Giving up on Power Race, and going SET?

9000rpm is a hell of alot of rpms out of a small block Chevy! I had a 1961 Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite that had a highly modified 950cc(58 cid.) inline-4 cylinder pushrod engine, that I could coax 8600 rpm out of, before valve float. It made 104hp, which is about 1.8hp per cubic inch. It weighed 990 pounds. Had 4.22 rear gears. It did under 14 sec in the 1/4 mile, and I could beat Corvettes and E-type Jags in stop-light drags. That wasn't the purpose, it was built for H-Production SCCA road racing, and the real strength was in the corners. I used to eat Lotus Elans for lunch. Those were the good old days! Nobody ever expected much from a 1 liter Sprite. Boy, were they surprised.

Now *that* sounds like the automotive equivalent of Thomas' audio system! I just hope the system is a little more comfortable and doesn't leave spots on the carpet...(I used to own a stock Spitfire :-)

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.