Reply to "B. Goyaniuk's motor questions"

Hi BG,

We have not talked of horsepower goals, powerband, drivability, engine building budget, etc. The answers to those questions are very important in order for me to properly advise you. I can however provide general answers to your questions.

Flat tappet or roller, both designs of hydraulic lifter are equally durable. We can achieve better performance with the roller lifter and camshaft, but it is more expensive to implement a roller cam valve train. The cam and lifters are more expensive, and the higher valve lifts require sturdier push rods, more expensive spring sets, etc. Whether or not you need a roller cam to achieve your performance goals, depends upon what those goals are.

The stroker crankshaft will not jeopardize your motor's relaibility so long as you do not exceed a stroke of 3.85". What measures must be taken to strengthen the short block will depend upon what your horsepower & powerband goals are.

The advantage of the CHI head is more average torque over a wider powerband with better throttle response, and perhaps more peak torque (and therefore horsepower) as well. These heads are new to me, I have no hands on experience to rely upon. I look at the design, and I expect them to perform better than the cast iron heads.

To set up a cast iron head for performance requires replacement of the valves with one piece stainless steel valves, bronze valve guides, higher quality valve spring retainers & keepers, machinig of the head for spring seats and adjustable valve gear. This work, including a good valve grinding job, can cost approximately $1000 USD. To achieve a power goal exceeding 400 bhp will require extensive port grinding work as well, which brings the total cost for iron heads to $1500 USD or better. The true differnce between the price of running iron heads and running alloy heads is only about $600 USD.

Instead of the Blue Thunder intake manifold & CHI 4V heads, my recommendation would be the new CHI 2 plane intake manifold and their 218cc 3V cylinder head. Although they have not announced this 2 plane intake manifold to the public, John at CHI has shared pictures of the intake with me last summer. I occasionally petition the people who manufacture Cleveland engine parts to pay attention to the Pantera market, and a low rise manifold has been one of my requests, so John was eager to share the new manifold with me once they had a prototype available for pictures. The 218cc 3V head is CHIs premium head.

Did Quality Roadsters mention they have a low profile throttle body that saves about an inch of verticle height?

Besides my earlier questions, I have a question regarding your exhaust system. What size is the collector and what size is the exhaust tubing between the collector and the Ansa? I'll need this info because exhaust system performance is critical in achieving various power goals.

your friend on the PIBB, George