Messages

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Matt Shaff's Engine Shop / Dual Magnacharger supercharged early Hemi

« on: January 10, 2017, 06:04:07 PM »

Hello everyone-    I have an RCS 170" FE dragster which I have had for 30 years. It currently has a Mopar 440 with iron heads and a single 4bbl. Not a serious build, but I did get one 160MPH clocking at Redding Dragstrip a long time ago.    A friend has a early hemi motor which is already machined for 4 bolt mains and will be finished by the engine builder sometime this year.  My friend intends to use this motor in my dragster which I am most certainly cool with. I will need an adapter for the Hemi-to-Powerglide. We have been planning on a Gene Adams tuned Hilborn stack injection system until my buddy bought a long time languishing project from a former boat racer.

The parts he bought were two Magna chargers and a PFM side-by-side dual Magnacharger manifold, which has a base to fit on a 14-71 blower manifold. It has two blower burst panel openings, one on each end. What is cool, besides the good looking wow factor, is that the two blowers are arranged in a 'V', which should help driver visibility. We both are lucky to live only 15 miles from Magnusson blowers in Ventura, CA.

My question is about the history of the PFM dual supercharger manifold. I have done a Google search and found nothing about this manifold, but did learn that PFM has been out of business for over 10 years.

Can anyone here offer any info and history? Thanks,  -Andy Carlson, Ojai CA

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Is it Monkey see Monkey do ?

« on: June 22, 2015, 10:22:19 AM »

It was mentioned that Marv Ripes of A-1 transmissions created the 3-speed auto for the comp eliminator guys. There is actually more to this story.

Being a performance class, comp eliminator has had some serious efforts over the years and torque converter development was a major contributor to increased performance. Several different PG ratios were used to tailor the optimum set-ups. Marv Ripes, being a cerebral thinker, thought that many of the cars, particularly some of the small motor/heavier cars, could use an extra gear. Problem was, a turbo 350 or 400 was so heavy internally that what ever gains there were from better gearing was lost through the heavier intertia of the internal weight. Marv was friends with Mike Smith, a racer himself plus a transmission builder. Smith said that the Chrysler 904 3-speed TF was a very efficient and LIGHT transmission. It was first made in 1960 for the new slant six cylinder compact cars. By the mid-60s this trans had been made available for small blocks (Chrysler never had a 904 for a big block) and by the early 70s Chrysler supplied American motors with both 727 and 904 torqflites.

The AM trans used a passenger side starter, and the bellhousing diameter was more compact then the Chrysler models, making this easier for use on a Chevy. Mike Smith offered to make A-1 an AM cased 904 with mounting adapter for the Chevrolet bellhousing pattern. The trans worked well beyond expectations and Marv Ripes got an exclusive sales agreement from Mike Smith, who named his business Pro-Trans. In NHRA comp classes, this trans is called the "A-1 3-speed", though every one has been built by Pro-Trans.

Pro-Trans does a lot of trans building for NHRA Stock and Super Stock racers. Virtually all Mopar auto S/SS racers use the Pro-Trans 904/727. a special conversion of the 904 internals placed into a 727 case, thus getting around the NHRA's ban on transmission adapters, which isn't a problem with Small Block and Big block Chevys which have a shared bolt-pattern, whereas Chryslers use different patterns for the small and big blocks.

Pro-Trans has been building lots of Ford C4 and C6 transmissions with the 904 internals. The strength of these 904 derived transmissions is remarkable, as exemplified by all of the SS/AH '68  Cuda/Dart Hemi shootout auto equipped cars using the 904 in a 727 case; remember, this is a slant six auto.

-Andy Carlson
Ojai CA

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Front Engine Dragsters / 1966 FED cowl w/ toe bulges

« on: June 15, 2015, 06:56:26 PM »

Hi-    Back in the 1980s I purchased a roller FED. I did not receive one bit of history and it had SBC mounts and a vertical radiator! I sold the Hurst Airhearts and had a local street rod fabricator do the mid-plate mount and updates to the roll cage. It was this builder, who use to work for Dave Urehara, who told me the car was a Frank Huzar RCS (Tarzana, CA) chassis, probably a 1966 140 inch model. Sometime in its history the W.B. was lengthened to 170".

I had another fabricator build a whole new full body, which was done in the style popular in the 1980s, flat panels with tight radius corners. I am glad that I kept the original cowling, because now 30 years later I wish to back date the car and replace the original cowling. It is somewhat unique in having a pair of bulges to give the operator's toes more room.

My question--is the presence of bulges specific to an individual body builder, or was this common among several different builders?

