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Episode Transcript

[ Music ]

(Pat)>> You're watching Powernation!

(Mike)>> It's worn out, rusty, and barely makes any horsepower at all, but it's one of the most fun engines we've ever worked on. Plus this Challenger cranks out 1,000 horsepower and you can hear each and every one of them. [ engine revving ] [ Music ]

(Mike)>> Here's a contraption you probably have never seen before. Definitely not on Engine Power. Why on Earth would we have it here? We're definitely not going to spray anything down. Now it does have a unique power plant attached and that is the treasure we are after. It's a Ford CSG 649 300 straight six, but not what you would find in an old truck. I've got a delivery.

(Pat)>> Yes!

(Mike)>> And it came from a long ways away.

(Pat)>> Colorado, okay so allegedly this ran.

(Mike)>> Ran yes.

(Pat)>> You know how that's gone lately.

(Mike)>> We've heard that a lot and had some problems.

(Pat)>> But what I love about this industrial application, and the nice thing about that is typically they have better parts in them because they are a stationary power unit they have to run for long periods of time. They have upgraded parts as far as like the timing gears, and the crank shaft, and things like that, and they run under partial load.

(Mike)>> Not on gasoline either.

(Pat)>> This one's not on gasoline. This has some sort of crazy propane setup. How about this, mechanical governor.

(Mike)>> This is a pretty unique piece.

(Pat)>> And what was the application, what was this doing?

(Mike)>> So the guy that we got it from said it was used as a sprayer.

(Pat)>> Let's get it running exactly the way it is.

(Mike)>> On here?

(Pat)>> On here. I say we try to light it. Let's hot wire it like it's a stolen car.

(Mike)>> Now you're talking. A few flywheel bolts were loose. That could be a good or bad sign.

(Pat)>> She was on there caddy wampus.

(Mike)>> We also need to move some wires around to get battery power to the starter.

(Pat)>> The spark plugs are coming out to get a little Seafoam deep creek in the cylinders. They have been dried from sitting. So a little quality lube will help them out. Those plugs actually came out.

(Mike)>> Yeah they came out. Not too hard but that propane was burning dirty.

(Pat)>> Oh boy.

(Mike)>> Natural gas. [ Music ]

(Pat)>> I hope we can keep that. [ Music ] Oh yeah, look at that customization right there. We're hooked up on the starter? Everything good? Let's see if it will. [ clicking ]

(Mike)>> Bad starter or bad solenoid?

(Pat)>> The cylinder seems to be working. So I bet the starter's fried. Turns out the loose flywheel bolts were a bad sign. This is gonna be awfully hard to start.

(Mike)>> It doesn't have a ring gear.

(Pat)>> There's no ring gear on it!

(Mike)>> I've got the top. We can let it come down some. Alright Pat I found this flywheel. It's a small block Ford neutral balanced.

(Pat)>> Same bolt pattern.

(Mike)>> Same bolt pattern but this thing is going to be way too small in diameter. No way the starter will engage the ring gear.

(Pat)>> There's two inches difference! We are not going to mess with that. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna pull it. I would have rather have gotten it running on the stand because I think that would be extremely cool but we have the ultimate run stand, the dyno.

(Mike)>> Alright.

(Pat)>> Draining the coolant was quite a surprise. We couldn't believe how clean it was. [ Music ]

(Mike)>> Radiator hoses can be stubborn to get off. They get stuck and a lot of times you're pulling and hitting elbows when they come loose. Here's a new little tool from Matco that works really well. It basically has a little flat spoon end on it that allows you to get in between the radiator hose and the inlet of the radiator or water pump. You just get it in, move it around a little bit, and it brakes the radiator hose free. This engine is within 150 pounds of a fully dressed aluminum headed big block Chevy. So we will put it in the heavyweight category. With the industrial bell housing removed it's looking more like the 300 Ford we are all familiar with. This is what's important. It turns over great! Not too bad!

(Pat)>> Superflow gets the credit for making these engines so easy to hook up on their dyno cart. No matter the engine we dial indicate the drive flange to avoid any unwanted vibration from it being out of center.

