Scholastic Engine Builder's Challenge

Today on horsepower. Another monumental match of power and torque competition. Two teams of recent gearhead grads face off in the second scholastic engine builder challenge

before we kick off this year's challenge. Here's a look at last year's competitors and the rules they followed in pursuit of championship horsepower and torque.

Each team had a $5000 budget from summit racing to build up a Chevy Z cfour short block.

Then three practice pos 30 minutes of tuning

and three competition runs in search of the best horsepower and torque averages.

Well, a year passed, we got the floors cleaned up and ready for a rematch.

The parts are all here and guess what? So are this year's contestants? Let's meet them

wearing red and representing last year's winning campus, Ben Parsons and Chris

Baca from the Wyotech campus in Blairsville, Pennsylvania

and wearing blue. The challengers from the West Skyler brand and Ryan Smythe from Wyotech

Campus, Sacramento California.

Each team will build up a Ford racing 347 short block each hoping to make winning horsepower by harnessing skills and training at Wyotech. They teach you professionalism along with being the best that you can be just a lot more fun to go through life, you know, doing something you love. We try and teach like core concepts

that they can apply to anything.

Last year, the Sacramento team went for high RPMs using big butter heads, solid roller cam and a single plane intake manifold.

The Blairsville Bunch. Well, they took a more conservative route with smaller rudder heads that they machined heavily

hydraulic cam and dual plane intake manifold.

Despite a few dramatic moments,

they had a winning combination

this year. The combinations are closer,

but the strategies differ enough to make for a good matchup

is a trick flow. 64 Boston chamber

192 intake runner. We use an A FRC and C head, a smaller intake runner

and uh 58 CC chamber heads. The CAM we went with a trick flow with pretty good duration.

This is our competition cam.

It's 230 degrees of duration at 50,005, 98 lift sets on 100 and 10 degrees lobe separation.

This right here is the heart of the engine. So for the Blairsville team, it's a ha

a 750 HP carb

rock air gap intake cry flow heads with 64 CC combustion chambers

and one of their hydraulic roller cams

compression ratio should be about 10.3 to 1

like last year.

Conservative for the West coast guys same carbon intake but their A fr heads have 58 CC combustion chambers

and they're using a single pattern comp hydraulic roller with a little more max lift, estimated compression ratio is a little more on the edge

at 11.11.

If we double check each other and make sure everything goes in right as it's supposed to go to start it off. I think we'll be good to go.

We figure we got a really good chance

time to unwrap the goodies and get to work. Gentlemen, start your engine build.

The Sacramento blue team jumps right into the build first for their secret weapon. The hydraulic

C

because that's what we wanted. We wanted a very simple build yet at the same time to make good power and be able to handle, handle the the duty.

Meanwhile, the red team takes a slower and more detailed approach starting by disassembling the heads for supporting.

No, this is a good time where fore hands are a lot better than two. Definitely

twice as

good.

Remember guys and you peel them off and you pull them cups up. You wanna make sure there's no shims floating around under there.

All right.

By the way, the rules are that the Wyotech instructors can observe and advise but they can't do any of the actual work.

All the valve train, all that springs out.

Daddy,

daddy.

We like to party

looped up here.

Nice and smoother too.

That'll keep the lifters in place

while the Sacramento team makes quick progress.

The Blairsville table takes their time with details. Not every day. You get to grind away at a

pair of $1400 heads

that's gonna help air to flow a little bit better through here.

Not very much, but just a little bit. Every little bit counts

two degrees advanced.

So we came up with that.

Um This is a collaborative effort.

OK.

One step forward, two steps back. It's all right. We're going, we're going

just make sure, double check, triple check won't be good.

Divide by two. And that's where I should be reading

that way I can get it to dead zero.

Ben is picking up the pace for the Blairsville team,

but time is ticking away

and Chris is still porting the heads

pretty much now, just waiting on the heads. Once we get those done,

we can really start slamming stuff together.

We're going on.

Yep. Let's put this on a little further and you still lined up on the

road

pretty damn close, huh?

Yeah, that's good. That's right on the money. That's perfect.

Trying to figure out how to get this oil pump on here. Neither of us have ever installed a Ford oil pump.

I thought it was good before. About the only

there

that works.

Right.

Glad they figured that out.

But there's much more to go before these bills are ready for the

dyno

that's coming up when we come back.

Hey, in case you're late joining us, we've turned over the horsepower shop to some wild

tech gearhead grads,

two teams competing in our second annual scholastic engine builder challenge.

Now each is trying to make the most horsepower and torque in a Ford short block on a budget of five Grand

Skyler and Ryan from the Sacramento campus are a little more animated

and a little more on the edge with their engine bills strategy.

But of course, it's the quiet guys. You gotta watch out for Ben and Chris from the Blairsville P A campus are taking a little more conservative approach

and hoping to port their way to more power. Chris spent some time practicing, you know, making sure he can handle the job, you know, especially in a minimum amount of time and, and that he did, you know, a very good job

with the head supported to near perfection. The red team is ready to rock and roll

before

this

and after we do this, all we do is bolt on parts so we're

pretty good

bolt

on. That was

a difficult

that

we

got through it.

Oh, yeah.

Water

right

now.

Dead. That's on

right there.

Neither team had to worry about paying for spark plugs. We provided denso plugs to each team to make sure they had plenty of spark.

They're doing pretty good. Aside from a couple of little setbacks, I think we're doing all right. Most of our parts have gone together really well.

Let's go right there. It's just touching

there's a quarter turn, plus a quarter turn should be

good.

Yeah, those

are pretty good too.

Good brother.

Yeah, they're, they're dialed.

All right, good job, man.

Looks like Chris can't get enough boarding this time to create a smooth air flow path between the carb spacer and the intake.

