Extreme Mud Race Motor

You know what they say, there's no replacement for displacement. And today on horsepower, we're gonna build up a monster 588 big block for some of our neighbors here on the power block. Now, I'm talking about Ian and Jessi down at Xtreme 4x4 who recently started transforming an old GMC pickup into a down and dirty mud racer.

It's a little like drag racing,

a little bit like road racing and a whole lot like,

well insanity.

But if heads up one on one dashes through mud muck and even water spins your gears,

this could be your kind of competition.

Mud racers experience a whole new concept of blinding speed

and they don't mind tearing up a whole lot of parts in hopes of a little taste of victory.

All it takes is plenty of nerve. A good bit of skill and lots of horsepower.

Well, a few weeks ago, our friends down at Xtreme 4x4 got the extremely wild idea to

turn this 87 GMC pickup truck into a mud race,

first stripping it down to bear frame,

then building a drag race version of a roll cage

and jerking out the 14 bot rear end to make way for a nine boat.

Now, these guys must spend half of their lives in junk yards.

That's where they found this well used $25 turbo 350 for a trend.

But here's the most outrageous part of this project.

They actually want us horsepower guys to give this 400 cube piece of crap. Enough power to compete.

We decided to start from scratch and

we'll send them the bill later.

Thanks guys.

If they're gonna get that truck down the mud pit and be competitive, then they need a real high horsepower, bulletproof big block. And we've got the right parts combination to get that job done. Yeah, it all starts with this tall deck, Merlin

three block from world products.

It's made from high density cast iron

and ours came with their splayed billet, main caps.

It's got expanded water jackets for better cooling priority, main oiling system and OEM mounting locations for the water pump, fuel pump and for the motor mounts.

Plus for improved cylinder head ceiling. It's got extra head bolt bosses

here in the valley.

We're using calico CT one coated bearings for the mains and the rods. Now they use a dry film lubricant that extends bearing life frees up horsepower and reduces oil temperature before we install them though. We have to check for the proper clearance, which buddy will show you how to do

first with the bearings installed in the main cap and main saddle

I torqued the cap down to 100 and 10 ft pounds.

Then using a micrometer measure the diameter of the crank journals.

Then I use a board gauge to compare that dimension

to the main bearing.

All right, what we get,

we got two thousands. What we're looking for is 2 to 3 thousands. If you have less than two thousands, you're gonna have a bearing failure. If you have more than three, you're gonna have a low oil pressure problem. Hey, buddy, I know you, you've had situations of not enough clearance with these blocks. Uh What you do?

Well, basically you wanna take it to your machine shop and have them polish in the clearances that you're missing. Now with the bearings installed in the saddles, we're gonna coat them with some royal purple max tough assembly lube.

Then we install the upper part of our two piece rear main seal from Fell pro before we drop in our new crank shaft.

This has got to be one of the best looking cranks we've ever used in here. And that's due to Eagle specialty products, new ESP armor finishing process that's ultra

smooth. So it sheds oil and reduces friction on the bearings. Now, ours is an internally balanced 4340 Ford steel piece with a 4.5 inch stroke. Next, we lay down a bead of silicone across the entire surface of the rear main to prevent oil leaks,

then we can slip in the bottom half of our seal.

Now, we can install the rest of our main caps. By the way, world highly recommends billet blade caps anytime you're making 1000 horsepower or more,

next, we can secure the caps with half inch A RP bolts and studs that come with the block. Hey, here's an important heads up about the calico bearings for our connecting rods. Some kits like ours have different bearings for the upper and lower part of the rod. Even though they're marked, here's the best way you can tell they're installed correctly.

The chaffer edge of the bearing will match up with the champed edge of the rod itself. Well, just like the main caps, these things also have to be clearanced.

So we get started by Torquing the rod boats down to 60 ft pounds.

This time, the measurement inside the big end was only about one and three quarters which is too tight.

So we use some of Calico's X bearings along with their standard bearings

to get us into that 2 to 3000 range.

So that handles the bill goes on with our 588 big block. We'll meet you right here after the break.

The build goes on in the horsepower shop. Now it's a 588 cubic inch big block Chevy for our buddies down on Xtreme 4x4. So they'll have enough horsepower to push a big old GMC truck through a nasty mud drag pit. Yeah. And to complete our rotating assembly, we're using a set of SRP aluminum pistons with the dome volume of

39 ccs. Now add that to 100 14 ccs in our combustion chambers. And, well, you got a compression ratio of 13.5 to 1.

We're hanging them on a set of eagles HB rods that have also been treated to that ESP armor finish.

Now, after applying some lube,

we could load the piston onto the rod using the wrist pin.

There we go.

Then using our vice, we secure them with spiral locks.

