration and vacuum and that is why some engines pop like a super and some sound like a pulpwood truck.

That is why I recommend less gear and my engines usually turn +500-1000rpm more for the same gear ratio as most 604's. I work for " instantaneous acceleration" to get the mass moving and top end power to carry it into the corner harder and faster.

Take a radar gun to the track and pick out the cars that are 10-15mph faster at the end of the straight and ask them how they are getting there?

It is a pretty long post but some things can't be describes in just a few words. If you don't want to read it just click your mouse and move on to the next post.

[Keplinger#28]

Dynoman,
You know I'm not putting down you or this motor correct, I didn't know at the time I bought the motor there was non payment issues... All I can tell you is that I ended up with $6,000 cash,car and sponsor fee in it... And it was paid in full before I picked it up. As far as springs etc I send you PM to get a set,oil and filter but didn't get answer back...I hope you can get your money but I'd say your on the end of a long line....sorry but true.I'm sure my turd as my buddy Kyle called it ,will win in 2012 I'll almost bet the car and motor on it...I worked on my driving,handling,set-ups...now its time to bring the power back in to play. I had very little help learning how these cars work...I didn't need it to have loads of power...It's very very driveable...let one of my crew guys run it in mechanics race started 8th dead last...4 laps in he was lapping cars...Lmao he sure didn't call it a terd....nor has the half dozen people who have wanted to buy it but can't get the cash....Even the guy that won the points title at Elkins has been after it....Only reason I would sell it is to go super late...I'm sure being a rookie didn't help me this year on restarts etc when I was up front..I was more on defense than offence.Just part of learning what to do and when to do it..I know that an experienced driver would have won a few with my car this year...heck I've been real close a few times.In the RH Armstrong race I got second and was up under leaders door many times..yea I know I could have pushed him up the track and maybe won but that driver has always,always raced me clean so I done the same to him and he's been racing for years...I might have learned a few things that night by running with him...Theres been times I've screwed my self at Fastrak Northeast race...Started on tail in heat came up to 3rd....I looped it,my fault back to tail...back to 5th...got in to 3rd place car got put off track..lol for aggressive driving....started on tail of consey was flat flying came up to 2nd and working on leader when caution came out..got stuck on outside on restart and 3rd place got under me....so I was 1 spot from getting in green white checkered...and almost made it...my fault again should have been up on wheel on restart..so I've learned more in one year than most....As far as races on motor Joe ran six on it in 2010 I've ran 12 in 2011... So its still got lots of laps in it yet... And I got the headers you reworked and fixed them that's what's on it,it has a willys carb might be junk...don't know,went to 110 renagade race fuel timing at 32 and the dist was not locked,Kyle Thomas fixed that for me after he said it was a terd...but he ran 3rd that night in it first time driving my car..it runs much better now on racefuel and jets turned to lean,plus when Kyle ran it didn't have fuel regulator on it and was drowning it....so there was things not in its favor...mostly self inflicted....so it may have been a turd to him that night...