There is no magic configuration for engine balance the best way to do it is experiment and find out what works for you. This isn't supposed to be a lesson on how to make a race car it is supposed to be a guide for you that gets you started on tuning an engine.

The biggest mistake that I commonly see (yes it may be biased but most often in "ricers" or import wannabe racers) is that they focus more on "bolt on" over the counter modifications than they do on actual tuning. It seems as though people will buy every external accessory that they sell at the local auto parts store from mufflers, to intakes, and think that there car is a race car. Yes these things do help but just by adding some bolt on accessories and stickers to your car does not make it a race car

It is all about internal engine work, gear ratios, cam timing, shift points, bore, stroke, compression, etc, etc. That is where the term "sleeper" comes from. I have seen many of cars that when you pop the hood they look like stock engines blow away those bolt on sticker infested pep boy’s cars. Yes you do need some bolt ones like high flow intakes and less restrictive exhaust. But if your internal engine is not set up to make the most from these enhancements it will only get you so far.

Example of internal engine work. Take an older small block Chevy 350 drop a 400 small block crank shaft in there and bore it .30 over and you have your self a nice little 383 stroker engine. No one will know the difference.

Ignition: I will swear and live by MSD, accell makes a very competitive part but from trial and error I will stick with them. Take an ignition box such as the 6AL or for you ricers they make an import box. And get a MSD blaster coil and the internal components for you distributor and you will have enough spark to burn any thing you can toss into that cylinder.

Fuel Injection. On most imports and a lot of domestic engines the fuel injection works off of "ports" or "runners" of some sort to guide the air to the cylinder, and most of the time they will have some sort of "plenum" that the air amasses is after it leaves your throttle body. Well Port those out. Or polish the inside of them to allow smoother airflow. Also the throttle body. A real easy mod is to replace the throttle body with a slightly larger one. No one will tell the difference by looking at it.

Gear ratios. This is more for the rear wheel drive vehicles but I cannot stress enough how important the proper gear ration for you car is. This is often over looked but by a slight change you can change your car from a high low end torque filled drag race machine to a high top end max speed machine.

Auto Transmission gear ratios and Shift points. If your engine is producing more torque and more horsepower or has been modded to either have high revolutions or a more low rev torque chances are your stock shift points and gears in your tranny are not going to be adequate for your needs

Other little things I am not going to go into detail in are. Reduce the load on your engine, if you are looking for power than there is a lot of shit on cars that are luxuries that you do not need. Remember the basic things an engine needs to make power. Also don’t forget about good valve seals, bearings, tire size, there is tons more information just do NOT overlook the small things.

Once again this was not a “how to guide” it was just for showing how many things are often overlooked in the compression engine. All it takes is a little basic knowledge on how the engine operates, what it needs to make power, and what it does with the power it makes. How you build your engine is up to you.

Take Care,

Kangy

Very true...there are few ricers that actually have internal engine work done, or even simple engine/chassis tuning. Fine tuning will get you a long way.

True to a certain extent...depending on what you want from that particular engine. Example: a friend I know bought a 1998 Firebird Trans-Am, immediately installed a two stage nitrous system (I believe a total of 450 wet shot, not sure what type of system) along with the usual (high flow mufflers, removed cat, and various intake changes). This engine is still running great, with no problems yet, and it has been about two years. It sees the strip conditions every saturday, and it still is a daily driver. For what most of these ricers want, their stock engines will be more than sufficient for what they bolt on.

What is a "slight" change? A slight change will not put you at opposite ends of the spectrum.

True again, but it also depends on what you want from your engine. There are some pretty advanced concepts deling with the internal combustion engine, and I am learning about the truly advanced stuff for the REAL high performance engines. To build an engine, you need more than basic knowledge, and this fact moreso applies if you want a high performance engine. There are many things you need to know to make that engine good, not just basic knowledge.

Edit: Spelling





[This message has been edited by almightyares (edited 09-26-2003).]

Ya I could have worded that better but what I meant by slight is just changing out your gears in your rear end. It isn't that hard of a task to do and doesn't take that long at all. It is one of the easier often overlooked modifications.

Ya I hear what you saying about the real detailed knowledge of making extreme high end race applications. Maybe the theory of engines just comes easy to me but in my opinion a "basic" knowledge of how they work is everything from lift duration, cam timing, understanding the best angle's for a valve job the get the best seat position, etc, etc.

eh I this thread did start out as an idea for a rant about how much i despise those shitty ass imports that slap on stickers, a whale tale, and cut there muffler off and put on a resognated tip. But I figured that would get moved to B&M so I made it semi informative.

Take Care,

Kangy

What really kills me is when people are looking for bolt on parts. They're like this part can increase horsepower 10% and this one can increase it 5% and this other one up to 10%. Man if I get all three I will increase my horsepower by 25%.

A lot of the guys that race at the track we do, go out and spend an assload of cash on a custom built gas 2 barrel for their super stock or an alky 4 barrel for their modified. Then they slap it on and never even look at the plugs or think about re-jetting it. I know some of those carb builders are good but they would have to be damn lucky to put one together that will be perfect for a certain engine combo.

[This message has been edited by Groundhog whacka (edited 09-27-2003).]