Mustang Track Car Motor

Hey, welcome to the home of Horsepower and the launch of one of our coolest most ambitious projects in a long time.

It involves this steel rep pop 68 mustang body

and a mountain of steel and aluminum parts. Now, when we're finished, you'll get to see our busted knuckles and the car that's especially built for one of America's fastest growing motor sports hobbies.

All out of a box.

Drag strips are fun if you just like to run fast and straight for a few seconds,

oval tracks are cool too, especially if you like to turn left a lot.

But the road course has got it. All

the ultimate challenge for car and driver alike.

Road course racing has been around almost since the automobile itself. Now, there's competition in every conceivable class for pros and amateurs alike. Why it's even a family affair for people like the Edelbrock

who love thrashing on their trio of Mustang fastbacks.

Nowadays, car clubs can offer members the thrills of safe rope

horse racing

on just about any kind of budget

and there are weekend track days where anyone come out and enjoy a legal adrenaline rush

here. You only compete with yourself. But for the car and driver, it's a test of skill, speed steering, timing, breaking the works.

So we made a deal with year one to build a track car

and their head Honcho once it built as a tribute to a road course enthusiast

and high performance icon,

Vic Edelbrock American made company

hella

is successful story for the last 80 100 years. However long it's been, it's forever in our life and

it's, it's just, it's a selling feature, the color scheme, the number 27 everything about it is just super cool and we think it'll add value to, to people wanting the car

if you want it. But it looks like this. You might be the one who wins it in our big giveaway.

Yeah, but we got a long way to go before any of that stuff can happen. So let's get this thing in gear. In fact, we're gonna put the engine together first, a track worthy 347 Ford small block.

We're repurposing a short block from a test motor that only has a few runs on it.

Now, it's got a boss block built to take the abuse. It'll get with high RPM track use plus a forged crank, lightweight forged pistons and I beam rods.

We're gonna start off with these Edelbrock cylinder heads and not because of the tribute. These RPM extremes are ideal for our track car with the Nas Casts design and CNC porting Now they come with 100 and 85 cc intake runner

202 stainless steel intake valves and the Beehive Spring. Now the 59 cc combustion chamber is gonna give us a compression ratio of about 10.2 to 1. Now, for some of you novice gearheads that may be wondering what exactly the compression ratio is. I hope this helps you out.

The compression ratio tells you how much the engine squeezes a certain volume of air that it intakes.

So to make this simple in an engine with a 10 to 1 compression ratio for every 10 ounce volume of air pulled in

the piston compresses it to a one ounce volume. A higher compression ratio means it's pulling in more air and allows the engine to extract more mechanical energy from a given mass of air fuel mix, which means more power

with our 10.2 to 1 compression ratio. We're going to be able to run pump gas, enjoy great performance and have an engine that's reliable to handle all those abusive track miles. Now, earlier we installed a camshaft. That's also a great choice for the track.

It's a trick flow hydraulic roller with two 35 intake duration, 248 exhaust and a max lift of 574 and 595. Now, it's got an operating range from 3200 to 6800 RPM. S

which will give you the power to compete off of the corners and carry all the way down the straight away.

These push rods are sitting on top of hydraulic lifters that came from trick flow

component matching is especially critical in a racing environment.

That's why repurposing this RPM air gap intake manifold is a good idea in more ways than one.

It's got an operating range from 25 to 6500 RPM.

And this air gap design itself will be beneficial in hot track conditions.

Our cast aluminum needle bearing roller rockers also came from trick flow.

Now we finish up top with our Edelbrock valve covers that look pretty sharp on this old small block.

The oiling system consists of a milling high volume pump with a Canton pickup that's designed to flow a lot of oil. Now it's gonna work perfect with our deep sump Canton pan that has increased oil capacity and it's tig welded to prevent leaks and cracks.

Our 347 is finished and ready to fire up and what a first big step on the road to building our giveaway track car.

We had a special reason for building that engine first. You see Vic

Edelbrock is due here in a few minutes and we're gonna let him man the controls during the dyno

run.

Today, we've got our first ever horsepower track car build off the ground. This Mustang body shell is made by a company called dyno

Corn Classic bodies and they make them for 67 to 70 fastbacks. The steel used is thicker than what they used for the original,

but it contains less additives. So it's gonna be more flexible to work with. And

that's probably a good thing because unlike an assembly line car building, a replica always involves some fitment challenges.

