I've heard good stuff about David Vizard. He has a youtube channel with free information on engine building, cams, everything. His books must be gold
Books For Engine Building, Performance
Since a lot of questions arise about engines, performance tweaks, and carburetors when converting, I finally dug some helpful books out, especially since I'm working on building a carb equipped 4.3. I also included a book for V8 builds, because it has formulas and tips which apply to any engine, more or less.
The last v8 I built was in '98, using tips from these books. It was a '76 Chevy 350 block, 4 bolt main. We built it for towing heavy loads a long ways without overheating. It had a stock crank, rv cam, stock aftermarket pistons, around 9:1, World Products s/r heads, Edelbrock Performer intake, ports matched to heads, and exhaust ports matched to manifolds (sometimes I ran Cyclone headers), stock oil pump, stock distributor with aftermarket HEI module and curve kit, adjustable timing gear set (stock, adv, ret), I think a stock water pump, usually ran a GM Corporate rear w/4:10, but once ran a 2.73 rear for a year or so, pulled good but a bit sluggish, ran 9 leaf springs including the overload, ran a TH400 until 2005, switched to a four spd from a '69 grain truck (same then as in pickup trucks). Homebuilt flat bed, hd hitch, 3" susp lift, 3" body lift. Truck weighed 5,800 pounds empty.
I regularly pulled 4,000 pounds of firewood, or more, out of the woods, my living then, ran out of water twice, nothing cracked, put new rings, rod 'n main bearings in it in 2004, ran it in my '73 3/4 t until 2011 or '12, then put the motor into my '90 GMC van, ran it for 2-3 years, then sold the motor, still tight as a drum. Wouldn't float a valve at 5,000 rpm, usually never ran it past 4,000 or so. I put it together using a beamer torque wrench; snug 'em, torque 'em in three steps, tap each bolt with a hammer, torque once more.
Anyway, here are the books:
Auto Math by John Lawlor, covers displacement, stroke, bore, compression ratio, piston speed, brake hp and torque, indicated hp and torque, air cap. and volumetric, efficiency, weight distribution, center of gravity, g force and weight transfer, shift points, quarter mile et and mph, instrument error, mph, rpm, gears and tires, tire sizes and their effects, average mph and mpg, blood alcohol contraction, auto Math on your computer. It has formulas for figuring all the above, and 16 pages of conversions, i.e., barrels to gallons, cc to ci, all that.
Next one is How To Build Max Performance Chevy Small Blocks On A Budget, Ten Best Engine Combo by David Vizard. The snapshot shows this books contents.
Next is Super Tuning and Modifying Carter Carburetors, Performance, Street and Off-Road Applications by Dave Emanuel.
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The last v8 I built was in '98, using tips from these books. It was a '76 Chevy 350 block, 4 bolt main. We built it for towing heavy loads a long ways without overheating. It had a stock crank, rv cam, stock aftermarket pistons, around 9:1, World Products s/r heads, Edelbrock Performer intake, ports matched to heads, and exhaust ports matched to manifolds (sometimes I ran Cyclone headers), stock oil pump, stock distributor with aftermarket HEI module and curve kit, adjustable timing gear set (stock, adv, ret), I think a stock water pump, usually ran a GM Corporate rear w/4:10, but once ran a 2.73 rear for a year or so, pulled good but a bit sluggish, ran 9 leaf springs including the overload, ran a TH400 until 2005, switched to a four spd from a '69 grain truck (same then as in pickup trucks). Homebuilt flat bed, hd hitch, 3" susp lift, 3" body lift. Truck weighed 5,800 pounds empty.
I regularly pulled 4,000 pounds of firewood, or more, out of the woods, my living then, ran out of water twice, nothing cracked, put new rings, rod 'n main bearings in it in 2004, ran it in my '73 3/4 t until 2011 or '12, then put the motor into my '90 GMC van, ran it for 2-3 years, then sold the motor, still tight as a drum. Wouldn't float a valve at 5,000 rpm, usually never ran it past 4,000 or so. I put it together using a beamer torque wrench; snug 'em, torque 'em in three steps, tap each bolt with a hammer, torque once more.
Anyway, here are the books:
Auto Math by John Lawlor, covers displacement, stroke, bore, compression ratio, piston speed, brake hp and torque, indicated hp and torque, air cap. and volumetric, efficiency, weight distribution, center of gravity, g force and weight transfer, shift points, quarter mile et and mph, instrument error, mph, rpm, gears and tires, tire sizes and their effects, average mph and mpg, blood alcohol contraction, auto Math on your computer. It has formulas for figuring all the above, and 16 pages of conversions, i.e., barrels to gallons, cc to ci, all that.
Next one is How To Build Max Performance Chevy Small Blocks On A Budget, Ten Best Engine Combo by David Vizard. The snapshot shows this books contents.
Next is Super Tuning and Modifying Carter Carburetors, Performance, Street and Off-Road Applications by Dave Emanuel.
