Normally aspirated race hemi

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china44
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:25 am

Normally aspirated race hemi

Post by china44 »

A Top Fuel team here in Sydney (Australia) have offered to build a Keith Black for my Altered. While the team run BAE / Force gear in their racecars, they have access to a large stockpile of KB parts (1980s vintage).
The biggest hurdle we have is that I want to go normally aspirated and the guys on the team (naturally) only have experience with blown packages. The guys have several original KB blocks available, as well as a couple of brand new cranks. They also have quite a few heads with 160 to 170 chambers (heads are twin plug, but we will be blanking one set of holes off). I have a set of Arias part # 42535HH pistons that should go most of the way to giving me a 12.5:1 comp ratio.
The car will be running a powerglide transmission; not sure yet what stall the convertor will be.
To start with I am only looking for around 500 HP, as my daughters (Junior Dragster graduates) will be 'learning the ropes' in the car. Does anyone have any information on components we should be using to get a good basic combo together, for example head chamber size, valve sizes, camshaft type & specification, manifold type, induction, ignition, etc etc.
Any information gratefully received.

Thanks

Alan - Sydney, Australia
speedicusmaximus
Posts: 143
Joined: Thu May 18, 2006 11:31 am
Location: UK

Re: Normally aspirated race hemi

Post by speedicusmaximus »

Alan,

Sounds a neat Altered !

I'd contact the following companies, and see what they have to say. I'm sure there's other engine builders out there with comensurate Hemi experience, but I've just listed those I know of:

http://www.raybarton.com/front_page.htm

http://www.musclemotorsracing.com/

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/index.php

http://www.indyheads.com/

Anyone else got any ideas ?

Mike

PS:

Let us know how you get on.
Beep ! Beep !
mart
Posts: 536
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:06 pm

Re: Normally aspirated race hemi

Post by mart »

What are you going to be using for fuel....gasoline or alcohol? If your planning on gas, I'd probably use a tunnel ram style intake and 2-4bbls. One thing about carbs and a tunnel ram - you can control the hp while your daughters are learning and getting used to the car simply by changing carbs and leaving the rest of the combination alone. With good heads and lots of cam and compression, which is how I'd build it even if you only want about 500hp initially, the thing would probably run best with a pair of Holley Dominators, but in order to limit the power, you could start with something a lot smaller - say, a pair of 390 or 450 cfm Holleys and then move up to a pair of 750 or 800 cfm carbs - and then maybe finally, when the girls are ready to run all out, to a pair of 1200 or 1300 cfm Holley Dominators.

mart
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china44
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:25 am

Re: Normally aspirated race hemi

Post by china44 »

Mike, thanks for the links. Will contact them this week.

Mart, planning on running alcohol to keep temperature manageable (no water jackets in the blocks). We are leaning towards carbs for the reasons you have mentioned - we can use the same base combo but vary the size & configuration to increase performance as the kids 'hook up'.

Its an exciting project for us. The car we are using as a base is actually an original Fuel Altered that was built and raced here in Australia in the 70s and 80s, so a Hemi will really make it look like it is supposed to look! Most people in our position would go the 'standard' route of small block & 'glide, but I never do things the easy way!

Please keep the tips & tricks coming.

Alan
speedicusmaximus
Posts: 143
Joined: Thu May 18, 2006 11:31 am
Location: UK

Re: Normally aspirated race hemi

Post by speedicusmaximus »

Alan,

There's a couple of UK contacts you could try:

http://www.iceautomotive.co.uk/

http://www.jeffbullraceengines.co.uk/

I'm not trying to complicate things, it's just that you might not get the answers you need straight away.

Good luck, and keep us posted !

Mike
Beep ! Beep !
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