Competition Altered - 350 Chevy..

Was out at Santa-Pod today playing with a competition altered car that was running.

Anyway, whilst I'm familiar with the 350SBC - I've not dealt with any that are out-n-out drag power with no water used for cooling.

Has anyone on here got hands on experience of such motors and use thereof - just want to bounce a few thoughts with someone in the know..:thumbsup:

The alcohol fueled engines are quite commonly run with no water in the drag race applications. With the aluminum blocks and heads as well as the block filler they actually take some time to warm up. No good for the bracket type racers that may make run after run.

Thanks Egoman - this is running on normal 97 Octane Unleaded.

I'm not sure if block is filled or not but would have thought it logical and do they fill water cavities in heads also?

First question is what sort of temp are they warmed to first, before burnout/run? How do you tell? - IR reader?

This one seems to not idle well with cyls 4/6 cold at idle and plugs basically dry. (plugs leads and fuelling checked) Picking up the throttle give slightly warmish exhaust gasses on 4/6 but lots of popping/banging on those cyls on lift off. Anyone got any ideas? As it is the centre pair of cyclinders I'm guessing a head gasket has failed.
Next question

Compression test then leak down test. Then valve springs. I assume fuel and spark are good all around.

Yeah - suggested pretty much that already Howard.

What I'm intrigued about is how can the motor stand this sort of treatment? - I know it is warmed before a run and that after the run they get towed back to pits so it has some time to start to cool. What sort of temps do you think are acceptable for this type of use.?

I used to run an old Top Fuel dragster back in the early 70s. We ran a Wet Block 392 Hemi and for a short time (300 feet) a Keith Black 426 Hemi. Some guys were running dry blocks - some guys also used concrete (portland cement powder) to fill the bottoms of the blocks. No one had the secret at the time. They got hot but I would venture to say that they did not get above 250 degrees. We ran a straight 50w Valvoline racing oil and a couple cans of STP. Headgaskets were dead soft copper.

We ran the wet block to try and minimize hot-spots in the heads. Don't know if we were really successful or not. Engines were torn down every couple of weeks back then and the rings would be shot, Intake valves were typically okay - exhaust valves would be galled (stems) and the guides were shot (bronze).