Race Spec NA Series Testing
While the rest of the team is hard at it, making and shipping valve covers and tensioners, building and improving race cars, I headed back to the BES Racing Engines horsepower factory to continue the development / testing of the Race Spec NA series of engjnes and their associated parts including their heads, camshafts, intake manifolds, carburetors and exhaust.
We had a very productive day, learning what the best combination of highly cost effective parts, including the Mach 2 cam, will most efficiently get us to the safe, easy to maintain and highest bang for the buck 700+ HP G3 Hemi package and because we want these engjnes to be accessible to many, we will continue to develop and sell them carbureted or EFI.
The base engjne for this Race Spec NA 700+ HP configuration is a 392 CID, BGE block (Callies AL available for lighter weight / even higher strength), BES CNCd 6.4l heads, pretty mild hydraulic cam - soon to be our upcoming Mach 2 cam, forged pistons (about 12:1) and rods. We then tried an array of intakes, carbs and a couple sets of headers to see how it responded and how they all played together.
Here’s what we have learned so far:
1. The little, relatively low cost G3 Hemi 392, that could, will safely make over 700 + HP.
2. The much taller than Holley low profile manifold, the OG Drag Pak intake makes ~25HP more when employed around this 700+ HP level.
3. The Muscle Motors 4500 top, similar to OG Drag Pak intake makes about 20 HP more than the OG Drag Pak intake. Blackbird Performance will make or find a source for something the same or a further improved manifold. A big thank you to Michael Ware and Chuck Senatore digging it out of the basement and continuing their long, long history of contributing to the effort of making cost effective, no nonsense Mo Power.
4. Hemis, G2s and G3s alike, like airflow and fuel, and even mostly stock stuff is capable of ingesting, and especially when using all 16 of their plugs, effectively burning a lot. The fantastic GetM 4500 base, bigger carbs make another 15 HP or so.
5. We could build you one of these with all brand new parts, carb to pan, including the ignition control or EFI control for $19-20k OR you could build your own with still plenty good at this power level used parts, for approaching half that.
Tomorrow we will be back at it, with more iterations on the cam, focus on a couple other areas, and last but not least, the much requested development, and even though I gave up alcohol a year ago, running on Methanol…. Stay tuned, more to learn with more information and parts to come.