(Mike)>> Up next, no matter what your parents told you as a child ghouls do exist. In fact we've got one in our shop.

(Pat)>> Plus the inline six hits the dyno.

(Mike)>> Here's today's tech tip that will help you with suspension setup.

(Steve)>> An angle finder is a huge help when setting up your suspension. Things like pinion, control arm, and shock angles have to be right or your suspension won't be able to go through its full motion of travel. This Intercomp angle finder measures zero to 90 degrees in five hundredths degree increments. The Intercomp angle finder has magnets on the base and the sides so you can set it in any position and it's compact enough to fit in tight spaces.

(Pat)>> Here's a car that was originally an April Fools joke involving engineers at Dodge. Then it became a reality thanks to the group of car builders at Speedcore Performance Group. It's called the SRT Ghoul.

(Mike)>> It's a Challenger based domestic supercar that has the most powerful crate engine ever produced right under this hood. 1,000 horsepower of Hellephant powers this beast. Let's take a closer look.

(Pat)>> It's a 426 cubic inch aluminum block modern day Hemi that produces 1,000 horsepower and 950 pound feet of torque. A 3 liter supercharger compresses 15 p-s-i of boost to reach the power rating.

(Mike)>> For weight reduction there are several pieces of carbon fiber, like this hood Speedcore manufactured for this build. The reason we have it in the shop is to show you a brand new configurable exhaust system from Magnaflow called the xMOD. It's not just another exhaust kit. This is an experience that lets you choose and decide what sound you want when you want it. Now that is sexy.

(Pat)>> There's tip options in here.

(Mike)>> They sent an adapter to run the factory tips if you like that original look, or these coming out of that square area but with the carbon fiber accents on the car already that's gonna be wild.

(Pat)>> That is unbelievably nice. People asked Magnaflow to build a premium modular system with all the bells and whistles. xMOD is their answer. It's a modular design that lets you switch between the straight pipes and mufflers with no cutting. Everything you need to go from stealth mode to full bore race car, or anything in between, comes with the kit.

(Mike)>> Well Pat I have to say the difference between the stock setup and this is night and day. From aesthetics all the way to the pipe size.

(Pat)>> Yeah the quality, it looks a lot nicer. The pipes are bigger and there's some options of what you can have it sound like.

(Mike)>> Okay so after we install the x-pipe what are we gonna do? Have that weekend warrior as loud as we can be or tone it down for that nice drive to work?

(Pat)>> Well I don't think this should be toned down what so ever. So it's not much of a decision on my end. I think we should put the straight pipes on it. It's a 1,000 horse engine. I want to hear a 1,000 horse engine through straight pipes. We'll have our fun with it and then we'll put the quieter ones on. It'll be a little bit more manageable for people who don't appreciate the stuff that I do.

(Mike)>> That's fair enough. So let's talk a little bit more about this pipe here. This is really the specialty of the kit.

(Pat)>> It is and thing is no matter what you have up here that drone that you'll have a partial throttle cruise, they did a very, very good job to eliminate that. This right here, see how it's got a closed end? This is a resonnance chamber. It's a resonator that recreates that drone frequency. What that is it's passive. It will go out and it will actually collide with the one that is being generated by generating one of its own, and it collides and it cancels out the drone noise. So very, very innovative and it really helps with something that makes a lot of power that will normally just drive you nuts driving it. It's not gonna have that.

(Mike)>> And one more thing I guess before we get started putting this stuff on. Cars with m-d-s, that drop cylinders at cruise, that's where a lot of that drone is introduced and this cancels it all out, which is really cool. [ mechanical humming ] [ drill humming ]

(Pat)>> Magnaflow has gone the extra mile to manufacture their own high quality stainless steel active exhaust valves giving you even more sound control options. [ Music ] Looks like it tucks up in there. The resonator is the heart of the n-d-t, or no drop technology system. It uses quarter wave technology to cut the irritating frequencies in the 120 hertz range by 30 to 40 percent. However the exhaust sound remains rich, full, and powerful but with no drone, no restriction, and no loss of power. [ engine starting ] [ engine revving ]

(Mike)>> That is definitely one rowdy vehicle.

