Thread: Suggestions from the sbc guru's

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Well, next year we will be racing Wissota Super Stock. When these guy's say stock, they mean stock. Briefly here are some of the engine rules:

1. Stock Chebbie block, not one of the race blocks, and of course cast iron. Only factory 4 bolt caps, no splayed main cap bolts.

2. Stock Chebbie crank, forged or cast. Must have a standard production part number. No knife edging or lightening other then to balance.

3. Stock GM rods, no aftermarket....Thinking maybe the new style "powder rods" with some good bolts?

4,. Stock Chebbie heads, max valve sizes 1.94" and 1.6"--No Vortech or aftermarket heads, no aluminum heads....We have a couple sets of 461 castings. Oh yeah, no porting allowed, the Tech guys have templates of the runners, both intake and exhaust.

5. Stock cast iron Chebbie intake, no marine intakes....We have a couple of the chebbie spread bore intakes with EGR provisions. Allegedly with the EGR circuit plugged it is a good flowing intake????

6. Flat top pistons, any brand or construction, can not go above the deck....

I've been away from Chebbies for a number of years, interested in gathering some input from all the chebbie engine guys.

Thanks in advance for the help.

We[[, It looks like with those restrictions put on engine construction you will mainly be trying to get rid of horsepower thieves like friction and power robbing accesories, by this I mean high volume oil pumps. Stay with the stock style pump for pressure and oil volume. Next you will have to do a real exact blueprint and probably a lot of machining to get the right clearances. You will probably be able to run a modified winged sump, I suggest a "canton"
Crankshaft scraper and rear baffle to keep the oil off the crank. Plugging the oil drainback holes on cam gallery area with plugs or grub screws and drilling a 1/8 hole in them. This stops oil from falling onto the crank but still leaves enough to oil around the lifters and cam lobes. restricters in the lifter oil gallerys to keep a resonable amount of oil in the sump, especially in the turns !!!!. Blueprint your rods from good chevy castings good arp Bolts and shoot peening the rods, helps them live. Now here is a good trick for you crankshaft. Get your Iron or steel crank and grind it down to the smallest bearing daiameter there are 2 advantages, you want a rounded radius in the corners of the journal, this prevents a cracking sorce. It also makes the bearing surface smaller so it cuts down on friction. Some of the chevy intakes were aluminum spreadbores. rarer ones were the LT1 and Z28 Holley 4 barrels pricey but if the rules allow them and are not rigidly requiring you to stick with the cast iron, you can pick up some horsepower here. If you are stuck with the cast iron manifold you can radius the edge under the carbutettor pad where the plenum has that right angel turn into the runners, this smooths out flow and increases flow velocity through the runners and into the intake ports.
Fasteners especially nuts and bolts on the intake manifold get the stainless bolts as these have a lower level of Heat transfer through them and into the manifold and fuel air mix. Heat shields right along the bottom of the manifold to keep the hot oil off. Ceramics on the pistons, heads, ports, and top and bottom of the manifold to keep the heat where it should be and out of the manifold. Of coarse you use very effective heat shielded intake gaskets with the heat riser blocked off. Fuel heat control, use a wide stainless steel flat plate under the carburettor to keep the heat soak out of the carburettor and fuel. Check the rules and see if you can run a cool can, if you can dont just use ice, use dry ice. We usually start the engine have it running, and just before you head out onto the track dump the dry ice into the can then and slam the slid shut. Run stainless fuel line wrapped in insualation to keep fuel cool. You should be able to run a carb spacer, this helps horsepower in high revs. same for multi angle valve seats, and backcutting the valves. Cutting the valve stems to a smaller diameter to lighten them and running the crower H5 springs, they conrol the valve train with less seat open pressure, thus saving horsepower. So really a lot of it is how much you can modify the parts, and what the scutineers allow. And of coarse you have to tear the motor down for them too, so they can do a quick trackside check if you are constantly out front. Then a lot of it is how you set up your car and it's suspension and what the rules allow there. I have not mentioned mechaical cam grinds because is the track short or long oval track ? one other trick is to have an on off toggle switch on the exciter wire to your alternator, when racing, after the flag goes up turn off the power to the alternator, this gives you a bit more power to the rear wheels. turn it back on when the caution light is on and when driving back into the pit area, so this should keep you busy in the office.

You didn't mention bore,stroke or cubic inch restrictions. Rods have to be stock,but do they have to be chevy? Olds has a nice 6 inch rod,gm part no. on it! They check port inlet/outlet only? You can make quite a bit of power just cleaning up the bowl. Make a carb spacer out of hardwood,doesn't tranfer heat.Remember what I told you about engine placement,makes a huge difference in handling. Hank

Originally Posted by halftanked

You didn't mention bore,stroke or cubic inch restrictions. Rods have to be stock,but do they have to be chevy? Olds has a nice 6 inch rod,gm part no. on it! They check port inlet/outlet only? You can make quite a bit of power just cleaning up the bowl. Make a carb spacer out of hardwood,doesn't tranfer heat.Remember what I told you about engine placement,makes a huge difference in handling. Hank

360 cubes, stock 5.7 rods......

