Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by BCjohnny »

It's easy to pick apart anyone's work with 20/20 hindsight, but I doubt few engineers have made the subject as accessible to the many

Completely devoid of any other reference material, I once applied his basic advice on chamber shape regarding the 'A' series to a B23 engine in the nineties to good effect ..... guy won his class that season ...... the porting following similar advice on the Pinto OHC Ford

The basic information I've always found solid, once you get into very specific development I guess some of the fine detail might be awry

But that's often high dollar stuff, and the people involved ain't usually talking anyway
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by 1980RS »

One of the videos that David Vizzard did with Vortec heads helped me out a lot and also some ideas from Mondello as well. David is one smart cookie maybe that's why my smallish 170cc heads work so go now. Thanks David.
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by pdq67 »

I have to remember that we have SBC's as well as LSx SBC['s.

Then on the BBC side, we have Mark IV, Gen V, and I think, Gen VI and the newer 8.1000's.

So pick your reading material accordingly whether it's DV's books or even HPBooks old, "How to HR --".

And I had to sit down and read a newer LSx book to TRY to keep track of them?? Dam they are in a state of CONSTANT CHANGE!!

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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by David Vizard »

SchmidtMotorWorks wrote: Sat Mar 14, 2020 6:43 pm
skinny z wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 2:52 pm
PackardV8 wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:54 am ... we've got some here who will go off on bunny trails about how that's not the best cam for completely different builds and completely different applications.
That has always driven me to distraction. The 128 rule you've referred to is very specific yet folks will throw 4V heads and F1 engines into the mix.
I'm an avid DV fan and as far as the good old SBC is concerned, whether 1992 or today, it's still the same engine. As far as how the technology has changed, I don't think it's had an impact on the specs per se. Just how we go about getting there.
Always good for a laugh...
Go to 1:20
"The most important thing you can know about specking out a cam is 128"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_6qBG3XknM
John,

Seems I am only good for ridicule in your eyes.
A little explanation of the 128 rule.
Instead of saying that it was ‘the most important thing you could know about speccing cams’ I had intended to say 'the most important thing you can know about speccing SB Chevy cams.'

That said, just because of your oh so annoying responses I decided to go through my dyno results and look at how many engines the 128 number might apply to. That would be engines which have similar airflow capability and characteristics proportionally similar to a typical SBC. As it turns out there are quite a few so omitting the 'SB Chevy' mention from my original YouTube deal may not be so far off as the 128 number is about the most common.

As far as any other ST posters taking any notice or putting any store by what you are saying here I have to remind one and all that you are, after all, incapable of answering a simple yes - no question. Would you agree that is a pretty accurate statement?
DV
David Vizard Small Group Performance Seminars - held about every 2 months. My shop or yours. Contact for seminar deails - davidvizardseminar@gmail.com for details.
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by 1980RS »

David Vizard wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 6:30 am
SchmidtMotorWorks wrote: Sat Mar 14, 2020 6:43 pm
skinny z wrote: Sat Jan 25, 2020 2:52 pm

That has always driven me to distraction. The 128 rule you've referred to is very specific yet folks will throw 4V heads and F1 engines into the mix.
I'm an avid DV fan and as far as the good old SBC is concerned, whether 1992 or today, it's still the same engine. As far as how the technology has changed, I don't think it's had an impact on the specs per se. Just how we go about getting there.
Always good for a laugh...
Go to 1:20
"The most important thing you can know about specking out a cam is 128"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_6qBG3XknM
John,

Seems I am only good for ridicule in your eyes.
A little explanation of the 128 rule.
Instead of saying that it was ‘the most important thing you could know about speccing cams’ I had intended to say 'the most important thing you can know about speccing SB Chevy cams.'

That said, just because of your oh so annoying responses I decided to go through my dyno results and look at how many engines the 128 number might apply to. That would be engines which have similar airflow capability and characteristics proportionally similar to a typical SBC. As it turns out there are quite a few so omitting the 'SB Chevy' mention from my original YouTube deal may not be so far off as the 128 number is about the most common.

As far as any other ST posters taking any notice or putting any store by what you are saying here I have to remind one and all that you are, after all, incapable of answering a simple yes - no question. Would you agree that is a pretty accurate statement?
DV
Well David, I don't know about others but I think you are one smart guy on engine builds, designs and theory. Like I said your Vortec video that I watched over the winter got my car into the 10's. You proved to me that one does not need a giant cyl head to make decent power. My hats off to you sir.
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by SchmidtMotorWorks »

David Vizard wrote: Mon Aug 24, 2020 6:30 am
John,

Seems I am only good for ridicule in your eyes.
A little explanation of the 128 rule.
Instead of saying that it was ‘the most important thing you could know about speccing cams’ I had intended to say 'the most important thing you can know about speccing SB Chevy cams.'
You are moving in the right direction.
What other qualifiers besides "SB Chevy"?
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by FC-Pilot »

CamKing wrote: Sun Mar 15, 2020 1:20 pm whether what he wrote is still 100% correct, outdated, or 100% false, you can still learn from it.
Try and understand what his line of thinking about a given topic was, at that time, and worry less about the numbers. Maybe he's 100% correct. Maybe his line of thinking was spot on, but he had the equation wrong.
Even if, with what we know today, his line of thinking was completely off track, that can help you find the right track.
I am a believer that anything that makes me open my mind to potentially finding more power, or makes my stuff last longer is always relevant. There are times the details given do nothing for me, but they feed my own thoughts that start creative ideas, and in that respect they are valid and worth while. DV’s stuff works in its own right. It is a theory that produces repeatable results and his combination of ideas work well together. Now others have different philosophies that work for them. In my mind neither is wrong.

