It should be noted that those Intellectual Property Agreements are binding between you and the participating companies which prevents them from manufacturing said designs for distribution on their behalf or for others whom may approach them. It may also be helpful if you do need to defend the IP if someone else files first. But, it doesn’t prevent anyone else watching this from simply duplicating or manufacturing it. I typically despise patents, especially in the racing world but after so many larger companies now hold IP on designs I refused to file IP on…..my perception has changed some. Its prob best if you just claim it’s patient pending. Won’t hold any water, but will be enough to deter someone from running with it. Then, manufacture a medium sized batch and sell them through the channel until someone eventually knocks you off from china.
Ohh ya, Thank you for these “hands on” demonstration style educational content. This type of content is extremely beneficial for many of us. Even when you go over the basics. Viewers and creators alike, often forget that there’s many people in the audience whom are just starting. A full build series would be dope once your shop is complete. Something like an SB2.2 or trick 9°-13°. Go over choosing the components and cohesively/ strategically planning the build which might be difficult for some. Block selection, Circle track Cam selection including the dia amd firing order, lifter selection including the Dia, offset etc, and why, crank and stroke selection, head choices. Stuff most people really don’t show. They typically just say we’re building this with this, but don’t demonstrate the process. Showing newbies what to watch out for while assembling. Things people often overlook. We often here creators discuss cam selection but I’ve never heard any creator discus what makes a great cam for certain applications like circle track, just number chasing on the dyno. It would be cool to hear what you think makes a great CT cam and why. Dirt track vs pavement etc.
I can NOT believe that you haven’t gotten 1,000 likes yet! This is nothing more than common sense! Please contact me about your degree wheel. I’m just a sportsman drag racer that does everything but the machine work myself. Again. PLEASE take my money!!!
The man is handing out gold information while facing the harsh reality of a hurricane. We can do better than just a like. I hope you’re well Mr. Salter.
when my uncle was still building Big Block mopars he use to have a few 5 gallon buckets of the stamp steel rockers, he would sort through about 20-30 of them just to get 8 that were close to the same "ratio" for the Intake and then look through another 20 or 30 to find 8 for the exhaust.....one thing I learned early on was those stamp steel mopar rockers were between 1.45 and 1.52
Amongst all the D measuring we see between the engine builders on YT I can say I really appreciate your clear and detailed info. As a guy just beginning to try and make sense of all this it makes a big difference when a guys not speaking through a haze of ego. Thank you for sharing your experience with us Brian.
Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and teaching the methods and explaining the how's & why's. I am learning new things from all your videos, and better ways to achieve the same goal. I'm going to search your videos to see if I missed one regarding distributor depth/height and types of gears to run on different cams. I think I was one of the first half dozen guys in Tucson to run one of the composite gears that I'm almost 100 percent certain was manufactured by Milodon or imported from Germany and distributed by them. I have the original box somewhere in the shop from way back in the late 90"s or early 2000's when I first bought it. I did so as an insurance policy for 2 cams I had that worked so good for my 377 and 355 I didn't want to take a chance on the drive gear going south. One was a custom grind that was assymetrical profile with a super intense lift ramp with a VERY precise acceleration curve, degree by degree, and was a bit slower on the closing ramp that Harold Brookshire did for me during his Ultradyne years, and the other was a bit softer on opening ramp but had much larger lobe lift that was an older Babe Erson custom grind he did using Barnes grinder, but it was so precise across the curve, every Intake and every exhaust lobe measured so precisely identical as well and indexed perfectly. Some of CC stuff we checked back then was off half a degree, some more, some less, so I neve went with them again although, I have heard their quality control has gotten better, I have plenty of sticks to meet my needs for now and just got one in for an LS3 from Mike Jones and been too busy lately to throw it on the Cam Dr. Thanks again for sharing your wisdom and knowledge with all of us! Someday I will share some wild thing's we found back in the early 80's during R&D time working with my uncle Elpee, Larry Prior USAC car chief of the year when he opened shop here with the DFX Cosworth that made more power. I share your channel with everyone I know in the performance field -CHEERS!
