Giving up on Power Race, and going SET?

Those Brits never did learn how to make a proper oil seal. Everything British leaks oil. Even Rolls Royces need drip pans underneath.

Tom,

I have an acquaintence that runs a 69 Camaro Z28 that runs in one of the NHRA Stock classes. He pulls 12,500 rpm shift points. If you consider the favorable stroke/rod angle with a small displacement small block as compared to the huge stroke in my 406, you gain more respect for my motor when I buzz it to 7800. Pretty spooky stuff as that's where the rev limiter is set when I miss a gear. Geez, I gotta get out of this car madness. I could buy a lot of stereo gear for the cost of a broken motor.

He must be running a billet crank. I was limited by class rules to the stock cast crank, nitrided and balanced. It was known with my type motor, that with the stock crank, the engine would come apart at about 9000 rpm, due to crank whip. I even ran an "outlaw" steel main bearing cap on the center journal, to help stabilize the crank. I set the valve spring tension at 8600, so the valves would float at that rpm, and act like a rev limiter. I didn't have high enough lift to worry that I would clash a valve into a piston, even when the valves floated. The chamber was deep enough to keep that from happening.

What kind of pushrods can handle 12000 rpm? We had trouble getting our Lotus 23B over 11500 with DOHC.

Tom,

The pushrods aren't really the problem at rpm. It's the spring pressure that makes them flex. In this type of motor (and mine as well) we use a rev kit which is just too cool. You use a lighter spring on the valve and beneath the cylinder head, inside the lifter valley, you have another spring set that goes into the roller lifter that works in harmony with the other spring on that valve. Just imagine a spring at the valve and a spring that pushes the lifter down. It takes a lot of stress and flex out of the pushrod. Also, we can use 7/16" big block pushrods. Of course, both the top end and the bottom end use stud girdles. I'll try and find a rev kit photo and send it to you via email.