Straight Six on Steroids: Boosting a Chevy 292 Inline Straight-Six

(Narrator)>> Today on Engine Power we bring new horsepower to a vintage inline six with a high performance turbo system and e-f-i induction. Plus knowledge is power, and Performance Electronics gives you tons of information to work with. [ music ]

(Mike)>> Hey everybody, for today's show we're gonna be in the dyno room for the entire time. Pat and I are working on an engine that has had an extremely large following dating back all the way to the early 1960's. Now it's an engine that was used as a workhorse in cars, trucks, and even delivery vehicles that drop off your mail order packages like the UPS box truck.

(Pat)>> It's a General Motors 292 cubic inch inline six banger that we put together for the guys over in Truck Tech, and it is going in their 1965 C-10 project that they named Lo 'n Slo. We honed it here on our Sunnen SV 15, did some head work on our MSD industrial machinery. Then took it to Shacklett Auto Machine to do a valve job. It was assembled using parts from Summit Racing, Trent Performance, 12 Bolt dot com, and Comp Cams. We had some fun with LT and Austin on the dyno. Here's how that went down. [ engine revving ]

(LT)>> Yeah that's where it starts to sound good. [ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> It sounds like an airplane.

(Mike)>> Awesome, oil pressure, everything. Let's see what we got.

(LT)>> You guys will hate me for saying this but that almost sounds like a Skyline motor.

(Pat)>> You shut your trap.

(LT)>> Wow, so these came from the factory with like what, 165?

(Austin)>> 160, 165 is what we looked up.

(Mike)>> Alright all the vitals, everything looks good. You guys have got to rock, paper, and scissor it for the first one to the console. [ music ]

(LT)>> Darn, I'm out.

(Austin)>> Okay I've never done this before. Mike come back.

(Pat)>> This thing you don't even have to hit the gas pedal. Just hit starter, watch what happens. You've got to hold it. The most important thing on this is oil pressure. Obviously if that goes down at any point you abort the pull.

(Mike)>> When you go to full throttle and you see the r-p-m stabilize at 2,000 you would hit "D", and that starts your sweep. When it gets up to 5,000 you'll hear the break pull the engine down. Just pull out of it. That's all you've got to do.

(Pat)>> Keep going, keep going, keep going, all the way open. Okay "D"! Hold onto it. Now watch this, don't worry about anything else. [ high pitched engine revving ]

(Mike)>> From small four bangers to big inch race engines, turbo charging is an easy way to make efficient and very impressive horsepower. Now our task today is to outfit that 292 with this turbo system that LT and Austin designed for their project. It has a cast iron turbine housing with a three inch V-band outlet, and the turbo has a .88 a-r ratio. The rest of the system was designed to be simple and straight forward eliminating the need to constantly work on it to keep it on the road. It's a driver not a race rod. With that being said other components include an air to air intercooler, precision waste gate, turbo smart blow off, and several clamps, pipes, and components to wrap up the plumbing.

(Pat)>> One of the main changes that will be happening from the naturally aspirated to the turbo setup is that the carburetor will be going away. We've opted to run one of these new e-f-i setups that Holley has been developing. This is the Sniper EFI XFlow. It's a self-learning system that can be used on a naturally aspirated setup but also on a blow through or draw through situation like either a supercharger or a turbo setup. It contains four 120 pound per hour injectors, and that will support up to 800 horsepower. They even make a different version that has eight injectors that will support up to 1,375 horsepower if that's what you require. We ordered ours in this black ceramic finish to match our engine's color scheme. [ music ] It's easy to see on the XFlow the smooth transition into the throttle bores, which improves air flow and fuel atomization over the standard Sniper, which is rated at 650 horsepower.

(Narrator)>> Up next the guys from Truck Tech pay us a visit and they've brought their custom built setup for the turbo's cold side. Plus the latest technology to monitor your engine's vitals.

(Pat)>> We're back getting this 292 cubic inch straight Chevy six ready for some turbo installation.

(Mike)>> LT did a great job fabricating the hot side for both the N/A runs and the turbo install. All we have to do is remove the short section of pipe and the turbo has a place to mount. A gasket seals the exhaust housing of the turbo to the exhaust flange. [ music ] Now the oil drain line is attached to the turbo and ran to the fitting I welded onto the oil pan. [ music ]

(Pat)>> Nice going! [ music ]

(Mike)>> The turbo needs oil lubrication from the engine. So this pressure line will go from the oil gallery on the block to the inlet fitting on the turbo. It uses a small inline restrictor so oil does not bypass the turbo seal. Summit Racing carries everything you need for a turbo build, including Precision waste gates like this 46 millimeter one that has a cast stainless steel body and an aluminum top cap.

