Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

It's just me, but I would find another block- or engine- to play games with. Something is mechanically wrong inside in the design or how you're using it.

Change the studs to a better grade of steel than stock AND run the stud girdles. Besides all the benefits listed, they absolutely keep poly-locks from loosening during operation. Sure- they get in the way sometimes but so do kids and dogs.

There's probably 5-10 grams of oil temporarily adhering to each rod during operation. This is a non-problem if the engine is balanced.

Grumpy also said when using studs and some locking chemical, to torque a head on before the glue set up, as he found studs leaning a bit a day or so later. That meant they would be 'slightly' bent sideways during final torquing, and heads were harder to install & remove.

If you're a typical homeowner, a short piece of 3/4" water pipe from your 'possibles' pile and a big washer works fine, at zero cost and 10 minutes of hacksawing.

Buick V-8s used tulip valves but can't remember the exact sizes. Haven't played with Buicks since the early '60s but you could look them up in a valve supplier catalogue. The engines used to rpm as well as the Chevys but flow benches were only a vague idea at the time. If you have your own bench, wh...

As Walter said, 'about' 1/2"... as long as the vent tube is still cut slantwise. I've run into a couple of cars where owners cut the slanted part off because the air cleaner top hit it and made a dent in the shiny surface.

OK- thanks, all. The heads are A-3s and are totally unported- only casting flash removed and that was some inches away from the seats. From your comments and the fact that the heads were used on a wingless sprint car for a season without visible damage (at 9200 max rpms), leads me to believe they'll...

Theoretical question re aluminum cylinder heads and stiff valve springs: I have a pair of low mileage Ford/SVO Cleveland aluminum heads from the ‘80s. The Ford Motorsports fact sheet that came with the heads cautioned against running valve springs over 120 lbs seat pressure or risk valve seat recess...

Tim, my journeyman welder (NASA, etc) uses MIG for aluminum head seat repair. Cleanup is a mess but the heads don't seem heat affected. Just a thought.

One seemingly important factor is, the different heat expansions of an aluminum block and steel main caps produces an OVAL hole for main bearings to work with a round crank journal. Some aluminum blocks use cast-in iron inserts in the block so main bearings can cope with this. But not all alloy bloc...

A woodruf key is simply a method of guiding a part onto something with the key as an indexing device. In your case it allows ignition timing marks to line up reasonably close. The un-hardened steel key really has no holding power- the damper is held on by the press fit. And when it cracked, it start...

Too late now, but when I buy pistons, I order 10 and make them all the same weight within a gram. On almost all builds I wind up with two forever-spares which I call 'insurance' (others call it paranoia), but I sleep better. YMMV-

I once worked with a guy at Lockheed who told me he owned a land speed record at Bonneville. "Really? What class?" He showed me a snapshot of a Roots blown flathead Chrysler 8 in a '34. The car had fueling problems that kept its best pass to around 140 in 1989. So there are people around t...

You didn't post a bore photo so a general comment is all thats appropriate. Keep in mind that if the bore pitting is above the ring travel, it means nothing. In fact if a sonic check reveals a thin bore on a block, I don't bother to bore oversize to clean up that part of the cylinder. Just hone and ...