By Ro McGonegal
Photos by Mark “Spleen Man” Hall
6/15/07
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| Grady began with a cast-iron, two-bolt main bearing block fitted with HTC steel 4-bolt main caps on the center three races that are secured with ARP studs. To strengthen the assembly, he also installed deck plugs. Then he prepared the block’s lubrication system by plugging off top of the engine, restricting oil to the top and by the distributor boss. “We plug the oil galley that goes around the distributor and feed it from the front. We also plug the hole behind cam bearing and the one in front of the distributor. Then we drill a hole under the front cam bearing in the groove.” |
A story about this engine combination first appeared in the June ’05 issue of Chevy High Performance. They called it new tech by old NASCAR guys, conceived and executed by some long-time Nextel Cup hands at a south Florida shop. That shop no longer builds competition engines, but the bright and amazing Harold Grady still does. We were amazed at the output of this relative peanut two years ago and when Grady announced recent discoveries, we grabbed the chance to reveal the more powerful updated version.
Grady has partnered once again with Bob Rahilly at long-time NASCAR supplier Rahmoc Racing Engines in Concord, NC, the proponents of which are Bob and his brother Dick and Vince Lopez. While Rahmoc was tweaking the original motor combination, it applied some sound thinking and uncovered enough oats to put that hellion at a 651hp. Certainly, with its 12.0:1 compression ratio and 110-octane fuel it’s a flat-out race motor but despite this mighty mouse’s intense flavor, it teems with ideas that could obviously be applied to a small-block street/strip engine.
Briefly, the engine’s genesis: About a month before Daytona Speed Week ‘05, Grady contacted “Hank the Crank” Bechtloff and the two formulated an engine package that would be showcased at the event, one that would include a lot of things that no other engine could claim and one that would be built by seasoned NASCAR suppliers and bright thinkers.
