2006 The Engine Masters Challenge - Big Block Vs. Small Block

Fueling the Fire

When it comes to making the most pump-gas power in a competition such as the Jeg's Engine Masters Challenge, the actual fuel becomes a vital consideration, particularly when attempting to create an absolutely level playing field for the competitors. Fuel specifications vary regionally through geographical areas, even on a seasonal basis, not to mention the dramatic differences in fuel quality and content that can be found from brand to brand. Here we enlisted expert assistance from Shell, which served to provide oversight in all aspects of fuel supplies.

With the variations possible in fuels, we eliminated a variable by specifying Shell V-Power unleaded pump gasoline. To allow competitors to tune to maximum advantage before the event, Shell provided the builders with the exact formulation of the fuel used in the event for pre-event testing. Meanwhile, at the World Products test facility, drums of V-Power pump gas were delivered and quarantined for use in the actual competition. Shell even graciously provided our competitors with gas cards for free fuel to ease some of the costs associated with transportation to World's Long Island, NY facility. That a major petrochemical company would go through all of this effort to support a high-performance engine event illustrates Shell's commitment to motorsports.

Shell V-Power is the most advanced fuel Shell has ever developed and contains five times the minimum amount of cleaning agents required by government standards. Shell V-Power actively cleans your engine as you drive by removing carbon deposits that can build on critical engine parts, specifically intake valves and fuel injectors.

Not all gasolines are the same, and the use of low-detergent gasolines can allow deposit materials to build up on your engine's intake valves and fuel injectors. This material can cause less efficient mixing of air and fuel and results in incomplete combustion in some cycles. Tests prove that, with regular use, Shell V-Power can remove the deposits that low-detergent gasolines leave behind.

Bischoff's Brutal Ford

Tony Bischoff and the BES Racing team have been strong contenders in the Jeg's Engine Masters Challenge since 2003, and have consistently been a team to watch. Tony has built a reputation as a winning engine builder in competitive racing venues, and though his BES Racing entry has placed in the top ranks in prior competitions, an outright victory had eluded him until now. We congratulate Tony and his crew on bringing this year's phenomenal Ford, and earning the title of Engine Master for 2006.

Tony is not a guy who wants to swim upstream with an oddball combination or some "magic" trick. Tony's magic is applying years of race-engine experience to get the most from a proven combination. This year, Tony went with a 9.500-deck Windsor Ford, using the awesome CHI 3V cylinder heads and intake to provide the airflow. Plenty of fellow competitors had the same basic plan, though the results prove that BES Racing nailed the execution.

The bottom end was built around a World block, and Tony describes his combination as nothing fancy. Though the short-block had numerous modifications as we've seen in previous Engine Masters events, there was nothing that we'd consider unconventional to be found downstairs. Tony disclosed: "It had 302 Ford mains, and Honda rod journals, and an Eagle crankshaft. This is the first time we turned the counterweights down a bunch, just to get a short counterweight, but it doesn't come out lighter, because you have to put so much heavy metal in it to balance it, since the acting radius is so much shorter. Whether all that helped or not, I don't know. We put 6.200-inch Eagle rods for the Honda journal in it, and bang-for-the-buck, they are really nice pieces, and they weigh next to nothing, 490 grams or something. The clearances were fairly tight to keep from blowing all kinds of oil all over the place. The rings were SpeedPro 0.043/0.043/3mm Pro Series." Tony continued, "The light-tension ring package in that Pro-Series ring set is a hard thing to beat, and I run a pretty narrow skirt on the piston for a friction advantage there."From a conceptual point of view, Tony wanted to do a bigger stroke than bore for once. "If you look at it, every time someone has won the contest the last three years, the guy has drastically favored the stroke. I think these longer stroke combinations are a lot stronger at 2,500 rpm. Exactly what the physics involved are will run you in circles thinking about it, but that's what wins the contest every year. I know I didn't win by much, but I'm sure if you compared airflow between mine and Kaase's heads, he would have just annihilated me, especially in the mid-lift range, but he had a small-stroke/big-bore, and that's where I outscored him, at 2,500 rpm."

One of the key components to making power was the cylinder heads and induction. The Cleveland-style CHI cylinder heads and intake manifold are just hard to beat, with nearly the ideal valve angles and cant to make a smaller-bore combination breathe. CHI has the port sizing and form nearly optimized for this displacement class and rpm range, and the design features many of the improvements that had been incorporated into the original Cleveland heads over decades of racing development. Tony found the CHI intake needed very little work, requiring only a port match and a little cleaning of the casting. Tony says, "The intake manifold itself was probably the most perfectly sized manifold. After four years, I finally figured out what size the manifold wants to be and I thought it was perfect. Last year I spent a lot of time trying to get the O2 sensors evened-out, and this one, out-of-the-box with no work, was more even than my big-block with days and days of work." Tony reworked the heads with a proprietary valve job, and developed a porting profile, concentrating on high-lift flow. Peak intake port flow was reported to achieve over 380 cfm.