H Rebuild

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Lance

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Lance

The H doesn't corner very well -- what are you going to do with more high end horsepower?

Couple of things -- step back and look at the cast manifold on ONE side (not cross flow) of the engine and the little carb on the inlet. Anymore questions on where the bottle necks are? Seriously, think headwork - by itself -- will do you little good without a tubular manifold and a bigger, or multi throat carb? And to take advantage off all that, you'll need more lift and duration on a custom ground cam, maybe a crank triggered igntion that's stable at high RPM?, etc. etc.

Next question is why are you hot rodding it? The H engine is made to shine at high torque, low RPM situations -- and not high RPM horsepower. The whole engine and drive train is setup for torque, and not high end horsepower. I'd think you'll need to change a lot more things to take real advantage of more head flow.

Re compression ratio -- you might get nearly the results at half the effort by using Occam's Razor -- that is, use white gas, Coleman fuel, etc. with lower octane that's matched to the engine instead of changine the engine to mate with higher octane gas.

Sure, I understand where you're coming from -- 9 yrs Natl. License running FF, FC, FSV, FA and USAC mini-indy. I also have an H. It's designed for low end torque, not peak HP at 10,000 RPM. So for my money, you're better off rebuilding to a good stock setup with the H and getting your 3G turn jollies on something with a lower CG that was designed to rev high and run fast.

Steve

I thought they still made ME's take econ 101 and get cozy with the idea of rapidly diminishing marginal returns to the megabuck. That is to say, I don't know what you end up with unless you've found some way to make tractor pulling pay (remember the famous Briggs Cunningham quote: "The best way to make a small fortune in motorsports is to start with a large fortune.").

Actualy, from practical experience flow benching FF motors, that cast manifold is probably the first thing you'd want massage. Would be interesting to stick on tubular, short zoomie pipes for grins, giggles, and torque to get that Big Daddy Don Garlits look. Dr. Evil makes a good point about the valve size, though, so that might be the actual choke point. Wonder how far you can go before you hit waterjacket.

Jobs with a race team: Let's see, CART is looking at chapter 11 in a few months. IRL can barely get enough cars to fill the Indy grid. People I know around here doing that kind of work don't hold out much hope -- in fact, they're getting tired of the 80 hour work weeks. Maybe better to look in NC or AL, as formula good ol' boy seems to be a lot more prosperous.

Good luck with the H, and finding a way to subvert the Cunningham paradox.

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