Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

High exhaust temps, would be my guess.

I have used Howard's cams and other components many times in the past with good success. Having said that from the original post WHO at Howards is in charge of quality control? Who are the people at the company responsible for purchasing and who makes sure the components and suppliers are providing ...

Just to throw it out there, for racing applications especially, I like a system one filter, billet aluminum so has a high burst pressure, stainless filter medium, easy to take apart and look for debris, and eventually it will pay for itself as you don't throw it away.

What shop or companies offer lifter refacing? I have been doing hydraulic rollers, but I may come up with a job that has to have a flat tapper camshaft.

I used the zero-gap ring on the top ring in several builds, did not have any smoking or oil use issues. Zero gap rings make Leak tester look really good. On my personal race car, they did not make it go any faster. 512 big block mopar 13 to 1 compression, and a 540 bb mopar as well. I have taken apa...

Not an expert but Ive read in the past that the motorhome 440 blocks are stronger, any truth to that ? 440 source has a good tech article on 440 blocks. to my knowledge the motorhome blocks I have seen just have bigger coolant passages in the deck. They do mention early industrial and motorhome 413...

Just to have a discussion. Not sure how many Chrysler builders there are on the forum. But in my experience after about 600HP a Chrysler 440 block is prone to develop cracks and fail. Having built a few of these engines, what is everyone's experience on band aids to help these blocks live? Granted t...

Ive been confused here recently over the topic of bowl sizing of a cylinder head, and as i wait for my flowbench to get here and discover for myself, i figured i would pick yalls brain. I have been told both ways of this argument, first that you need to add a bunch of volume to the bowl in order to...

I just finished one also, dyno'd the day before Christmas . Mine was +.040 KB with quench dome, 452 heads w/bowl work, 10:1comp.,solid roller,576/570 lift, dur.@ .050 intake 260, dur.@ .050 ex.266 and 108 lobe sep. This has a A&A cross ram built by Rick Allison ( aftermarket) no mods. My friend...

Yes, I went with a modern type of intake on an engine that I ran a cross ram on, and it picked up 2 tenths so, yes, they look neat but are not the best technology.

OK just for FUN I will share my latest project, maybe as old as I am getting might be my last race car. So doing a 34 Dodge fiberglass hot rod for nostalgia racing just for fun. Completed car should weigh in at 2,500 lbs with me in it. .030 440 with stock stroke, and trick flow 270 heads, 63 max wed...

I have never seen problems with the holes pointed down. It is easier on installation to align the holes with the main bearing holes, so I have seen a lot of engines installed that way. Maybe with really big spring pressures there are issues, I don't deal with engines with over 600lbs open pressure.

knock on wood I have had very few roller lifter problems. The last one was a manufacturing mistake the pin that held the cross bar was not swedged properly and the pin just fell out. I think the main thing is to consult the manufacture of the lifters and see what spring pressures they are rated to. ...

That's weird, I've pulled hundreds of pressed-in studs and never broken a head doing it. Honestly that smells a little like one of those internet rumors that gets repeated enough that everyone knows it must be true. I agree done a bunch and never broke a stud boss. I have an old KD tool that has wo...

I have a street car with a prochrger and electronic fuel injection a FiTech system which controls the timing. When setting up the injection timing tables I simply used the engine program entered 91 octane fuel and generated two timing curves one normally aspirated and one with 6 lbs boost, I entered...