A Very good day !
Discussion
After several years of reading, hope and admiration, today was the 'THE DAY'. A visit to the factory, wizz round with Ted and thanks to my very kind other half, a chassis/ several stage kit order for my upcoming birthday. Yeehaaa!!
So....... armed with the laptop, build manual, 250 pages of pistonheads post's and several Stella's I'm havin a fine friday night.
Great site guys,
No doubt I'll be back regularly.
Cheers.
So....... armed with the laptop, build manual, 250 pages of pistonheads post's and several Stella's I'm havin a fine friday night.
Great site guys,
No doubt I'll be back regularly.
Cheers.
Sorry fellas, Stella and the build manual led to an 'ultimately' sound nights sleep!
GTR and yes black is a contender but I also have another scheme in mind along with a trim colour to compliment.
Have previously spent 19 years in the motor insurance/ accident repair industry so a little past experience of GRP and refinishing.
Also built a Westfield about 10 years ago but some orrible bloke twisted my arm into selling it at a slight cash profit, three days before Xmas 1999.
Since then I stuck with bikes however they are coming to an end now. 'Betsy Blackbird', a CBR1100 and consistently the best b
h you will ever ride, is being sold in exchange for the GTR.
To be honest though the engine is my real interest. Merely at hobby level I have been fortunate to have produced several well mannered, pokey, street/strip engines over the years. However they have all been UK/ Euro lumps so am looking forward a first SBC. I have been working on the spec for about 18 months now and finally having built up the courage, posted it on the site 'speedtalk'.I was very flatterd to have a first response from Joe Sherman himself. Joe is an old school SBC guru who has himself won the 'world engine masters'. He was quite complimentary and considers that my planned spec will easily exceed the power requirement by around 20%.
So here I am, surrounded by Sbc parts and with a chassis kit on its way. Life is bliss, for now anyhow.
Cheers .
GTR and yes black is a contender but I also have another scheme in mind along with a trim colour to compliment.
Have previously spent 19 years in the motor insurance/ accident repair industry so a little past experience of GRP and refinishing.
Also built a Westfield about 10 years ago but some orrible bloke twisted my arm into selling it at a slight cash profit, three days before Xmas 1999.
Since then I stuck with bikes however they are coming to an end now. 'Betsy Blackbird', a CBR1100 and consistently the best b
h you will ever ride, is being sold in exchange for the GTR. To be honest though the engine is my real interest. Merely at hobby level I have been fortunate to have produced several well mannered, pokey, street/strip engines over the years. However they have all been UK/ Euro lumps so am looking forward a first SBC. I have been working on the spec for about 18 months now and finally having built up the courage, posted it on the site 'speedtalk'.I was very flatterd to have a first response from Joe Sherman himself. Joe is an old school SBC guru who has himself won the 'world engine masters'. He was quite complimentary and considers that my planned spec will easily exceed the power requirement by around 20%.
So here I am, surrounded by Sbc parts and with a chassis kit on its way. Life is bliss, for now anyhow.
Cheers .
Right, forget the car spec lets have a look at the engine spec.
Much as Joe may produce top engines he is producing for the American scene where most cars still weigh tons and need bucket loads of torque.
I took advice and guidance from many experts on an American forum and specified and built an engine which also got rave reviews on that forum. I have since found that it falls short of ideal for an Ultima.
The requirements for an Ultima are significantly different to make the best of the light weight and gear ratios.
So what have you got?
Steve
Much as Joe may produce top engines he is producing for the American scene where most cars still weigh tons and need bucket loads of torque.
I took advice and guidance from many experts on an American forum and specified and built an engine which also got rave reviews on that forum. I have since found that it falls short of ideal for an Ultima.
The requirements for an Ultima are significantly different to make the best of the light weight and gear ratios.
So what have you got?
Steve
Steve,
I completely agree and I too found that out the hard way on pushrod engines many years ago. Mk1 Escort bodyshell, stripped to the min, 1340 cc x flow(insurance at 17yrs old),lightened assembly, wild cam, big valve head, carbs, headers etc, all coupled to a 2000e box, a whopping 76bhp at the wheels.It was a pig to drive below 5500rpm and on reflection, useless as a street car. Many motors later, and several mistakes learned the hard way, I've really tried to do my homework on this one.
You do have to start with a clean sheet taking into account, car weight, transmission type, wheel/tyre size, ratio's and most importantly end use!. With this all in mind, and a huge amount of feedback from the various cam companies, I made a choice and then went for the next grind down the scale. So basically a 414 ( I know thats slightly unusual but theres method in my madness) a very good forged bottom end, appropriate AFR's and breathing equipment. I was hoping for a user freindly 450-475 hp so was quite surprised at the 550-575 quoted by the engine guys. Who knows, we will just have to wait and see. What I certainly dont want is a wild unfriendly track beast that I have replace the valve gear on every 1000 miles.
So what were/are your dissapointing experiences?
Dave.
I completely agree and I too found that out the hard way on pushrod engines many years ago. Mk1 Escort bodyshell, stripped to the min, 1340 cc x flow(insurance at 17yrs old),lightened assembly, wild cam, big valve head, carbs, headers etc, all coupled to a 2000e box, a whopping 76bhp at the wheels.It was a pig to drive below 5500rpm and on reflection, useless as a street car. Many motors later, and several mistakes learned the hard way, I've really tried to do my homework on this one.
