Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Who is building the most reliable and top HP right now?

Anyone have any reliable dyno numbers to post?

410s and 360s welcome...

This year---don't know, but talked to Sam H (the 15H) and his crew chief last year as they were parked in back lot of the Comfort Inn they stayed at. He had 3 fresh motors in the hauler, all dynoed 885 to 915, but he had his favorite motor in the car for the night, which dynoed at 865hp. He said not always does the motor with the most dyno HP feel the strongest. On a side note, two weeks ago Chad Knaus was asked on Napscar Performance by Larry Mac, how much his motors were doing on the dyno and Knaus said 10 HP on either side of 800,. of course those are 358 c.i. motors and probably cost much more than a sprint car motor.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Sam Hafertepe Motors are done locally in Texas by ?????. I've always heard that Don Ott makes some of the strongest HP sprint motors, not sure who runs them this year.

Lawlessness + liberalism = HELL -  NYC, Detroit, Chicago, 
Seattle, LA  Who the H runs those cities. 

Sam uses charlie fisher out of columbus ohio.

I am sure that they need to advertise on here and post some real numbers for you. Anybody that has enough money to buy one already knows.

vanh...

If it wasn't for sarcastic remarks you wouldn't have a damn thing to say on here would you?

Seems like anything posted, ole wise ass vanh chimes in.

Charlie Fisher has built high powered motors for a long time. Correct me if I,m wrong but didn't he build the winning engines for Donnie Moran and Haud for the 2 richest dirt track races ever The dirt late model million and the mopar million?

Old wise ass says quit asking dumb questions and I'll quit being sarcastic. Horsepower doesn't have lot to do with it if you can't set the car up to get it to the ground. The real hero is the man that sets up the car to use what horsepower you have. Lots of big engines 10th or worse. Never saw a race won on a dyno but I have only been watching for 52 years so I guess it could be.

There is no such thing as "Real" dyno numbers or "reliable" dyno numbers. Run the same engine on 10 dynos and you get 25 different results. A dyno only works to compare one engine to another or compare changes to an engine.

With that being said...the horsepower numbers do continue to grow and it isn't because people set the dynos to show bigger numbers. 10 years ago everyone was shooting for the magic "800" with a 410 motor, now 900 is the new threshold of greatness.

And many 360s are throwing the same horsepower as the average 410 did 10-12 years ago.

Loose is when you hit the wall with the rear of the
car, tight is when you hit the wall with the front of
the car. Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall and
torque is how far you move the wall.

A top of the line 360 is 670-680 horsepower

410 is 880-890hp

Member of this message board since 1997

Our dyno is right with Kelly's at Wesmar. The numbers are pretty equal anymore. It just comes down to a few differences in components that engine builders use and the sticker on the valve covers. We are working harder on the driveablity of the engines more than finding horsepower.

I won't speak for anyone else but i don't have anywhere those numbers for my 2 410's. Granted i run just local in central Indiana in the "non-wing" class but i don't need those HP #'s to get around our bullrings around here. You can't get 900 HP+ to the ground around here without a wing. I'm not bashing anyone because i love both "versions" of sprint cars. Heck, i just love sprint cars but i'm just a dumba$$ owner. LOL. What do i know.....

A guy out of Torrance, California builds a hell of a motor his name is Ron Shaver...I think his motors won the nationals the last 4 years in a row...but what do I know...bout 900 horse

Prior to that there was (still is) a guy named Kistler.

Engine builders come and go. Shaver won't (already isn't ?) be the top dog forever.

haahah....yeah, Shaver doesn't have any staying power...he's been one of the best for as long as I can remember.....and will be even bigger in the future of 410 sprint car racing ....his experimental $20,000 corvette based engine is starting to garner a lot of talk around the sprint car ranks...Wesmar..Kistler..Ostrich..Gaerte..Garrett..are you guys working on anything similar??

I've been in the valve train industry for a number of years, and I also drive sprint cars (winged and non winged) 360s and 305s both. I can tell you we see lot's of "dyno numbers" get thrown around, but the real truth of the matter is the numbers can be manipulated considerably. There are guys building ASCS headed "legal" 360s bragging about 730 HP, and I have to look at them with a questionable eye. If you look at the real flow numbers on an ASCS head, with the best, legal, most extensive work, there's just not enough flow there to support those kind of numbers.

I'd tend to agree with Kelly when he says the some of the BEST 360s (ASCS headed) are in the 670-685 range. My personal 360 made about 658 HP/570 TQ but it "races" well. A lot of people don't understand that there's often times a big difference between motors that dyno well and race well.

In short, I'd say if you've got someone touting HP numbers much above 700 on a 360, or 900 on a 410, then you'd have a foundation for reasonable doubt.

What is this $20,000 corvette based engine you are talking about?

It's a project based around the newer "LS" gm engine platform. Lots of R&D going on with this engine family right now for use in circle track (at vaious levels). It's already surpassed the 1st gen SBC in modification popularity with the hotrodders/drag racers....

This is exactly what I'm looking for.

A subject that generates good conversation on here.

Too bad we can't enjoy a cold one together as well.

Very interesting subject on the experimental corvette based engine with Ron Shaver.

As vanh mention, all the horsepower in the world doesn't matter if you can't get it to the ground.

I like Gaerte's comment of "driveability". You can only turn the wick up so high before it blows, so settle on a good number and work with that.