Good stuff here. I have experienced everything you are talking about. I am not a engine builder by trade but I do enjoy building my own engines as a hobby. When I built my ford 390 for my pickup I had a stock pile of parts to dig through from just collecting over the yrs. I had built a couple engines before & had even checked some of this stuff, but not on every cylinder. On my 390 I checked everything on every cylinder! And I didn't know before that it is normal to see such a wide range of measurements from biggest to smallest & from one cylinder to another. I used old oem stock non adjustable rocker shafts & I made my own solid lifter from a old hydrolic lifter & I made my own adjustable push rod from a old stock push rod becouse FE push rods have a different size ball on the ends of the push rods. My comp adjustable push rods have the smaller ball & it wouldn't seat in the cup correctly for measuring. And I checked every rocker & on every cylinder & total valve lift I found a pretty large spread from highest to lowest. I assume the stock rockers were not all accurately 1.73 ratio like spec is? I also found the stroke of my crankshaft was .010 longer in back than in front. With my block decked & having pistons that actually go above deck by .005 I had to pay close attention to all of it. These engines were not created perfectly by a long shot!! But I still had fun building it & it's still running like a champ today.
I’m a rookie at engine building for sure. I’m planning to rebuild the 4.3 v6 in my 93 Chevy truck. I’ve been researching OE cams and because the after market cams are too aggressive for my daily driver . After watching this video I think that going from a 1.5 to a 1.6 rocker could give this engine the extra power I’m looking for. Also keep in mind that this is an experiment for fun .
Wow, I never had anyone explain lift duration at .0050 intervals and their impact at different rocker ratios. I'm fairly good at math, but unless you go through the example that you did, you don't realize the significance. Thank you very much, Leo PS Thank you for the tip about managing the lifter ramp with rocker ratio for flat tappet cams.
Man that was really good.....Thanks for sharing/and the clean-up and things lost during hurricane man.....hit here HARD in East TN. But I have power/water and a home....Prayers for those that lost it all.
Your degree wheel design is great. I'm interested to get your degree wheels built and/or offer assistance where necessary. Thank you for the great content you bring to so many people. Subscribed and thumbs up!!
That degree wheel design cancels out any parallax error a timing pointer set up could bring. If it makes it to market, I’ll be obligated to buy one. That is one nice instrument.
Love your wheel! I can’t believe the difference. You are the only one who has showed the difference in duration between the two! Thank you for this information. I have always wondered about this issue. Way bigger issue than I was lead to believe big time. I have a small cam but it could really affect the overall situation on how this thing runs. Wow I am glad I found you. Thank you so much. Really!
When I was teaching Auto Shop, I had some students build up a 383 Chevy. Just to show them the relationship between lift at the lifter, lift at the valve, duration and overlap, I had them plot every degree for both the lifter and valves. (both intake and exhaust) then we graphed the results showing the relationship. There is a way to plot this in Excel. Very interesting. Also noted that there were some variations in the base circle. I can't remember whose cam that was. Wish we would've done different rocker arms too. Unfortunately, there weren't all that many kids that could stay tuned in for that much time. Something like a low buck Cam Dr. might have been helpful. Your .050" increments seem like a good compromise. Probably could just do .010" intervals in areas that seem to need a bit more attention. This is certainly one of your best videos. As others have said, pushrod length would be a good one too. Right now, I'm studying everything I can find on building a BIG BBC with total emphasis on low speed torque. 800 - 4000 rpm. Red line @ 5252 just to show HP & torque are the same at that rpm. Sign me up for a degree wheel too (although I may make my version in the meantime)
They'll "cross" at that regardless of the red line - as long as it's above that. If you haven't done so, you can calculate why it's at that "5252" rpm - or, IIRC, someting like 13 thou' of an RPM higher. Sounds like an interesting build - rock-crawler or "recreational" off roader, where control and low RPM torque is the critical thing to give the best performance in that sort of driving?
I’ve also learned that no two brands can be the same either. One may be way more aggressive I guess you could say, than the other. They change ratio dependent on where they are in the lift point of the rocker as well, where the push rod cup is located, makes a big deal on the ratio. It may be more like 1.8 when closed, then be closer to 1.6 at half lift. Love learning this stuff! Good stuff dude! That degree wheel is really slick too by the way!
Great video I was wondering what happened to the last video I didn’t think it was bad but I love to learn and your years of experience you just can’t buy. there’s a lot of people who have had hard time reading and learning but if there shone they pick it right up your helping me included your doing a great job keep the videos coming
Can't thank you enough for sharing your knowledge and experience. Clear and very detailed. I learned a ton from these two videos. Would love to get one of those degree wheels. Please do have them made. I'm a customer!
