My new A Head 618 - first pulls tonight

Wheelie58 December 10th 2012, 11:57 pm

Since breaking a wrist pin in my 605, I have been steadily working on an upgraded replacement. I stayed with a 4.5 stroke, just because I was comfortable with it.
I will post a complete build spec on the proven builds section in the next few weeks.
Here are the basics...
Eliminator block with 4.675 bore, Bryant 4.5 crank and Oliver steel rods. Diamond pistons, Comp 60 MM cam, Crower Enduramax .937 lifters.
The heads are why this project took so long. Several months ago, I decided to make my own "500 CFM" A head using regular Trick Flow a460 castings. I had lots of coaching from a couple of buddies that are very experienced head porters, but did all of the work myself. No way of keeping up with the electricity that I burned up on Engine Systems flow bench and grinding room. The port ended up being very big and very unusual in design. A local shop offered their 5 axis CNC services and digitized my ports and chamber. What was really cool was being right in the middle of the process. There is still more development to be completed, but I wanted to get the first set on the dyno and in my car! Some of the forum members took a peek at a freshly CNCed head that was not on display at PRI. The engine had not yet made the dyno, and I did not want to say much until it ran.
Tonight it ran.
Only made a couple of pulls but the numbers are encouraging.
The engine has a ported cast Trick Flow tunnel ram, and due to peer pressure and other threats from my buddies, the first pulls were on gasoline (C14) and a single 4 barrel carburetor. I just made a single top for the ram. The Shop needed some gas numbers for reference. Never fear, the Flying Toilets and Methanol will be on there this week.
I would not let Ted (who owns the dyno...) take it over 7400 but it made 1167 HP @ 7407. We did not start the pull low enough to catch peak torque, but it made 924@5800.
In the morning I might put a pair of gas carburetors on it before the injection goes on.
I gotta really thank Ted Fischer at Engine Systems for letting me wear out his shop. With Ted's guidance, I performed every machining operation on this engine myself. Also, one of the most experienced engine builders in the South, Frank Bate, always keeps me going down the right road and tells me where to grind....and where not to.
More info to come.....
Time to clean the dyno room.....

Keith

cletus66 December 11th 2012, 12:09 am

Nice work !!!! Sounds like a monster !! Cool

KEVIN S December 11th 2012, 12:30 am

Outstanding work Keith. Do you have any picks of the heads to share? Really nice numbers from a single carb A-headed deal especially with the limited tuning time. Keep us posted. You have a pm.