(Pat)>> Directing the exhaust away from the turbo is a V-banded pipe that will also house the wide band O-2 sensor. [ music ]

(Mike)>> Looks like you've got some shininess on the cart.

(Austin)>> Got our cold side ready for install baby!

(LT)>> I'll tell you what, there's a lot of hours of care that somebody took to build all this stuff, and I'm excited to see how it's all gonna work together honestly. You guys have no idea how excited I really am.

(Mike)>> You want us to tell you how good of a job you did on it?

(LT)>> No, this is like seeing your child being born or something like that.

(Pat)>> I'll take your word for that. So here's where we are right now. Oil is plumbed to it, the drain is done, down pipe is on, O-2's are in. This thing is basically ready for boost. Now all that stuff, I'm glad you're in here because you did such a nice job on the truck I don't want to mess any of it up cause it looks too pretty.

(LT)>> Alright well let's get it installed and make some noise.

(Pat)>> I'll leave you to it.

(LT)>> Want to do the carb hat.

(Austin)>> See how this thing sounds. [ music ] It's no accident that these parts are installing so easily, and that's because we took the time earlier to design and fabricate the system with the engine still in the truck. All the tubing is routed around obstacles such as the firewall, inner fenders, core support, and grille, requiring very minimal modification to the truck.

(LT)>> The hot side of the turbo kit is made from stainless steel and the cold side is made from aluminum, and the whole thing fits perfectly under the hood of our 1965 patina'ed C-10. [ drill spinning ]

(LT)>> It's always a great idea to have an intercooler anytime you're pressurizing air with a turbo because that heats the air up and we want to cool it back down so it has the most capacity to make more power. Colder air is denser. Now you might look at this and think well it's not a very large intercooler, and you'd be correct but there's two reasons that kinda work in our favor. Number one, we're not gonna be pushing this turbo very hard. So it's not gonna be generating a ton of heat. And the second reason, well that's just space. We don't have a ton of room behind the grille and in front of the radiator on our C-10 that this 292 is going in. So that's just a fact of life. This is what we have to work with.

(Austin)>> And we also installed the Turbo Smart race port blow off valve, which on a gas motor, when you let off the accelerator that throttle plate's gonna close and it just relieves that extra boost. That way you're not stalling out that turbo. [ music ]

(Mike)>> Austin an LT just wrapped up installing the cold side on their 292, and I've got to say it looks pretty impressive. Now it's our turn to go ahead and put in all of our new notes for the turbo system and get the dyno all up and running so we can make some pulls. And before we do that Pat's got something to tell you about in the dyno room.

(Pat)>> Having the Sniper XFlow EFI run on a naturally aspirated versus a turbo is simply telling it what it's on. If you go into the initial setup wizard you can actually choose turbocharger, nitrous oxide, supercharger, or from naturally aspirated, and that tells the unit what it's on. Now that will give you a couple of options of retarding your timing per boost level and also adjusting your air/fuel ratios for boost level. It's pretty slick!

(Narrator)>> Up next the turbocharged inline six struts its stuff in the dyno cell.

(Mike)>> Alright LT and Austin are wrapped up and it looks really good. Now it's our turn to make some noise, as LT would say. Now they had to run out and go do something else. So we're gonna continue with the dyno pulls. Now right now we have the natural and the red spring in the waste gate for a total of 7.5 p-s-i of boost. Pat's gonna go ahead and make the pull and see how this thing ends up.

(Pat)>> Ready?

(Mike)>> I am!

(Pat)>> Nice how that thing starts.

(Mike)>> Beautiful start up. Sounds like my old bass boat.

(Pat)>> With 2,000 to 4,500, I have the rev limiter at 4,500 cause I have no idea. I don't want to over boost, it does something weird. You know how that goes.

(Mike)>> I agree with you 100 percent. Look who's gonna be driving the truck. The burnout kings.

(Pat)>> Here goes. [ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> Boost! [ engine revving ]

(Mike)>> Man, nice pull.

(Pat)>> Holy smokes, I've never done anything quite like that before. Look at that.

(Mike)>> That's not bad, that's not bad. 316.

(Pat)>> 429 pound feet of torque at 3,500. What did this thing make for torque before? It made 280 something?

(Mike)>> Like 282, only on 7.5 pounds. That's a good start.

(Pat)>> Now keep in mind, this engine has parts in it designed to make 160 horse. So we have a cast crank. We do have studs in it in the mains.

(Mike)>> Stock rod, little bit of an upgraded piston.

