[Jeff Hamlin]

Originally Posted by Cammer-6

whats the numbers on that one Jeff?
Ive lost Brents contact info If someone can PM it to me thanks

It's a work in progress and this is what was shared thus far;
Getting close. Tested preliminarily at 7 pounds of boost. It was good for 289 HP and 315 lb-ft. Likely going to settle at 10 pounds. Goal is mid 330 hp, safely. Lot of effort for the outcome by todays standards but it should be fun.


Hey guys, this was originally a 1bbl head. There was an attempt to modify the head by a shop back east in 2009 or so. Extensive machine work was done to increase flow. They also installed oversized Chevy valves. But the valve stem length was wrong, they didn’t add dual springs and they threw in a custom Clifford cam (Rob Egbert now owns the cam) but they didn’t deck the cam tower to accommodate for the grind. It was a mess. When my dad passed the car along to me it probably had 30hp. The valves were burnt, the cylinder walls were marred up and it showed terrible wear for a car with under 40k miles.
When I got the car to Flagstaff in 2020 I tore down the motor and took the block to a local machine shop. Just an old shop in the back of an auto parts store. Nothing fancy. The block was zero decked and bored .30 over. They polished the crank, added ARP rod bolts and installed custom forged pistons from Ross Racing.
I sent the head to Jerry Woodland. It was one of the last he did before selling to Rob. He said he’d never seen anyone add oversized Chevy valves but he was able to make some modifications to the cam followers to accommodate the appropriate stem length. He also said that the actual machine work was very good so the head was salvageable. The rest of the appropriate modifications were made to the head, including dual valve spring and so on. The machine work and the modern head gasket increased the volume and pretty well offset the zero decked block, so my compression ratio sits at approximately 9.2:1.
I am running a 4bbl E cam. Again, nothing fancy or custom there. I also had a sprint damper refurbished and installed, however the engine hasn’t been dynoed with the sprint damper, yet. It peaked at 5200 rpm, with the 1bbl damper. HP and torque was just barely starting to taper off at that point so I don’t expect higher rpm to yield any additional power.
Funny thing, I spoke several times with Quinton at Primatech back in 2008/2009, trying to help my dad take a crack at modifying the motor back then. He gave good guidance and still had parts in stock. But we didn’t have the knowledge or resources. Primatech shut down shortly after. I still have the email chain. Those headers were certainly a missed opportunity, along with some other bits and pieces. The car has a Clifford intake and headers now.
More boost will produce more horsepower, no question. But will it handle 10 pounds? 🤞
Chris, if you have some insight as to what the limiting factor might be based on that conversation, I’m certainly curious.