Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

Being a computer geek in the mid 80's and getting my license in '84 as a young gearhead has been interesting parallel. The progress of computers and automobiles has been a great learning curve. It's amazing the computations and behind the scenes going in arriving at what my right foot is requesting ...

This has been a great trip down memory lane. I got my license in ‘84 and cut my teeth so to speak on this. Being a computer geek and the new fangled fuel injection went hand in hand. Spent a lot of time, money and effort to squeeze out performance with TPI systems. Hours spent burning chips for a de...

Don’t have any experience with that engine but you may not gain HP/torque but you’ll be able to sustain power available that you have. Especially up grades in the heat. You won’t have to over fuel to keep it cool and possibly gain some fuel mileage. You can of course tune and raise boost pressures t...

That’s pretty close. I wonder if any perceivable difference would be even measurable on a dyno between those two specs. Probably within the margin of error to be even picked up.

Is peak cylinder pressure, power and torque always best just before the onset of detonation for the fuel used? Far from detonation? A little detonation here and there? I think that and a lot more is happening. I asked once is a detonation event ever a power producer. It isn’t. A/F mixture is mostly ...

That pre-ignition event a couple degrees before the plug fires manifests itself into many degrees and hole in the piston in a few cycles if left unchecked. That detonation event leaves its effects for the next cycle. And if left unchecked before detonation kills it, a pre-ignition event will. I find...

Prolonged detonation can definitely cause pre-ignition. The heat from normal combustion should never get to the point of creating red hot spots or turning the spark plug into a glow plug on a correctly running engine using enough octane. It takes heat to cause pre-ignition. You’re only going to get ...

EngineLabs had a nice write up on this subject.

https://www.enginelabs.com/engine-tech/ ... m-opinion/

Buddies and I as teens stuck one in a 1974 Pontiac Ventura. (X-body?) The bell housing pattern was the BOP style and we used a Pontiac bell housing and 4 speed trans. It was silly to rev it over 5K RPM. They’re about 75lbs lighter than a BBC. Exhaust was the most involved. I forget but something abo...

I was about 18 when TPI first emerged. It was a lot of trial and error on what parts worked and lots of money spent. Nitrous and the centrifugal blowers were the easiest solutions. Ultimately the Scoggin Dickey lower manifold along with a set of Vortec heads with porting geared towards the TPI’s int...

I dabble with the coyote in F150’s from time to time. Never have used that ford performance part number though. Either limiting or locking out the OEM phasers has been fine. Which as you’ve discovered are back ordered. Try getting ecoboost phasers. 10 years of this crap with Ford. Got to be that int...

I have a first Gen ecoboost and what I’ve found helps is 3K mile oil changes. I also run two catch cans. I need two as it’s turbocharged and any positive crankcase pressure vents to the intake side of the PCV system. I collect about 4-5oz oil between oil changes so they’re doing their job. Bore scop...

The scratch would bother me. I’d want to investigate on the why and how. How deep is this scratch? I’d look over the rings carefully. Other than some debris that was missed or introduced on assembly I’d make sure it wasn’t something mechanical. The installation issues on 7 suggest something is/was u...

Often when I’m logging on my ecoboost, I’ll see as low as 1 to 2 degrees advance under high boost lower RPM conditions. That’s pretty close to zero in my book. Combustion must be happening quick to arrive at that magic 14 atdc?
Is there ever a case where the plug would fire after TDC?

A re-grind from 2009 https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=152381#p152381 Great insight and great explanation. Back in the early 80’s working with computers I learned about slew rate. Processors do not have moving parts. They're all circuits and electric currents. Why is a device waiting...