Performance-Building: Some Starters
Gene deRuelle
Performance – Where to Start: The most noticeable performance increase comes from head work. Re-doing the combustion chambers, the right valves… well, you know the drill. I have found a place in Oregon that does about the best job around. I have actually driven a car with one of their heads on it and it hauls! The company is Flowspeed. Their website is www.flowspeed.com.
Cylinder Head Modification Prices:
The “Fast Road” rework of your heads is $700.00 plus shipping, but look on the website and see what you get for that price. It’s actually cheap. It can go as low as as $600 if you have 5-port alloy heads or $750 for an MSX crossflowone. Competition heads are priced based on design criteria. There are a few options (valve spring & keeper upgrades and intake manifolds) which run from about $50 to $100 each. All this is FAR less than the $1,400 to $2,000+ for similar items from Moss and others.
Cranking for Performance: Once you have all that head work done, the next thing to think about is a modified cam. There are many popular cams but the one I’d recommend to you is Elgin. Their web site is www.elgincams.com.
Educating Yourself: Flowspeed’s website, while a little hard to navigate, has lots of information that’s very informative. Elgin’s website is a work of art, complete with a multi-page description of exactly how the cam affects the engine’s performance and what the many options buy (along with the trade-offs in terms of power, fuel consumption, smoggablility, street vs. race driving, smoothness, etc.); the site also has a multi-page glossary. Don’t expect to whiz through this stuff… but DO expect to know a lot more than you did before. The information on the site is really fascinating.
Making the Block Hot: For the block work, you don’t have to leave Reno. Most cities of any size have companies that specialize in block work and internal assembly. Here in Reno, Nevada Aims Machine (on Glendale just east of Rock Blvd.), can do all the work. They know pretty much ALL engines, but are very experienced in British ones. They typicaly charge between $500.00 to about $1,000.00 - depending on complexity and desired performance increases - do the following:
ü Hot-tank the block
ü Install new freeze plugs
ü Press in new cam bearings
ü Bore cylinders
ü Check bearing surface bore alignment
ü Turn Crank and polish
ü Balance everything
ü Install rods, pistons, and all other internals
Run It Smooth: Balancing is in the upper range of above but it’s not very expensive - and very much worth it. They want you to bring them in the new pistons and all bearings so they can bore the block to the pistons. If you wish, they can also install the crank rods and pistons making it a short block job.
Aims comes recommended by a couple of places that I respect including John’s British Car Garage (who does performance building or who will work with you as a consultant for you to do most of the work) and Summit Racing(who refers lots of people and contracts work out to Aims). Hope this helps.
Gene deRuellee - March 2006 | 
