Engine Masters Challenge, CHI Heads, and Cobras

[Commander]

Originally Posted by Manowar

Commander,

The primary reason the CHI's are not more prevalent is that Jon is a one man shop and gets out maybe 15 heads a month.
Bishoff and Kaase want them because they make very big power and are cheaper than Yates-style equivilants.
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Our block has been available for two years now and Ford would have done well to emulate it's features entirely if they hoped to capture anything above the street rod market. "Diesel" iron is no improvement over 30,000 tensile gray if the thicknesses are thinner. We have .250 minimum everywhere. Their stock is .187-.200 max. Our max. advisable bore size is 4.200 which still leaves .200 stock. The Ford design on the same 4.380 bore center, at 4.125 bore size leaves .130 in areas between cylinders when you consider their "cross-drilled" steam hole feature at .125.
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I don't think it's right to back out the little steam tunnel (which yours doesn't have by the way) since for most of the the length of the cylinder, it's .130+.125=.255 vs your .250 minimum. I think you're making an airplane hangar out of an ant tunnel.

Maybe you have better castings, maybe your blocks are stronger and will hold up to 2,800HP, maybe even 5,000HP! For most people though, you know, the ones who make up the vast majority of your customers, 1,000 HP capability, factory Ford origin, and yes, the "Boss" cast right into the block are going to be good enough to make the sale. Plus, I'd be a liitle leery buying blocks from someone who doesn't know the difference between a Cleveland and a Windsor 351.