Quote:
Originally Posted by opeliac
With billet blocks, heads, and cranks...WHY are they staying with stock bore spacing? Stock bore spacing limits valve, and piston, sizes...Stretch the damn things and lets rock.
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A few things to ponder here.
Anyone that thinks by 2022 that Pontiac wouldn't have changed the architecture of the Stratostreak engine is living under a rock. If the division was still around, that engine would have long been abandoned. Even if corporate engines had never come about, (LS series), that engine was doomed by the corporation for replacement.
Pontiac had already engineered an 427 OHC modular engine, and showed the models of it in 1970 that were in Hot Rod magazine. That design was refined by ford, and made into a real working engine.
IMO, stretching the bore centers (which chevy has already done on their BBC) isn't a mortal sin. But then the OEM based stuff isn't going to fit, so you're faced with a completely new engine configuration.
So if you're going for a new engine, Youman probably thought he would buy something that was purpose designed. He had already spent probably twice the amount on an OEM design from early 1950s and still wasn't very competitive in the classes he chose to compete in. Even twin turbos, with some of the best engineered parts available, still couldn't make him competitive in the higher classes. I believe he spent enough of his own money to figure out that it wasn't going to happen, and IMO, he is about as dedicated as anyone that is reading this. There aren't any OEM designs competing in that class that place in the top 3 consistently.
"A man has to know his limitations" comes to mind.
I still don't think a OEM stretched bore center is going to make it in that class, so if someone made the new parts for a long block configuration, would they ever live long enough to see a return on their investment? You have to have customers to get your money back.
Maybe if, someone had the blueprints for the later OHC design, modular engine, and made one of those in billet they'd be staying at least with a factory design that Pontiac had come up with to satisfy their brand loyalty, and maybe have some customers outside of Pontiac fans. But you'd have a huge expense to shoulder in the development stage to get the design competitive, to then build a customer base. Lots of dark areas that would have to be bridged in order to build a customer base for a completely new engine.
Pontiac Jack has done this on a small scale making the "one-off" OHC head for his 4 cylinder Pontiac based lakester. He has had a few setbacks getting it to a stage where he can race, and not have to return home to refine his design further. Watching his work as it progresses is just the tip of the iceberg for a completely new design V8 race engine, that would be based on the modular V8 from the late 60s, early 70s. Jack had the block to start with, so his design is comes from splitting a existing V8 factory aluminum block into a 4 cylinder configuration, and designing an OHC head from scratch. Still a challenging feat, that not many could pull off.
Just saying, " I wish we had ", doesn't pay the bills for the manufacturer.
