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Street Stock Cleveland Engine - The New-School Cleveland
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 One serious weakness with...  One serious weakness with the Cleveland design when it comes to racing is the block doesn’t have very good oil control, but that can be fixed. Troutman started by installing oil restrictors in the No. 2 through 5 cam bores. This requires tapping the oil gallery and installing plugs drilled with 1⁄16-inch holes. The No. 1 bore is a little different which we’ll show you in the next photo.  The way the oil galleries...  The way the oil galleries feed oil through the block requires a different method to restrict oil to the first journal. Because there is an intersection gallery, which you can see here, there are actually two galleries feeding the first journal. Troutman completely plugs off the larger of the two and opens up the remaining feed hole to around 9⁄32-inch.  On the top side of the block...  On the top side of the block there’s another change that must be made to improve oil control in racing applications. In stock form, the oil galleries bleed way too much oil into the lifter bores. To help control oil here and maintain proper oil pressure to the crank journals, the only real solution is to have all 16 lifter bores bushed with liners that have an oil feed hole between 0.100 and 0.125-inch. It’s a bit of an expensive upgrade, but you also get the benefit of better clearances between the bore and the lifter which significantly reduces the chance of a seized lifter.  Troutman worked with Comp...  Troutman worked with Comp Cams to design a custom grind that would produce a broad torque curve running up to 5,000 rpm (the Kimmel series requires all cars run a 5,000 rpm rev limiter) and he, understandably, didn’t want to share that with us and the rest of the world. But we did sneak this photo just for fun. The flat tappet solid cam is parkerized because Troutman didn’t think nitriding would be necessary.  Diamond provided the forged...  Diamond provided the forged pistons for the project. From the large intake valve pocket you can see that the valve is on an angle pointed away from the cylinder wall. But an aggressive camshaft like we are using also requires a large pocket that, in turn, forces the top ring land down. Proper piston design is critical when you’re trying to get performance out of these engines or else you will wind up with broken lands in a hurry.  The ring pack is nothing exotic....  The ring pack is nothing exotic. The Total Seal rings are 0.043 sized and Troutman gaps both the top and second rings at 0.020-inch.  After balancing, the crank...  After balancing, the crank is bolted in place and checked for endplay. If you look hard enough, you can still find Cleveland blocks with four-bolt mains (although most have been snatched by the muscle car guys), but Troutman says that the two-bolt blocks are capable of handling more than 500 horsepower which shouldn’t be a problem for this build.  Here’s another issue that...  Here’s another issue that came from running a Windsor crank in a Cleveland block. The Cleveland’s lower timing gear won’t fit on a Windsor crank snout and a Windsor timing chain has a different tooth count, so mixing and matching isn’t really feasible. KT Engines has put together a custom timing kit using different components along with a custom spacer for the lower gear. If you happen to try to reproduce this build for your own race car, give KT a call for a timing set because you won’t be able to buy one at your local parts store.  Troutman says he sourced Eagle...  Troutman says he sourced Eagle for both the crank and rods because of the quality and reasonable cost. When building such a unique engine package as this, there will be some areas where you can’t avoid spending more money than if you were building the standard Chevy small-block, but at least with the crank and rods you can get fully modern tech at a great price.  The reason for going to all...  The reason for going to all that trouble to use an Eagle Windsor crank in a Cleveland block is because there just aren’t many options when it comes to performance Cleveland cranks these days. By using a Windsor crank we’ve ensured the engine has a high-strength modern design with proper rod side clearance and good oiling.  Finally, we get to the main...  Finally, we get to the main reason for this engine build. Cleveland heads that feature a closed combustion chamber design for good compression and an effective squish pattern. The 57cc combustion chambers combined with the 3.500-inch stroke will produce a 12.5:1 compression ratio. Make sure to look for the “2V” heads that were designed for a two-barrel carb. The larger 4V heads have intake ports that are too large and will leave you with poor throttle response.  Kevin Troutman begins work...  Kevin Troutman begins work on the stock cast-iron intake manifold that’s required by the rules. In OEM form, Clevelands were outfitted with a spread bore carburetor. You can purchase an adaptor to fit a square-bore Holley carb onto this manifold, but performance will suffer unless you open up the extremely small holes that lead into the plenum. Troutman uses a milling machine here, but you can get by with a hand grinder and a lot of patience.  No real tricks with the valvetrain...  No real tricks with the valvetrain except for a fresh multi-angle valve job. The stainless steel Ferrea valves are high quality but keep the stock dimensions.  For valvesprings, KT Engines...  For valvesprings, KT Engines chose a nested spring design from Comp Cams. Installed in these heads, they rate out at 120 pounds on the seat and approximately 400 over the nose. The Kimmel Street Stock series limits rpms to 5,000, so nothing too stout is necessary. In this photo you can also see that the inner springs have been left out. This is to lighten the spring pressure for breaking in the flat tappet camshaft. After the cam is broken in, the full spring package will be installed.  Unfortunately, all those cheap...  Unfortunately, all those cheap Windsor pans you see all over the place won’t work on a Cleveland. Troutman went with a 7.5-quart Kevko pan with a rear sump because he felt it offered the best combination of performance and value.
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Why You Should Wear a Head-and-Neck Restraint
“By all accounts it was the most spectacular wreck of the Mid American Stock Car Series’ 2012 season. It happened shortly before the halfway point of the 75 lap event during the Short Track National...
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NASCAR GEN-6 for 2013
There was quite a bit of fanfare when NASCAR introduced their new Sprint Cup Series cars earlier this year. They called them their GEN-6 cars and said the new car "puts the 'stock' back in stock car...
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The 2012 AMSOIL Great American CT Tour
Our next two stops on our Tour, after our long week previously spent traversing all of the state of Wisconsin, takes us first out of Wisconsin to Iowa and Hawkeye Downs Speedway for a Friday night...
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