Best engine build for my wagon

You are CORRECT sir!

 

Hell Dave, there was a freshly rebuilt 389 4 barrel for sale on craigslist down here a few weeks ago for around $700. I have been able to source rebuildable tri-power setups starting at $1000 with manifold and linkage. A tri power would be the ****, I can sync carbs, and yea that would be the cats meow under there! Then I could put the 6.5 liter badges on it!

 

i was also considering natural gas or propane. I may have a chance to pick one of these units up for next to nothing or free. Higher octane rating and WAY cheaper now here in marcellusville PA

 

Actually, what induction and exhaust tunneling lengths do is to use flow inertia impulses to do some of the work for the vaccuum produced by the piston. The longer the distance between throttle valve and cylinder valve, the higher the high-end horsepower. This science is particularly crucial to the tuning of 2-cycle engines, simply because of the design limits of these engines. For example, it is not feasable to turbocharge a 2-cycle engine Therefore, it is greatly important to get the gases to move themselves.
Chrysler vehicles offered the first long-length intake manifolds, in the late 50's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08q2hW_fM8c

The designing engineer explains it better than I can. Too bad, the swivel seat isn't combined with suicide door technology:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhtOoLABXfc



Long intake tubing, typical of European production:



Headers are of 2 types:

1- Those aftermarket examples where each tube is of equal length and they meet at a collector.

2- The type which start with 4 tubes, collect twice to end up with 2 tubes and then the 2 tubes eventually collect. This type is standard equipment on many European engines and are usually cast iron-made and have a certain advantage over 4 in 1s, depending on the powerband:

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Why I went with aluminum heads and EZ-EFI

Hi scarymonster and assertive station wagon lovers,

Just for everyone info, let me explain why I went with the aluminum heads and the EZ-EFI fuel injection system.

As I explained, I couldn't do the porting locally on the 430 Buick engine I had attempted to build. If I had to have the cast iron heads shipped, just the shipping costs would cost me the difference between going with cast iron and aluminum.

As it turned out, I gave up completely on trying to have the engine built locally and had Jim Weise of Tri-Shield performance build my engine. At that point I could have reversed my scheme and had Jim find me cast iron heads and had him port them locally. But by then I wanted to continue "the experiment" and see what this engine with all those efficient components would do. The experiment is still pending!!

I also would have preferred a sequential EFI system. However, since my engine would be assembled and dyno-tested in Minnesota, but installed in California, I really wanted an EFI system that was self-tuning. When I had to make that choice there were only two such systems available. Mass-Flo:

http://www.massfloefi.com/

and EZ-EFI:

http://www.fuelairspark.com/ezefi/default.asp

At the time, I couldn't find anyone who had used the Mass-Flo system on a Buick big-block. So while the technology seemed appealing, I wasn't willing to be the guinea pig. In contrast there were a number of Buick guys who had used EZ-EFI and were very happy with the results. Jim Weise also liked the EZ-EFI system. So that's what I went with.

We shall see how all this works . . . . . . I hope very soon!!

Cheers, Edouard

 

Just make sure you have a place that can fill your car. I love propane, but i'd never convert any more. It's getting toupher to find places that fill cars where I live, closest to me is over 5 miles away now and only 1 gas station left in my city that fuils nateral gas cars and thats in town. I think the only reason they still offer it is because there is still alot of old police Croun Vics driving around as taxi cabs, the taxis did the convertion. My Buick is propane and it's the cheapest thing to fuil, but the pice for propane is creeping up there. Was a time when the convertion cost out waighed the fuil cost. Today, I would never do the convertion, would take 10 years to pay for itself.

 

well we have the marcellus boom going down here now and as such a LOT of the fleet vehicles are being replaced with new NG or propane engines.so there are filling stations starting to pop up to manage that demand plentiful no not yet but they are comming

 

We are receiving a lot of CNG Ram trucks at the dealership where I work for State and Government fleet but haven't seen many places to fuel them up yet and the regulations to be able to work on them is going to make it hard to have them worked on unless you do it yourself. Just sat thru a 2 hour course on CNG safety...don't think our dealership since it is a older building will spend the money on the building to be able to service them.

 

I don't know why but everyone here seems to think that you have to sync the carbs on a tri-power system? You don't! All you have to do is set the center carb like the other two don't even exist. Once you get that done, you can up or down the jets on the secondary carbs to suit the WOT response. The secondary carbs don't even have metering pins to adjust. They are there to act as secondary's like the back barrels in a standard four barrel carburetor. All you have to do is add up the CFM on all the carbs and then adjust the jets up or down until you get the right mix. It is not any harder than setting a four barrel carb. Just have an extra carb to jet is all. No need for metering syncronizers or any special equipment. Just get a vacuum gauge and go to work.
Just thought everyone should know this. I have done it a thousand time and to tell you the truth, a single four can make more power. They just don't look as cool. Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide.
Dave

 

A chevy engine will add NO value to your car. A well done poncho mill WILL increase the value of your wagon.

 

if you go CNG or propane... SUPERCHARGE it! It will be amazing!

 

I think you got it backwards with the length of the induction tubes. Actually, the long tube intake runners were made to take advantage of the engine valve pulses like you said but the longer runner intakes were made for better bottom end and the shorter ones were for top end power. I know it sounds backass wards but this is the truth. Check out the Allpar engine site and you'll get the full explanation. the short runner intakes were the one that were split for about half the entire length of the intake. They usually ended right on top of the valve covers. The longer ones were for better bottom end response. Here is the link. http://www.allpar.com/mopar/sonoramic.html

 

Here is a direct quote from the text;
The kicker in this equation is that the passage length of the manifold directly affects the rpm range at which the optimum boost is achieved. Since these compression waves move at some 1100 feet per second, if you want your maximum boost at the middle range of engine operation, the tubes have to be longer for the wave to take more time to get out and back in sync with a intake valve opening to give maximum boost at 2800 rpm. If you want that engine to scream at 5000-5500 rpm, the passages have to be shorter as you want that wave to get out and come back quicker.

Original is at The Sonoramic Commando Plymouth engine of 1960-61 http://www.allpar.com/mopar/sonoramic.html#ixzz2LtRWRXeA
Follow us: @allparcom on Twitter | allparcom on Facebook
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Good news for Dart/Valiant/Baraccuda owners

This type functions basically like the ram manifolds and one could use stamped steel valve covers, without worrying about eventual leaks which would have required pulling the tubes. However, I don't see 30 inches of tunneling there:

 

Other things in the intake. Do want a smooth or swirl finish, smooth provides droplets as the fuel mixture touches the wall and drags gas droplets out of the mixture for power, swirl will give a boundary layer so the mixture is homogenized for compleat burning. Velocity due to intake runner diameter(dual ports vs big open plenum). Temp.