Phr-350_page

5930 Hwy 305 South Hernando MS 38632-9377

Phone (662.233.2301) Fax (662.233.2381)

Congratulations to the BTR group and their very respectable performance in the 2004 Jeg's Engine Masters Challenge. And condolences to the FCR team for their disastrous testing.

I received my heads on Sept 14. We had to ship the engine on Sept 23 to arrive on Long Island by Sept 27 which was the dead line established in the rules. That allowed 8 days to finish the assembly (correct fitting and measurement of remaining parts) of the engine and leave one day to build a crate and package everything I would need in NY including parts and tools. With the weekend we could only get dyno time of three days so Chris Unger brought over his engine test stand and Saturday night we had it running around 12 o'clock. It was a very humid night with heavy air and we made a lot of noise. The first day the dnyo servo broke and we had to wait for overnight parts from Superflow to get the dyno running by noon the second day. We made good progress that afternoon picking up 58 HP just fine tuning before we switched over to 92 pump gas and immediately lost 14 HP. One of the biggest gains on regular gas was changing our Kooks headers from 3.5" collectors to 3". We gained 15 HP without loosing any torque. That night the dyno operator spent the night in the hospital with his wife and did not make it in until noon on the third day. Our second best gain was tightening up the valve lash to 10 thousands. This told us we needed more camshaft but the time wasn't there to get another custom cam. So I shipped it knowing it could have been better. I like to finish what I start.

The EMC was a very well organized assembly line operation. The engine was uncrated and installed on a cart to be wheeled into the dyno site for later hookup. The unassembled parts were put on another cart and all were wheeled into another area for final assembly. I did not tighten the carb bolts as I only needed to install one side so the DTS Dyno people could install their linkage once in the dyno room. Neither did they. The engine would not start. I could not have dumped gas into the engine out of a can any quicker due to a large vacuum leak as the carb sat cocked on the engine. It caught on fire with a ball of flame filling the air cleaner. The dyno operator kept cranking the engine to keep the air cleaner from burning which would not allow me to compete. This fire allowed the carb base gasket to burn exposing a 1-1/2" wide hole in the gasket and allowed us to see the real problem. I was allowed to replace the gasket since I had one with me and the engine started. We assumed the plugs were fowled but not allowed to change them. They do give you three warm up pulls and allow you to make carb and timing changes before the final test pulls. I was told that I was the only one there that made two changes and gained HP in both changes. After the test pulls and during un-assembly I also found that the new Super-Sucker 2" spacer had melted and created a burr around all the holes which I know greatly disturbed the air flow. Thanks to Jim Clay and Earl Emery of the BTR team for their help and allowing me to keep my sanity.

I have been ask by many "Why a 403 ?". I chose the 403 not necessarily because it would be the best of the small blocks for use in the EMC but because I wanted to dispel the myths that a windowed main 403 could not stand up to the power. Not only did it last I may put it back on the dyno for some more testing with the cam it needed and then maybe a race roller cam on race gas.

Thanks to the following companies for their part in this venture.

BHJ (damper)

Bulldog Performance (Heads)

Carb Shop (carburetor)

Comp Cams (Cam, lifters, rocker arms, pushrods)

Crankshaft Specialist ( Crankshaft grinding)

Diamond Pistons (pistons)

Edelbrock (Intake)

HVH (carb spacer)

K & N (filters)

Kooks (headers)

J& S (halo girdle)