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Re: Flatheads and Kenny Kloth questions

To: land-speed@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Flatheads and Kenny Kloth questions
From: ARDUNDOUG@aol.com
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 15:48:20 EST
In a message dated 02/21/2000 11:34:42 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
wspotter@jps.net writes:

<< 
 Doug, list,
 Caught up with Kenny Kloth on the phone.  He was marveling at the size of
 the engines you were talking about. 

######## I had the opportunity to talk with Kenny Kloth at some length at the 
SCTA World Finals last year. I'm surprised that anything about a Flatty would 
cause him to marvel. We're the ones who marvel at what he's done.##########
 
He said that he runs a 2 3/16" cam and, using 8BA '49 or newer rods, he
 notches those stock rods for clearance with a 4" stroke.

########## I'm surprised that he had to notch anything when increasing the 
cam journal about 1/2" (1/4" on each side) while staying with the Ford rods 
and 4" stroke. 
############# 
 
Kenny wondered how large a cam you could run with those larger engines ...
 if you could get lobes with any lift on something necessarily that small.

####### I don't know. A few years back I did some measuring regards how much 
clearance there was in the Flatty cam area to allow for bigger rods, longer 
strokes, and bigger base-circle cams. I'll have to pull it out of the files 
and refresh my memory.############    Ardun Doug in CA
 
 Kenny and Mike Chapman of Chapman Cylinder Heads are two like minds on flow.
 Neither has had lots of formal training but they are willing to learn and
 experiment.  Mike has the company and equipment ( just added a 4th CNC
 milling machine) and the respect of the large companies as well as the
 NASCAR engine builders.  A very large percentage of his R&D is for them.  
 Kenny does
 amazing things with his flow bench and the guys in the local USFRA group
 really listen when he talks about air flow and related subjects.
 A story printed in a national publication tells something about Chapman. 
 Seems he was in a meeting with Chrysler brass a few years ago when they were
 looking into better performance from one of their new engines and Mike was
 at the meeting to talk about heads for racing.  The man conducting the
 meeting indicated he knew everyone in the room except Mike and asked what
 his qualifications wereto be there in such a high powered group.  Mike
 didn't reply except to put his hands on the table, palm down, with the two
 rings he was wearing facing the questioner. They were an Indy 500 winners
 ring and a Daytona 500 winners ring.
 Wes 
  >>

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