Showing his Hand

Inside the valley, we see the standpipes, preventing oil drainback over the rotating assembly, forcing it to the front of the engine. What isn't seen are the roller cam bearings and blocked oil galleys, keeping oil away from the spinning parts.

At first glance, the valvetrain looks like a collection of typical quality aftermarket pieces. What's more difficult to notice is the love-rubbing and massaging that went into each part. The Manley valvesprings were polished, then coated to reduce friction.

From the front of the valley, draining oil is guided to the front of the pan, shielded from the spinning crank by this fabricated baffle. A crank has a much harder time trying to spin through oil, and that robs power.

To further reduce windage losses, the crank features counterweights that are both contoured, and cut to a small radius. Note how far from the pan's rail the counterweights swing. The counterweight mass is made up of heavy metal.

A large oil filter was used, though we suspect it was not just selected to assure exceptional dirt holding capacity, but rather for its ability to park a good portion of the required five quarts of oil.

Lennart chose a Sonny Bryant billet crank so that it could be made stiff and light. The rod journals are 1.88-inch. Notice that the main bearing inserts are cut down, making them significantly narrower to reduce the surface area.

The custom CP pistons feature a moderate dome to arrive at 11.5:1 compression with the Brodix heads, a ratio that is lower than what is often seen in this competition. The vertical gas ports direct combustion pressure to the back of the rings during the power stroke, aiding in combustion sealing.

The gas ports work in conjunction with 0.043-inch compression rings. The narrow rings have less radial tension than larger cross-section rings, which reduces bore friction. The gas ports provide combustion pressure directed to the back of the ring land to augment the ring tension when on the power stroke. The result is very low tension on the walls for three of the four strokes up and down the bore, yet plenty of seal when needed.