It’s a Friday night, you’re standing around the car that’s got something torn down to be fixed, you’re probably enjoying a nice sip of something, and the BS is starting to get deep in the conversation. The engine dimensions…not just the horsepower numbers that were probably pulled out of thin air, but what was done to get to that mythical pile of unicorn droppings that was standing in for at least 200 of the 450 horsepower they were claiming. Ported and polished heads, the half-race cam, the the blueprinted block. I’m guilty of spouting the same dumb crap when I was a teenager, but for a lot of people, they don’t learn about what actually goes on with those phrases. It just makes the 305 in their 1984 Camaro sound that much more badass.
The Slant Six that Uncle Tony is putting together for his featherweight Dart racer project is coming along nicely. He’s got the block and head decked down and he’s contemplating whether or not he wants to actually punch out the engine a bit. Sounds standard-fare, right? Not so much. Why would he consider not boring the engine out besides saving the cost of the machine work? That doesn’t compute, does it? If not, this is where you need to hit play and learn a thing or two about what actually goes on in the block when the outer dimensions start getting messed with. Not everything needs to be opened up to maximum size and sometimes, the cost isn’t worth the effort!
