Engine Masters

The crew dives into the relationship among cylinder head flow, liberal application of boost and horsepower. They run their 363 Windsor once with 195cc and 225cc heads, and declare once and for all if cylinder heads actually matter under boost.

The guys run back-to-back tests with 87, 91, 110, 116 and even E85 to see if higher octane can make more power, and if an engine's optimal timing even changes with different octane. See what happens as we pump up the gas on this episode of Engine Masters.

The guys outfit their Ford 363 with a Demon 650 blow-through carb and with Holley's new Super Sniper Stealth throttle-body-style EFI to determine which will reign supreme in terms of tunability, cylinder-to-cylinder distribution and horsepower.

The guys find out if mandrel-bent exhaust pipes really make more power over the crimped and crunched pipes the local shop bends up. They'll test them with mufflers, without mufflers, with turbo mufflers and more, all in a quest for data and horsepower.

As unsexy as it is, protecting an engine starts with the oil and filter. The crew tests 10 different filters back-to-back-to-back. From the cheapest to the trickest, they're on the hunt for the best-flowing and best-filtering units available.

Since the dawn of supercharging, compressed air has been stuffed through carburetors, and it's as true now as it was back then. The question we're asking today is: what type of carb hat is best for that blow-through application?

The crew is searching for low air temps and big HP numbers as they compare the heat-extracting power of under-roots intercoolers vs. E85! Then they aim to bring up the entire curve by swapping the short-runner blower manifold for a tunnel ram.

Does port matching an intake manifold really create enough power to justify the cost? The crew is going to find out, as they audition their 406 SBC with an out-of-the-box Super Victor, a port-matched Super Victor and an off-shelf Wilson-prepped version.

When it comes right down to it, nothing that happens on the dyno matters until you get the engine in the car. Today, the guys test the actual headers, intake, fuel system and everything else that will be used in David Freiburger's Model A drag car.

Holley carbs have been the standard by which all racing carbs are measured, but today's question is this: CFMs being equal, what's the difference in power between the smaller-bore, narrower-set 4150 carb and the bigger-bore, wider-base 4500 Dominator?

Does compression make power? The easy answer is yes, but the answers we're looking for today have more to do with how it makes power and how sensitive it becomes to temperature on pump gas.

It's a battle between the iconic 440 Six Pack and the legendary 426 Hemi, and we're settling age-old bets on this one. Do they live up to lore of 440 grunt and 426 top end? Can the Six Pack cool outgun the famed Hemi heads?

We're taking trips to the moon as we test different combos on a 331ci small Chevy. Starting with a little combo good for 7K RPM, we show you how improved airflow on a small motor equals pure RPM. And we do it all with simple parts and a small budget.

If you're like us, you've always chosen an oil pump based on some knee-jerk instinct. It's time to finally learn the difference between standard, high-volume and high-pressure oil pumps in terms of pressure, flow and horsepower.

We all know that adding any sort of restrictor, like a muffler, is going to hurt power on a turbo motor. We also know that sometimes it just makes sanity-sense to cut down excess noise. The crew finds out just how much horsepower that sanity costs.

We love our big-block Mopars, and we've put together an HP-per-dollar comparison of street-centric wedge cylinder heads. Want to spend bottom dollar on some 906s? We've got you covered. Want to step up to CNC-ported, tall-valve set of TFSes? Tested.

You've seen them, you've drooled over them, and you may have even run them. We dive into the wavy waters of individual runner systems, how you can tune them, and whether all that cool makes any more power than the stalwart carburetor.

The guys study the fueling demands, horsepower, and the pros and cons of running different types of fuel. They all have different oxygen contents, air/fuel ratio demands, and ultimately, different abilities to cool the cylinder and create power

The guys explore the cooling benefits of water-methanol injection. They'll be looking at any added tolerance to detonation, intake air temps, how much to inject at what rpm, and the optimal ratio of water to methanol.

We've done air filter shootouts before, but this time, it's all about finding the least restrictive way to route a cold air system. We find out how much the size of a filter, as well as the tubing's length, path and diameter, affects your performance.

We dive into the fundamentals of the cheapest, easiest and most effective way to give your motor some grunt: nitrous oxide. Using a basic 150-horse plate system, we show you the basics on installation, safety and tuning for a typical carbureted engine.

We explore the differences between single and split-duration camshafts. Can the extended exhaust duration of the split pattern crutch poor exhaust flow? Does the single pattern really suffer at RPM in the name of low-speed torque?

The 5.9 Magnum is the easiest Mopar V8 to score out of a junkyard, and we're testing intake upgrades for a street car swap. We pit the factory manifold against a worked-up aftermarket piece, an upsized throttle body and two carbureted manifold options.

Can the simple flopping of a piston's orientation in the cylinder really affect its performance or behavior? Today, the guys perform what may be the first ever back-to-back comparison of factory-oriented pistons against reverse-oriented ones.