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Topics - jayb

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1
FE Engine Dyno Results / 605" SOHC, 1040 HP, 846 Tq
« on: May 08, 2026, 08:35:38 AM »
Performance Summary:
      Cubic Inches:      605         Dyno brand:  Superflow 901
      Power Adder:     None          Where dynoed:  FE  Power
      Peak Horsepower:  1039.9  @ 6900
      Peak Torque:  843.7@5000, 846.2@5900 (?, may be a blip in the curve)

Horsepower and Torque Curves:






Engine Specifications:
   Block brand, material, finished bore size, other notes:

Shelby aluminum block, 4.500" bore, offset bored to a 4.700" bore spacing,
Darton sleeves with O-ring grooves, SCE O-rings for copper head gaskets
     
   Crankshaft brand, cast or forged, stroke, journal size:

Crower billet crank, throws moved to line up with the spread bore spacing, stock main
journal size, 2.100" rod journal size
     
   Connecting Rods brand, material, center to center distance, end sizes, bolts:

Crower billet SBC rods, 6.625" length, .927 pins

   Piston brand, material (caster, hypereutectic or forged), dish/dome volume, static CR:

CP forged pistons, designed to work with offset bore (the dome on
the pistons is moved to line up with the heads), 13:1

   Main Bearings, Rod Bearings, Cam Bearings brand and size:

125M Main bearings, Clevite rod bearings

   Piston rings brand, size, other notes:

Total Seal rings, steel top 0.9mm, Napier 2nd 0.9mm, 3mm oil ring
standard tension

   Oil Pump, pickup, and drive:

Peterson Fluid Systems 6 stage dry sump pump

   Oil pan, windage tray, oil filter adapter:

Custom fabricated oil pan and windage tray

   Camshaft brand, type (hyd/solid, flat tappet or roller), lift and duration (adv and @.050")

Comp SOHC cams, 323/315 advertised, 296/288 @ .050, 114 LSA, .739/.739 lift

   Lifters brand, type:

Not required ;-)

   Timing chain and timing cover:

Pond timing cover, gears, and chain

   Cylinder heads brand, material, port and chamber information:

No-name heads,  welded to raise intake and exhaust ports, fully ported

   Cylinder head flow in cfm at inches of lift (28" H2O pressure drop):
      Intake               Exhaust
      .100               .100
      .200               .200
      .300               .300
      .400               .400
      .500               .500
      .600               .600
      .700   465            .700   330
      .800               .800

   Flow bench used, location:

Superflow, R&R Performance

   Intake valve brand, head size, stem size:

Trick Titanium, 2.35", 11/32"

   Exhaust valve brand, head size, stem size:

Trick Titanium, 1.900", 11/32"
   
   Valve springs brand, part number, specs:

PAC springs, 190 on seat, 540 open

   Retainers and locks brand, part number, specs:

PAC tool steel retainers, Manley locks

   Rocker arm brand, type (adjustable or non-adj), material, ratio

FE Power non-adjustable rockers, stock ratio (~1.3:1)

   Rocker shafts and stands, brand, material:

Precision Oil  Pumps shafts

   Pushrods brand, type, length:

Just say NO to pushrods.

   Valve covers, brand, type:

Blue Thunder

   Distributor brand, advance curve information:

Distributorless ignition, crank and cam sensors, 38 total

   Harmonic balancer brand:

ATI

   Water pump brand, type (mechanical or electric):

CVR Electric Pump with FE  Power adapters

   Intake manifold brand, material, porting information:

Fabricated sheet metal intake

   Carburetor(s) brand, type

Accufab Dominator throttle bodies (2), Ford Racing 80# Injectors

   Exhaust manifolds or headers brand, type:

Custom built headers for chassis, 2-1/8 to 2/1/4 to 2-3/8 step,
merge collectors with 3" choke

2
FE Technical Forum / 605" SOHC, 1040 HP
« on: May 06, 2026, 11:05:19 AM »
This is a project that has been in the works for about 10 years.  Here's a couple photos of the engine
on the dyno:







A couple pics of the best dyno pulls so far:







This is basically the same engine that I ran in my Galaxie at Drag Week in 2009, and that I
also ran in my Shelby clone in 2011, and 2014-2016.  It is now 605 cubic inches and well over
1000 HP, but it has had a lot of problems along the way.  Here is some history:

Back in 2009 I was still attending Drag Week every year and had found that the biggest cubic
inch engines made competing at the event and winning much more likely.  With a lot of cubes
you can dial back the radical valvetrain and compression requirements and still make enough
power to be competitive, so I wanted to build an FE that was as large as possible.  I had
just competed in Drag Week 2008 with my 520" SOHC Galaxie, but after repeated rocker arm failures
I had not been able to finish the event.  T&D had just come out with their new rockers which
looked to be a lot better than the Dove, RAS, and Ford rockers I had been using.  So I wanted
to head back to Drag Week with the Galaxie again, but with better rockers and more cubes.

