Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

I don’t believe the marine blocks had a different composition in regards to nickel content. There is no nickel (read: zero nickel) in the metallurgical recipes for V8 cylinder block grey iron, not in the small block Fords, not in the big block Fords, not in the "010" chevys, BBC etc. I ov...

Caprimaniac, As an avid hot boater for several decades I can tell you that an open cooling system in a V8 powered boat does not make an issue with corrosion, and in fact I have seen far worse corroded cooling systems in V8 powered cars that experienced maintenance neglect. The issue with marine is w...

Way back before Chicom stroker cranks were so readily available, a popular boat engine was a Ford 460" bored .060" for Keith Black hypereutectics, the crank offset ground to 4.150" for BBC 6.8" rods and just a good valve job on the iron heads. Some of those are still running. If...

MSD’s reluctor and magnetic pickup coil are, in fact, the same FoMoCo reluctor and pickup coil as in your factory Dura-Spark distributor. This is probably why MSD offers instructions to wire a Dura-Spark box to their MSD model distributor and/or an MSD box to a Dura-Spark dizzy. A bit more info reg...

How does well does the Duraspark II ignition system work in a mild to medium level performance application? At what point does it become necessary to either upgrade or replace with something better? I’ve got a crane adjustable vacuum advance kit with different springs to modify the advance curve. T...

Valve failure is the head snaps off. When the valve head breaks off the stem, the problem is typically the result of non-concentric valve face to seat contact area. Check your valve job very carefully for full and exact concentricity. When the seat and valve face are not exactly concentric it puts ...

The roller tips look real big. Yes, absurdly so. The roller wheel on the tip of a roller rocker should be as small as is physically possible. Ideally, the radius of the roller wheel should be the same as the radius of the pushrod cup .....but usually that isn't physically possible. Most manufacture...

Are we still discussing how to set proper geometry for SBC rockers on a SBF? A rocker arms does not know which manufacturer affiliation it is assigned--hell, even rocker arms from various manufacturers, all of which are intended for a specific engine (ie, all of them made for an SBC), have geometri...

In the photo, the valves are closed. Travis then your 8.00" pushrod is way too long as evidenced by the geometric angles with the rocker at rest/closed, and as extrapolated therefrom if opened halfway and at full lift: BSRockerSetup.jpeg As seen above, the rocker arm is already over-arcing on ...

The pivot level should be about 1/2 of lift below the valve tip, measured along the axis of the valve. JohnsMistake.jpeg So, your pushrod is way too long. John, this is erroneously drawn. The imaginary red line to the tip of the rocker arm should reach the roller wheel's axle, not the radius of the...

I can't believe this rumor still floats round. :lol: The ASTM recipes for grey iron do not call for any nickel. Furthermore short of converting it to steel, iron is best strengthened by adding small percentages of magnesium carbon etc to bring about spheroidal-moleculed ductile iron, of which no cyl...

https://www.speed-talk.com/forum/download/file.php?id=23408&mode=view First of all, how is the rocker positioned in the picture? Is the rocker arm at rest with the lifter on the base circle of the cam and the valve closed? Or is the rocker arm at mid-lift? Or is it at full open? :arrow: Please ...

'm old time going back to Reath Automotive in Long Beach CA. SKeown Then go to Joe Castillo in La Miranda. Castillo’s Crankshaft Service. Joes been doing this for decades, started somewhere else like LA Crank or under Henry Velasco back on the early 1980’s (not sure exactly where) and has had his o...

...It is a 4580 rocker Paul and yes my understanding is that the b/t 3.6 is the same cleveland angles. We purchased valves to match our spring and cam requirements however looking at the rocker geometry now it will not work with midlift 1.8. If I recall correctly, that rocker arm is designed for an...

Im working on a smallblock ford with blue thunder 3.6 heads. We had a set of a3 heads before this. We used a 1.8 rocker on previous setup but on this head i have the rocker contacting poly lock just before full lift. Same cam etc. Is it likely the rocker stud location is in different spot? Steve.k,...