At 10:59 PM 2/24/2002 +0000, you wrote:
>So that's the reason Doane Spencer used a sleeved, 5-bolt 289, bored to
>Tiger, 260 specs.
No that's not the reason Doane used the sleeve process for his
motors. He did it to produce a variable deck height. Remember that these
were the early days of small block preparation, and individual creativity
and development made all the difference in the world. Doane used 289
gaskets which fit the OD of the sleeves and left the sleeves protruding
from the block at the crush height of the gasket. This allowed the sleeve
to essentially contact the head surface and protect the gasket from the
full cylinder pressure and heat generation. I don't know, and I doubt that
few do, exactly what static compression ratio he designed for , but I'll
bet it was well into the mid teens. Head gasket failure was typically a
major failure point for small block Fords running this kind of
compression. Leave it to Doane to figure out a way to make more power and
with higher reliability than the other competitors of his day. He
certainly had a magic touch and from todays perspective it's a shame he
selected or was selected to provide his talent on such a short lived
venture as the Tiger Racing Program instead of something more successful
such as Shelby's Ford Development or NASCAR where he might have made a more
historically meaningful and visible contribution. The combined technical
contribution of the original old LA Basin Hot Rodders is astounding.
Tom
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