What we're gonna work with right now. It's a break and suspension set up to go under that steel body.

This is a stage five kit,

all road racing components that match and all designed to fit 67 to 1970 mustangs.

The first pieces we

bowed up are a couple of coil over shock mounts.

Our suspension set up is a negative roll system. Now, what that means is the upper control arm is designed to create a negative camber gain during cornering for improved handling. Now, it doesn't mount in the stock location. It's actually an inch and three eights lower. So we need to do some drilling.

There are a huge improvement over the stamp steel and have no need for adjusting,

but we will have adjust ability for the lowers and we mount them with these plates that have three bolt holes. The closer the bolt is to the frame, the more negative camera you get, which is very critical when you're out there cutting corners

next up is this adjustable strut rod. Now, its job is to keep the lower control arm from moving forward and back

and it mounts up here to a bracket that turns out to be an accessory. Now, we'll go ahead and get that thing on order and weld it up. When it gets here,

we can finish up our coil over set up with these Ibach racing springs wrapped around two, a one, double adjustable shocks

and add some rigidity to the strut tower with this outer wheel strut tower brace.

Finally, the spindles and brakes. Now, our wheel wood setup has 13 inch slotted end drilled rotors with premounted six piston brake calipers

with a track car like this. A killer set of brakes is something you can't cut corners with. And hey, there's no pun intended there. When you're out on the track, you're using the brakes just as much as you're on the gas. So they generate a bunch of heat

and you want a good dependable set that you know, are gonna work next time you hit the pedal.

Yeah, steering is just about as critical. And on the road course, a manual rack and pinion is the way to go. It lets you feel the road, but you also get some of the benefits of power steering without the power drain. Now, this is a flaming river rack and pinion cradle set up that we're gonna use is designed for 3.3 turns, lock to lock, which simply means you only have to turn the wheel three and a third times to go all the way to the left or all the way to the right.

It's a real simple install. You just blow the cradle up to the chassis,

secure the rack to the cradle.

Then with a load on the suspension, install the tie rod ends

and attach the rod ends to the spending.

Gotta tell you except for some minor modifications in the beginning and the brackets, we're still waiting for everything up front went together surprisingly well. Let's hope we get that lucky out back.

Yeah. And I think we will with this fabricated nine inch housing from Curry. Now, this thing has three inch axle tubes and large bearing Torino type ends and they even went as far as to weld the leaf spring pads on for us. Now, here's something you see a lot in drag cars, this back breaks and that goes all the way from the center of the housing to the end of the axle tube is all for stiffening the whole piece. So needless to say this thing won't bend

before we load it up, we're gonna lay down a couple coats of paint to prevent any rust

for the third member. We're running a nine plus nodular iron sportsman case also from Curry and stuffed inside is a true track differential. Now, the way that works is as you go into a corner that transfers the power to the wheel with the most weight on it. So when you go into a right hand corner, it puts the power to the left rear wheel to pull the car through the corner. Plus we're also running a 375 gear ratio.

We opted for the wheel wood parking brake kit which goes on first followed by the 31 swine curry axle.

Now before it's seated, gotta drop in this U shaped retainer.

Now, the trick is to install the nuts through a hole in the axle.

This 12.19 inch rotor goes on next, followed by the cal

when it comes to brakes, you gotta make sure everything lines up and fits perfectly. And we just discovered a little fitment issue with ours. You see this rotor,

it's supposed to fit flush against the axle flange

and ours doesn't because

this little neural behind the threads of the axle studs is a little thicker and well consequently, won't

fit through these holes in the rotor. No big deal. We'll make it thick

enlarging the holes with a drill press is faster, but you can get by with your garage hand drill. Oh, you know, this is an example of how when you mix and match components, sometimes you gotta make it fit yourself

out back running. Global West multi leaf springs that are made for our application. Now, they're designed to control wheel hops so there's no traction bars needed and the lower the car right about an inch. Now check this out when they run with a deum

bushing in the rear shackle, there's no need to run a sway bar to control the lateral movement. Now, speaking about bushings, a lot of you, they know that they're a pain in the butt to get in or out when you're working on a suspension projects. But here's a little tip that might help you out. This is gonna be pretty simple. So make sure you follow along. The first thing we're gonna do is take a measurement of the width of the bushing and the shell, which in our case

is five inches, then add a half an inch to each side, which will make the total six.

The only cost here is the all thread, a couple of big washers and some big nuts.

