stroked small blocks in the race cars?

[1795]

Originally Posted by PDUB

What iron heads did you use, Jim? Is it a stock 289 crank and rods?

Paul,

I am using Dart Iron Eagle heads with that are 58 cc. I was using a stock crank, but am going to a light weight forged steel crank from Scat. They have one that they will be cutting and forming in January. Also going from Eagle H rods to lighter I beam rods and custom pistons. The lightweight crank will be approximately 42 lbs, as compared to the standard weight of 48 lbs. Should spin up quicker and should move my power band up to the 8,000 rpm range. With the Webers I will still have all sorts of low end torque.

another difference between modern engines and what Shelby was running back then is that a lot of race engines are in the 12-14:1 compression ratio range, I was at 12.5:1. Shelby tended to stay around 10.5-11:1 from what I recall. He wanted to ensure longevity. High compression engines fail quicker when running at high rpms for long periods. I actually will be backing down to about 11-11.5:1 for this refresh. Hoping that the engine will last a little longer.

The engine builder asked me if I wanted to stroke the engine, and I said "No, stroking is not allowed unless it was previously used in racing", guess that I might have been wrong.

Loving this discussion. Hopefully Brent will chime in. Thanks for sharing all of your extensive research Dan.

Jim