Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Ks Fats wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2020 7:22 pm Thanks for the info Pete; I never knew what the additive was but it was apparent "something else" was in there. Sounds like it probably changed the specific gravity enough to throw off the tune-up.

The Alamask had no affect on the tune.
The nitro sure did though.

Bill, that was probably Bobby Meeks; famous for nitromethane V-8 60's in midgets. Used some type of oil additive that smelled like shoe polish to hide the nitro odor. Meeks was probably the first to use that additive except it was used in the fuel. It was later named "Alamask". Extremely concentrat...

Hi Mike, Not exactly what you want but I thought I would mention it. I have a steel billet for a 430 Ford with a Schnieder 32R (roller) grind on it. It only has .316 lift but could be reground to something modern. It has old cosmoline on it and a few very small rust pits, the type of which would cle...

If you ask your question to 6 different guys, including me, you will get 10 different answers.
Why not ask the guy that runs this forum?? He is as good as any around and it would help support the forum.

Here is a setup using 4 Harley carbs on a 4 banger, during fab process.
It worked very well.

I talked to Isky and he said he dropped development of those heads because of not enough interest to afford to develop them.
He doesn't know where any of them are now.

As a bit of trivia, In the 60's Ed iskenderian made several sets of single cam (per head) desmodromic heads for the SBC. They were very successful in tests. He advertised them in several magazines for a brief period but apparently the market was not ready for them so he didn't persue it. That would ...

jed wrote: ↑Sun Aug 02, 2020 5:21 pm I was thinking the same thing. Large intake ports and valves would work good at Bonneville but not so well on a short
track engine.

I would agree normally but I only have data on large flatheads, 315 ci or more. Nowdays 321. It works.

I often wonder why H-D when they had an almost unlimited development budget, didn't think about bigger ports and valves. While bigger is sometimes slower flow with N/A, on a flathead Ford it means more hp if the volume goes up. We did flow testing back in the late 50's with ports enlarged by welding...

XF/FMR to run at Bonneville.

I know about the NOS French flatheads but still.. pdq67 There's a US company that makes blocks. Edelbrock and Offenhauser make heads. You can buy every part, brand new, made in America Most vintage racing associations will not allow after market or French blocks. Mods to an OEM block are unlimited ...

In 1956 when we were developing the Allison race cams we set up a head with one cylinder’s valve assembly in it with a variable speed motor to drive the cam. We ran it up to operating rpm range and stopped motion with a strobe-o-tach. We then photographed the assembly with a macro lens equipped came...

"nothing ever made power above 5500 until 1972"

Oh???

Public service announcement. A glass of wine To my friends who enjoy a glass of wine, and, those who don't and are always seen with a bottle of water in their hand: As Ben Franklin said: "In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controll...