Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

I'll look into finding some 1144, never heard of that alloy before. At first I was thinking milling halfway down like most Holleys are which is why I was concerned about twist. It would seem that every screw hole would be a potential failure point but it also looked like a pain to slot it and hold f...

I'm using O1 mainly because it's something I've used a lot in the past and it's easy to heat treat at home. 3/8" dia. and overall length with the portions extending out the sides is about 8.5 to 9 inches. It seems like a long shaft to just rotate from one end plus it will have the throttle cabl...

I tried searching but didn't see this part covered - I'm making a throttle body using 4 Holley 1.430" butterflies all in line on one shaft. Planning on using a piece of 3/8" dia. O-1 and heat treating afterwards with a torch and oil quenching. Apparently that usually gets you to around R62...

those electric pumps lose a ton of flow when working against any pressure, the Taurus was flowed at a true 30 psi pressure. Curious what exactly is meant here by " 30 psi "? My understanding of this is that high overall system pressure, which is conducive to suppressing boiling and cavita...

I've been using a Ford Taurus water pump on the side of my Pinto 2.3 motor for years. Just bolts to a plate hanging off the side and driven off the crank. They are small, light, easy to rig up a mount for and they flow well over 75 gpm at 30 psi. Won't cavitate at up to 10k pump rpm either. First h...

I've been using a Ford Taurus water pump on the side of my Pinto 2.3 motor for years. Just bolts to a plate hanging off the side and driven off the crank. They are small, light, easy to rig up a mount for and they flow well over 75 gpm at 30 psi. Won't cavitate at up to 10k pump rpm either. First he...

To paraphrase one of my favorite cooling system related examples: "Gauging the cooling of a cylinder head's combustion chamber by looking at the coolant temperature is like having a doctor run water over your body and measuring the temperature of it as it goes down the drain to see if you have ...

Working with a 2.3 Ford 4 cyl Pinto engine. These come in either early large main journal or later small journal styles. Roughly a .200" diameter difference between the two. When I can't find a small journal block I use the small journal caps on a lg. block with some .020" under main beari...

If the head is stock as in not machined for teflon seals or something then go straight to Ford and buy the stock seals. There are 2 colors for intake and exhaust I believe primarily for turbo use, I just use the exh. seals on both, figure they're designed for higher temps. The intake seals are the t...

You will blow past $7,000 like it was a Nebraska road sign on the way to making a viable billet head. Unless you need the superior materials to deal with very high combustion pressure most of the rest is will be worse than a casting. I'm not seeing how? A friend of mine with a mold making shop was ...

I've thought about this many times over the years. My interest was more as a hobby project for myself to avoid the cost of the current top dog in 2.3 Ford heads - a $7000 casting from Esslinger. My idea was 2 pcs, a lower with the deck, chamber, bottom of the water jackets and the complete int/exh p...

Not sure if the cam is the early or late one but if they're close then that's close enough for me. Looks like I'll try 4 advanced on the GT cam and the Performer intake. I'll keep an eye out for some rockers. That's the exact type of info I was looking for on the ign. timing. I might consider buying...

I have a later model 351W truck (roller cam) motor in my tow vehicle and am looking to pump up the low end torque and the gas mileage. Not looking to spend much money as my racing career is not what it was so spending a couple thousand to gain 2 mpg won't pay. Here are the parts I have and the parts...

I do a few little things with mine that taken individually might seem unimportant but as a whole they might help and my labor is free anyway. Full deburring of crankcase. Disassemble oil pump and radius the (very) sharp edges on the inlet side. Surface grind oil pump sealing surface - the Mellings a...

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Great information here! Thanks to everyone for sharing, it's sure given me a lot to think about this winter while planning my new motor.