For an engine that will see a lot of elevated RPM levels, a stout valve train is required. CFE had to again put on their thinking caps to create something that would be robust enough to deal with abuse while remaining within the Super Stock rules.
“On the valvetrain, we installed alloy seats and guides and designed the custom 3/8-inch severe duty steel valves since stock guide diameters are required. Manley handled their creation. Along with packaging enough installed height for growth, we set up the head’s rocker pads to work with the existing Jesel rocker kit that is made for the Indy 401 SR head. Rinke plans on starting off in excess of .800-inch lift on the cam with help from Comp Cams,” Kieffer explains.
After the heads were complete the next task for CFE was to find a way to get air into their beautiful creation. Sheet metal intakes are perfectly legal in Super Stock and for this application one of these units made the most sense. The original Edelbrock AMX cross-ram intake that was a part of the factory-built engine wasn’t being used and was replaced by the sheet metal intake. The rules do require a specific type and size of carburetors to be used, so CFE had to bring those into the mix while still working with an OEM hood.
“The sheet metal intake manifold we created had to work with a dual 4-barrel top to suit a pair of Braswell-prepared 650 Holley carbs, vintage-correct and required by the rules, offset on the top plate to mimic the cross-ram’s throttle positions per NHRA rules. The restrictive OEM hood line keeps us from taking advantage of more plenum volume with the expected 9,000-plus RPM engine speeds,” Kieffer says.
This engine build shows what kind of lengths racers go to for the extra edge required to go fast in NHRA Super Stock. The CFE-built AMC induction system that will live under the hood of Rich Rinke’s AMX is one nasty customer that’s capable of generating impressive horsepower. Make sure you keep an eye on NHRA Super Stock in the future to see what kinds of numbers this mean small-block will run in legal NHRA trim.