The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Engine Masters

I've recently started watching a program on Motortrend channel called Engine Masters. While I'm not a trained mechanic, I'm not completely inept when it come to basic mechanical theory so, even though the program sometimes deals with things that are over my head I get enough out of it to find it entertaining and educational. A trained mechanic and/or engineer should find it quite fun to watch. If you haven't seen it I recommend giving it a try.

If we weed out all the extraneous BS you can get some tuning/building tips from the Roadkill guys. Still waiting for a I-6 build.

I can't claim to be a "trained mechanic" since I've never had the opportunity to work on a train. Other than that little exceptiion, if it rolls, floats, or flies, I can pretty much hold my own. TV shows and You Tube videos are interesting, but a lot of them leave out a huge amount of important details that come from years of making a living tinkering with things mechanical.
Jerry

What I REALLY like about Engine Masters is there's NO selling segment where most shows push various products. This show is all about "what happens when I do this to this engine compared to doing that". They are really good about explaining what they do and why they do it. You should try watching an episode or two Jerry. I bet you'd get a kick out of it and maybe send them an email saying why the hell did you do that?!

I'll have to agree with you on this. I have about a dozen episodes recorded on the DVR. I go back and watch them when I'm bored. I like the episodes on valvetrain dynamics. It's really helped me understand LSA, centerline, advancing, retarding the cam, etc... They do mention who they got the parts from, but there is no trying to sell them.

I like that show also. It gives a chance to compare different phases of engine modification by running them in the same engine on an engine dyno.
I think some of the Hot Rod magazine shows are an insult & discrace to hot rodding. They take an old broken down car out on the highway with it falling down all up & down the road & they patch it up & drive some more with the hood tied down on top the car. That's not hot rodding.
Its true most of their programs are info-mercials, but knowing what products out there is an important part of the hobby.
I like Stacy David. My classic Car is a good one & Chasing Classic Cars.
George

It looks like they've got a pretty fancy computerized dyno that automatically applies the load to the engine every 250 or maybe 500 RPM. Mine is close to 50 years old, and it requires a lot of manipulating of throttle opening and manually controlling the water inlet valve to fill the load cell. It looks like a big torque converter and applies a load to the engine by the volume of water that gets applied to the impeller. The idea is to measure the amount of torque the engine can develop at full throttle at a particular RPM, and then use a math formula to convert the torque readings to HP. For an accurate reading, it's necesssary to know the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity, as a change in any of those numbers between runs makes the results inaccurate.

Of course, the first thing I had to do was teach my students the math they should have learned in the 5th. grade, so they could plug the numbers into a calculator. Forget giving any of them, even the smart ones, a pencil and paper!
Jerry

The Dyno is at the WestTech facility. They are top notch. The three hosts are very knowledgeable and quite often mention the temperature, pressure and humidity affecting the results. They also talk about practical applications vs just dyno numbers. The show has helped me understand these big air compressors we run in our trucks.
Yes George, two of the hosts also have a show called Roadkill that features a lot of hack job fixes and stupid road trips. Purely entertainment value with very little practical application.

"They take an old broken down car out on the highway with it falling down all up & down the road & they patch it up & drive some more with the hood tied down on top the car. That's not hot rodding. "

I saw that episode - the boys were on the road to travel to the site of a burn-out contest. It was silly , but quite entertaining.