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Chevy Rods

husky drvr

Platinum Level Sponsor
WHAT!? I smell a conspiracy to mitigate the wonderfulness of the car that resides in my basement, or South Carolina, depending on your definition of "car".
Proof of my claim? Usable power that no Alpine has shown been able to exceed, as shown by the 20-80 acceleration time. Not even Tigers, which surprises me. Economy of 30+ mgp at interstate speeds (70 mph, no air) and the statement by one guest driver that its the best Alpine he has ever driven. Even better than Miatas.

Bill

Bill,

No conspiracy, just fishing to see if you actually had D-Pine II on the road. :) Don't think so, though. :( Been a few weeks since an update.

Have fun.
 

Tom H

Platinum Level Sponsor
IMO, the small increase in stroke / displacement is a lot less important than the huge decrease in rotating mass with the Chevy rods and a rebalanced crankshaft.

Barry, in fact it WAS these advantages you note that caused me to decide to go with the Chevy rods in the first place. But since it was a failed top ring that caused my engine failure, I was quite reluctant to shave the top of a standard piston to make up for the rod length. That moved me to custom pistons, which then lead me to add stroke and modify my custom piston design. Custom design of pistons also allowed me to get the chamber volume to a point to achieve original 9.2 CR, even after Vizard mod. I guess you could call it a "mizewell" design. But I do find the combination of added displacement, vizard mod, lightened flywheel, KB cam, and weber carb, has provided a nice performance increase.
 

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Barry, in fact it WAS these advantages you note that caused me to decide to go with the Chevy rods in the first place. But since it was a failed top ring that caused my engine failure, I was quite reluctant to shave the top of a standard piston to make up for the rod length. That moved me to custom pistons, which then lead me to add stroke and modify my custom piston design. Custom design of pistons also allowed me to get the chamber volume to a point to achieve original 9.2 CR, even after Vizard mod. I guess you could call it a "mizewell" design. But I do find the combination of added displacement, vizard mod, lightened flywheel, KB cam, and weber carb, has provided a nice performance increase.
It may surprise some, but whenever anyone approaches me about engine swapping, I really encourage them to consider this engine upgrade. The only downside, it leaves the owner with the stock transmission/final ratio and no easy upgrade. Somebody needs to come up with a 1725 - T5 swap. On paper, it looks easy enough. But everything is easy when you don't know what your talking about.

Bill
 

spmdr

Diamond Level Sponsor
I have dealt with several piston manufactures over the decades (Tiger engines), J&E, Ross, SRP and CP.

But I have not used enough pistons to be a "Dealer".

But at this point, it looks like I may be talking to piston manufactures again...

I'm thinking Ross.

Time for a new Thread: Best Alpine custom piston manufacture ?

DW
 
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