A guide to the high-performance red, blue and black straight sixes..
"If you get careless or go romanticizing scientific information, giving it a flourish here and there, Nature will make a complete fool out of you. It does it often enough anyway even when you don't give it opportunities." Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Table of Contents
- Introduction - about these pages
- Characteristics and Limitations - the Holden six, what it is and why you should or shouldn't use it
- Planning your Engine - the most important part of the buildup; defining the rpm range and hp requirements
- Which Displacement and Block? - 179 HP? 186? 202? Strokers...
- Block Prep - Cleaning and machining, the importance of cylinder wall thickness
- High HP Blocks - helping a block survive with high rpms and hp
- The Crank - choosing a stroke length, material and counterweight configuration
- Managing Torsional Vibration - a critical part of making a straight six survive
- Rods - factory and aftermarket rods, rod lengths and rod ratios
- Balancing - the effects of balancing on block life, balancing myths and facts
- Oiling - ensuring a sufficient and continuous flow
- Pistons - some of the commonly available pistons discussed
- Cylinder Heads - the key component to power production, and what we want from it
- 9 Port Heads - the traditional choice for competition engines
- 12 Port Heads - there's more to performance than raw flow numbers...
- Unshrouding the Valves - easing the flow path on the chamber side
- Combustion Chambers and Valve and Seat Prep - the valve job + minimising losses due to incomplete burning
- Compression Ratio - calculating a dynamic ratio and converting this to a static number
- Induction Systems - most off-the-shelf systems are duds...
- IR Manifolds - Individual Runners, the all-round performers
- Common Plenum Manifolds - simple and cheap street setups
- Downdraft Setups - working with dropout and distribution problems
- Manifold Heat - don't be so quick to turn off the heat..
- CV/CD Carbs - consistent performers
- Tuned Length Intake Runners, Port Matching - tuned runners can provide a significant boost, especially with 12 ports
- Mechanical Injection - has it had its day?
- Electronic Injection - potentially the most accurate system available
- VK Commodore EFI - a cheap and simple setup that works well on the street
- Air Filtration and Fuel Pumps - clean, but not lean..
- Camshafts and Valvetrain - matching a cam profile to your requirements
- Exhaust - how they work and how they help make power
- Cooling - water pumps, radiators, thermostats etc.
- Crankcase Ventilation - do it properly, don't just puke it into a can..
- Ignition - the Bosch HEI and aftermarket sytems, crank triggers etc.
- Assembly and Running In - giving your new engine the best possible start in life
- Tuning - an engine is only as good as its tuneup
- Recipes - a few combos to try
- Links - some useful and interesting links plus some suppliers
Building the Hot Holden Six by snarlyjohn@gmail.com is licensed under a Creative Commons License and was written using gedit under Linux.