Any help is appreciated.
-Andy Carlson
Ojai CA

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again

« on: March 29, 2015, 02:45:03 PM »

It has been a challenge in motorsports for decades to achieve parity in heads-up classes, witness what NHRA did with weight breaks for Pro Stock in the 1970s. A lot of the top teams spent a lot of time coming up with ways to mitigate some of the perceived severe penalties levied against their combinations (Remember the 4-door 'Tijuana Taxi' Maverick with its Cleveland 351?

Jr Fuel had a simple premise, early small blocks with cast iron heads/blocks. Unlike Ford, Chevy has no canted valve small blocks (which allow much larger valves than a true wedge). I am surprised that a competitive 351 Cleveland hasn't surfaced in Jr fuel. Might just run away from all competition, and back we would be faced with parity. Maybe a rule change to allow short stroke BBC 420" engines could help, but seeing a big block in a Jr Fuel car wouldn't seem quite right to me. Perhaps make Jr Fuel a spec class, SBC only, might work; certainly THAT would be a level playing field!

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again

« on: March 26, 2015, 08:43:32 PM »

I find it interesting that after 10 years of SBC dominance of the NHRA Nostalgia Jr fuel class that now there would be advocacy for helping the beleaguered SBC combinations. Where was the outrage when raised runner 23 degree heads which were flowing over 400 cfm? The few Jr Fuel Hemis had a real hard time making minimum weight, and after a filled block, even harder. It is a well known principle in weight/cubic inch classes the minimum weight cars carry an advantage due to physics. I doubt any Hemi Jr fueler has ever been at minimum weight-advantage to the SBC. Hemis have also been difficult to achieve high compression, and efforts to fill a traced and profiled dome into a hemi combustion chamber has been unrewarding with flame propagation problems. SBC comp eliminator motors can easily reach 16:1 CR.

So SBC heads are available from some serious aftermarket, cutting edge head companies and now that is not good enough?

I root for the heads designed back in the Truman administration times.
-Andy Carlson

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again

« on: March 09, 2015, 10:09:57 AM »

I had lots of questions I did not ask, as I felt I may become a nuisance. Scott told me that the heads were cast from patterns they developed in-house, and were shown to NHRA for approval. He said that the original valve angle was maintained, though I would have liked to know if the hemisphere chamber was enlarged since the bore is over 4.125". (I imagine with so much valve lift that the spring pockets were dropped lower into the head casting, as there are no water passages hindering such a move..) Were the lifter bores geometry changed along with the larger size?

I did not ask for the weight, but if I had a current NHRA rule book the B/ND class weight/cubic inch break would allow us to calculate the dragster's minimum weight for the 421 in engine. With N&P efforts always seeming to be lightening the car's weight, I imagine that they have not left much on the table, weight wise. The 421 inch size leads me to believe the car was too heavy with a hemi to meet the class's minimum weight, which is under 400 cu in. Build the engine big enough to fit the car's weight, I suppose. I suspect that there is no block filler in the engine for weight purposes.

Long way to say "I don't know".

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Front Engine Dragsters / Re: The boys from Kansas are at it again

« on: March 09, 2015, 02:58:15 AM »

The N&P Chrysler Hemi powered B/Jr fuel car won the Bakersfield March Meet Nostalgia drags yesterday. I talked at length with Scott after his amazing 6.81 saturday run which placed him as the #1 qualifier. The #2 qualifier was Don Enriquez, who was the driver of the Gene Adams FED Desoto Hemi powered Jr Fueler which in the 1960s was the 1st un-blown car to top 200 MPH. Don has won many of the Bakersfield Nostalgia Jr fuel events, all in SBCs and runnered up this year to Scott.

The engine has OVER one inch valve lift, and besides larger diameter lifter bores also has the individual shaft T&D rocker arm system. This car is so trick, everywhere you look you something very cool. The engined is oiled with a multi-stage dry sump pump belt driven from the crankshaft, but also has a scavenging pump driven off the cam for the sole purpose of returning oil from the heads back to the reservoir. The vacuum pump, distributor and injector pump are all driven from the front as well.

It was mentioned in an earlier post that this is a 354 block. Scott told me that since the cylinders were totally removed, it made no difference, so they used a less expensive 331 block. Both are low deck blocks, lower than the 392.

The car now has 5 passes on it, has already dipped deep into the 6's, and has a lot more potential. Listening to the engine in warm up is a treat. The 421 inch motor on alcohol is VERY loud, and on the track the noise is clearly different from the small blocks sharing the course. Scott said the motor is run up to 10,000 RPM. Very impressive for an engine designed in Harry Truman's presidency!

This is my 1st post to this forum, and I couldn't be prouder to share what I saw and learned at Bakersfield this week end. I have a 170" FED which I last raced  28 years ago. My plans are to get it freshened up and returned to racing it next year.
-Andy Carlson