HorsePower Best Builds

Hey, it's all about engines this week on horse power and we're kicking things off with the payoff of our LQ 4 6 L engine here.

Now, last week we challenged ourselves with a weak economy in mind to build a healthy nearly new Efils motor on a budget of two grand.

Our visit to certified auto recyclers in northern Alabama was a wise first step.

They found us a healthy

Q four from an 05 GMC truck.

Well, after cleaning it up and packing it up for us for the trip home,

we were ready to tear it down

and clean up the reusable parts.

Well, then after buddy honed the block, we gave it a bath and everything was ready for assembly.

The only parts we replaced were the bearings gaskets, oil puffs, timing set and plugs.

Oh, we did replace all the boats with a rps, but it wasn't mandatory.

The only boats that have to be new are the side boats on the main caps

obvious.

We met the challenge of building an almost good as new EF I small block. That is if it lays down a good number here on the

dyno.

Now the factory harness and PC M did come with our recycled engine package. The only problem is we're planning on running this engine with a list of modifications from time to time.

So with that, we went with the custom harness N PC M from Hall

engine developments. Now, the cool thing about this is as we go through the stages, they can reprogram the computer for us and send it back right now. It looks like we're ready for a run. By the way, the LQ four has a 9.4 to 1 compression ratio and it's factory rated at 325 horsepower.

Are you ready for this? 386 horsepower? 396 ft pounds of torque? Now, how can we make 61 horsepower over the factory baseline with just a simple rebuild? Well, bear in mind the factory numbers were all made using factory components like your air intake system, accessory drive and exhaust system like exhaust manifolds and catalytic converters. Yeah. Plus we've got the advantage of the specter intake, bringing lots of cool air in

and those long tube headers moving there out

all in all though. I'd say this $2000 budget bill was a pretty big hit, you know, counting that motor we put together over a dozen in the past year or so here in the shop and they've ranged from the Fable Ford flathead for our rack ride to the 1000 horse turbo motor for our Mustang.

Now, people often ask, what's your favorite?

Well, the best we could do is come up with a list of our top three.

One choice has to be the monumental Mopar

446 pack that started with the vintage block we bought locally,

took to buddy's shop for cleaning and machining

and went back here for assembly.

We use new and old parts in this rotating assembly. But the most unique part of the bottom end to me was the rear main seal, the rear main seal cap

on the 440 seals to the crank shaft and to the block. Now, we have an original Mopar seal kit that actually lays in this channel. Now, what you wanna do to prevent any leaks

lay down a pretty thin beat of silicone in the channel here and on the top of the cap as well,

then place the seal into the channel, leaving some of the seal hanging out of the bottom.

Now place a small amount of silicone on the outer edge.

Now drop in the rear main and start the bolts, push the seals down into the channel and you're ready to finish tightening the cap.

Ok. Sometimes it's the little things to get my attention. But what gets everyone's attention was added to the top end.

As you can see, that pan also offers gasket material for this

and it'll bro aluminum six pack intake manifold for big blocks. Now, this retro intake manifold not only gives the old fashioned looks but new age power in the 25 to 6500 RPM range.

Fortunately, Holly reproduces the 446 pack carb set up. Now it comes

with a 350 CFM center carb

and 2 500 CFM outboard carbs. Now, the outboard carbs work as vacuum secondaries and they come into play at higher RPM s when more fuel is needed. Now, we gave summit a call and they sent us this adjustable throttle linkage and fuel line kit that's actually made by Mopar.

This motor will go into muscle cars, ultimate street fighter Barracuda in a few months. So it had to make some knockout power

and it did 425 horses, almost 100 over the factory original. What are our other favorite motors?

You'll find out after the break.

Hey, I'm not gonna get into the whole no replacement for displacement thing. But my favorite engine build this year was this 588 big block Chevy that we built for extreme. Now, it had to be a motor tough enough to make this 87 GMC pick up a competitive mud racer. Now, they said they wanted plenty of power for when the day comes that they make their big splash at the first race and plenty of power is what they got.

The foundation was a tall deck, high density cast iron Merlin three block from world products. Before installing the calico code to main bearings, buddy offered a tip on how to check for clearance first with the bearings installed in the main cap and main saddle.

I tor the cap down to 100 and 10 ft pounds.

Then using a micrometer measured the diameter of the crank journals.

Then I use a board gauge to compare that dimension

to the main bearing.

All right, what we got,

we got two thousands. What we're looking for is 2 to 3 thousands. If you have less than two thousands, you're gonna have a bearing failure. If you have more than three, you're gonna have low oil pressure problem. Hey, buddy, I know you, you've had situations of not enough clearance with these blocks. Uh What you do.

Well, basically you want to take it to your machine shop and have them polish in the clearances that you're missing.