(Pat)>> That's pretty mean. 847 horse, 868 pound feet of the torque on the first rip. That is awesome!

(Mike)>> Dude that sound?

(Pat)>> I almost had to close my ears. I've got that Pro Stock Top Fuel hearing right, and I almost had to put my fingers in my ears on it.

(Mike)>> It sounds like a Trans Am car wide open down a long straightaway.

(Pat)>> That's unbelievably awesome! The sound of the exhaust is what makes a vehicle right? You could have the baddest ass vehicle ever and if it's got some wimpy exhaust on it it's not gonna do it any justice. This makes it sound like a car, like a muscle car.

(Mike)>> Could you imagine with this exhaust on the car going and doing some pulls on the interstate or something. Just the sound people would hear.

(Pat)>> It would be spectacular. Illegal probably but spectacular. We want to be good citizens. So we're replacing the straight pipes with the included Magnaflow mufflers. The straight through design controls the exhaust note for daily driving but keeps the iconic Magnaflow sound. We're installing them on the lift but you can do this anywhere using v-band clamps and an 11 millimeter wrench. [ engine revving ]

(Pat)>> This car has a little bit of power. Listen to it! There's no way in the pit of Hades I would ever think 1,000 horses would sound like this. Technology now days is so incredible that not only one, you have something that is extremely manageable and something that is extremely refined, but just has raw power. [ engine revving ]

(Mike)>> What the Ford 300 lacks in power it makes up with endurance. Wow!

(Mike)>> We're continuing on with this 300 six cylinder project and it's ready to head to the dyno room, but first the monstrosity is taking up too much room. So it's heading out.

(Pat)>> There's a f*&^%$# truck in my way.

(Mike)>> What's your guess? Will it run, will it smoke, will it knock like an unwanted ghost? We're all about to find out.

(Pat)>> Standard procedure is water hookup and in our case some improvised exhaust routing. [ drill humming ]

(Pat)>> There are a couple of features about this engine that are unique because it is an industrial application. One the carburetor is setup to run propane. We are gonna run it on gasoline for obvious reasons. So we're gonna switch that out. Also this engine actually has a mechanical governor on it. Because it was on a pump and it was probably a steady state engine it probably did not rev over 3,000 or 3,500. You are not gonna want to utilize that. So instead of taking all of this off and splitting the pump apart, and all that good stuff, for dynoing we are gonna take the linkage off here and remove the carburetor, and replace it with a gas unit. It's a simple one barrel design from a stock late '70's Ford pickup. Necessity is the mother of invention. This throttle bracket is not pretty but it's perfectly functional. [ Music ]

(Mike)>> All you horsepower junkies know the key to making big power is to have a cool, dense air charge being introduced to the engine, and keeping the intake cool is a big part of that whole recipe. So here's a little design that has always gotten a little bit under our skins and it was really the only way Ford could do it. The exhaust manifold is mounted directly under the intake manifold. Now we all know that heat rises. So the only place it can go is up and saturate the intake manifold. One thing you'll see a lot on performance builds on these 300's is the header and the intake manifold will both be wrapped with header wrap, and that creates a thermal barrier between the two keeping the intake manifold a little cooler. [ Music ]

(Pat)>> Woo, breaker points! The condenser's still in it. The points are, well they look a little corroded. Wonder if they can. Yep they're moving. Oh yeah, oh yep, cam still works. I'm gonna blow this thing out. Clear prop. [ engine humming ]

(Pat)>> Nothing flew out of it and no rattling noises. So that means there's no debris in it. [ Music ] Funky! This engine did not have an ignition coil. So we grabbed an old school one on the shelf. This system requires a balanced resistor to knock the voltage down to the points and condenser. [ engine starting ]

(Pat)>> Woo! It's working! Oh my god, and it has 56 pounds of oil pressure. That is the worst set of points I've ever seen work. It runs, it's running. This engine has not run in probably 15, 20 years by the looks of all the stuff that was in it. Looking down the hole into the cylinder it looked like a frog pond in there. It's horrible! This thing is chugging away with 55 pounds of oil pressure. An engine that sits this long, the seals go bad. They sit, they'll leak oil. As soon as you get them fired back up they'll spurt fluids from all different parts of the engine. This one hasn't done any of that. This is way more fun at this moment than running a 1,000 horse big block. I know that sounds crazy but it is. This is one of the highlights of my career at Engine Power. I'm not kidding! [ engine revving ]

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(Mike)>> Up next this may be the quietest dyno session we've ever had.

