A strong and stable valvetrain is essential to power an NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top Fuel rail down the 1000-foot dragstrip. For that reason, teams are always looking to improve stability of the pushrod. For a long time, Kenny Bernstein Racing used only hollow pushrods - and purchased those exclusively from Manton Pushrods in Lake Elsinore, California. While the Top Fuel team continues to work with Terry Manton for its pushrods, the specification has changed. "We've...
Starting the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock season with a brand new Ford engine and car this year, veteran driver/tuner Larry Morgan faced many challenges. It's been a trial-and-error situation for the Ohio-based entrant, particularly in the area of valve springs. "I've been using PSI springs for over a year and I have to give those guys, particularly Larry and Steve, a lot of credit. They want to make the valve springs fit our engines and that is good; they...
In the last article, the author looked briefly at the kinds of materials that we might use for high specific output applications such as supercharged or turbocharged engines. In the article we mentioned a couple of the popular 'superalloys' which are used for poppet valves, namely 'Nimonic' and 'Inconel' alloys. Although not as widely used as the Nimonic materials, Inconel is used in the same sorts of applications, and Wayne Ward recently discussed its use as a valve...