And since we're working with aluminum, a hammer and a piece of wood, plus a few bad words can damage the bushing.

Now, keep this tool in mind with the correct size, all thread, it can be used for extractions as well.

Now the hole in the bushing is for a greaser. So make sure you position it towards the bottom

with the rear spring hanging. All we have to do is lower the rear end drop in some U bolts and some bottom plates and the front, rear suspension will be done. And hey, our little pony is gonna have a lot of spring in its step. Now, I may be a little pessimistic at times, but I'm really surprised at how well everything fit. But, hey, we've got a long way to go.

The horsepower guys are jacked up over their new track car project. Getting in on one of the hottest off road sports ever for the car. It's all about performance steering and braking and for the driver, the main thing in this racing, Joe is go out and have fun

and, uh, don't, don't hurt your car, don't hurt anybody else's car

and just have a good time,

Vic. I bro

to know he's the track car lover himself.

And as a tribute to Vic, we're building the 68 Mustang to give away

starting with the engine at

347 small block. We filled with a special combo of high performance parts.

Now we're about to see how much power we've got

and we've got a special reason to make a powerful statement here in the

dyno.

Hey, what's going on? Hey, stranger, how are you? How are you doing? Pretty good, pretty good.

Hey, that's

a

nifty looking piece there.

I like that. I like that running some uh all your parts on it. Pretty.

Tell me, tell me about it. Uh Ford racing. Uh 347 short block. It's got the RPM XTS on it. Uh Air gap intake, 800 A BS car. Great.

How much horsepower you get out of this?

We're gonna see today. That's all

that should make some pretty good horsepower um compressions right at 98

to one. So

able

to run good pump gas

off.

It.

Let's go, run it. Ok, press those right buttons.

Yeah, we're ready for those. The one that says horsepower's

Mike got the motor broken in before big got here. So it's ready to go. Let's hope Vic's ready because we're gonna let him run the

dyno.

Are

you sure you're gonna let me do this?

Did I have to sign anything? So no waivers.

I'm good to go.

Ok, here we go.

Look at that power curve.

That's power white. That's your torque and then that's just uh pounds an hour away. Still

in

there. We went off, we went off the chart.

Gotta make the chart bigger.

6005 03 and 6004 80

4600. Look at the torque. 4 80

4600. 0 my God.

No, I don't, I don't think we wanna change anything.

There's always room for improvement. It

might break the dyno I

think we're safe to add about two degrees.

Go baby go

517, 488.

You just went two degrees two degrees. So you're 32 now. Yeah, 32.

Uh let's go for gold and add two more. Who?

All right. You ready for another one? You're damn right. Bigger or better

see if that two degrees helped or hurt us

one horsepower. You're there. Look at that torque though. I mean it is not moving though. 4600 and 488.

So you're there. That's it.

518 horsepower 347 inches.

Wait till four hears that.

Yeah, Ford would be proud

and we're especially proud to share the horsepower

dyno

with my personal hero, a

horsepower legend. We all admire.

We'll be right back.

Hey, welcome back.

We've gotten emails recently from some of you wanting more information about a one of a kind spark plug test we conducted here in our dyno. And well, I'm glad to say we have an update for you.

Several months ago. The makers of E

three spark plugs asked us to test the performance of their diamond fire plugs against the popular competitor.

They were out to prove an engine loaded with their plugs would produce fewer harmful emissions.

Horsepower invited sensors inc to bring in their state of the science test equipment to monitor and convert our dyno

results into reliable data.

We wanted real world conditions.

So all test runs were made with our Chevy Ls small block

2500 RPM S for five minutes.

Then 3000 for another five minutes with each set of plugs.

Veteran engineer Jim McFarlane crunched the numbers for us.

And his report shows that 3000 RPM cruising speed

eres produce 43.4% less knocks than the

plugs,

20.5% less CO2 which is associated with greenhouse gasses

at the same time though horsepower and torque were even higher than the competitor eight and 14 respectively. Finally brake specific fuel consumption was 4% less while

Eres were in the engine.

In other words, there was better fuel consumption, better mileage.

Now, I don't want to load you down with too many numbers right now. But Jim did write a detailed article that you can read in our power block tv.com magazine.

Hey, I wanna steer you toward an upgrade idea for your classic street machine. Flaming River has come out with their classic series tilt column with the original GM, ignition key assembly at the three o'clock position. Hey, it's perfect for your muscle car or hot rod made in America with new parts made to be yours for 549 and up.