Thanks again man I have learned a lot already. Your a really good dude to take time out of your schedule to help educate simple people like me. Especially while dealing with a hurricane!? You must be built different.👍
I thought I commented on this great post.. a rocker set low (down the stud with shorter pushrod)will be slower off the seat but will show more lift will show more ratio at max lift than a high set rocker Max ratio is when a line through rocker trunnion and tip roller is perpendicular to the valve Ratio above and bellow mid point is less due to roller tip moving through an arc Ideally you would like the rocker to tip up when on the base circle the same amount it tips down at full lift Some mfg set with high pivot rockers (Crane Quick lift and Jessel) which gives more initial ratio and easier over the tip of the lobe. They will claim to be easier on the springs and less valve float, more retainer clearance but there are trade offs- BVVC if you use an asymmetrical pushrod to valve lift curve-- like the roller wanting to come off the stem moving on When said "sorry guys" he meant the deceleration had stopped and the valve was motionless going over the nose
Like all great ideas, this has the why didn't I think of that! What one gets out of this, is check each valve!!!!! So thankyou Mr. Salter. Sorry about your stuff and I have commented before the end. Cheers big ears!
I did something similar on a 5.0 and with AFR 195 Renegade heads. It's an early Ford E cam that I went to a 1.82 Scorpion rocker. That little 5.0 really runs good like that.
Thanks a lot for all that very interesting info! That's a very cool degree-wheel indicator idea😃 I especially appreciated you going through all the steps demonstrating how different the duration numbers can be depending on where the you are on the lobe; I hadn't even considered the fact that it could vary before but your video gave a very clear demonstration.
I am making my own oil pressure shim washer adjusted shaft stands so you don’t have push rod guides or adjusters on rocker arm or push rod. My 1.8 are 1.937. My geometry is based on the furthest valve travel for push rod travel which is fastest off the seat. .100 offset 18mm 1.5 deep Certs I make which close the hole in the intake port and seal water jacket in exhaust. These allowed 3/8” 3” arp tall studs but they are girdled above the shaft. I have to make tall covers and I am looking for some short hat stem seals. Between you and DV you really got me going! Don’t let your stuff rust, WD40, oil, grease!
That was excellent, thanks. It's pretty awesome that you make these educational videos for everybody to see, free of charge. I'm not always a fan of modern technology, but being able to watch in-class videos from CalTech, MIT etc and you on RU-vid is so cool.
My old man taught me that you should soak your lifters overnight before you build the engine that way when you go to fire it up and set valve lash it works better and is safer and easier as well.
Thanks a ton for your time and for a great explanation of how rocker ratios effect valve timing. Man, I geek out on this stuff. Twenty years ago I ran a small Mopar performance solid flat tappet in a 440. Took notes on actual vs advertised ratio, and actual total lift, so not as detailed as your .050" steps. Later, I put the next larger cam out of the Mopar book into it, and out of curiosity texted static compression with both. The larger cam, due to its increased duration and overlap of course, lost just over 10psi compression. Another subject, I know, but it's fascinating.
Salter crew, thank you for another very informative video. I'm enjoying them all and appreciate the education. My engine builder believes lift should be obtained through the camshaft and not through rockers. That's his response last week when I wanted 1.65 from 1.5 on my Pontiac. I agree with you on lifter stability vs. aggresive fast camshaft ramps. Thanks for your input!
@@newcitycarpet3675 okay just want to make sure you know where I'm coming from on that I use very high rocker ratios when I'm trying to race hydraulic rollers or hydraulic flat topic For All out Racing with no rules I will use between a 1.7 and a 1.8 rocker on most things
Yes, thank you for that reminder. You did mention that the hydraulic camshaft has limitations and the bigger ratios can work to there benefit regarding stability. Thanks again, I drag race a stock 1965 GTO by NHRA 1965 rules for the fun and the continued learning is fantastic.
@@SalterRacingEngines A quick, simple and a bit nieve question: Is it possible to run a loos lash in a hydraulic flat tappet cam? I'm having great success running a pure stock GTO and the videos are ramping up my enthusiasm. Thanks for the learning!
