Learn the difference between "Street" and "Race"....And "Bigger" isn't always "Better....

Had some people quoting buff magazine dyno tests after the post on generic engine building guidelines. Do these people ever read the WHOLE article?  One quoted a recent Car Craft single-plane vs dual-plane intake comparo. He didn't understand why the writer said that of all the single-planes, the Edelbrock Torker II offered the most "bang" for the buck for the average guy, even though the hp and torque champ was a Dart / Keith Dorton intake. I understand fully-because I read the whole article, not the just power and torque numbers!!  The test mule was an 11.4:1 compression 406 small-block Chevy with 215cc ( intake port volume ) aluminum heads,1 7/8 headers,and a solid roller cam with 242 / 240 ( @.050 ) duration and .594 lift!!  On THAT combo-yes-the taller than a Victor Jr NASCAR-spec Dart intake made the most power!! However-99% of the people reading the article aren't going to have a combo that radical-11.5:1 compression and a cam with .600 lift??!!  The writer explained that the Torker II would work just as well on a basically stock 8.5:1 350 with stock 153cc heads and a mild cam, or a 10:1 383 with 205cc heads and a hot cam. He was saying unless you went hog-wild-like the test mule-that it was almost impossible to out-power the Torker II, which made it the best deal for mild or wild combos. Another area where bigger is not always better is cylinder heads. Most people don't understand the concept of combustion. Once the cylinders are fully charged, their fully charged!!  Example-if you have a one-gallon bucket-and your filling it from a five-gallon or ten gallon bucket-guess what-when the ond-gallon bucket is full, it's full!! Doesn't matter how much you have left in your bucket. And if you keep filling it-any more is going to be wasted and spill out onto the ground! That's the simplest, best analogy I can make. Understand it?  Several years ago Car Craft built identical 454 Chevy engines-same compression, cam, headers, carb and intake, etc. The only difference was one had "standard" oval-port heads and the other had "High-Performance" rectangular port heads. Guess what?  The rectangular port heads did not show a noticeable gain on the dyno until 6,300 rpm!!  Think about that-now on a street engine or even in a race car-how often are you going to be above 6,300 rpm??  In another one Hot Rod had a ZZ4 350 Chevy that they puit some 210cc Trick Flow heads on. Yes they showed a 40 hp gain-at 6,100 rpm. Here's the kicker though-the "antiquated" stock, 163cc L98 heads were within 5 hp and 5 lbs ft of torque at every rpm up to 4,600!! At some rpms there was no difference, or it was only 1 or 2 hp and 1 or 2 lbs ft.  Again-in most situations-how often are you above 4,700 rpm?  The guy who wrote a book on building high-performance Pontiac engines has a '71 LeMans 455 wagon that runs 11.30s with a Quadrajet, 165cc heads and 3.55:1 gears!! It has Ram Air IV replica cam with 231 / 240 ( @.050 ) duration and .470 lift.  He shifts it at 5,700 rpm.  How is that possible?  Simple-he just accentuated what Pontiac did from the factory-make massive power and torque at low rpm. When you have 500 lbs of torque at 2,500 rpm, you don't NEED to rev to 7 grand!!  He just put together the perfect combination. Since stock Pontiac heads don't breathe much over 6,000 rpm or .480 lift-he doesn't NEED a cam with .575 lift!! With a Pontiac V8-less is more, more often than not. That's why Pontiacs were such awesome STREET engines. While Chevy, and Ford and Mopar were trying to homologate NASCAR engines-the 427s, and the 426 Hemi-etc. The "Little GTO" with small "Bathtub" heads and only 389 inches ruled the street. Again-with 424 lbs ft of torque at 2,700 rpm-you don't need to rev high. Port velocity, and cylinder filling. Remember the one-gallon bucket? That's why a '66 GTO with a 389 could run off and leave a '66 Charger with a Hemi from a light. Especially if the Charger had an automatic and 3.23:1 gears or even a 4-speed and 3.54:1s. Because the Hemi was designed to go 200 mph at Daytona, not rip ass on the street!! With stock gearing it was like running with one flat tire. Testers wouldn't get out of 2nd with Torqueflites or 3rd with 4-speeds by the end of the 1/4!! Now if the Hemi had a 4-speed and 4.30:1 gears, or a 2,500 rpm converter and 4.10:1s, it would have been a very different story, because the mechanical advantage would have got the Hemi into it's powerband quick enough to pass the Goat before the end of the 1/4.  This is how "faster" cars sometimes lose to "slower" ones. This is why many magazines said that the 383 and 440 engines were better on the street than a Hemi. This is why the 428 "FE" is a much better street engine than a Boss 429. I know a guy who bought a "Boss 302" Ford SVT stroker crate engine a few years ago and put it in his '69 Mustang that had an automatic and 3.25:1 gears. He was severely disappointed. It wouldn't idle-and didn't have much bottom-end-in fact it didn't do much below 4,000 rpm. The problem? I can't remember if it was a 347 or a 363-but it was the biggest, baddest one they had in the catalog at the time. It was rated at 450+ hp. I asked him-when you read the brochure and Ford recommended a stick or a torque converter with a 3,500 rpm stall speed and 4.56:1 gears-didn't that throw up a red flag that it might be a little too radical for a daily driver??!!  Why didn't you buy one of the 360 hp or 385 hp 351Ws that would have kicked ass on the street?  "Well, I just went for the one with the most power."  "Guess I should have done some more research."  You think?  A 3,000 rpm B&M converter and some 4.10:1 gears made it much more tractable and livable on the street, and it was really fast when you got on it, but he still didn't like the loose converter around town and the motor buzzing at 3,500 rpm on the freeway too much!!  So remember "Bigger is not always better ". Hope this helps save people from buying parts they'll be disappointed in!  Mastermind