Hot Rods Look what followed me home today

Sorry I misread decked as in the block, if the heads have been milled then yes it’s possible depending on the shape of the combustion chamber. Either way it’ll run just fine!

 

HEMI heads are not like wedge head engines.
Poor or no quench no matter what the compression ratio it will be prone to spark knock.

 

Right, I agree, however because the heads have already been cut, if the bottom of the combustion chamber is completely round then the thicker gasket is really just adding the “material” back to the head. Therefore quench should be right back to how it should be…I think, I may be missing something and am not trying to argue.

 

Do the heads have a “flat” portion even with the deck of the head combustion chamber? I ask because I don’t know if they are like SBC heads or not.

 

My finger is showing where quench is on a SBC head. The distance between there and the piston is the quench as has been talked about.
As you can see it is even with the deck of the head. So if I were to raise the head, I would open up the quench area.

Well, make a circle too if you will

 

This is the quench area. .036 to .048 is good, when you get much larger than that it can be a problem.
The part of the piston in relation with the deck height needs to be measured first and work from there.

 

^^^ Much better illustration

 

Absolutely correct. I don’t play with Chevy stuff so no clue what the bottom of the heads looked like.

 

Precisely . That is exactly what I did when building the coupe's blown mill.

 

Everything needs to be measured when your trying to determine the compression ratio. Cc ing everything is the first step. Piston domes; valve reliefs; pin placement; unshrouding valves; swept volume; gasket thickness etc all play a part. A guy that says i bought 10:1 pistons for my build is really saying i dont know jack. The proper way to order a piston is to do all of the measurements first. The piston company can provide what you need from there.
In my case todays off the shelf 427 pistons come as a advertised 9.5 or 12.25 compression ratio. Thats based on a stock deck height and stock heads. I did the math with .100 off the dome of a 12.25 and stock specs. This gave me 11.25 ratio. Thats too high for pump gas. The aluminum head is able to remove heat from the combustion chamber better than steel. Its worth a full point of compression. This puts me at 10.25 so i can run 93 octane with some timing. Of course there is a power loss but im not buying race gas by the drum. Its all a big trade off. Whats the intended purpose of the engine. For this one its as much power as i can make on the street with todays crap pump gas.

 

A little off topic here but seeing as we are discussing compression i will add this. On a nitro engine it is not uncommon to run a different thickness head gasket side to side. It is also not uncommon to run different compression pistons in certain holes. If a whole bank is pinching rings or backsiding pistons or worse yet burning holes in them a thicker gasket will drop compression and heat. If the same piston is getting picked on and adding fuel to that hole is not helping a lower compression piston is sometimes used. It may sound funny but its done everyday in the world of engines that go Boom.

 

I get your point Brian. I listened to what Tom Jobe, of the Surfers said about this very thing. He stated that there was a period in the Surfers history that they did indeed try different pistons in a certain bank or hole. And that was in the early to mid 60"s.

 

Well well well look what i just found. I thought this would be the hardest and last part to find. I was right on the hard part just not the last. The last hard part will be the Formula One Super Stock front runner tires.
For those that dont know what these headers are they are Mickey Thompson Super Scavengers. Sold in a distictive orange color. They were equal length pipes. Unlike the other headers of the day the M/Ts pipes went into a long square collector where the pipes equalised. This made instalation much easier without pipes snaking all over. A cut away of the collector hung in speed shops to show how it worked.
The unexpected surprise to making headers this way was the unmistakable sound. If you have ever heard a engine run with these you most likely never forgot it. In a engine like my L-88 with a big cam it kind of sounds like marbles in the exhaust. The sound is so unique it can be heard from a long distance away. It will turn heads. Nothing makes this sound. No muffler can make this sound. Thats why i had to have them. The car will not only look in every way like a 60s street racer it will perform and sound like it to.

 

Do you plan on coating those headers for long tern protection? I would think ceramic coating them and repainting that distinctive orange after would make them last indefinitely and keep the look your after.

 

Its already been done. They are ready to go. These are a investment that needs to be protected.

 

Is someone reproducing these Brian, or has someone been lucky/worked hard to find a number of sets?

 

Both. Of course now that i have a set i found a few others online and at jefferson swap meet yesterday. There was a guy in muncie indiana that made them. He had originals and made dies to match. He is no longer making them. Hasnt for several years. He sold all his tooling. I spoke to him recently.

 

When Squirrel posted photos of his blower i started to get bad thoughts. While not blown Pete Seatons Shaker was one of the first injected nitro cars. So far i have fought the urge to go this way. I have nitro and i have injected experience. This would be a cool and fun street car. Built in 65 along with Bruce Larsons car at the time they were heavyhitters.

 

I have a Crower injector if you think you want to go that route.

 

Thats good to know. It would look cool on top of the 427. I remember when i was in high school with the car hot rod magazine featured a injected 65 Chevelle. It had a Crower on it. The car was blue with anodized blue tubes. Wild for the time.
I sure like that A body lean at the hit.

 

I should find a good home for it before I cut it up and try and make it work on my 409.

 

Is it a straight up or angled tube with tall and short tubes?

 

It has the straight up stacks, but the angle adapters will fit on this one.

 

Close but no cigar. Think I would be better off using a big 3 piece small block injector.

 

Keep the nitro for the coupe. High school you didn’t build this as a nitro drag car.

 

Correct and he already has one car that goes boom.

 

No but i wanted to.

 

That's a 512 High Tower block.

 

That is an AWESOME story ! An Julie is AWESOME !! You're one lucky guy !!

 

I sure am. You have a keeper to and she likes to race.