 NMCA-NPS-2011-Championship |
 Jim Jarrett 1782 HP 639cid |
HRET:
Youâve had some past winners at the Hot Rod Pump Gas Drags using your cylinder heads. Were any of those heads and inlet systems chosen and modified according to your PipeMax program.
 LM:
In 2005 Ray Wilde’s ’95 Mustang with a small block Chevy engine had the fastest qualifying small block Chevy of the event and my other customer Charles Jordan’s ’87 Firebird had the 2nd fastest qualifying small block Chevy of the event.
In 2006 Charles Jordan’s ’87 Firebird had the fastest qualifying times of the entire event regardless of engine size or type, but lost out on the 3rd run due an NOS line bursting. Ray and Charlesâ cylinder heads/manifold/engines plus their entire exhaust system were constructed to PipeMax specs.
Both Ray and Charles reported after the 2006 event they had approx 6 gallons of gas left in their tanks. Later I got to look at the intake ports and bowls on both of their heads. There was no evidence of exhaust reversion inside the intake bowls or ports and the intake bowls looked like the day I ported them…. that’s pretty good evidence the exhaust system lengths and diameters PipeMax predicted were working great!
HRET:
We like to stress application specific mods for any race engine, particularly when choosing inlet and exhaust flow path dimensions. How do you approach that when helping a customer choose the proper head for his application?
Meaux Racing dyno room
LM:
I use my 24-plus years and thousands of dyno testing experiences with various engine/cylinder-head/manifold/camshaft combinations to help choose the correct cylinder head for customers. To double-check myself or to help choose a combination I have no prior experience with. Iâll use PipeMax to get an idea what’s needed. The newer PipeMax version 4.0 will calculate all the cylinder head port volumes for you if you input the port’s centerline length and it will also calculate total induction volumes and cross-sectional areas as well as how much flow (CFM) heads are required to flow for your RPM range.I’ll also use Performance Trend’s Engine Analyzer, Motion Software’s Dyno program and Patrick Hale’s Engine Pro software to compare against what PipeMax is predicting to get a further idea what’s required for a customer’s engine combination.
HRET:
If most of your customers are drag racers it follows that youâre mostly working with high rpm applications with relatively narrow power bands. Without giving too much away, are there any specifics you like to apply to these cases?
LM:
Using the dyno data into PipeMax and my ET Analyst quarter-mile simulation program I can tell how well the engine combination is doing versus the flow bench data and I can know what the ET and MPH times will be each foot distance down the quarter mile.
While the Engine is still on the Dyno I can run ET Analyst and know what RPM it should cross and the finish line, the best RPM shift points, what RPM it should fall back to on the gear change and then make changes on the dyno to enhance the torque and horsepower curve in those RPM ranges. I will also know best rear gears or transmission gears to use, what tires to use, how much converter stall to use, etc. When the customer leaves the dyno, he will already know how fast he will go!
Also all that information is great to give your converter guy so he can give you the best possible converter for your combination. We use A1 converters a lot. They know my dyno very well and they are almost 100 % accurate with their first effort in building the best converter for the fastest ET and MPH.
hotrodengines 