[Badbird69]

434 Olds,

Beautiful looking car.

There is a loyal contingent of go-fast Olds guys in the twin cities - Dave Engel, Skip Lisell, Rob Johnson to name a few. Glen Knowlton was the man who made the heads work. (Hey, even Denny Mothershed used to live here, LOL)

Your motor looks killer too. Running alcohol, I presume? It's amazing what lengths we go to, to make our favorite brand perform. Good luck this year. Maybe we'll see you at a B-O-P race?

[434 olds]

Originally Posted by Brian Baker

I understand the concept, I've done the same on a Pontiac 455 block, filling it to halfway across the water pump holes...I was just wondering why all the way to the deck. Running alcohol for fuel with a dry motor or with just water in the heads? Or running gasoline? Very interested to learn more about this Olds combo.

If you look carefully at the deck, its not fill that you see. Those are aluminum plugs. The block was set up in the CNC machine where each water jacket was machined to accept a aluminum plug. All water ports in the deck of the head were welded up. The reason for this is to eliminate water transfer from block to head.Why you ask? Because with 10 head bolts per head, its real easy to push water past the headgasket. My engine is EFI on M5 fuel which is alcohol with Nitro power adder and makes 877HP. Its all about safty. If i should ever blow a headgasket, there is no way i will push water into the radiator or blow a hose off it and get water under the tires. The cooling system is at zero pressure all the time. Even after a pass, no pressure build up. I had to modify my water pump to work with this set up. Kind of like reverse cooling. Anyone running big HP numbers should have this setup donr to the block & heads and that includes all types of engines.

[434 olds]

Originally Posted by Badbird69

434 Olds,

Beautiful looking car.

There is a loyal contingent of go-fast Olds guys in the twin cities - Dave Engel, Skip Lisell, Rob Johnson to name a few. Glen Knowlton was the man who made the heads work. (Hey, even Denny Mothershed used to live here, LOL)

Your motor looks killer too. Running alcohol, I presume? It's amazing what lengths we go to, to make our favorite brand perform. Good luck this year. Maybe we'll see you at a B-O-P race?

Thanks! I might go to Byron this year if they have the BOP race.

[Brian Baker]

Originally Posted by 434 olds

If you look carefully at the deck, its not fill that you see. Those are aluminum plugs. The block was set up in the CNC machine where each water jacket was machined to accept a aluminum plug. All water ports in the deck of the head were welded up. The reason for this is to eliminate water transfer from block to head.Why you ask? Because with 10 head bolts per head, its real easy to push water past the headgasket. My engine is EFI on M5 fuel which is alcohol with Nitro power adder and makes 877HP. Its all about safty. If i should ever blow a headgasket, there is no way i will push water into the radiator or blow a hose off it and get water under the tires. The cooling system is at zero pressure all the time. Even after a pass, no pressure build up. I had to modify my water pump to work with this set up. Kind of like reverse cooling. Anyone running big HP numbers should have this setup donr to the block & heads and that includes all types of engines.

Yup, familiar with this concept as well, and Pontiacs are in the same boat in terms of keeping the lid on it. It's why I had my IA-2 block upgraded to 9/16" head studs and since I'll be running a roots blower on alky with a dry block, I didn't have the coolant holes added in the deck (an option from AllPontiac.com).



That M5 is neat stuff. Got to experience it at VMP with a Pro Mod running it...it had just enough nitro in it to gag us in our suite after it idled for a few moments next to our air conditioner, but not enough to make it cackle.