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I learned how to make pretty good power on pump gas, how to build carbs for it, tune it, and get surprisingly good mileage (25) on it out of 7.5L of iron headed Pontiac grunting out 500ftlbs and 400hp. Sure it isnt like Bill making 1000hp, but then again the budget was much smaller. While learning all of that I was against ethanol too, because I believed all the negative stuff said about it. I thought it was simply the same as methanol but made with corn instead of wood. Then I looked into making it, and what it could do. To me that was a good running pump gas engine built on a budget with iron heads. Static was about 8.8:1, so it wasnt bleeding edge, but it would run on 87 easily and still make good power. While in Nebraska it was fed E10 exclusively, because it was the cheapest there. It made more power on E10 than on 87 or 92 also, and mileage was about the same around town.
At the same time I had the GTO running that 455 on pump gas, I had my Formula with a 455 running race gas with 11.3:1 static. At that point ethanol wasnt really available in E85, and methanol required too much stuff to run it. I knew about methanol from my RC planes, cars, and boats, so I knew what I needed to change and it want happening. There is no way a 455 with those heads and that compression is going to run on pump gas, it will flatten the upper rod bearings in about an hour.
The limit with these engines depends on altitude and cam timing as much as it does on chamber shape. Some heads are better than others as far as chamber shape goes. The heads I ran in the Formula are closed chamber 670 castings from a 1967 428, the heads on the GTO now are open chamber 1969 vintage 48 castings that have been milled to 65cc. Those two heads would have very different octane requirements. The 670 heads needed 52 degrees total to make the best power, I havent gotten that far with the 48 heads, but the low compression 5C heads on the old engine only needed 38 total to make best power.
I switched to ethanol because I can make the stuff easy and dirt cheap. It doesnt wear out my engines. It lets me run silly compression ratios that wont run pump gas so I can use all these small chamber big valve heads from the 60s that everyone is giving away now due to the price of race gas. It makes ludicrous power and is damn easy to tune compared to gas, hell you can get it close and it runs great, too rich and it just makes more power.
Drag Week didnt happen for me this year for two reasons, 1 money, and 2 health. My car was ready to go, but I knew I couldnt afford it. I would have taken the pump gas 700hp 467 in the Formula, with some highway gears stuffed under it, which would have been good for low tens to high nines on 92 octane. I built that engine in 04-05 when I decided not to run race gas anymore, then gas went to $4.65 a gallon and I got serious about ethanol. Its the last low compression engine I am going to build. With ethanol you just build it, tune it, and race it, you dont have to worry about if it will ping, knock, flatten stuff or rattle itself to death. The learning curve is only steep if you are modifying carbs that nobody else has done before.
At the same time I had the GTO running that 455 on pump gas, I had my Formula with a 455 running race gas with 11.3:1 static. At that point ethanol wasnt really available in E85, and methanol required too much stuff to run it. I knew about methanol from my RC planes, cars, and boats, so I knew what I needed to change and it want happening. There is no way a 455 with those heads and that compression is going to run on pump gas, it will flatten the upper rod bearings in about an hour.
The limit with these engines depends on altitude and cam timing as much as it does on chamber shape. Some heads are better than others as far as chamber shape goes. The heads I ran in the Formula are closed chamber 670 castings from a 1967 428, the heads on the GTO now are open chamber 1969 vintage 48 castings that have been milled to 65cc. Those two heads would have very different octane requirements. The 670 heads needed 52 degrees total to make the best power, I havent gotten that far with the 48 heads, but the low compression 5C heads on the old engine only needed 38 total to make best power.
I switched to ethanol because I can make the stuff easy and dirt cheap. It doesnt wear out my engines. It lets me run silly compression ratios that wont run pump gas so I can use all these small chamber big valve heads from the 60s that everyone is giving away now due to the price of race gas. It makes ludicrous power and is damn easy to tune compared to gas, hell you can get it close and it runs great, too rich and it just makes more power.
Drag Week didnt happen for me this year for two reasons, 1 money, and 2 health. My car was ready to go, but I knew I couldnt afford it. I would have taken the pump gas 700hp 467 in the Formula, with some highway gears stuffed under it, which would have been good for low tens to high nines on 92 octane. I built that engine in 04-05 when I decided not to run race gas anymore, then gas went to $4.65 a gallon and I got serious about ethanol. Its the last low compression engine I am going to build. With ethanol you just build it, tune it, and race it, you dont have to worry about if it will ping, knock, flatten stuff or rattle itself to death. The learning curve is only steep if you are modifying carbs that nobody else has done before.
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