@@newcitycarpet3675 that's a really good question and I've tried it all kinds of ways and I'll tell you it really depends on your lifter because if they over pump due to high oil pressure then it pays to run a very loose lash but if your lifters do not over b Pump and their fairly stable then I would go with the manufacturer recommendation
@SalterRacingEngines Fantastic, I appreciate your guidance. I'm trying to find any power gains here and there. Looking for 12.95 in a PURE stock GTO currently going 13.56.
Wow that was a great video explained things so well and helped me see how much is involved in this now obviously very important step of putting an engine together. Thank you.
Get together with Powell Machine and make your degree wheels. He’s a machinist that knows what he’s doing and another good honest southern guy I’m sure y’all could make a hell of a product and do it for the little guys. Plus you always make more money with less overhead doing it yourself.
We used to change rocker ratios at the track as a tuning method. It would simulate moving the overlap advanced or retarded depending on which ratio combination you went with. We couldn't afford Dyno sessions back in the day
I love your videos you have so much knowledge and are so humble I'll be retiring in 3 more years. And I'm 63 years old and been street racing sense 1976. I just built a 88 monte carlo SS with a big block 439 it's a decent street engine it's got a howards hyd roller afr heads all good rotating assembly and it's right at 11 to 1 compression. I do have a solid roller for it that is quite a bit bigger it's the comp 294r so it's right at 260 duration x 666 lift on a 110 lsaim hoping this cam swap will give me about 30 more hp that would make my engine right at making 700 hp. And that's not bad for a NA pump gas street car. Also I have a lil 406 that I'm getting ready to make it a 421. I sure wish I had all your knowledge. Thanks for the video and I will be keeping you in my prayers I do know the affects of bad hurricanes I live in louisiana and what Katrina did my home town outside of need Orleans let's just say it will never be the same in my lifetime. So my prayers are with you.
Excellent video Brian. Would you consider doing a similar video showing the same effects you have here with different push rod lengths? For example a push rod length sized for Mid Lift geometry with a 1.6:1 rocker and a push rod length sized to set the geometry as Low Pivot with 1.6:1 rockers. It's interesting to see the gains and losses when the operating arc of the rocker tip is changed via the pushrod length.
Thank you Brian for the video. Praying for God to send you the resources needed to recover from the hurricane. I fallow you through your videos from here in Wentzville Missouri. 😊
Your degree wheel is awesome! What a great idea. If your engine stand shifted or allowed the engine to rotate though, your numbers would be off. Wonder if you could just put a magnetic level on the China wall to make sure it matches your slider on the wheel. Doesn’t look like yours moves in the video. Best of luck with the shop!
I often hear people that tend to assume that just swapping from say a 1.6 to 1.7 ratio rocker is going to make more power automatically. Assuming everything in the valve train can handle the increased intensity of the valve movement would you say this is true in your experience? Have you often found you have to move the cam timing around to take full advantage of the the higher ratio rocker to make more power? A lot of variables at play just speaking in general here.
@@racingjoe1 correct me if I'm wrong I think that cam was a 222 / 226 at 50 with 464 lift Going to a 1.6 ratio would take your Lift to around 495 and your duration to let's say 225 and 229 so yes it would absolutely make a difference. You should not have any valve interference problems with that. It should improve it at every RPM range. Another thing that would help is going to a very nice rocker shaft setup with at least 080 wall pushrods. You absolutely have to make sure you have the right valve spring when you do that rocker ratio change. The spring will need to be able to handle a minimum of 500 lift and be set up for a hydraulic flat tappet lifter.
I know for comparison of different rocker ratios it doesn’t matter but, if you’re using a level bubble, doesn’t the block need to be level to get correct degree readings? Just interested in your degree wheel pointer.
That was really interesting, quick question, on a street car what would you prefer, the intake lift be higher or lower then the exhaust lift, solid flat tappet cam?
@@rubyr.4812 great question I never do that that's a Shelf stock cam I think the manufacturers do it because they worry about it not performing well when cars take off from a standstill it will give the engine a little more take off acceleration but to me it always hurts them in the end but I'm talking strictly from a race point of view. When I grind a camshaft I install it on the LSA I had it made on
@@cuzz63 that's exactly right when you have a heavy car you have more acceleration from takeoff and that's what I was saying earlier it gives you more lower RPM torque but it always hurts you on the top end horsepower
@@SalterRacingEngines I am aware of doing things like this a car my lose HP but may have a faster ET which is what the customer wanted. Also why I assumed the cam company would send those instructions...instead of custom grinds for each customer they would take one off the shelf that was close and have to install it retarded or advanced based on other factors. I dont know if my assumption is true or not though.