You do have to start with a clean sheet taking into account, car weight, transmission type, wheel/tyre size, ratio's and most importantly end use!. With this all in mind, and a huge amount of feedback from the various cam companies, I made a choice and then went for the next grind down the scale. So basically a 414 ( I know thats slightly unusual but theres method in my madness) a very good forged bottom end, appropriate AFR's and breathing equipment. I was hoping for a user freindly 450-475 hp so was quite surprised at the 550-575 quoted by the engine guys. Who knows, we will just have to wait and see. What I certainly dont want is a wild unfriendly track beast that I have replace the valve gear on every 1000 miles.
So what were/are your dissapointing experiences?
Dave.
My engine started with a 400ci block with everything else new.
It has all the right bits in terms of strength, forged pistons, H beams, 4340 crank, AFR heads and all the other bits.
This arrived at a 407ci (6.7L) and produces 508hp and 526lbf/ft.
What I should have done is put in a 350ci crank with appropriate rods etc. and produced a 377ci engine which would likely rev another 1.5k more than it does now but would be down on torque. The higher revs, even with the lower torque, would have made more HP and better suited the gear ratios and light weight.
Dave
You don't say what size your engine is.
Steve
It has all the right bits in terms of strength, forged pistons, H beams, 4340 crank, AFR heads and all the other bits.
This arrived at a 407ci (6.7L) and produces 508hp and 526lbf/ft.
What I should have done is put in a 350ci crank with appropriate rods etc. and produced a 377ci engine which would likely rev another 1.5k more than it does now but would be down on torque. The higher revs, even with the lower torque, would have made more HP and better suited the gear ratios and light weight.
Dave
You don't say what size your engine is.
Steve
Steve,
sure did, its 414 (cu in).
I do understand where you are coming from with a 377 screamer but its not for me at this stage, I dont have experience with SBC's to justify jumping in at the deep end building a 8000+rpm engine. On the plus side though I'm using a steel mains capped dart block, so if at a later stage I do decide to venture towards the upper limits, then a replacement crank and pistons wont be the end of the world. My current spec should seemingly achieve 450-500HP+ with a wider more progressive torque/ power range, I think this will more than do to start with.
Dave.
sure did, its 414 (cu in).
I do understand where you are coming from with a 377 screamer but its not for me at this stage, I dont have experience with SBC's to justify jumping in at the deep end building a 8000+rpm engine. On the plus side though I'm using a steel mains capped dart block, so if at a later stage I do decide to venture towards the upper limits, then a replacement crank and pistons wont be the end of the world. My current spec should seemingly achieve 450-500HP+ with a wider more progressive torque/ power range, I think this will more than do to start with.
Dave.
Hi Dave
Welcome to the world of Ultimas. There are a few of us in the northwest area. I'm just outside Chester, where are you Dave. Engines are my thing also, I built mine and am still playing with it! Mine is a Dart blocked 383 with a Procharger centrifugal supercharger and Holley fuel injection. It's almost there now! Just a few tweeks needed on the acceleration modifiers. I'm contemplating fitting my final pulley with would take the power to well over 700BHP. I'll be visiting a hub type dyno soon and intend to finish off this current map and do a re-map with the final pulley so I can then choose my level of power. I'd be happy to pop around with my car if your not too far. Enjoy the build! I have to agree with Steve that the rev happy 377 is probably best for the Ult. I went the other way and got ratios to suit my engine.
Regards Dave
Welcome to the world of Ultimas. There are a few of us in the northwest area. I'm just outside Chester, where are you Dave. Engines are my thing also, I built mine and am still playing with it! Mine is a Dart blocked 383 with a Procharger centrifugal supercharger and Holley fuel injection. It's almost there now! Just a few tweeks needed on the acceleration modifiers. I'm contemplating fitting my final pulley with would take the power to well over 700BHP. I'll be visiting a hub type dyno soon and intend to finish off this current map and do a re-map with the final pulley so I can then choose my level of power. I'd be happy to pop around with my car if your not too far. Enjoy the build! I have to agree with Steve that the rev happy 377 is probably best for the Ult. I went the other way and got ratios to suit my engine.
Regards Dave
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your offer, I'm now on with finishing off the new double garage in time for the kit, so time in between work is at a bit of a premium at the minute.
Only north Bolton based but mostly work out of Liverpool airport so maybe we could set something up around work in the not too distant.
I do agree with the 377 guys but just need to convince myself on the longevity issues of a high revving pushrod motor. I always like to have something on the drawing board but dont want the car off the road 95% of the time either.
Similar to yourself I'll prob look more at the box ratio issues to achieve what I'm after.
Your motor sounds very interesting, cant wait to have a butchers.
Cheers.
Thanks for your offer, I'm now on with finishing off the new double garage in time for the kit, so time in between work is at a bit of a premium at the minute.
Only north Bolton based but mostly work out of Liverpool airport so maybe we could set something up around work in the not too distant.
I do agree with the 377 guys but just need to convince myself on the longevity issues of a high revving pushrod motor. I always like to have something on the drawing board but dont want the car off the road 95% of the time either.
Similar to yourself I'll prob look more at the box ratio issues to achieve what I'm after.
Your motor sounds very interesting, cant wait to have a butchers.
Cheers.
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