found this on another forum, thought you might enjoy reading it:
[Kostecki Engine Centre have made a huge impact on the Super Stock scene in Australia, recently, with the return of their stunning Mustang race car. Several years ago the car campaigned in Pro Stock, running 7.70s. Now the car is configured for G/Gas and has a totally new drivetrain, front to back.
G/Gas requires a car to weight 6.5 pounds per cubic inch of engine displacement (the same as B/Gas), the engine must run a single 750cfm carburettor (with the choke horn retained and stock venturi sizes), a mass produced cast intake manifold, and cast iron production cylinder heads (with no welding or port tongues permitted). The car must run a three-speed automatic transmission.
The car now runs a Cleveland engine which has undergone over three years of development in-house at KEC. This development programme has seen three pairs of cylinder heads developed on the flow bench and fourteen camshafts, three intake manifolds, three carburettors and two different bore and stroke combinations tested on the engine dyno. The final cylinder heads, intake manifold, carburettor and piston tops were all modified and developed during this R&D programme.
The camshaft lobes were also developed in-house from the cylinder head information gathered from the flow bench. A pair of master lobes was then ground in the US before the finished camshaft was produced. All this time and effort has paid of though as the engine now idles at a mild 700 rpm - unheard of for a full race motor. It idles so low because the duration is not radical but the lift is massive to promote mid range and top-end torque. Considering that the engine runs on methanol, the static compression ratio of around 12.5:1 seems low but this is the key to being able to spin the engine to 11,000 rpm! Having less duration in the camshaft at 10,500 rpm creates massive dynamic compression and, therefore, massive torque. Large duration camshafts typically bleed off much of this cylinder pressure at high rpm resulting in torque escaping out the exhaust port.
This type of engine development and innovative thinking are taking KEC to the upper reaches of engine development; such as their involvement with numerous Level 1 and 2 Supercar teams with cylinder head porting and block lightening programmes. R&D has also recently been carried out for some OEM car manufacturers in Australia.
On the drag strip, the Mustang has already run a best of 8.46 at 157.34mph (253 kph) - that is well under the current National Record of 8.52 in G/Gas. It is also not far off the average runs in B/Gas with unrestricted, sheet metal intakes, dual carburettors, full-race aluminium cylinder heads and five-speed manual gearboxes. The mighty Cleveland aboard the Mustang leaves the line at 8900 rpm, shifts at 9700 rpm and crosses the finish line at a massive 11,000 rpm! To run in the high 150 mph bracket means that the engine is also producing around 750 hp. Not bad with a single four barrel and a pair of 4V heads!
During the day, the KEC team run two separate 750 cfm carburettors, one is set up for the heat of the day and is used in qualifying, the other is set up for cooler air and higher humidity and is used at night for racing. Now that's tuning!
According to Andrew Kostecki from KEC, "G/Gas should soon be running 8.30s at 160 mph and our development programme is on track to achieve this in the near future."]
Not bad for 35 year old cylinder heads & an off the shelf intake manifold, eh?
George
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