Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Smokey Yunick told me fifty years ago, "Don't worry about ring gap a few thou too loose. You'll never notice that. Now, a few thou too tight; that'll kill ya."

The future of Electric vs ICE will be determined by battery performance. The ICE is already past the point of diminishing returns for improvement. Batteries have the possibility of a major breakthrough happening and many billions are being spent right now to accomplish that. If batteries double in ...

I know its not number matching but Summit sells a 350-4 bolt main block 40 over for $739.00 Remanufactured. But how bad would the shipping be? Only to you get an idea, lets say the shipment would cost $400 by ship. So, 1139 USD, then add 77% taxes we pay here,(yes the stupid high taxes are on total...

Just out of curiosity, beside making it be something other than "cast Iron" what would an actual HIGH nickel formula do to the machining/strength characteristics? Guess going to need one of the metallurgists to answer as it seems no one has actually ever seen one... LOL. Back in another lifetime, I...

There is no nickel (read: zero nickel) in the metallurgical recipes for V8 cylinder block grey iron, not in the small block Fords, not in the big block Fords, not in the "010" chevys, BBC etc. I oversaw metallurgical analysis of all these engines, with a scanning electron microscope, so as to dispe...

I need it bored to +030.

FWIW, we just shipped a box of Packard V8 parts to Norway, so it can be done. Are there 302" roller cam blocks available in Norway? How much would one be worth there? We could even bore one .030" prior to shipping.

What might you have and how much?

Over the past 10 years or so, I have built some foundry tooling for a 4 valve cylinder head for a 5.0" bore spacing block. It requires a custom block to finish, a 4.9 bore spacing Ford or 5.0 bore spacing Cadillac are not compatible with the project. Congrats, Jon. Were I a few years younger, I'd t...

set the numbers block in the corner for safe keeping. Get another block so that when you enjoy driving the car you can actually enjoy it. Then if you ever sell the car, give them the numbers block to go with it. Brian Core 350" SBCs are cheap trash here, but I believe our OP is in Brazil, where the...

KJ, thanks for the link which explains the design. My IIRC was IFIRIC (in fact,i recalled incorrectly.)

Truckedup wrote: ↑

Tue May 19, 2020 3:16 pm

So, I understand the SBC cam is not exactly parallel to the crank center line ? If so, is this common?

We have a technical terminology problem. AFAIK, the SBC cam tunnel centerline is parallel to the crank center line.

Jack, how did they get away with the lifter running square on the cam? I don't remember them having any unusual cam and lifter wear issues.' IIRC, the lifter centerline is offset to the cam lobe centerline so the cam lobe pushes only on one side of the lifter, the force differential rotating the li...

How much do you guys see loaded valve train in terms of lift losses as compared to non. Say with checker springs. Is .020 common? Sort of a 'how high is up?" question. As mentioned, it depends. Valve spring seat and open pressure Cam lobe lift and intensity Pushrod stiffness, length, diameter Rocke...

What rings? Who did the cylinder hone and to what spec? Today's rings should seat instantly.

A while back I attended a vintage sports car race. In one class, by far the noisiest exhaust was one Porsche 911; also the slowest in his class. The faster 911s were much quieter than this guy.