(Pat)>> It's not running but it's like an electric motor.

(Pat)>> Alright there's a bunch of firsts on this one, and I'm very excited about it. One, this engine's idling at 450 r-p-m. Two, the fans are way louder than the engine and I can't tell if it's running or not unless I'm looking at the pulleys and three, I don't know if we've ever pulled one this low because this is not gonna take any r-p-m.

(Mike)>> I think Pat's more excited about this little six banger than any big block Pro Stock engine he ever built.

(Pat)>> I'm gonna make a pull from 1,200.

(Mike)>> Now you're talking.

(Pat)>> To 3,000.

(Mike)>> It's what these things were made for. Torque super down low.

(Pat)>> It is what it is. Here we go! Everything looks good. Nothing is spurting out anywhere. Let's load her up. [ engine revving ]

(Mike)>> Oh my gosh. That dyno brake doesn't know what's going on. [ engine revving ]

(Mike)>> That's a pull.

(Pat)>> It made a pull. 224 pound feet of torque at the hit, and 82 romping stomping horsepower at 2,900.

(Mike)>> Now this thing was rated at 120.

(Pat)>> The gas ones are like 120.

(Mike)>> And we have accessories on it. We have the alternator, the water pump, the idler.

(Pat)>> It has a governor on it. The governor's not hooked up but it's turning it, and it has a mechanism in there that's gonna suck power. Let's make another little hit. I'm gonna roll into it a little bit different and see what it does. [ engine revving ]

(Mike)>> Wow!

(Pat)>> Sounds like it's clearing up a little.

(Mike)>> Here you go! [ Pat laughing ]

(Pat)>> 86 horse!

(Mike)>> 228 pound feet of torque. That says a lot though man.

(Pat)>> That's huge right. This thing has enough torque to run a generator. These will run not only on sprayers and agricultural pumps, but these were on generators as well. This would be like the generator at a grocery store or something like that. I'm gonna take it to 3,600.

(Mike)>> Now we're talking!

(Pat)>> It doesn't have any valve spring pressure. So it might do something a little funky but just for scientific purposes.

(Mike)>> Well that's the range that the engine was setup for.

(Pat)>> The engine was rated at 3,600. So I don't feel bad about taking it that high. Let's see if she's got anything left here. [ Music ]

(Mike)>> 1,100 r-p-m.

(Pat)>> Good oil pressure.

(Mike)>> Nice smooth pull so far. There it goes.

(Pat)>> Hear it?

(Mike)>> Came in at about 3,150, 3,200.

(Pat)>> Little choppy choppy. 217 pound feet, 88 horse.

(Mike)>> That's all she's got. Wrap her up.

(Pat)>> I'm gonna shut the fans off but watch.

(Mike)>> Listen for the engine. It's not running.

(Pat)>> It's not running but it's sitting. It's like an electric motor.

(Mike)>> All I can hear is the water pumps for the dyno.

(Pat)>> That's spectacular.

(Mike)>> Now I want to start working on it.

(Pat)>> I feel bad and this kinda goofy. I feel bad about cracking this one apart because it has lived its whole life. It runs perfect and there's nothing wrong with it. It needs to be put in a glass case that says break open in need of a generator or something like that, but we are gonna do it right. We are gonna do it right. It's got a bunch of good parts. We're gonna put a bunch of nice parts on it. This will be probably the most extreme before and after that we've done in a while.

(Mike)>> Done deal!

(Pat)>> Look at that!

(Mike)>> For more information on today's show check out our website, Powernation t-v dot com.
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