First power steering tester reveals more than you might wish to know
By Titus Bloom It’s common knowledge that the entry of one foreign particle in the power steering system can damage the pump. Even if the pump survives the ordeal the refuse will momentarily zap engine power each time it passes through the rotor housing easily...
Of five major threats to a clutch system, what would you consider the most forbidding?
Archie Bosman: As you sit quietly reading these lines, a whirl of activity is taking place in the bell housing. Let’s imagine for a moment the clutch assembly could express its greatest anxiety, what might it be? Might it be the use of excessively harsh friction...
Putting the Squeeze on
The Importance of Compression Ratios and How to Measure Them: Since race pistons in domestic V-8 engines move up and down in excess of 100 times per second, replacing them is a normal part of a racer’s routine. NHRA Top Fuel and Funny car teams replace them after...
2015 Mustang upgrade: the trouble with supercharging
By Sam Logan: Adrian Gomez, an industrious 27-year old who manages Mak Performance, a Miami specialty shop established in 1995, bought a 2015 Mustang 5.0 and with fewer than 7,000 miles on the clock installed a Pro Charger centrifugal supercharger. It extended the...
Basic installation rules from TorqStorm
By Alfie Bilk: Fuel pump requirements for carbureted systems must be capable of supplying proper amount of fuel at maximum operating pressure. To obtain maximum fuel pressure required under boost, add idle fuel pressure to maximum boost pressure. Read condensed...
Ovality and other guarded racing piston shapes
By Titus Bloom: Gibtec, makers of custom billet competition pistons reveals... Below their ring lands, pistons are neither round nor do they have parallel sides. Instead they have a larger diameter towards the bottom, between the base of the piston and the piston pin...
Impressive diesel gains: 2.1lb weight-saving per cylinder
Irvine, CA: At CP-Carrillo, two hybrid combinations are in the final stages of testing. One is designated for the common rail 5.9 liter Cummins using a Duramax pin size and compression height with a rod length of 0.856in longer than stock. The other combo is developed...
Cure for uncomfortably high clutch pedal on late-model street cars
By Sam Logan: Most late-model street vehicles use an internal hydraulic clutch release bearing, sometimes called a concentric slave cylinder (CSC). Yet, unfathomably, many of them suffer from clutch engagement high on the pedal travel. For most drivers, this is not...
CP-Carrillo: X-style pistons for power-adder engines
Irvine, CA: CP-Carrillo is introducing a new X-Style series of pistons for power-adder engines. Available for Top Alcohol Hemi applications with plus or minus 4.467in bores and Hemi canted valve for Pro Mod with plus-or-minus 5.000in bores, these pistons include...