What would you say if I told you there's a 302-based, small-block Ford engine out here in SoCal that can carry a 2,300-pound car through the quarter-mile in 7.04 seconds, at 196mph?
Oh, and let me not forget to mention that this engine is...naturally aspirated!
I know you're headed across the jump, now! Hahahahahahhaha!
A recent visit to QMP Racing Engines in Chatsworth, California (www.qmpracing.com), gave me an exclusive opportunity to see and photograph a one-of-a-kind engine block that Brad Lagman has developed for one of the shop's customers.
Starting with Dart Machinery's Compacted Graphite Iron 8.7-deck 302 bare block (an actual "blank" casting that only has cylinder, cam and crankshaft bores), engine specialist, Brad Lagman, uses a 5-axis CNC machine to place and install holes for the head bolts, open the camshaft bore to 60 millimeters, thread all of the core-plug bores, clearance the cylinders for a massively stroked crankshaft and create the most-radical, lifter-bore configuration I've seen in an any small-block Ford engine.
Take a close look at the photos. The lifter bores are splayed and offset. This type of machining is done to create spot-on valvetrain geometry with the canted-valve-style cylinder heads that sit atop this type of bullet. Unfortunately, for security reasons (the engine is being built for an off-shore client who does not want his competitors to know what his ride is packing--I wouldn't want them to know, either!), I wasn't permitted to take any pics of the heads or cam, but trust me, they're beyond being "equally as impressive."
Compacted Graphite Iron (also called CGI) is a form of cast iron that has elongated graphite particles mixed with spherical graphite particles present within the alloy, as opposed to the graphite "flakes" present in typical cast iron. The shape of the graphite particles present in CGI greatly enhance the strength and hardness of the iron.
CGI is approximately 100 percent stronger than gray iron without any additional weight, which is why many NMRA racers are getting hip to using Dart's blocks that are made with CGI, and putting monies saved (over buying aluminum engine blocks) toward other areas of their race programs.
When it's all said and done, this QMP-prepared small block will displace 398 cubic inches, which is beyond stout for a 302, ain't it?!