Re: Got the Jitters? (archive)

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In Reply to: Re: Got the Jitters? posted by Phil S. on August 20, 2000 at 10:38:42:

Yep, the multi-valve heads are great for improving volumetric efficiency over their two valve counterparts. Easy to get one HP per cubic inch when its breathing.

I always liked reading about Fred Offenhauser's little 270 4-valve per cyl. engine from the 1930's. That thing won races for 35 years till '68 at Indy. I think an Offy was used to win that race in 65. It's nice to see the automakers coming back 'round to performance. Good ideas never go out of style.

Yep, the 454 is a good tower. I think one could probably get a garbage truck get out of a ditch with it !!! :)

Great Dad, when you get back from your joy ride perhaps we can discuss the merits of camshaft timing events, which the nuns always taughe me as being the basis of where in the rpm spectrum the peak HP/TQ occur. No engine, (the 454 included)by design loses anything at any given rpm, rather its dyno-able output is dictated by the remaining engine components, blah blah blah. Perhaps all those 454's you built didn't live up to your expectations owing to your lack of apprecation of this holy point.

I am not here to learn about shifting the peak values for my 454 any higher, as that's already done. Rather, I merely seek to know answers to the 3 seemingly simple questions I posted earlier, and am optimistic that someone can answer them, for, an answer to them would indicate the presence of competent ENGINESPEAK here, as performance increases over your Bayerische motor orig config are impossible without this knowledge.

I suppose if you knew the answers, you would have provided them. But, thanks for the entertaining conversation.

Ok son, lets go get our books and quote figures, any idiot can do that, it's what you do with them that counts. Put your soccer hat on straight and figure out what your going to do with Torque ft. lbs mixed with Bhp and Rpm. The 454 is a wonderful engine but it looses Torque and Bhp when it gets into the high RPM ranges. If that is profanity then your mom kept you in church class way too long. Don't worry, it'll grow. Sorry but I'm gonna catch another ride, this one is getting boring.
Kurt.G

DAD??? Does that mean you're a snot-nosed kid? Couple of things that go along with Mark W.'s post. When you get around to taking Engines 202 at the Community College, you'll learn that any engine is just an air pump, and the more air you can pump through it (mixing with fuel and burning along the way), the more power you develope. The variables are infinite, but intake and exhaust play a LARGE factor. That is why most modern engine designs have mutiple valves, YADDA, YADDA, YADDA. Put it to you in a manner you can understand--no matter how large your lung capacity is (cubic inches), you can't breath very well if someone has their hands wrapped tightly around your throat (which I'm sure some people on this board would love to do given the chance).
The information you seek is published in most of the Bosche full line catalogues--i.e. flow rate per hour etc. They are the OEM supplier to BMW for most of the fuel delivery components.
BTW the 454 is a great engine--that's what powers my 2500 Suburban TOW VEHICLE.

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