I remember talking on the phone with Wes Adams about this, and he gave me the idea of spreading the
bore spacing of the block, in order to make a bigger bore. I was able to get a
partially machined aluminum block from Shelby, and had my local shop rebore it to 4.70" bore
spacing, up from the normal 4.63".  With O-rings in the sleeves and copper head gaskets I was
able to go to a 4.500" bore.  Along with a 4.6" stroke billet crank from Crower, the short
block was up to 585 cubic inches.

On the dyno the engine made 935 HP with Hilborn injectors converted to EFI, and at Drag Week
2009 the Galaxie ran low 9.50s and won the class.  I made two passes on the last day, and was
lucky that the first one was good enough for the win, because I lost a T&D rocker on the second
pass.  They had been brand new with only 50 miles on them when I left for the event.

I skipped Drag Week 2010, went back in 2011 with the engine in my 69 Shelby clone, but dropped
out after the first day due to water in the oil, related to the offset boring on the block (the offset
boring had opened up the casting on a couple cylinders, so that the back of two sleeves were exposed
to the water jacket.  I used a chemical sealant to seal up the block, but it gave up between the first
and second tracks).  Missed the event again in 2012, went with the Mach 1 in 2013, and back with the
SOHC and the Shelby clone in 2014.  That year, the #5 Crower billet rod broke during the Drag Week
test and tune, and I was out of the event again.

The rod failure was a big surprise.  I had not scrimped on the quality of the bottom end components
and wondered if it was just a defective rod, or if there was something else going on.  I sent the rod
to Crower for analysis, and never heard a thing back.  Eventually I had the block
repaired and rebuilt the engine, went back to Drag Week in 2015 and 2016, finishing first and second in
class respectively. I dealt with multiple rocker failures both years, and on teardown after 2016 I found
the #5 connecting rod cracked and ready to fail; I was lucky it hadn't let go.  So obviously the
connecting rod that broke earlier was not defective; there was just something about the engine that
was hurting the #5 rod.

So, ten years ago I was faced with two major problems with the engine, the repetitive rocker arm
failures and the #5 connecting rod failures.

The rocker arm problem was addressed with my own design rockers, which I designed and started
building a few years later.  They feature full time pressure oiling to a bushing in the roller wheel,
rather than relying on oil splash to needle bearings like all other SOHC rockers do.  At this point
I'm pretty happy with that solution.

The #5 rod is a head scratcher though.  Due to the spread bore spacing on the block, the #1, #4, #5, and #8
rods are not centered in the piston; they are offset by the amount of the change in bore spacing, 0.105". 
But if this was the problem, why was the issue with the #5 rod only?

There was no good answer to this question.  I worked with Blair on this and he ordered a Crower
crank for me that had the throws offset to line up properly with the spread bores.  The hope was that this
would solve the rod problem.  I also wanted to move up to a 4.75" stroke, so Blair also specified 2.100"
 journals and small block Chev Crower rods that are supposed to be good for over 1000 HP.  I'm a little
skeptical about that, but I guess we'll see; so far so good.  With the 4.75" stroke and the 4.50" bore,
the engine is 605", probably the biggest cube FE that has ever gone together.

Various other projects came and went over the last several years, delaying my progress on this engine.  I finally
started getting it together in February.  In addition to the new crank and rods, and the rockers, I updated the
cams and valves for the engine, and put in a new dry sump pump (the last one was trashed by needle bearing shards
after rocker arm failures at Drag Week 2016).

It was good to finally get the engine up and running on the dyno.  In 2016 it made 1002 HP, so it has shown a nice
increase in power so far.  I have more dyno work to do on it, with some more tuning I think it might pick up a little
more; we will see. 

