Here's a pic of my new 540. The shortblock is finished. The heads, valve covers and intake are just sitting in place for the picture. It's just easier to drop the shortblock into the car. Still a long way to go before it's ready to fire up. I'm still waiting for a few more parts.

 

Rock out bro! What size are the carbs? And are those Quick fuel carbs?

 

What's a Quick fuel carb?

They're both Holley 8162 850 DP carbs converted to alcohol. They have a BG bowl extension on one side to move the bowls out a bit for clearance. They sit on HVH Super Sucker 1", 4 hole, phenolic, carb spacers. The Aeromotive 4 port bypass regulator is mounted on the other side.

That's a System 1 oil filter mounted on the block. This is an internally balanced 540 using a Dart Big M block. Compression ratio only works out to 13.78. I was shooting for over 14:1. JE pistons with the biggest dome possible. Eagle crank and H-beam rods. Canfield heads. Big roller cam.

I've been taking pictures of the build and will post more when possible. Eventually I'll just make a web page on my site showing all the pictures.

The short block is now bolted up in the car.

 

Quick Fuel is a name brand of REALLY NICE holley carbs, they do all kinds of mods to them to make them work nicer and easier, etc....figured you'd be on the up and up on that one stephen.

also, i think you'd go faster with a big single dominator on a good single plane intake, but that's just me.

 

For the price of one alcohol dominator and a new intake, it was cheaper to buy a second used carb, convert it to alcohol to match my first one and I picked up the tunnel ram at a swap meet.

Personally with the big engine, I'd rather have 2 dominators. This isn't a street engine where fuel economy is an issue. If I could afford the conversion, I want 2 Ron's Flying Toilets mounted on the tunnel ram or something like an Enderle/Crower/Hilborn injection system.

 

well, i know guys running more cubes than you and weigh much more (like 3800lbs in some cases) with a single carb way down in the low 9's high 8's n/a.


why does it have to be alcohol?

 

I refuse to get into an argument over single/dual carb setups. If you don't want a dual carb, don't run one.

Alcohol is a great race fuel. It's a lot cheaper to run than race gas. It makes a lot of power and keeps the engine cool. I stage at around 140*. At the end of the 1/4 mile, the temperature is around 180*. By the time I'm back to the pits, the temperarture is back down to 140*. My radiator is out of a turbo Firefly and it's more rad than I need. It also takes a large change in the weather to affect the alcohol performance.

 

"why does it have to be alcohol?"


If you gotta ask,read up.As far as I'm concerned,there is no better race fuel.It burns VERY cold,and compression can be completely stupid,without a single hint of detonation.If you've ever needed race gas,you should have been burning alchohol.


As far as 2 carbs go,if you can tune it,rock on,I'm still an old school bastard on that subject,and if he's winning races with 2 carbs,it's not that wrong,is it?

 

he bracket races...i could do just as well with my moped.

even though it costs less, you have to burn more. that kinda evens itself out.

i don't know, most of the guys i run with are limited to race fuel or pump gas and cannot have alcohol. just wondered why it HAD to be when i know people running just as well on Sunoco 110.

 

Why do people use NOS when it's not allowed in many classes? Because they can.

There are advantages and disadvantages of race gas and alcohol. In the few classes where alcohol isn't allowed it's because it gives an unfair advantage over gasoline in many areas.

I have no restrictions to what I want to do with my race car. I could stick a couple of NOS plates under the carbs and get a few more horses if I wanted to. I could force induction the motor any way I wanted. I just chose a dual carb alcohol engine.

Would you compete in a race that limited you to a V6 only when you know you could go faster with a V8? There are fast V6's but also at an increased expense compared to a V8.

High compression builds torque. As mentioned above, it's hard to detonate alcohol. I would have loved to get the engine in the mid 14:1 range but it wasn't possible with these heads. Even burning twice as much alcohol as race gas, it's still cheaper to buy than race gas, even before this years dramatic increase in fuel costs. Theoretically, I'm making 30-40 more HP just using alcohol instead of race gas.

Anyone who's looking for the best bang for the buck in racing and isn't limited to fuel choice will consider alcohol at some time. Once the switch is made, very few will switch back to gasoline.

I do have my carbs tuned and matched up very well. All the cylinders are burning equally from the look at the plugs and how the pistons looked when I tore the engine down earlier this year for a bad main bearing.

Yes, maintanence is a bit higher with alcohol. I need to change my oil after every race weekend but that's a small price to pay for the increased performance.

Winning races? Not likely but I'm losing rounds from red lights or breaking out. Not from engine performance. The last race the car was at, I won the round but a bad main bearing prevented me from making the next round. Rebuilding the old engine wasn't cost effective so the new 540 was built. If all goes well, I should be able to make a mid to high 9 second pass, at altitude, naturally asperated. I'm sure there are many things I could do to go faster but I'm approching the point where going faster becomes much more expensive.

 

Think you'll be able to get it out to the track before they close for the season?

 

Possible. I'm waiting for some lifters in the mail. I hope to have them by Friday or it will sometimes early next week. There's still a bunch of other stuff I need to hook up that I didn't have before. LT1 smog pump for a crankcase evac and an oil accumulator will be different. Other than that it's just the same stuff being reconnected. If I had the lifters, I could just about finish the engine assembly today.

We had heavy rainfall last weekend, cancelling the season final. We don't know yet if we'll get a rescheduled race or not. Possibly this weekend. Friday night street legal racing runs until Oct 7 or Oct 14. Possibly longer if the snow stays away so there's hope I can get a few passes in during the Friday night racing before the track shuts down for the year. At least the first and last race of the season wasn't snowed out this year. It was another wet race season again though.

No snow yet in Calgary but the Crowsnest pass, a couple of hours drive SW of the city, got 2" of snow over the weekend.

 

It's amazing how much difference a vacuum pump makes.

 

I'd love a belt driven pump but they're expensive.

You can't just bolt on the LT1/LS1 pump and go. It needs a few modifications first. Cut it open and remove all the foam. Completely remove the check valve then glue the body back together. Now it can be used for crankcase evac. I was able to pick one up that was in almost mint condition off Ebay for less than $10. I just haven't decided where to mount it and the Moroso puke tank yet.

 

Hey man, i went to PM you but it looks like i cant. I got a couple questions for ya, shoot me a PM or get ahold of me via aim or yahoo. thanks bro.