Working with the very same metal rock intake. Ryan's mission is to trim the port so they match the gasket holes again, producing smoother air flow

with their generous five grand parts donation for each team summit racing and Gellard stuff. Spy to check in on the challenge.

Ghar,

how are you? I'm pretty excited about it again this year. I think it's cool to get the

the challenge back to get the teams. There's a little grudge thing going on here. They've got some reputation to uphold. So they, the Clares

team says they're still the favorites, but

it looks like the other team is well on track too. It's pretty cool.

Are you kind

of again?

There? It is.

The people at Summit are really gear heads. So we really understand the passion.

We really like to play with our toys and we're very interested in the next generation of gear heads. We wanna see these guys learn how to use our parts, learn how to use automotive aftermarket parts,

learn how to do custom stuff, not be afraid of it.

That's why we do it.

Well, you're sticking around for vaginal pools, right? Oh, for sure. For sure. That's the fun part. Noise,

noise and horsepower. I love it.

Well, it looks like the teams are finished with their builds and ready for the noise. Stick around for some exciting

dyno runs.

Welcome back to our second annual Scholastic Engine Builder challenge

where the defending Blairsville P A Wild tech team is ready to meet their fate with a mighty

dyno.

Yeah, we're a little bit nervous but we're definitely excited. So we went through everything just to make sure we didn't forget anything. And, uh, I think we're ready

once the fire is up, then all the stress, you know, it's just like, ah,

I hope our, uh, push rods don't

get compressed too tight when we pump them up, pump up the lifters. We're gonna be just fine. You did such a good job on that.

Oh,

thanks.

Yeah.

Yeah, I talked the Ford guys into working with us.

They're very generous. It was really cool to work with them.

They're filling.

Hell, yeah. Oh, I can relax.

Yeah,

those are big numbers guys.

It's really good.

After a few impressive practice runs, the Blairsville team has 30 minutes to change the oil and do any tuning they want for the final competition. Dyno runs. We also provided oil purple break in oil and synthetic oil to each team here in the

dyno Cell being, we're carrying 400 ft pounds of torque at three grand.

I'd say when we get done putting oil in it. We fire up. Rock.

Yeah.

Leave

well

enough alone. Huh?

I'm getting real nervous.

It looks like a leaky breather could cause some problems,

but the Blairsville team gets it wrapped up just in time for their competition runs.

All right,

here we go.

So, here's how it works. We run the engine three times. Take the three horsepower numbers, add them up and divide them by three to get the average. We do the same with the torque numbers and then the two averages are added together for the final result. Got it.

All right guys. That's number one of the competition po 4 88 4, 60

two, competition pole 4, 79 4, 58.

And last competition pull 4 79 4 55.

I'm happy with those numbers

and it's gonna be tough to compete with.

That's awesome

how you guys feel now about that.

Very good, very good about that.

All right. Push that bad boy in there.

It's gonna be a

hard competition for the other team to beat. But you know, they got a good set up too. So

we're a little bit worried but we'll see.

It'll be exciting right down to the end, I guess. Huh?

With everything wired up, tightened down

Brian

and buttoned up Sacramento's built up Ford is ready for some action

and the torch.

But it was, it was higher.

Strong engine

390

41

more sting.

It

can be really close with,

with some good practice poll numbers. The Sacramento team now has their 30 minutes to get ready for the final runs.

Two

is gonna be closed. Is it too?

Hey, you guys want to get greedy and put two more degrees in it or play it safe and leave it where it is.

I'm kind of down to push it, man.

The moment of truth is coming up and Skyler and Ryan are actually pretty calm but Tolly,

uh

you know what I can see in your face. Yeah, a little bit.

I can't hide it. I can't hide it.

They had an overall horsepower average of 395.3.

And that team is,

well, we can't tell you that yet. The Sacramento team is ready for their three competition runs when we come back.

Welcome back to our second annual Scholastic Engine builder challenge.

The defending champion wild tech team from Blair OP A had an impressive run on the

dyno

with peaks over 392 horsepower 434 ft pounds of torque.

And now it's Sacramento's turn to strut their stuff

and from the looks of their practice pools, this competition will be a close one.

I think both combinations are really, really close. So it should be, it should be fun to watch

a little difference in compression, whether it's gonna be an advantage

either way because of running, you know, a pump gas.

I guess we'll see,

he said he was gone for it.

Yeah, me too.

Pulls right up there.

Did you hear that when they shut it off?

Kept going

diesel? Did it diesel a bit it by diesel?

I don't know. I think we lost some numbers,

lost them.

Crunch those numbers. Joe

Time to do the math. And it's a good thing. We have a calculator because this could come down to just a few numbers.

My heart is starting to pound

close

up

now.

Well, this has been tense.

It's been a lot of fun to watch you gearheads at work. See your planning, pay off and it was really very close on the bottom line.

So here it's time to announce the winner.

They had an overall horsepower average of 395.3

an overall average of 439.6 ft pounds of torque for

Ain score a combined score

of 834.9.

And that team is

the blue team from Sacramento.

Congratulations to

cold

that

who gets to take the cup?

You

guys

take it.

Congratulations.

Good job, buddy. Thank you. You too.

I'll

say

it again.

Congratulations all the way around to two great wild tech teams

and a nail biting competition.

Uh the bases of victory.

And I would say that it's been uh

more than I actually expected it to be

close competition.

Um Good representation for Wyotech. We came into the game

with our plan to make a,

a flat torque curve. You know, we wanted low end torque and we were shooting for an average and

our

combination really paid off. I'm very happy of the whole week. Definitely.

One year, Blairsville, one year Sacramento. Let's see what we get next year.

It was fun.