Now we can install this oil ring support rail. Why? Well, our 4.5 inch stroke moves the wrist pin up into the piston.

This rail will close up this gap.

We're gonna finish up our pistons with some rings we got from total seal first on bottom two rings surrounding this oil scraper. And of course, what it does is push oil through these holes to lubricate the pins and cool down the backs of the pistons. Next, a standard second ring

followed by a top ring which is a two piece gapless compression ring from total seal. By the way, here's one

all loaded up and ready to install

that is after applying oil to the rings, piston skirts, rod bearings and cylinders,

then we bolt up the rod caps and torque them to specs.

Now that we have all the pistons installed, we're ready to install our cam shaft for this monster big block. Now, it's a billet steel lunati piece that measures in at 816 on the intake 785 on the exhaust. And that's with the 1.7 rocker arm ratio. Now, it's also got 100 and 14 degree center line with no built in advance.

Remember to lube the cam shaft which we did through the lifter valley.

The timing set is a double roller, quick adjust system from cloys

up on top. The lunati roller lifters can go in now

and half of them have an offset for the push rods to align them for the guide plates and rocker arms. When it came to choosing heads for that big block mud muster, we decided to go with the only one

ones

touted to handle 950 horsepower right out of the box. Now, these are

Elbroch BC Victor series 24 degree CNC ported heads for big block Chevys. Oh, and speaking of ports,

the intakes measure 367 exhaust 377.

And over here vs

speck out at 230 intake, 190 exhaust with a combustion chamber that measures 100 14 ccs.

They're resting on a set of Velcro gaskets.

Then to keep them in place, we're using an A RP stud kit for Victor heads

and we torque that 12 point nuts to 80 ft pounds.

We're gonna show you how to degree in the cam before we install the rest of the valve train. Ours, by the way has a 114 degree center line. You may recall now to do this. We installed rockers and push rods on top of the number one cylinder only. And for tools, the dial indicator, which comes into play later

pointer here that's bolted to the block and of course, the degree wheel installed on the crank snout. 01 other little tool. This is a piston stop that installs right here where the spark plug goes

first to find top dead center. Rotate the crank clockwise. 10 degrees.

Tighten the piston stop till it touches the top of the piston.

Then rotate the crank clockwise until it hits the piston. Stop again.

Mark the number divide by two and that's top dead center.

Ok. Once you've established your T DC, we're gonna rotate the crank shaft to full lift on the valve.

Once you get the full lift,

shut your gauge up to zero,

advance at 50 thousands.

Take your reading on your degree wheel,

back it up 50 thousands

and go another 50 thousands.

Get your degree wheel number,

add the two, then divide by two and that's your intake center line.

If we hadn't have been right on the money, we could have used this little tool to advance or retard the timing set up to six degrees. Either way

we're using a Jessel Competition series Rocker kit that includes rocker stands. We leave loosely bolted together

using thread sealant, we tighten the intake stand first,

then we can tighten the Allen head joining bolt

with the exhaust stand, Titan. We can drop in our Lena

push rods

next with the cam on its base circle. For each cylinder, we install the rockers, torque them down and adjust the valve lash. We're only a few parts away from finishing up this big black Chevy and hearing it roar on the engine

dyno. So the best is definitely yet to come. You're finished, aren't you

good?

All right. Time to finish up our big block Chevy here. Our part of a mud racer truck project kicked off by our friends at Xtreme 4x4.

It all started with the Merlin

three block from world products.

We dropped in a 4344 inch crank from Eagle specialties.

We use some of their HP rods with a set of SRP aluminum pistons

for a cam shaft. We opted for a Leno

Billet roller

and for a timing set

and adjustable Chloe's double roller.

The lifters are Leno's

solid rollers and we're using Edelbrock and UC Victor Series heads plus a Jessel competition series rocker kit.

This motor is no doubt gonna face a lot of abuse in the mud pits. So we're not cutting any corners including the oiling system.

This is a step, oil pickup and pump

along with one of their aluminum oil pans made especially for the Merlin big block. As you can see, it's got internal

T uncoated winded tray and a crank scraper. Here's how you determine if you've got the right clearance between the pickup and the bottom of the pan.

Measure from the pan rail on the block to the pickup, which is seven and five eights,

then measure the pan top to bottom, which here is seven and seven eights.

Then considering the height of the pan and the thickness of the gasket we've got right at 3/8 of an inch of clearance, which is adequate for proper oil supply

with the exterior bolts tightened down on the pan. Just for the dyno, we're using this filter adapter for Mr gasket.

Since our pan is so wide to clear our stroke or crank, we're using nuts attached to studs inside to secure it.

Now make sure you use tape on your socket and silicone on your nuts. So they don't drop off inside

now to access it. We're using little external plugs.