(Pat)>> Let's make another one and back it up. But that's incredible. I was actually a little nervous on that one and I don't get nervous.

(Mike)>> Here comes the boost!

(Pat)>> That is unbelievable.

(Mike)>> 3.5 pounds on load up, that's nice! [ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> I should probably raise the rev limiter. I don't want to rev this thing.

(Mike)>> It doesn't need to go any higher. It's dropping off.

(Pat)>> That's not bad, same thing, 312, 426. It's got a little heat in it. Now the injection's still has to go through learn and everything.

(Mike)>> Yeah that was the first pull with the boost on it. Now something else that's pretty impressive with that 312 and 426 number is we have room to put some more spring into it.

(Pat)>> Yeah I know. Lo 'n Slo is kind of a misnomer cause it's not going to be very slow. If you they said, well you know, we don't want a whole lot of power and now we're cranking double the power to an engine that's designed for half of it.

(Mike)>> And the intercooler is working. It shows right there with back to back pulls. So that's nice.

(Pat)>> Okay so what do we want to do with spring?

(Mike)>> I don't think we need to make a big jump like LT. He wants to go up to like 14 pounds. I don't think that's the right thing to do. I say we add three pounds to the natural and the green spring. That'll go from 7.5 to 10.5. That's a three pound increase.

(Pat)>> I'll buy that.

(Mike)>> Alright. [ music ]

(Pat)>> Yeah.

(Mike)>> Teamwork!

(Pat)>> Makes the dream work.

(Mike)>> Alright! I've got to say it again. It's like 10.5 pounds of boost on a six cylinder full of fury. This is either gonna be really good...

(Pat)>> ...or a really bad idea.

(Mike)>> Or a really bad idea. [ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> Whoa, it made over 500 pound feet of torque.

(Mike)>> I think it did. Wow, holy cow!

(Pat)>> 510, now I kinda ramped it in there. 376 horsepower.

(Mike)>> I'm not putting any more spring in it.

(Pat)>> Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

(Mike)>> There's no way.

(Pat)>> I know with 15 p-s-i it'll crack 400.

(Mike)>> Our whole thing with this thing was our goal was torque, from the beginning. Not just our goal but the guys next door. They just wanted something that had a lot of torque. I don't think 400 horsepower is a goal we need to go after. You're 26 numbers away from it. You're making so much torque right now, and you are concerned about the block.

(Pat)>> I am definitely concerned about the block. Okay let's figure this out real quick just for scientific purposes right. So we have 509 pound feet of torque. You divide that by six cylinders right? That's 84.8. Now if this was a V-8 making the same thing that thing would be making 678 pound feet of torque. I don't want to push it any more. I am definitely happy. Man this is a win. This is absolutely a win.

(Mike)>> Good job!

(Narrator)>> Up next advanced tech to keep track of your engine's performance.

(Mike)>> These days technology is advancing at an amazing rate. From electric cars to rockets that can land their own boosters on small landing pads we are witnessing history on a daily basis. Now the same can be said for the automotive industry when it comes to operating systems for engines, transmissions, and all the other bells and whistles that get powered up when you fire up your ride.

(Pat)>> In the performance aftermarket the technology is the same. Advancements are made every day so engines run better, and controlling systems like nitrous and turbos is now more accurate and responsive. Monitoring an engine's vitals is also critical. So today we're gonna highlight monitoring air/fuel ratio because if the air/fuel ratio is too lean you are going to burn something up, and also if it's too rich the engine just won't run right.

(Mike)>> To monitor air/fuel ratio you need a wide band O-2 controller like we use back on the dyno. Now the problem is they can be a little bulky due to the amount of wiring involved, especially if you run a dual unit to monitor both banks of the engine. For you guys with power adders, high revving N/A bullets, motorcycles, or anything else with an internal combustion engine that want to monitor your air/fuel ratio in a compact and high tech way check this out.

(Pat)>> We're here with Jared and Tim from Performance Electronics, and they brought a table full of products for us to look at, from e-c-u's to dashes and this trick O-2 sensor. Tell us a little bit about how the company was started.

(Jared)>> It started back in 1999. A couple of collegiate buddies and then one of their professors. Everything is proudly produced, manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio. We're proud to be made in the USA.

(Mike)>> Now did it all start off in the automotive scene or was it all power sports?

(Jared)>> So our first couple of products were actually industrial based products for diesel water pumps, and then that quickly transitioned into the performance aftermarkets, automobile, dirt racing.

(Mike)>> Man that's pretty cool. So you're in some pretty extreme environments. So these have to be able to take some pretty good abuse.

