This year I'm displaying my products at the PRI show in Indianapolis. Drove all day to the show yesterday and spent most of the day today setting up the booth. I have a few new products to display at the show, plus the normal parts. This post is a quick overview of the display and products.
Here's the booth after it has all been set up. The booth number is 7137:
The photo below shows some of the valve cover prototypes that I have machined recently. The day before Thanksgiving I finally got some prototype valve cover castings with the surface finish quality that I require. Its been exasperating that it has taken this long, but I think the foundry has it right now and can deliver good quality castings. I expect to get the first production order of castings in January. A couple of the castings have been powder coated, and some have been engraved; I will be offering these options to the folks on my valve cover list when I get the production batch.
Also of note in this photo is a 351C Hilborn EFI setup, which of course bolts onto my intake adapter. It can be fitted with butterflies up to 2-5/8" diameter. Since I made over 900 HP with the 2-7/16" butterflies on the Hilborn setup on the SOHC, I'm sure this induction system is capable of those kinds of numbers:
I'm also introducing some new products at the show. First is the billet intake shown in the two photos below. Some of you may have seen the red 3D printed version of this intake at the FE Reunion last April. I now have the machining programs written for this intake and have made my first prototype. There are a few minor machining errors but overall it looks pretty good I think. This manifold will bolt onto my standard 13001 intake adapter, or any 351C with stock type heads for that matter. It uses a Holley LSX top, but I am also considering machining a billet top for this intake. That would be more expensive, though. I am currently working on a similar intake to bolt onto my high riser intake adapter. Once that is finished, probably mid-January, I will be making both these billet intakes, plus my tunnel port billet intake (already shown in the Member Projects thread) available for general sale. Price on the billet intake for the #13001 will be $1500:
Next on the new product list is a set of SOHC rocker arms. These are unique in that they replace the needle bearings in the roller wheel with bronze bushings, like the more modern roller lifters. The rockers are drilled with oil holes so that the bushing is provided with full time pressure oiling. I have burned up way too many needle bearings in my SOHCs, with the resultant engine damage, and am looking forward to testing these rockers out on my engines. Assuming they pass muster after a summer of running and next year's Drag Week, I will make them available for sale. Photos of the rockers are below. Note that they have a roller tip, so they will require lash caps of varying thicknesses in order to set the lash:
Last, but not least, is the FE Power cylinder head I've been talking about for some time. The head design is not yet complete; it still needs the water jacket design, and a tweak or two to the intake port. But, for the most part the basic concept is done. Below is a picture of the intake port side of the head. The intake port is nearly the exact same size as a standard FE medium riser port. However, the port is raised substantially; the floor of the port is about 2" above the deck surface:
With an intake port this high, of course the valve cover rail has to be raised as well. Way back when I was doing my intake adapter design for the high riser, I was thinking about doing my own cylinder head, so I had the HR intake adapter cast with the valve cover rail over an inch higher than a standard high riser valve cover rail. Basically, this means I can machine the high riser intake adapter casting to fit these ports, and maintain the standard FE valve cover rail shape, despite the radically raised ports in the heads. Basically, the valve cover rail is just raised up high enough on the heads and intake to clear the revised intake port.
I plan to make three different intake setups available that will fit this intake adapter. One will be a billet intake like the one shown previously, another will be a single four spider style intake, and the last will be a crossram style individual runner intake, which I hope to be able to design so that it will fit under the hood of a Mustang, Fairlane, or Torino. The billet intake and spider intake could be either carbed or EFI, but the crossram IR intake will be EFI only.
Along with the raised ports, they are also straightened, to take the hook out of the normal FE port. This requires radically offset rocker arms, a 1.4" offset on the intake rockers and a slight 0.1" offset on the exhausts, to clear the intake ports. The picture below shows the 3D printed rocker assembly. There are 8 3/8" bolts holding the stands in place to allow for big valve spring pressures, and end stand supports for the shafts of course. The shafts are normal FE size, but there are no through bolts to weaken the shafts and the oiling holes are positioned differently than stock. This valvetrain will still oil through the rocker shafts, like the stock oiling system.
On the exhaust side, the ports are radically redone. They exit the heads at a 45 degree angle, or straight out horizontally with the engine in the car. Obviously, custom headers will be required, and the exhaust will not fit in a shock tower car without some shock tower surgery. A picture of the exhaust side of the head is shown below:
The chambers, shown in the photos below, are similar to other modern, heart shaped chambers with a centrally located spark plug and plenty of quench area. Valve spacing is 2.025", and valve sizes are 2.25" on the intake and 1.65" on the exhaust, and valve stems are 5/16". The valve angle is also decreased to 11 degrees, from the standard FE angle of 13 degrees, and the valves have been moved in the chamber to provide better flow into the cylinder than the stock FE valve position.
Obviously, with such a radical revamp of the basic FE cylinder head, a lot of things on the engine have to change. If you want to run these heads, you will have to get the heads, the rockers and shafts, the intake adapter, the intake, and new pistons to match the revised valve location. Plus, you would have to build your own headers, and cut the shock towers if you have a shock tower car.
What's the payoff? Preliminary flow tests show that with the stock FE port size, the intake port flows 405 cfm at .700" lift, using a 4.25" bore for the cylinder. The exhaust flows 270 cfm at .700", into a 2" OD header pipe. The water jackets will be designed so that extensive porting will be possible. A 500 cfm FE intake port may be possible with this design, after porting. The photo below shows a 3D print of the ports:
Obviously, I'm a long way from having these available. But personally, I really want a set
I plan to finish the design of the water jackets and intake port soon, and then get the intake options designed and 3D printed. Next step would be to build a billet set of these heads for testing purposes on my 725 HP dyno mule. I would expect the heads to add 100+ HP over the ported Edelbrocks that are on that engine now. Assuming that testing all goes well, I will start looking into getting the heads and intakes cast and making a limited quantity available for sale.
I hope I get to see some forum members at the PRI show. Please stop by and introduce yourselves if you make it to Indy - Jay
