[Tom Vaught]

I would forget about the big bore spacing block if I had access to a set of your heads Eric!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom Vaught

[Elarson]

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

I would forget about the big bore spacing block if I had access to a set of your heads Eric!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom Vaught

Got your checkbook handy?

They've been a great engineering project.

Eric

[GTOGEORGE]

Now to get back to the origanal thread.......there is nothing wrong with a larger bore spacing, the problem is when you do that the engine quits being a Pontiac. I for one love racing my Pontiac, the engine has been together for 4 years now (over 200 passes) with the heads only coming off once. Not bad for a low 8 sec. (now high 7's) car. We (Pontiac) have a N/A car that will be in the 6's and there is a good chance we will have a Blower/Alcohol car in the 5's this year pretty darn good for old school junk! Like I said earlier we have so much more to learn about the Pontiac engine without making a white elephant out of it.

GTO George

[Milepost]

Originally Posted by GTOGEORGE

Now to get back to the origanal thread.......there is nothing wrong with a larger bore spacing, the problem is when you do that the engine quits being a Pontiac. I for one love racing my Pontiac, the engine has been together for 4 years now (over 200 passes) with the heads only coming off once. Not bad for a low 8 sec. (now high 7's) car. We (Pontiac) have a N/A car that will be in the 6's and there is a good chance we will have a Blower/Alcohol car in the 5's this year pretty darn good for old school junk! Like I said earlier we have so much more to learn about the Pontiac engine without making a white elephant out of it.

GTO George

X2
The really big bore stuff makes sense but I agree you couldn't really call it a Pontiac engine anymore. IMO The 5.3" bore monster engines can't really be called a Chevy or Ford engine either. The only reason they are is because the "Look" or Brand style of the composite body that's wrapped around a tubular chassis. If the Pontiac racer has a factory steel tub and firewall then it should have a "real" Indian style block in it...I say let's take what we have and make it better...

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by GTOGEORGE

Now to get back to the origanal thread.......there is nothing wrong with a larger bore spacing, the problem is when you do that the engine quits being a Pontiac. I for one love racing my Pontiac, the engine has been together for 4 years now (over 200 passes) with the heads only coming off once. Not bad for a low 8 sec. (now high 7's) car. We (Pontiac) have a N/A car that will be in the 6's and there is a good chance we will have a Blower/Alcohol car in the 5's this year pretty darn good for old school junk! Like I said earlier we have so much more to learn about the Pontiac engine without making a white elephant out of it.

GTO George

Valid Points, George but the fact remains that we have a lot of band-aids on the current "Pontiac design" 4.62 Bore Spacing Block

The way the math works is: if you run 200 passes and the heads came off for a repair, gasket, or otherwise, at 100 passes you get to claim that you made 100 passes without any maint except for oil changes, spark plugs, etc.

The clock starts over. The Chebby Guys, like Jim Brady, who used to post here WILL get 300+ passes on their chebby engines without any repairs.

That being said, Jimmy Keen used to change the Head Gaskets, every other race, and he ran a lot of races in a year (with a lot of passes as Super Street was the largest class) and
did not want to do the change at the track after a failure so he did it before the failure.
The 347 Ford Engine making 1400+ hp at 9500 rpm was a High maint engine combination but was also a World Champion in a very tough class.

So what was your 7 second pass number and where did you make the pass?

Tom Vaught

[GTOGEORGE]

Tom,
This thread is not about my race car..........thank you very much. By the way my engine after 200 or so passes is 100% A OK. The main and rod bearings look new all 8 cylinders where also sealing very well, 6 of them at 1% or less leakage and two at 2%. I will be replacing the GRP rods shortly.........the old ones will be for sale at Norwalk. I'm very, very pleased with my KRE built engine who knows how long it could have run before it needed to be rebuilt but I don't want to take a chance on the GRP Aluminum rods. So please lets get back to the thread.
Lets say a Pontiac performance shop decides to cast a spread bore block and call it a Pontiac (Chevy Does) and I assume that if they have their own brand of heads they will be made to fit this block and then another shop decides to do the same thing and they make their heads fit there block........neither block will have any parts that will fit the other or fit a stock bore spaced block, talk about one big mess and if a racer that decides to buys one of this blocks and then tries to sell it, who in the hell is going to buy it................. talk about a white elephant! Yea, real good idea.............I'll take 2! LOL

George