Then, unfortunately, I have to tear it all down.  I need to mag the rods and make sure that the crack on the #5 rod
is not coming back again.  Another thing I recently learned, courtesy of Ferrea, is that titanium valves do not mesh well with
very hard valve seats.  The heads I have were built with powdered metal seats, which are very hard.  To be safe
I will get them replaced with ductile iron seats.  I want to do everything possible to put this engine together
one last time, so I don't have to tear it apart for repairs again. 

I put a post in the dyno section with all the details on this engine.  With luck I will have it
reassembled and back in the car by the end of the summer.  It would be nice to get back on the track again...

https://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=13176.0


3
FE Technical Forum / End of the Line for FE Power Cast Aluminum Products
« on: April 09, 2026, 11:23:41 AM »
The day after I posted the information about the new intake castings, I got a
very unwelcome call from my foundry.  They are shutting down the production
line which builds casting molds from a particular type of sand, which happens to be
the sand that I use for all of my cast aluminum products. 

Over the last week  and a half I have contacted a bunch of foundries within
about a 300 mile radius of me, but have not been able to find one who is
interested in my business, or is able to meet my pricing requirements.  My
business is just too small for most of the foundries out there.  As a result,
I have no option but to discontinue manufacturing cast aluminum parts.

My existing foundry has offered me a "last buy" opportunity, but I have to place
any orders by an April 24 deadline.  Unfortunately, they have also increased the price of
all my castings by 50% for this last buy.  Nevertheless, if anyone is interested
 in any of my cast aluminum products, now is the time.  More details are in the
Vendor Classifieds post here:

https://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=13138.0

FYI FE Power will continue in business selling books, making CVR water pump
adapters, SOHC rocker arms and rocker arms for my cylinder heads, etc.  Also,
in a few months I will pick back up with clear valve
covers, hopefully a pentroof style along with my normal Cobra Jet style.  I have
also been working on SOHC clear valve covers, hopefully available sometime this
summer.

Also there is some possibility that another company may be interested in purchasing
my foundry tooling and machining fixtures and continuing with these products.  This
would be great, but frankly I am not hopeful this will happen; no one has ever
expressed interest in doing this before.

Thanks to all the folks who have supported my business over the past 15 years.
It's too bad that I won't be able to keep making cool aluminum parts, but I will
continue with this forum and the business for a couple years yet - Jay

4
Vendor Classifieds / Last Chance for FE Power Cast Aluminum Products
« on: April 09, 2026, 11:20:29 AM »
UPDATE:  The last buy opportunity has passed, and the only cast
aluminum parts I have left are listed below.  Thanks, Jay

ORIGINAL POST:
As mentioned in the post on the main forum
( https://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=13139.0),
FE Power will be discontinuing cast aluminum parts due to
a closure of the production line at my foundry.  They have
offered a last buy opportunity, but at a 50% price increase
for the castings. 

Last buy opportunity for new aluminum castings will expire
after April 24, 2026; this is a firm deadline.

I do have some existing inventory at the normal pricing, which
is listed below, along with last buy pricing .  If this inventory
is sold before the April 24 deadline I can place a last buy
order for more, but after the April 24 deadline no more can be
ordered. 

For any of these products, I will need payment in advance, as
described below. Any questions, please feel free to give me
a call at 952-428-9035 or send me an email at jayb@fepower.net.
Please no text messages.


Tunnel Port Cylinder Heads:
   

   - 2  1 pair of TPSE heads in stock, these are the
            ones with the improved exhaust port,
            $3400 + shipping for each pair
   - 1 pair of TPSE heads and 2 1 pair of TP (standard
            exhaust port) raw head castings, $3400 +
            shipping for each pair, $2000 non-refundable
            deposit required to hold these castings,
            delivery in 3-4 months.
   
FE Power Cylinder Heads*:





   - 2 pair of RE version in stock, raw castings,
              $3400 per pair + shipping, delivery of these
              in 3-4 months
   
*Note that these heads are part of the complete FE Power cylinder head package, and require
   an intake adapter and rocker arm system.  We do have intake adapters
       and rockers reserved to go with these heads.


Intake Manifolds for FE Power Cylinder Heads:



   - 3 8V HR Intakes in stock, $1630 + shipping



   - 5 4 3 2 4V HR Intakes in stock, $1630 + shipping




   - 2 8V Tunnel Ram intakes in stock, both blems,
            $2150 + shipping


 

5
FE Technical Forum / Let's play Guess The Casting
« on: March 31, 2026, 11:11:53 AM »
I recently designed and had cast three new intake manifolds.  Pictures of the raw castings, without showing any of the key identifying features, are below.  Can you guess what type of induction system these castings are for? 