@@cuzz63 it sounds like you're exactly correct Custom grinds cost a lot more or I should say they just in general cost more now imagine you paid the extra money and waited the extra time to get a custom camshaft and when you put it in it was just completely wrong unless you had absolutely everything to do with the grind you most likely are going to blame the cam company for a referring you to get a cam like that so it kind of helps them avoid being blamed for bad choices by making shelf cams that you choose and then you can't blame it on them when it doesn't perform. At least I think that's a lot of it and a lot of times what you need is on the shelf anyways Italy's first Street stuff one of the main things I don't like about shelf cams is the LSA but other than that a lot of them are very close to it they should be as far as what's available in the book
The ratio/lift is dependent on the line through the 3 contact points versus valve stem at right angle, the sweep its just a simple lever. Graph lift to degree rotation to see the curve difference from the profile curve. Are you better off to have a long rocker or a short one? ( assuming you move the stud away from the valve)
Can you explain why using a 1.5 rocker on exhaust and 1.6 rocker on intake on a solid roller is an advantage on a race engine? Thanks for sharing all your knowledge
@@josephverdone7099 well it's what we call using split ratios and basically it's the same thought process as using a dual pattern camshaft. You don't necessarily need a very fast valve action on the exhaust side and you can do most of what you need done on the exhaust side with the cam lobe and a relatively easy rocker. But I have used both split ratios and straight across ratios and depending on which one I use I might have more of a change in my camshaft lobes with the straight across ratios and they might be more closer together when I'm running split rocker ratios. But opening the intake valve faster means you're getting that valve out of the way ( at least as much as possible) so that the Piston can have full access to the port on the downward intake stroke because your valve is your restriction. So having a fast valve action on the intake is always a plus and it does help stock engines as well that's why people change the rocker ratios on their stock vehicles. A lot of why the factory doesn't do it is they will use the camshaft split itself or they don't do split rocker ratios because of manufacturing costs. But then again they're trying to build stuff that gets great fuel mileage has great vacuum and idol smoothly. So a different agenda altogether.
Good evening my father and I was watching about the rockers. I noticed your tool (Awesome) !!!! Is there any chance I can purchase one as a surprise gift for dad. Please let me know. Thank you very much.
This is good stuff. I am running 1.6 rockers on the intakes, 1.5 on the exhaust on my 355, I was wondering if it was worth swapping them to calm the engine down. Think it will have the desired effect.
@@joemathews278 absolutely not most of the time you going to get gaines from it I'm not going to say all the time but for sure most of the time If you have a low compression ratio you can go too far
I'm building a new 588 big block mopar and I have worried about this night after night laying down for bed lol. I have 1.5 rockers and felt like I'm leaving something on the table. Comp is building my custom cam any day now for my new engine. You have made me sleep better tonight with your knowledge! I trust you 100% thank you Brian!!
I have a sbc edelbrock hyd roller .234-.238 @.050 .539-.548 lift 112 lsa. in the instructions it says in all caps ONLY USE STOCK RATIO ROCKERS. is that to keep oil in the lifters or somthing else. if i run solid lifters on it can i then go to a 1.6 rocker?. thanks for all the great info you are sharing
@@fyffeal well that's a great question and I think it's best answered by saying one reason Edelbrock does that is because it changes the cam card information as you saw in my video and they don't know if people who are buying their camshafts understand that so they stay on the safe side of things by telling people to use only the stock Rock arm because that's what the cam card was designed to be ran with. Due to the fact I do not know the heat treat process on the Edelbrock cam I would highly recommend you call their tech department before you make changes to valve springs and rocker arms and solid lifters. Just to be safe If it was in my shop and I was building it I could certainly set it up to do that but I do not want to speak for them.
@@baims8367 you can use them on either side you're just basically making the cam bigger was a little faster valve action. It depends on the camshaft you have in the engine and how much valve clearance you have
@@aaronanderson6892 no I wasn't you have to transpose the numbers and I forgot to do that for everybody I'm telling you man there's always something I forget to do and I'm making a video Stuff I do everyday when I make a video it seems like I forget it
You don't need to check the valve/piston clearance when the intake closes. The piston is far from the valve then, not even halfway up the cylinder. Otherwise it was a very rewarding video, like your protractor very much