Dave, get this book. I think this is the second book this guy Wayne Scraba has written about tips and tricks. It looks like you can get one for $2.80 plus shipping and handling. http://www.amazon.com/1001-More-High...e=UTF8&s=books

I would also urge you to investigate thermal and low resistance coatings.....
http://hpcoatings.com/
http://www.polydyn.com/hpec.htm
http://www.swaintech.com/
http://www.performancecoatings.com/
http://www.embeeperformance.com/

You didn't say whether you have to run a hydraulic cam. If so, make spacers to push the plunger down in the lifter body until you have only 0.005" to 0.010" plunger travel. Hey, it's still a hydraulic, but it's about as close to being a solid as you'll get. NHRA guys do it all the time.

Dave,check and see if chev bowtie heads are allowed,if so have them angle milled,they are legal out here,as are 180 degree headers. hank

No bowtie parts, no angle plug heads....We do have 180 headers. Wissota designed the engine rules to keep the biggest checkbook from ruling the race and put it back in the hands of the chassis guy and the driver. Should be a lot of fun...

Originally Posted by techinspector1

Dave, get this book. I think this is the second book this guy Wayne Scraba has written about tips and tricks. It looks like you can get one for $2.80 plus shipping and handling. http://www.amazon.com/1001-More-High...e=UTF8&s=books

I would also urge you to investigate thermal and low resistance coatings.....
http://hpcoatings.com/
http://www.polydyn.com/hpec.htm
http://www.swaintech.com/
http://www.performancecoatings.com/
http://www.embeeperformance.com/

You didn't say whether you have to run a hydraulic cam. If so, make spacers to push the plunger down in the lifter body until you have only 0.005" to 0.010" plunger travel. Hey, it's still a hydraulic, but it's about as close to being a solid as you'll get. NHRA guys do it all the time.

Solid lifter cams are ok--no oversize lifters though.... Oh yeah, Holley 4412 two barrell carb, blueprinting only, no jet plates are circuit altering.... Can't even use the thin throttle plates or grind the screw on the throttle plates...

Just got done reading your rule book.I'm not familiar with the world product heads they allow,but they might be the way to go. I saw that the 180 headers are out,but there was nothing said about how far you can move to the left,just no.1 plug lining up within 1 in. of lower ball joint centerline.Fitting headers on that side would be the biggest restriction. Hank

Originally Posted by halftanked

You didn't mention bore,stroke or cubic inch restrictions. Rods have to be stock,but do they have to be chevy? Olds has a nice 6 inch rod,gm part no. on it! They check port inlet/outlet only? You can make quite a bit of power just cleaning up the bowl. Make a carb spacer out of hardwood,doesn't tranfer heat.Remember what I told you about engine placement,makes a huge difference in handling. Hank

The Old's 6inch rod was great about 10-15 yrs. ago.They are very heavy.
Dave is much better off with the newer style "powdered metal" rod.

We run the world torker heads in our class, I have just finished building up a motor for this season, fresh on the engine stand. One thing with the torkers though is that you have to clean all the sharp nmachining edges off the ports, to smooth out the flow. But they are worth another 25 to 30 HP over stock iron heads if done right.

I just ordered a set of the World Products heads that Wissota allows for the class... Next spring when everything is together we'll see how they match up in horsepower with the old 461 heads. With all the limitations on the rules, as Southerner said it is going to take some real careful build on the engines, and a lot of attention to the little things. We went to a Wissota show on Friday night, had 23 of the Super Stock cars on a very tacky track. They all appeared to be very close on horsepower and the winner and the others up front were the one's who read the track right, made the correct chassis adjustments, and had the best driver!!! I warned Greg on the way home that he gets only 2 years in one of these, then we are going to build a late model!!!! Last night was our final night in the Factory stock car, Greg got a 2nd in the heat and 3rd in the feature. We didn't even start racing till a week before mid season and wound up in the top 10 on points!!!! Not a bad year at all!!!

Originally Posted by techinspector1

Dave, get this book. I think this is the second book this guy Wayne Scraba has written about tips and tricks. It looks like you can get one for $2.80 plus shipping and handling. http://www.amazon.com/1001-More-High...e=UTF8&s=books

I would also urge you to investigate thermal and low resistance coatings.....
http://hpcoatings.com/
http://www.polydyn.com/hpec.htm
http://www.swaintech.com/
http://www.performancecoatings.com/
http://www.embeeperformance.com/

You didn't say whether you have to run a hydraulic cam. If so, make spacers to push the plunger down in the lifter body until you have only 0.005" to 0.010" plunger travel. Hey, it's still a hydraulic, but it's about as close to being a solid as you'll get. NHRA guys do it all the time.

Thanks Tech, ordered this book and a couple others, checking on the thermal coatings and waiting to hear back from the Wissota Tech people...

This is that motor that I was discribing above, Tha only second hand peice is the block, getting scrutineered this week and then into the car.

Looks great!!!! How's about finding us some big time sponsors down there, and we could just race year round!!!! I know a couple of the sprint car guys who went there for a winter, said the racing is great in Austrailia and New Zealand.....