Quote:
Originally Posted by PAUL K
Thanks for clearing that up. By no means am I referring to you, your business or your ability. I reread the "qoute" and see how/why you would take it personally. I am referring to the hydraulic roller cam / aluminum D-port combinations in general. From my past experiences I see nothing impressive about bolting on a set of ported aluminum heads and a hydraulic roller cam and running mid elevens (let alone spending a lot of time playing with valve springs and putting solid rollers on a HR cam) I thought it was a good idea to "raise the bar" and have the Pontiac community be challenged to maybe run better. There has been a lot of bashing of the 041 and ported 6X combinations on this site over the years and they ran solid elevens.
I disagree with your thought there aren't streetable iron d-port combinations that can run mid elevens. I can't believe your 260 cfm CNC iron d-ports with a good HFT would not be able to run in the mid elevens.
Again it's nothing aimed personally towards you or your shop, I feel your head combinations offer a lot of bang for the buck.  |
Paul I have dozens of customers bolt the combo together with hyd. roller lifters and not mess with anything. I personally prefer to run hyd. roller lifters vs. the hybrid set up. One customer comes to mind from last year, he built his own 461 short block with a Butler rotating assembly, I supplied a set of my 300-305cfm KRE D-ports, CNC runner ported Torker II, complete OF cam kit with 857 lifters and a Pro Systems 950HP carb, he bolted the top end on, set the total timing at 31 deg and headed to the track in his 68 bird (PS,PB etc. stock weight car) TKO 600, 3.42 gear. First time out laid down a 11.38 @ 123mph, never lifted the hood to change a jet or turned a screw on the carb. Is there more there? Hell yah but he hadn't planned to put a roll bar in the car. While there are no doubt 041 iron headed combo's out there running in the 11's there are a ton that have missed the mark too. I'm all for challenging the Pontiac community to raise the bar, but not everyone is looking to get every ounce out of their combo or have the resources and/or time to spend on their car to get to a certain goal, they just want something to buy as a package that is proven to work, those enthusiasts are a big part of my client base and I tend to listen to what they are looking for.
I'm sure you must get plenty of calls and e-mails from people who've read some mag article (not saying this is the case with all articles) or listened to 10 peoples advice and put a "montage" combo together and it was a complete turd!! Now they are seeking your advice on why it's a turd. It's those types of situations I try to help people avoid as it's hard enough to spend the money once let alone twice.
When it comes to the iron head HFT street combo's I hear what you are saying and I don't disagree completely, the point I was trying to make is that it's far easier to have an extremely docile street/strip combo that is quick with ported aluminum heads and a hyd. roller cam. Again it comes down to the individuals definition of "streetable". Marcel had a 271/278 dur. @ .050" Ultradyne solid roller in his 468 and to him it was perfectly streetable, to me it was a little much, but part of that is me thinking about all the internal parts of an engine as I'm driving down the road!!LOL
I don't have much time to spend posting on these BB's, but one thing that I think happens often (I'm guilty) is its very easy to misunderstand a point someone is trying to make compared to having a discussion face to face. I have a lot of respect for what you have done and are doing in the hobby and I've always been impressed with Brian's (Slowbird) and his family's cars, but I think it's fair to say that each of these cars has evolved and improved over time.