(Jared)>> All of our products are exposed to extreme vibration testing as well as cold and heat testing, and with all of that we're able to design a product that'll just withstand the elements and continue to work year after year.

(Mike)>> Now there's a lot of different e-c-u's and things up on the table. Go through and just tell us a little bit about each one and what they control.

(Jared)>> So we have our ignition only controller you'll see over there. So that's capabilities of controlling a four cylinder engine ignition side only. Really popular applications for four cylinder motor cycle engines, all the way up to our big e-c-u, the 8,400, that is capable of sequential fuel and ignition control for V-8 engines.

(Mike)>> Now you say big but the actual size of this e-c-u is really small and compact. That makes it easy to mount, and wire, and everything else. Get it in a nice tucked spot.

(Jared)>> Correct, and as we all know in the racing world ounces make pounds. So keeping everything small and easily tuck awayable if you will, and lightweight makes for a good product, and all of our e-c-u's come with data logging and standard Windows based tuning software.

(Pat)>> Tim tell me a little bit about the dashes that you brought.

(Tim)>> So our dash is a touch screen dash. It's able to display up to eight lines of information. It has multiple warnings that you have on each individual display. In addition to that you also have full screen warnings or full screen alarms. The nice thing is that it not only works with our e-c-u but it does work with a lot of the other e-c-u's on the market that have a can output.

(Mike)>> That's pretty good. Price point on your dash?

(Tim)>> So our PE dash is $395.

(Mike)>> Wow!

(Tim)>> Pretty great for a touch screen dash.

(Mike)>> That's impressive.

(Pat)>> Now a big part of this is customer support and you guys sound like you've got that dialed in.

(Tim)>> Absolutely, when you call up Performance Electronics and you need help with any of your e-c-u's I know that you're gonna get either me or Jared on the phone. We want to work with our customers to make sure that at the end of the day they're happy with their product and also that they have a great running vehicle.

(Mike)>> Something you guys have been working really hard on and brought it down is your wide band O-2 controller. Tell us about that and how that all came about.

(Tim)>> So our wide band O-2 controller is something that we wanted to develop for people for an easy application, easy installation. The nice thing is is that you're able to connect it with just two wires, power and ground, and the hardest thing that you have to do is really weld in the bung for the O-2 sensor. It's great for the type of person that has a classic car or a hot rod and they don't want to mess up their dash with a gauge.

(Mike)>> Cool well let's get to it and see how it works.

(Pat)>> I love it.

(Mike)>> I think this is gonna one of the easiest things we've ever installed in here.

(Jared)>> Oh it's real easy.

(Mike)>> We will mount the unit to the dyno chassis. Then connect a ground and a switched 12 volt source. [ music ] Screw the wide band sensor into the exhaust bung and power it up. [ music ] There it went, it's heated up.

(Pat)>> The sensor heats up in just a few seconds. Then the unit is ready to pair with a smart phone. Once paired your air/fuel ratio is at your fingertips.

(Jared)>> So on the main screen here you have an adjustable target ratio line. So as your tuning you can move this line to help you better equate to where you are in your air/fuel ratio to where your target is. If you prefer lambda over air/fuel ratio you can quickly change that to view your lambda values here, and you can adjust your common fuel types. Most common is your gasoline, 14.7 to 1, but let's just say you're running E-85 you could also select E-85 and then that would adjust all your gauges and plots accordingly.

(Pat)>> Both sensors are reading the driver's side exhaust, and they are both monitoring at the same air/fuel ratio, which shows how accurate the Performance Electronics unit is. [ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> Well that's about the slickest thing we've had in here in a while, and it's not only for V-8 stuff. You can use it on anything.

(Jared)>> Absolutely, anything with an engine as long you have a close power and ground source, you'll be up and connected and reading air/fuel ratios in no time.

(Mike)>> Now it doesn't necessarily need to be mounted inside the car. It can even go in the engine compartment.

(Jared)>> Correct, with the compact size and the nylon construction it's extremely resilient to the heat, and for those of you that want a cleaner install where it can't be seen we offer a 6 foot extension cable. So you could mount that up on the dash or firewall inside the car if you wanted.

(Mike)>> Very nice! I guess final question. Where can people get them?

(Jared)>> You can visit the website at PELTD.com.

(Pat)>> Thanks for coming by guys, great product.

(Mike)>> We're keeping that one.

(Pat)>> We're gonna keep this one, is that okay?

(Jared)>> Yeah and I'll give you a couple more just for fun.

(Pat)>> We appreciate that man. Thanks very much!

(Jared)>> Thank you.

(Mike)>> For more information about the parts and equipment used in today's episode visit Powernation TV dot com.