Now for the 572 engine that Ohio Crankshaft built for us. WOW! I have run as fast as 7.48 at 175 mph and 4.72 at 145 in the eighth. This is without a vacuum pump, single 4-barrel Indy intake with Ron’s Terminator fuel injection. The heads are seven-year-old Indy 440-1 heads with an “antique porting job”. Stan Ray and his guys at Ohio Crank used their standard 572 rotating assembly with their own 7.10” aluminum rods and JE Pistons. No trick ring package and no lightening of the pistons. We used the same cam we have had in the car for three years, a Comp Cams .720” lift roller with 1.6 Jesel rockers. It is about as basic as a big cubic inch engine can be. I think what we ended up with was not a lot of the “latest and greatest parts”; we ended up with a combination that really worked when it hit the track.
I have to admit that going with moderately priced parts, after going for the most expensive the first time we bought an engine, worried me more than a little bit. Much to my satisfaction, I must be totally honest when I say I am 100% happy with the finished product I got from Ohio Crankshaft. Everything in the engine was spotless, the dyno sheets were complete and done the way I requested them to be done.
I learned my lesson with inexpensive EGT sensors and readouts. It cost me two head gaskets and I was lucky that is all it hurt. I now rely on the RPM Engineering unit. It read 170 degrees hotter than the first one I used. The false lower reading on the first one made it look like the engine was rich so I leaned it out. Lesson learned.
We learned two things about this engine. When R&J fixed the damaged heads last winter we decided to cut them enough to remove the O-ring grooves, as I was tired of dealing with water leaks. This also stepped up the compression a little more than we thought, and we ended up with about 14.5 to 1 compression. First lesson: Don’t err on the lean side when changing jets! I torched two head gaskets on the sixth quarter-mile run. I was lucky and I think they went after the pass, as it did not hurt a thing other than a couple of Fel-Pro gaskets. We switched to Cometic MLS gaskets and we have over 40 runs with no problems.
I think when I leaned the engine, due to a faulty EGT sensor, it overheated the center two cylinders and took the gaskets out. Lesson learned! I may be old, but I am getting smarter.
The next thing that still amazes me, although I now feel it is normal, is how much the valve lash changes from cold to hot with the aluminum block and aluminum heads. I set the valves at .008” for intake (cold) and exhaust at .010” (cold). Check them after a run and they are .020” intake and .022” on exhaust. For some reason that boggles my mind; the block and heads move that much and still stay sealed up.
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| I love my new "pourable seat" from ISP Safety Products. Andy and I both use their R3 head and neck restraint and the pourable seat has made it mush more comfortable for me in the car. Seems to relax me a bit more and that is all good. | You may notice in this picture I DO NOT use a vacuum pump. I used one for six years with no problems. This year it was pumping way more oil that air. I would lose a quart in one run. Same valve cover baffles, same oil pressure, etc. I have no idea what changed in the engine but when we cut the belt and hooked up the puke tanks the car went .06 faster and now barely puts any oil or moisture into the puke tanks. If you have idea what caused that, I'll listen to your opinion. |
We are very pleased with how our Mopar is performing and we are usually the fast Mopar at the events we attend. There are a lot of people to thank for helping out on the engine as well as keeping the car equipped with great parts. The companies who have helped have earned decals on our race cars. We will not install decals for products we don’t use; I hope you do the same.