Head surgery successful!

From: Bob Tom (tigers@bserv.com)
Date: Wed Jul 10 2002 - 09:59:16 EDT


To all you performance addicts.

Thanks to Doug Myers I picked a clean set of used magnum
heads at the Cecil track in MD last November. During the winter,
my chief mechanic and bottle-washer (son) put the MP porting
template kit to work and also did some tweaking on his own
(gasket matching and tweaks to up the air flow rate a bit more
and to re-direct the flow a bit better). Care was taken to avoid
increasing runner volume as he wanted to keep the powerband
in its current rpm range as much as possible ... read: minimize
giving up a lot of low end. While he was at it, he put in a set of
stainless steel intake/exhaust valves.

I finally got on the track for the first time this year last Sunday
(after the 7/6 carnage :-* ) at a Mopar race event. I got only
4 runs in (3 time trials and 1 elimination) but there were enough
initial indicators to say that hp has increased by at least 20.

I won't be getting a dyno until late fall or early next spring so
I'm going to have to do a lot of t&t runs to get a handle on how
the power curves have changed. Our best guess is that,
beyond increases in torque and hp, they have been broaden
and flatten out but we have no idea where the peaks are now.

Sun.'s conditions (84F in the shade, est. 90-95F in the sun,
38% humidity, light to moderate tail wind, 102.x KPa baro.
pressure) were almost the same as last year's at the same
track except last year was cooler by about 10F.

My best run last year at this track was 14.83 @ 90.92.
This year with the diy ported heads, I lowered the ETs in 3
out of 4 runs with the best being a 14.57 @ 92.91. On one
of the runs, I hit the rev limiter when the tranny wouldn't shift
out of 1st, lifted off the pedal twice to get the shift and did
manage to salvage a 15.03 @ 91.94 All 4 runs gave me
faster trap speeds than last year.

It sure feel good to be back on the track !

If there's any interest, I'll give updates on the good, the bad,
& the ugly. I have a rain date at St. Thomas Mopar race
on July 27th, the Nats from Aug. 9-11, another Mopar
race at the new Cayuga track on Sept. 8, and then
t&ts until season's end.

Bob



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:05:03 EDT