Drag Racing Online: The Magazine

Volume VIII, Issue 11, Page
HEADS-UP

Reher-Morrison Racing Engines' David Reher and Darin Morgan answer your questions about cylinder heads or anything else concerning your racing engine building problems. Remember who you're are dealing with so no soft-ball questions.

11/8/06

I have a 540 motor that has the Brodix BB-2Xtra CNC heads on them. The compression is at 14.25 to 1 and I also have a Star Machine vacuum pump and low tension rings in this motor. The motor made 852hp at 7100rpm on the dyno. I was wondering if I upgrade this motor to a 572 by boring the motor .125, will the heads be able to handle the cubic inch increase and could I make 1000 with the right cam and raising the compression a little more? If so what would the cam specs need to be and would you suggest milling the heads to lower the chamber volume and there by not  having to increase the piston dome as much to get the compression increase. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mike Ellisor
Garden City, Ga.

 

Mike,

The BB-2Xtra CNC heads are well suited for your 540 engine and the RPM range you run it in. If you add another 30+ cubic engines and use the same size cylinder heads I doubt very seriously that you will be able to reach your goal of 1000hp. If your making 852HP at 7100rpm that equates to 631FT/LBs. If you take strait FT/LBS per CID and scale it up proportionally that would make your 572 produce 667ft/lbs at 7100. Of course you can’t do this because you’re putting a smaller head on the engine than it needs so the peak will more than likely drop to 7000.

7000*667\5252=888hp. conservatively speaking, your 572 will make about 890-900HP by just increasing displacement by 32ci. The only way to truly reach your 1000hp goal is to increase cylinder port volume and flow, increase cam size and manifold size. You will also need to reduce chamber volume by angle milling in order to contour the piston dome for increased flame travel while at the same time maintaining a relatively high compression ratio. This will increase volumetric efficiency and at the same time move the operational rpm range of the engine up higher thereby producing more power. You should make peak power at about 7500-7600rpm if everything is done correctly.

Once all the above is accomplished you can then increase camshaft duration and lift in order to let the engine turn higher. Please not that you will need titanium valves. You will not be able to turn the engine high enough to produce 1000hp without them. You will need about .800 to .825 lift 286° @.050 on intake and .790 304° @ .050 on the exhaust with a 115LC.

David Reher asked Darin Morgan to answer this question because it is his area of expertise.

Reher-Morrison Racing Engines
1120 Enterprise Place
Arlington Texas 76001
817-467-7171
FAX-468-3147
Visit our web site at http://www.rehermorrison.com

Ask the Experts!!
Submit your tech question to David Reher here.
Full Name: Location:
Email Address:
Caption:

Your Question may or may not be chosen to be published on this page.

 

Heads Up [9/8/06]
David Reher Can Fix Your Cylinder Head and Engine Problems.

Here's What's New!