There is precious little info from 14 years ago that is still relevent... Other than that most life lessons can be learned from 50s and 60s rock and roll, or Star Trek the Original series!
Cam, springs, tires, oil, machining, and airflow tech is constantly evolving!
In the old days it was thought that every drop of oil needed to be building pressure in the galleries to prevent metal to metal contact. That's before synthetic oils with superior film strength were formulated. It used to be that oil film strength was directly related to viscosity (thickness), and oil pressure, thats not true any more!
A customer forgot to install the oil pump driveshaft in his 460 Ford jetboat engine that I machined and assembled the short block and he assembled the rest. He broke the cam in for 20 minutes, and then noticed it didn't have any oil pressure. I told him check the gauge or bring the motor back. I pulled the dist. No driveshaft. Upon dissembly the bearings were fine! The cam was going flat, but once we cleaned out the metal, we looked at the bearings, and reassembled it.
The pump wasn't turning, so no metal got to the bearings!
YAY for Clevite bearing guard assembly lube! He ran that boat for about 5 years and traded it off.
Pro Stock and NASCAR are running less oil pressure and thinner oils than ever before. "0 w 5 oils and even thinner are used because the film strength is so much better, and allows it.
You younger guys may not know that oil was "devalued" at least twice, first during the first fake oil embargo in the mid 70s, and later in the 90s. Engineers figured that it was easier to "devalue" (reduce the viscosity) of all the automotive oils sold, rather than try to educate folks to use the next weight lighter oil to improve fuel mileage and cold start/ warm up characteristics to conserve fuel. Nowadays with displacement on demand and cam phasing control, correct oil viscosity is very important to longevity of engines internal parts.
Nobody's V-6 Buick made 100 to over 150 H.P. per cylinder back then. Now with improvements to materials, techniques, and machining practices, these levels are commonplace.
Bottom line: you can look at old posts for general info and entertainment purposes, but find out what current tech is before modifying anything!
That is all! Class dismissed, for now....
TIMINATOR