Our crank was an eagle steel 4340 with a 4.5 inch stroke. Now, it was treated with that gorgeous ESP armor finish.

We also used their H beam rods with srp aluminum pistons which needed oil ring support rails. Since the 4.5 inch stroke moved the wrist pin up into the piston.

After the lunati billet cam and roller lifters, we got to get our hands on a set of the new Edelbrock

Muy Victor series 24 degree heads.

Then after our A RP head bolts, we took you through the important steps of greening the cam. We're going to show you how to degree in the cam before we install the rest of the valve train.

Ours, by the way has a 114 degree center line. You may recall now to do this. We installed rockers and push rods on top of the number one cylinder only. And for tools, the dial indicator which comes into play later

pointer here that's bolted to the block and of course, the degree wheel installed on the crank snout. 01 other little tool. This is a piston stop that installs right here where the spark plug goes

first to find top dead center. Rotate the crank clockwise. 10 degrees. Tighten the piston stop till it touches the top of the piston,

then rotate the crank clockwise until it hits the piston. Stop again.

Mark the number divide by two and that's top dead center.

Ok. Once you've established your T DC, we're gonna rotate the crank shaft to full lift on the valve.

Once you get the full lift,

set your gauge up to zero,

advance at 50,000.

Take your reading on your degree wheel,

back it up 50 thousands

and go another 50,000.

Get your degree wheel number,

add the two, then divide by two and that's your intake center line.

Soon after bolting down the Edelbrock Super Victor single plane intake and the quick fuel technology's 1250 CFM car. We were ready to make the monster growl on the

dyno

and make Ian happy with his mud race motor. The result

I can feel on the floor

all 821 horsepower, 702 ft pounds of torque. Now, that's pretty good power, considering we're only running 32 degrees of timing on the motor and we had some pretty restricted mufflers, at least most of the way through the run.

Oh, yeah. Nothing like a big horsepower payoff. That's what we're all about,

but sometimes there's power in nostalgia as well.

That's why we just got around off this top three list with

a motor we built for muscle cars. Project red sled

this ever fine Chevy 409

to get a good foundation, we paid a visit to 409, Guru Lamar Walden in Doraville, Georgia.

He's often got a few of the now rare blocks in stock

ones with an X on them have higher nickel content and are the best candidates.

The most interesting part of this project was seeing how many new innovations have made the landmark motor superior to the original,

well, like lighter aluminum pistons that Lamar makes with his CNC machines.

Eagle makes 4340 steel crank shaft for the motor

along with a stream rides

and comp cams just started making a new hydraulic roller cam for the 409.

Of course, a few old tricks come in handy when you're adjusting the cam's inlay

Ok. Now we'll check our

lay

by moving this cam back and forth with screwdriver on a lobe.

Ok. We have way too much in play. So in order to decrease that, we need to hammer in on the plate.

Ok. Now we check the in play again

and we have absolutely zero. So once we put our gasket in here that should put us in the right clearance. Edelbrock has introduced 409 improvements for the top end like series W aluminum heads with 2 22 cc intake runners that are port matched

an RPM performer, dual quad air gap intake

and 600 CFM performer carbs with progressive throttle linkage.

All changes for the better, I guess since we made 475 horsepower, 55 more than the factory rating in 63. Well, there you have it and of course, we get a lot more engine bills down the road.

Well, speaking of that, Mike is heading to a heads up racing. Shoot out in Huntsville, Alabama. You want to stick around for that.

Hey, everyone likes a two for one. Right? Well, we're here in Huntsville for a two race weekend and this is where you're gonna see some of the baddest small tire cars on the planet and it's all called

Orsa.

Last time these guys showed up in Huntsville, rain, spoiled the mood.

So tonight they got to make up that race first up though. It's time to qualify for the regular season race which goes into eliminations tomorrow

in limited street. The car killer Jeff Pulk shatters Darren Hoyle's 477 et record with a 473 in his Chevy pickup

mile per hour record holder, Stacy Parker adds the record et to his roster with a 533 and modified streak.

And Chad Henderson runs a 496 an easy street moving him to the head of the class

T and mile per hour record holder, Tim Lynch runs a 437 and 10 5 to clinch the number one qualifying spot.

There are lots of fresh faces on the Osa

circuit this year and some are just old enough to drive.

I've just been to races since I was born and I guess you could say it's in my blood. I'm a varsity cheerleader at my school and I have to miss a lot of the games to come to these races and everybody just, they wish me good luck and they just,

I don't know, they think it's really cool.

Steve Jackson's first year in Osa

has been impressive. He's won the last three races in easy street and leads a points race.

What's his secret?

His top secret. All these guys here think we got some magical tune up or something, some serious performance advantage.

It's the magic flip flop. This thing has never lost the race since the flip flop was in the car. We don't take it out for anything. This is the old motor we rented, got it at Walmart on the way down here and throw in there.

