Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

F-BIRD'88 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:16 pm Agree 100% Find a 454 to build for either both purposes.
The open chamber bbc heads work better .
Sell/give the 396 to someone who is restoring or does not know any better.

Since the Chicom forged strokers became good enough and cheap enough, I can't remember the last 454".

Bigchief632 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 05, 2023 7:05 pm It will run. It's not proper, and the clearance and housing bore will change. But it seems you have your mind made up.

His seasoned block has already changed if it has been run hard since it was last line honed/bored.

Years ago I ran a set of non-chrome stainless valves in a stock set of 186 heads with cast guides, wore the guides right out of those heads. Put in new guides and chrome stem valves and put over 50K on those heads with no more guide wear. I think what the OP is saying is true. In theory, yes. But w...

Then, the question arises, who builds a 396" today? Can't remember the last one we did.

Being from Minnesota, the southern guys don't realize how much better a TBI setup is over a carb for a daily driver when you can have a 80 degree swing in temp in day. -40 to +40 nobody likes pumping the gas and trying to keep an engine running for 3 or 4 minutes in arctic air. For true and the imm...

Hi, Mike,

I trust your recommendations, so trying to learn something here. I've been going to beehives whenever possible and have usually found about another 300-500 RPM over same seat pressure cylindrical. Why would we choose the old school cylindrical over the beehive?

Gez! .132" in the hole is pretty bad. From my experience if you can't do things that will get you at least a 1/4 of a point increase in compression then the effort involved is just not worth it. I know! I have heard that some rebuilder pistons have reduced compression height to compensate for incre...

Keeping a forum free from spam is an onerous task. We do appreciate your efforts.

On the Studebakers I work on, 1-degree negative caster is the most common, as this makes non-assisted steering and parking lighter. There is not enough adjustment to get most of them to zero, much less 1-degree positive. I've built tapered spacers to install between the A-arm cross pins and the fram...

The cost becomes a factor in all of this. I have a friend who used to be into the ecomodding. He said he tallied up all he had spent on mods to improve fuel economy, and he never broke even on the fuel cost saved. . . . It's counter-productive. It's also counter-productive to friendships to rub fol...

Another point that might be looked at that is not engine related and is many times overlooked is rotating weight. Rims and tires can sap up a noticeable amount of power. You might not have much choice on tires, but lighter rims might be doable. For true. Taking my life in my hands here referencing ...

Maybe QualCast.

https://qualcast.net

Just watch what the winners are running. They've already solved the multi-variable regression analysis.

You do realise those two objectives on a petrol engine are in conflict, look at how LS engines have been specced over the last 20 years, they don't have good low speed torque considering their capacity, they do get good fuel economy, when you need power you rev them and ignore the fuel consumption....

The 2.8, Cologne (Germany) engine, has no similarities to the 4.0, which is a up grade of Fords first American "Metric" engine, the 3.8. If we stay here long enough, we'll all be wrong about something; this is yours. The Cologne V6 has evolved through engine displacements of 1.8, 2.0, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6...