[77TA]

Originally Posted by gtofreek

Just an interesting side note. The RA manifolds on this engine were Jet-Hot coated inside and out. When the engine was running I took a temp reading on the manifold with an infrared gun and the end runners were only 145° and the center was 240°. I guess that's proof that that coating really does help. The cast iron ex. pipe retaining ring that bolts to the manifold was over 450°.

A large part of the difference was the emissivity of the target.... those shiny coated manifolds will read cooler... paint a black spot on them or use a contact probe if you want to know the real temp... The coating helps just not that much.

[440GP69]

i'm really curious to see what a performer rpm would have done and a cliff's Q-jet, the coatings help keep up the velocity of the exhaust too.

[gtofreek]

I'm sure a performer RPM would have done much better but it wouldn't fit with the original RA pan. So the customer and I decided on the Tomohawk. As far as the Cliff Q-jet is concerned, I'm sure it would work really good, but the owner of our shop, Jeff Koerner is a Holley GURU. He builds some of the best Holleys around. This 750 HP with standard size venturis, flowed 997 CFM by itself and 1040 with a 1" taped spacer. The a/f ratio is a little messed up because we ran out of the right jets and have to order some in.

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by Don 79 TA

what cc heads are you using?the 65's?

They were they 65 cc. head that was CNC'ed by them and if I remember right, they ended up being around 72-73 cc's. I have to look it up in my records 'cause it's been a while. It was actually closer to 10.7:1 IIRC.

Originally Posted by Don 79 TA

how are the headers sealing/matting up the head? look good?

Yes, the manifolds bolted up real nice. Sealed good too. I didn't even use a gasket, just Hi-temp silicon for testing because they will need to come back off. They were also Port matched to the gasket real nice before they coated them. The Fel-Pro steel core header gasket is what they matched it to. I made the port opening in the head a little smaller than the gasket and manifold. These gaskets will be used on final assembly. They came from RA Restorations in Texas. Nice piece for the money.

[440GP69]

man this is the best street 400 combo ive seen in a long time! talk about a fun motor to play with imagine a 4-speed and 3.90 posi behind this thing in a 3100LB 69 Trans am! it's going to be a screamer! that torque curve is amazing for the large cam and single plane intake! are those 2.50" outlet manifolds?

[Cliff R]

Sounds like a NICE combo. We dyno'd a 428 last year with a set of unported KRE heads, and were remarkably surprised by the power numbers. Nice to see we can use the latest technology to make great power with the smaller engines!

"I didn't even use a gasket, just Hi-temp silicon for testing because they will need to come back off."

A neat trick we use here is to glue the gaskets to the heads with a small amount of RTV, then apply a generous coated of car paste wax to the bottom of the the intake.

This will act as a release agent, and you can install intake manifolds at the track or on the dyno without tearing any gaskets. We also prefer to remove the water crossover, and leave it in place. I've swapped intakes at the track in as little as 12 minutes!......Cliff

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by 440GP69

man this is the best street 400 combo ive seen in a long time! talk about a fun motor to play with imagine a 4-speed and 3.90 posi behind this thing in a 3100LB 69 Trans am! it's going to be a screamer! that torque curve is amazing for the large cam and single plane intake! are those 2.50" outlet manifolds?

Yes they are 2.5" outlets. It should be a beast.

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

Sounds like a NICE combo. We dyno'd a 428 last year with a set of unported KRE heads, and were remarkably surprised by the power numbers. Nice to see we can use the latest technology to make great power with the smaller engines!

"I didn't even use a gasket, just Hi-temp silicon for testing because they will need to come back off."

A neat trick we use here is to glue the gaskets to the heads with a small amount of RTV, then apply a generous coated of car paste wax to the bottom of the the intake.

This will act as a release agent, and you can install intake manifolds at the track or on the dyno without tearing any gaskets. We also prefer to remove the water crossover, and leave it in place. I've swapped intakes at the track in as little as 12 minutes!......Cliff

It was actually the ex. manifold that I just siliconed on. I agree on the intake trick though. We also glue the gasket to the head and we use Crisco as a release agent. Works real good without making a mess. Plus, you can just lick it off your fingers when your done smearing it on the gaskets! No mess, no fuss!

I like the power curve these KRE heads make. I bet it would still make over 400 HP at 7500 RPM with the way it was going.

[Skip Fix]

But I thought those "small port" KRE heads were low rpm

Nice work!

[gtofreek]

They are, and high rpm also!

Thanks!

[440GP69]

the csa of the kre d's even when ported looks to perfect for street motors

[gtofreek]

I think they make an excellent street head. Personally though, if i had a set that needed top flow more than 265 CFM in the future, I will just have them CNC'ed from someone like Kaufmann or SD Performance. Getting 265/220 out of them doesn't take a lot of work. But to get more than 265, takes a lot of work. I have too many hours to count in the porting of these heads. If I knew then, what I know now, I wouldn't have done all that work. I would have just sent them out for CNC'ing. With just a good valve job, a bowl clean-up and a gasket match to the #1233 gasket got these heads to 265 CFM. From there it was a lot of porting with little gain until I opened up the port a fair amount all the way through.

[Skip Fix]

If I knew then, what I know now, I wouldn't have done all that work. I would have just sent them out for CNC'ing.
Why I quit years ago, cut down on the "black or sliver boogers" too

I think on the KRE heads to start to get close to the the same cc as the E heads when you get towards to 300+ cfm also.

I use a dash of silicone grease on the intake for release myself.

It is kind of fun to have a "little" motor that runs with the 455s guys! Just need more gear and convertor though. My old RAIV 400 would back then.

[gtofreek]

Yeah it's always fun when you spank a big engine with a small one. Back when I had my 428 in my 65 GTO, I spanked a lot of 455's with it. And 454's and 440's etc.!

Amen on the black and silver booger thing! Never get used to that. Blow black boogers for two days afterwards!

[Silver Judge]

With 4:11 gears, that car is going to be an animal off the line. Can you say tire melting ?

Please put headers and a 3 inch exhaust on the car, some nice coated 1 7/8 Maddogs ought to be good for another 50 ponies on this thing

[gtofreek]

Yes, I'm sure it would. I designed the engine to make 550-575 HP and 500 ft. lbs. of torque. But I knew the manifolds and intake would hold it back a little but that is what the customer wanted, so that's what we did.

[Don 79 TA]

at first i didn't notice the manifolds being used, i just assumed headers

nice to see these #'s on a 400

i've thought about getting the 65cc KRE's if i keep the 400

[70KGOLD]

That car should haul!

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by Silver Judge

With 4:11 gears, that car is going to be an animal off the line. Can you say tire melting ?

Please put headers and a 3 inch exhaust on the car, some nice coated 1 7/8 Maddogs ought to be good for another 50 ponies on this thing

Well, you talked me into it. We are going to install a good set of headers and a 2" tapered spacer and re-pull it to see how much the manifolds and no spacer really hurt this thing. Results coming soon!

[440GP69]

how did you install the all thread in the deck? also if you can tell me how well does the oil line mod work?