Casting #1:





Casting #2, very similar to casting #1, yet different:





Casting #3.  This is the hard one.  The two castings shown actually go together:





Good luck.  Sorry, but there will be no prizes awarded for the correct answers  ;D ;D  I will let the cat out of the bag in a few days...

6
Non-FE Discussion Forum / Update on Calliope Engine Project
« on: March 21, 2026, 04:37:13 PM »
It's been about two years since I've provided an update on this project.  Here's the start of it in case you want to read about the beginnings:

https://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=12024.0

Over the last couple years I've acquired a new, larger CNC machine, intended for another project but also useful for this one.  Finally got that installed last summer, and set up over the fall.  I had previously designed all the fixturing to hold the head, so about a month and a half ago I got the aluminum tooling and jig plate needed for this project.  It took me over a month, working in my spare time, to get the fixtures machined and bolted together but last weekend I finally got it assembled and installed on the machine.  At that point I couldn't wait, so I stuck the head on there and started the first machining operations.    Rather than go through all the details I made a video of the project so far, linked below.  This is a really cool project, and hopefully in a few months I will have a completed head to display...

https://youtu.be/9zh59laIu-k

7
FE Technical Forum / MOVED: FE Performance Top-End Parts-Ported heads,crower lifters,FPP Rockers,Ignition
« on: February 09, 2026, 07:39:07 PM »
This topic has been moved to Private Classifieds.

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=13075.0

8
FE Technical Forum / MOVED: Selling out
« on: December 13, 2025, 09:07:29 AM »
This topic has been moved to Private Classifieds.

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=13014.0

9
FE Technical Forum / FE to C4 Bellhousing
« on: November 20, 2025, 09:02:30 AM »
Performance Automatics used to make these, but apparently they have stopped.  As a result these bellhousings are now extremely difficult to find.  I've toyed with the idea of tooling up to make these myself, but I am pretty well buried in my existing projects.  One of my customers has found a company who may be interested in doing this, JW Performance transmission in Florida. Apparently they already make bellhousings, and could tool up for these but haven't decided whether to go ahead with it.  This post is designed to get an idea of how many people would be interested in one of these if they became available in limited quantities.

If we approach this company and they don't want to do it, I might be interested in taking up the project when my work load lightens up a bit.  For anyone who doesn't know, foundry tooling for such a project is going to be expensive, in excess of $15K, so if I were going to do it I would need deposits from potential customers.  Then, as usually happens, it takes a long time to make the tooling, cast the prototypes, write the machining programs, finish the prototypes, test, etc.  before production can start.  So for me anyway, this is 1-2 years away.

If this post generates a bunch of positive responses I will contact this company and direct them here for information on interest in the parts.  Thanks, Jay

10
Private Classifieds / MOVED: Beneficial to put CJ valves in a 390 GT Head?
« on: November 03, 2025, 02:52:44 PM »
This topic has been moved to FE Technical Forum.

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=12985.0

11
FE Technical Forum / MOVED: Dipstick and tube
« on: October 28, 2025, 05:50:34 AM »
This topic has been moved to Private Classifieds.

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=12973.0

12
Vendor Classifieds / Big Ford Parts Sale, Minneapolis Area
« on: September 12, 2025, 09:28:26 AM »
My friend Ron Christenson is having a sale of Ford parts.  Lots of FE stuff, see the attached pictures.  Contact info is below:

Saturday, September 20, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Sunday, September 21, 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

2277 Highway 36
Roseville (St. Paul), Minnesota 55113

Email for more info:  rpcfomoco@yahoo.com
Phone:  Ron 612-282-0426
















13
FE Technical Forum / Cammer Rocker Problems
« on: May 30, 2025, 10:41:44 PM »
I have a customer who is running a race SOHC engine with T&D rockers.  He has been having problems with these rockers for quite some time, with one particulary vexing issue.  His #2 intake rocker has been regularly breaking. At his most recent race the rocker broke again, and part of it actually exited the engine through the valve cover!  Obviously a violent failure.

I have had my share of problems with T&D rockers but they have been confined mostly to needle bearing failures.  A long time ago I had a piston to valve clearance issue that caused some bending of the rocker body around the roller wheel axle, basically oblonging the hole, but outside of that I've found the T&D rocker bodies themselves to be quite strong.  To hear of one actually breaking and blowing a hole in the valve cover is really surprising, especially since it happens repetitively.