Still got the old factory. I mean, the old EF I harness and everything, the intercooler still stuck in the car kind of built the car around the inner

cooler and we can't get it out.

So it's stuck back there behind the scene. Thrill Billy Shane Stack is no newcomer, but he is new to the limited street class. I've run easy street forever and I started at the beginning this year running the easy street. The,

they changed the rules on us from last year and, um, and I just,

I really struggled with the new rules and couldn't ever really get it figured out and just

got mad and fed up and

put the big stuff on there and tested in that and thought that I could run good or that if

I just changed

the industry

stack has to run both classes this weekend because of the makeup race. So he's got to swap out his tires and his turbo. Now that qualifying is over,

qualifying for this weekend is over, but the race is not done yet. They're in final rounds of eliminations for a makeup race. The weather's cool, the cars are flying. So let's see who winds up in the winner circle

after that quick turnaround in the pits. Thrill Billy Shane Stack lines up his Red Monte Carlo to make his last go at easy street,

but he's a little too quick off the line in red lights. Better luck tomorrow, Shane

Records were meant to be broken right.

While Stacy Parker breaks his own world record with 100 and 34 mile an hour pass in the semifinals.

Tim Lynch does the same thing with 100 and 83 mile an hour sprint down the track.

It's finally time for the finals and it's Stacy Parker versus Brian Murphy in modified street.

Parker lays down the rubber and takes the win and breaks his own record from earlier in the day with a 531.

Now, Dustin Bradford overcomes a whole shot by Gary White in easy street to take the win with a 508

in outlaw 10 5. Jimmy Blackman's Firebird upsets the number one qualifier, Tim Lynch with a 460

and in limited street he

sabo just barely beats out Eric Dillard a 483 to a 48.

With that. The Huntsville makeup race is finally in the books, but there's still one more day of racing left in Huntsville. So stay tuned and after the break, you're going to catch more of the meanest outlaw cars and racers fighting their way to the finish line.

Welcome back. We're in day two of the Oscar race in Huntsville, Alabama.

Now, a lot of these racers have had to work overtime because of the makeup race last night. But hey, they are ready to get back at it today.

These guys keep getting faster and faster and faster and, uh,

now we do too. We'll try to, we try to keep up, step on them. But

right now I think we're qualified too for this race. So they're, they're, they're faster than me already.

Now in limited street, it's a rematch from the seasonal Georgia finals between Key

Sabo and Shane Stack where

Sabo took the win

stack is quicker off the line but gets the car out of shape near the end and

Zabo takes the win with the 487.

This just isn't Stack's weekend

in the 10 5 semifinals. It's number one qualifier, Tim Lynch versus points leader Joe Newsham. Now

Newsham is first out of the gate and breaks the beams just ahead of Lynch who gets it out of shape right after the finish line and eats the guard rail. Thankfully, he walks away unscathed

record holder. Stacy Parker takes on Kevin Scrims

in the modified street semifinals but Parker's hopes for a double go up in flames at the starting line and scrims

advances to the finals.

It's a battle of the Mustangs as points leader Steve Jackson takes on Dustin Newborn in the easy street semifinals.

Jackson smokes newborn with a 520

moves on to the finals against number one qualifier, Chad Henderson.

That lucky flip flop seems to be working so far.

The flip flop

we're down to the finals and it's Zabo versus Hulk and Limited Street. Now it's neck and neck until the end but the car killer can't kill the mustang and

Zabo takes the win with a 489

in modified street. It's another rematch from the Caesar race with hometown boy Scrims

taking on points leader Brian Murphy.

Murphy tries to make it a repeat win but even with a fast reaction time, scrims

rockets to the finish line first and takes the win with a 547.

The 10 5 finals are a match up between Joe Newsham and Jimmy Blackman

after another quick react. Nuha

gets a little squirrelly on the track and Blackman takes the win with a 515 making it a two win weekend for the Firebird.

We're down to the final race of the day and it's head to head nitrous and easy street

Henderson has the edge but the Black Buick runs into trouble right off the line slowing to a 685 giving Jackson an easy win with a 509 making it four wins in a row.

Man. We, uh we heard the car earlier today stood it up in the semis, didn't know what to do. So I said crap. We're gonna go ahead and put everything we got and we threw the kitchen sink at it. When it went through 330 the left front tire was still at the ground. All the sideways looking at him.

I was gonna hit the wall and never have been out, out of shape and not wreck. It was awesome. It was a good final. We, uh, we squeaked by because he's faster than what we went. But sometimes you gotta have luck. I'm telling you, man, it's the football, but I could sell them footballs for 1000 a fee and we'd be rich. Wow. $1000 add on. Sounds a little pricey.

Well, that wraps up our doubleheader weekend. Remember when you want to see some of the meanest small tire racing around or

is the name of the game?