[DeTomaso] Fw: Cleveland "Tunnel Port" Heads on ebay

[Will Demelo]

"""Dick Trickle won an Arca race at Daytona or Talledega""""

Come on!!! You can't be serious. Dick Trickle??
Will
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <adin at frontier.net>
To: <detomaso at realbig.com>
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 12:25 PM
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Cleveland "Tunnel Port" Heads on ebay


> Bwahahaha - I remember watching the famouse rufus/capt. nice [1] trans
> am battles at Laguna Seca and Sears Point.  (Bud had two cars for
> Jones - one w/ grey interior and one w/ black interior.  One car just
> to cook while qualifying!)  Ol' rufus would twist that qualifying
> motor till the exhaust valves stuck out of the tail pipe - a sweeter
> sound you've never heard! (Well, the Canam McLarens w/ the Traco
> motors were sweet, too - if chebbies)
>
> Ahhhhhhhh, those were the days . . . . .
>
>
>
> [1] Rufus Parnelli Jones/ Mark Donohue
>
>
> Quoting Daniel C Jones <daniel.c.jones2 at gmail.com>:
>
>>> Ford tried tunnel port heads on 289 hi-po engines but found there was no
>>> advantage over simply putting bigger valves in a std head.
>>
>> The 289/302 tunnel ports were the result of a rapid development program
>> to increase the flow of the SBF head for Trans Am racing.  The tunnel
>> port allowed a large area straight intake port that didn't have to bend
>> around the pushrod. 2.12" diameter intake and 1.54" exhaust valves were
>> used compared to 1.78" and 1.45" for the standard SBF head.  They made
>> more power and were an advantage over standard SBF heads but the engines
>> had reliability problems at the RPM they needed (tunnel port engines
>> used an 8500 RPM rev limit).  One weak point was the the shaft mount
>> rocker system borrowed from the Y-block.  Special connecting rods, a
>> 4 bolt main, screw-in freeze plug, block and a forged steel crank were
>> developed to help the tunnel port engines live and were carried over
>> to the Boss 302 program which added the Cleveland canted valve heads.
>> With the Boss 302's, reliability greatly improved and the rev limit
>> raised to 9000 RPM.
>>
>>> These are likely salvaged experimental castings,
>>
>> The ones for sale were originally acquired from Junior Johnson who
>> developed the tunnel port heads for Ford and are an early set that
>> were used for valvetrain mock up on either a Fontana or Motorsport
>> block (not the matching T-351 block).  Custom Jesel rocker arms were
>> used.  Chad Decatur said the heads were ported by Diamond-Elkins and
>> flowed 350 CFM on the intake side using 2.14" and 1.65" diameter
>> valves. They were intended for Casey Luna's WOO sprint car but never
>> raced.  A production batch was subsequently made and I've seen (in
>> person) boxes and boxes of the heads and intakes, but not the matching
>> blocks.  At one time, RDI was sitting on nearly the entire production
>> run.  Dick Trickle won an Arca race at Daytona or Talledega with a
>> pair, after which they were promptly banned.
>>
>> Dan Jones
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