Then with the motor turned over, we can install this moroso billet electric high volume water pump which bolts up with a couple of one and a quarter inch spacers to clear the front cover. Well, for an intake, this ought to do the job. It's an Edelbrock Super Victor single plane for competition only

now

designed for tall deck big block Chevys with a one inch spacer machined in

and it'll accept a standard length distributor.

Well, next the valve covers and like the block they're from world products.

They're cast aluminum with an extra tall design to clear any valve train combination.

The car from quick fuel technologies is a 4500 HP that flows 1250 CFM. Now, it's designed for drag racing and to run on gasoline, it's got billet metering blocks and 96 jets for the primary and secondary. Plus it's got polished aluminum die cast fuel bowls.

Well, I gotta tell you we're as eager as anybody to see what this thing does on our engine

dyno.

However, before we could do that, we gotta break it in and do some serious tuning.

We'll be ready next week though and I hope you are too. Yeah, our big Merlin is gonna make a lot of power on the

dyno,

no doubt. Well, there's more of this show to go. Those who stay with us. We'll be right back,

man. Look at that big thing.

Hey, welcome back to the horsepower shop.

You know, there was a time when building a motor usually meant sorting through a bunch of different speed part brands to find the right heads intake cam and so forth.

And while engine building will always involve experimentation.

The trend now is to use systems where all the parts are designed to work together.

Well, recently we had access to a place in Mid America

where that kind of work is all they do.

Everybody wants performance and that in your face power.

But the trick is building speed parts. Everybody can afford

well enter the guys from Crick flow specialties. A team of engineers, designers, pattern makers, machinist and engine specialists. All serious about building cylinder heads that match top end kits for street and strip boards and Chevys. The trip of staff is an incredibly dedicated group of people. The vast majority of the guys here have hot rods. They really like what we do. They're really into the sport.

General manager Al Noy oversees manufacturing where his team employs an army of five access CNC machines that carve raw castings into performance intakes.

And the company's famous twisted wedge cylinder heads for small block Ford engines.

A combination good enough for two mmr A world championships and the top speed record in real street

building winning parts starts at C AD station where engineers use 3D solid modeling to develop prototypes and patterns using materials from high

tech composites to zebra wood. We have about uh about 100 and 50 man overs in in designing the casting for the cylinder hood. After the design process, the casting, it goes through a rapid prototyping process. So basically everything is figured out before we make the first casting

related parts also undergo virtual testing here to simulate operating stress.

After port prototypes are developed,

they're tested on the flow

bench.

The optimized shape is digitized creating a tool path so that every port is identical,

takes about 10 hours to machine. The set of heads

the Jed XL S one kits also include a camshaft rocker arms gaskets and hardware.

We're looking at an engine as a whole and seeing what we can do to give our customers a complete package to make as much power as possible

to do that. Packages are dyno against OEM parts and competitors for power and durability.

Trick flow made over 4000 dyno Pools to develop the LS packages so they knew what was needed.

The stock LSGM head is a good design but this quench pad by the plug is a weak spot trick flow corrected.

He relocated the spark plug

and another dramatic design change that we did is we relocated the center line of both the intake and the exhaust valve by a degree and a half that un shrouded the valve back away from the valve seat area which resulted in much better flow

bo

volume on the cathedral intakes is 215 CCS on the Gen XL S one heads,

80 CCS on the exhaust ports.

After installing bronze valve guides, Tex used 30 machines to cut three angle valve jobs into the seats.

During production, the CNC laser constantly vectors for dimensional accuracy within 10/1000 of an inch.

Then heads go to the clean room where they're assembled with dual valve springs, stainless valves and titanium retainers with seven degree locks and vitton seals.

In the end, the new LS top end kit will get the final test.

The one, the consumer gives it

all right, ready to go for a ride. Let's go. Let's test it out.

You know, you want an extremely sta we were in housing for your nine inch Ford. Well, how about this XT one extreme duty housing

that comes from Highland Daytona racing.

Now, this thing is made from Swiss

Duramax steel, which is stronger than chrome molly but not as brittle.

It uses 31 spl

axles from strange engineering that are

from induction hardened steel. Now, you can get your housing bear like this or fully loaded with axles, seals, perches bearings. The works for just over $2600. Are you looking for a set of cylinder heads for your big block Chevy? Well, Summit race and now offers fully assembled iron heads like this. So you don't have to have yours rebuilt. They come,

it's a 308 CC intake runner,

100 and 29 CC exhaust runner with a heart shaped combustion chamber that measures in at 100 and 19 cc.

Now they're ready to run right out of the box. So you don't have to run to your machine shop. Just go fetch your Summit racing catalog where you'll pay less than 650 bucks per side. Well, that's it for today. We'll see you next time on horsepower.