My customer has put a borescope into the cylinders and hasn't found evidence of any piston to valve clearance problems.  He also says his engine has been gone through recently by a knowledgeable SOHC guy and doesn't have coil bind issues.  He is inclined to blame the quality of the T&D rockers for these failures, but I am not so sure that this is the problem.

I have a few thoughts of what could possibly be going on with this engine, but certainly can't say I know for sure.  I thought I would throw this situation out for comment.  Any ideas?

14
FE Technical Forum / MOVED: Back to looking for a useable 428 block
« on: May 19, 2025, 05:26:43 PM »
This topic has been moved to Private Classifieds.

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=12770.0

15
FE Technical Forum / Autolite Inline Carbs
« on: March 18, 2025, 09:01:10 AM »
A while back there was a thread on Autolite Inline carburetors, and I was very surprised to see that Kelly Coffield  was offering parts and rebuild services for these carbs.  I had no idea that anyone was doing this; I figured that the carbs were dead ended, with no hope of ever getting parts for them and making them tunable.  As mentioned in that thread, back in the early 1980s I ran a set of those carbs on a home made individual runner manifold, on a 494" 385 series engine that I was running in my Mercury Cyclone at the time.  I did not have good luck with the carbs, but I was pretty inexperienced back then and in hindsight figured that I just didn't know how to make them work.  The two carbs that I ran were eventually sold to a good friend of mine to fund college tuition, and he had them all these years. 

My friend had also acquired a second set of those carbs, and run them with his own design IR intake on a 385 series engine.  He didn't have great luck with them either, and he was a pretty experienced hot rodder, but he did have better luck than I did.  He's in his 80s now, and was looking to start selling some stuff.  After the thread on this forum, and talking to Kelly, I got together with him and made a deal for all four of the carbs.

My wife has family in Iowa and I get down there fairly frequently, so it wasn't a big deal for me to get to Kelly's place, show him the carbs, and talk about the best way to proceed with them.  They all needed a fair amount of work.  The set I originally owned had been cannibalized for parts to use on the other set, and the other set had been drilled and tapped for attachment points for velocity stacks, plus the vents had been tapped to put a screw in fuel filter (of all things) on top of the vent, to prevent fuel from sloshing out of the vent during acceleration.  There were also other cracks and defects in both carbs.  I dropped them off with Kelly for disassembly and his analysis of what the four carbs needed.

The two carbs that I used to have had been polished at one point, and they cleaned up pretty easily, but the other two carbs needed a lot of time to get cleaned up properly.  Also on disassembly of the four carbs, several of the screws that held the butterflies to shafts broke off, leaving the ends of the screws stuck in the shafts.  Since the shafts have to be dead straight, heating them to get the screws out is not a great option.  Discussions with Kelly revealed that he had designed and built what he called a "Big Shot" accelerator pump lever, to increase the accelerator pump volume; the accelerator pump issue was one that I'd had trouble with on my first go around with these carbs.  Kelly had prints for the throttle shafts and the pump levers, so he sent those to me and I took a couple days to machine some new throttle shafts and pump levers for these carbs.  The throttle shafts were tricky because as soon as you put a deep cut into hardened steel you create a stress riser that makes the shaft want to bend.  However I had dealt with this issue before, with the throttle shafts on the IR intake setup for my FE Power cylinder head package, and so was able to straighten the shafts after machining.  When finished I sent the shafts and pump levers down to Kelly for assembly.

In the meantime Kelly had been doing some welding on the carbs, to fix the cracks and ground out areas, and also to fill in the tapped holes that had been used for attaching the velocity stacks and fuel filters.  When that was all finished and welds cleaned up, he also glass beaded the two carbs that needed the welding, to provide a nice uniform satin finish.  He reassembled the carbs with a bunch of new parts, including floats, needle and seats, accelerator pump check valves, jets, etc.  He also put new tags on three of the four carbs, because they had been missing.

The pictures below show the finished carbs.  I was very pleased with the results, and have plans to run a pair on a tunnel port engine (after I design an intake and get it cast), and also a pair on an SOHC, where I will have to fabricate an intake.  Just from an eye candy perspective they are very cool, and I am hoping that I can get them to run reasonably well on a nice street engine.  We will see...










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