[Tigers] Sunbeam Bonneville Ford 260 for 2013

[Larry Mayfield]

I sent this when Mark was playing with the server. Those mentioned in 
the email received their email directly but alas, the Tiger list did 
not. So, just in case you wanted to know...

mayf
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Just to keep everyone up to date on the SBF build of the Sunbeam's next 
motor....

Most of you have contributed in one way or another to the design and 
construction of this motor by providing parts and guidance.  Let me 
reiterate the particulars as they  stand now:
1) Block(s) from Rich fox and Jack Costella
2) Crank from Mr. Bill (Mitchel)
3) Rods, roller lifters, roller rockers  and cam from Sandy Ganz, the 
Professor
4) Owain, AFR heads

I had the first block machined in Las Vegas and they killed it trying to 
remove the oil passage plug in the rear of the block. Fortunately, there 
was a spare.  Even though I had also specified that the shop grind the 
crank in a specific way, they did it their way and ruined it, then 
wanted to swap the rods for some other rods to make it work. I said no, 
get me another crank and they kicked me out of their shop..but with a 
new crank and machined block.  I had the crankshaft redone at Marine 
Crankshaft in LA and neutral balanced. Do this only if you have the 
winnings of the national lottery in hand, lol. I ordered pistons from 
Wossner and after more than two months they had made no progress on 
pistons. I wanted a 14:1 CR. I finally told them to suck eggs and went 
to Probe. They said sure, we can do that..only they couldn't. They sent 
the order to Ross who made pistons but only in 11.4 CR.  So power will 
be down.  Note that the rods that Sandy provided are from a 347 stroker 
kit which means that the rod angles will be less with less sidewall 
scuffing on the power stroke or so my theory goes. Rings are gap less 
total seal rings and low tension. I purchased a Comp Cams timing chain 
set with Torrington bearing as thrust control and it is nice as well. 
When I chatted with AFR regards the capability of the AFR 165 heads, 
they ind9ocated that the valve springs would not handle lift and rpm I 
wanted to use, so I obtained a set of their much stronger springs with 
smaller coil wire diameter to permit the lift. The crank operation took 
nearly 6 weeks to complete. The pistons took longer so the plan to run 
this year went up in flames. while waiting for parts I decided to build 
a run stand for the engine to sort out the electronics I would need to 
take it to a dyno somewhere in Las Vegas. I had to fabricate, twice I 
might add, an adapter plate to mate the block to AOD transmission I use. 
  My drill press was not up to the accuracy needed. I purchased all the 
parts needed to complete the run stand.  It is all together now and day 
before yesterday, I finally gathered up the balls to start the sucker. 
Always a factor when considering EFI and my wiring skills. It ran but 
only with some serious fiddling. Turns out that for some odd reason, 
that I used one set of timing marks on the damper to fab a pointer and 
set it at TDC, then used another set of marks top install the dizzy. 
Needless to say it was way off. But we did get it to run and reasonably 
well. Yesterday I put the motor back to TDC using the correct marks and 
redid the dizzy. We then started the motor (we, being my wife and I) and 
after a bit of fiddling, got the static timing to 10 degrees.  Then gave 
control of the spark back to the computer and refired it. Idles pretty 
well now, however, I had to open the throttle blade a couple of turns on 
the adjusting screw.  I need to investigate that some. Probably needs a 
new gasket or two .  I reused the intake manifold and injectors I had 
with the turbo motor. I need to rescale the injector low slope for the 
rpm and engine size now though.  And I will rescale the load v spark 
table as well. Fuel is probably all right.

But, the bottom line is...IT runs and seems to run well.  I chatted with 
Rick Gold and got his gasoline recommendation and will be ordering a 
drum of that for dyno testing.  I want to eventually add a dyno brake to 
my run stand so I can wear out the motor before I run on the salt, lol. 
  Elon and I have been chatting with concepts to do this for some time 
now. He has some good ideas.

I have made a couple of videos of the two runs so far. But they are 
large. The first one was HD 1080P and took 460 MB for 7 minutes of run 
time. Next I rescaled the video to use 320 P or some such and that came 
out at only 53 MB. I recoded both to something way less, lol, but still 
too big to email. I will need to cut them down some. If I can figure out 
how to edit the video.  As soon as I can get them to a manageable size 
then I will either post them to the autox forum or my own webs site for 
download.  Just so that all of you who had a hand in this can see the 
fruits of you inputs and provisioning.

Oh, and I want a dyno brake, beg, borrow or steal, to handle about 800 
hp at more than 8000 rpm. I want to put it on my run stand.

Many thanks to all of you for helping me make it happen! I will keep 
everyone informed as the next year approaches....

mayf

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drmayf
Worlds Fastest Sunbeam, period.
204.913 mph flying mile
210.779 mph exit speed