Most important, read something that gets your own thoughts flowing. Question everything for the intent to not find fault, but to find improvement. If you do 5at everything you read will be more than worth it.

(For those reasons I love speedtalk)!

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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by Wiz_kid53 »

David Vizard wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:14 pm Yes!
David Vizard
David, I would like to express that I meant no disrespect by my question posted here. I've learned tons from the things that you've written. My train of thought when asking the question was referring to, from my understanding, relatively recent developments with turbo cam selection. Basically that way back when, people thought you NEEDED a wide LSR cam to make power with a turbo but now thats not the case and if you ask that question the answer will depend on how recently that person was involved with a turbo build. I suppose in a roundabout way I was asking if there were any of your books where the process for developing a certain component for a given purpose had changed. hopefully that makes sense.
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by David Vizard »

Wiz_kid53 wrote: Sat Sep 12, 2020 9:01 pm
David Vizard wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 2:14 pm Yes!
David Vizard
David, I would like to express that I meant no disrespect by my question posted here. I've learned tons from the things that you've written. My train of thought when asking the question was referring to, from my understanding, relatively recent developments with turbo cam selection. Basically that way back when, people thought you NEEDED a wide LSR cam to make power with a turbo but now thats not the case and if you ask that question the answer will depend on how recently that person was involved with a turbo build. I suppose in a roundabout way I was asking if there were any of your books where the process for developing a certain component for a given purpose had changed. hopefully that makes sense.
Kind of. However there are very few people who have any real knowledge of how to spec a cam for turbo applications. If your cam vendor does not ask what the intake to exhaust pressure ratio is then they probably don't have the requires skill to spec the cam properly.

DV
David Vizard Small Group Performance Seminars - held about every 2 months. My shop or yours. Contact for seminar deails - davidvizardseminar@gmail.com for details.
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by Erland Cox »

Image

Image

2320cc 750Nm, 670hp at 2,95 bars absolute.
2 valve Volvo 230 engine.
What camspecs did I use? 46-38mm valves.
Just curious about your guesses especially on the lobe center.

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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by PackardV8 »

Still relevant? Yes, No, Maybe. Most times, he got it right and had hand's-on experience. But materials change, availability of most SBC parts got exponentially better, but some went away. And sometimes, for some reason, he just got it wrong.

I was looking back into his 1990 How to Build Horsepower. The section on rings cautioned against using the then-new thinner rings, "They will have a shorter lifespan." Maybe in 1990, that may have been true, but not today. The manufacturers didn't heed his warning, went ahead using them in production engines which can run several hundred thousand miles with the cylinder walls and rings still being in spec. Yes, oils are better. Yes, EFI not washing down the cylinder walls makes it possible. Yes, ring production quality improved.

Bottom line - over the years, I've been wrong and/or learned better the hard way about many more things than I've found errors in DV's books.
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by HDBD »

Is it fair really for the reasons mentioned such as materials changing and just evolution for lack of a better word to hold any technical author responsible for dated material? Some principals and processes remain the same but much changes.
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by 34owner »

Yes back in the 1997 i built a SBC for a ltd saloon speedway dirt class (corvette) i had read before that a book by DV first published in 1971 called Theory an practice of cylinder head modification . I had used this on "A" series engines to great success and applied the same theory to a pair of SBC fuelie heads , we were a low budget team and the engine rules for our class were strict.
No roller rockers STD valve train posilocks only mod allowed 600 holley and max of 355cid , no roller cams.
Well we won our series that year and the year after before selling the car , I purchased the engine from the car two years ago and was told it hadn't been rebuilt and was run for 7 seasons after it was sold and the engine untouched , i have torn it down and inspected the heads , untouched and it was great to see my work after all those years , so thanks DV you are the man with a fountain of knowledge and so willing to share
Cheers David
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by 6.50camaro »

After the test and tune session I had Saturday I would have to say . Yes , I ported a set of Sportsman II heads following the guide lines he set out in his 2009 small block book and his porting book . Increase valve size to 2.055 on the intake . Copied the 4 angle valve job in the sbc book the best I could at home with a Hall- Toledo grinder .Other than using 38* instead of 30* for the top cut I tried to duplicate the widths as close as I could. This was my first full port job and valve job ,I have gasket matched and blended bowls before but never anything to this extreme. Went from as cast 200ccc to 226cc after porting.
My flat top 11.0 to 1 comp. ratio pump gas 422 sbc is making around 580 to 600hp . That's down the track performance not dyno room corrected to sea level HP . That puts the motor at right around 1.4 HP per cu.in.
So I have to say YES . Dan
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Re: Are David vizard’s books still relevant today?

Post by Cheapstreetduster »

knowledge is a tool.. i dont think that ever goes out of relevance. sometimes your tool box is so full that you reach for a large handled screw driver to tap a thumb tack into the wall .. because it was easier to grasp hastily than the ball peen hammer buried in the bottom shelf. bystanders then have lots of fodder to criticize. even when the task was handled competently.
Most of what i have ever read or watched spoken by David Visor tells me he clearly and with much effort/discipline takes the time to search for the right tool,, the right words. and most definitely the right technique to explain or teach a subject. this is not easy.. This guy has as much proof of concept as any you are going to find in this industry. that comes from Doing .
not from taking short cuts.. or stating conjecture. He has done most all of the work for us. So we get to take the short cuts. So to speak..
this is Valuable..
"someone else's porridge will always be too hot or too cold " you could have just woke up 10 min earlier and made your own..
mechanical engineer, carpenter by trade,love racing engines in general, drag race in the NMCA fastest street car cheapstreet class. i am a doit yourselfer
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