Lake Speed's Forgotten NASCAR Engine is READY TO RIP! 90's Ford C3 with Modern Tech Dyno Test

If you went back and watched a NASCAR race from the glory days of the late 1980s, Lake Speed is a name that you would see. Lake was a regular in the Winston Cup series for over 20 years. Prior to that, he was a world champion go-kart racer. In 1986, he built a shop in his backyard and started his own race team. As you've seen on this channel before, we showed you his entire race shop that's still in his backyard where he has two cars left and two engines. They have not been touched in 20 years. He made us a deal. He said, "You know what? You take that engine, get it freshened up, make it make some more power, put it back in the car, and I'll drive it again." and he's 75 years old. So, we took it over to Dennis Borham at Pro Motor Engines. Dennis has been building NASCAR engines for over 30 years. Over the last several months, we have been all over the country documenting, sourcing, and explaining the parts that we've used to freshen this 20-year-old engine time capsule of NASCAR technology up to some more modern stuff without changing the bones of the engine. It's still the same block, the same heads, the same crankshaft, the same rods. It has new pistons with modern design, a new cam shaft with modern design and a very specific cylinder wall hone and ring package of modern specs. We're here to blend nostalgia with technology and get a legendary racing driver back in the seat of one of his favorite race cars. Today is the day. Today's the day. Finally the day. [laughter] And we have both lakes here. What was the most power you ever saw on your engine dyno that was in a car that you raced? about 7:35. Really? Yeah. Whenever you were meing, how much power were those cars making? You have to tell me. I don't They were They're about that. So, this this could be the the most powerful car that you've had in a a cup chassis on a road course. Yeah. Be nice if they're running against get against get against get against something some of the stuff that we were running against. Well, if you go back to VI with this thing, it'll be a lot more power than you had last time. Remember the last time you were there with Dave Dale Felon? I was out on the straightaway after off the oak tree turn. I'm out there hitting second gear looking rearview mirror and I see him come around the corner and he went by me before I got down the straightaway just like a rocket. I went, "Forget this." [laughter] In October 2002, it made 690 on its best run. That was a real number. That was a real number. Made 690 in 2002. So, we still don't know why it was so low on our first why it was 480 last time. Have no idea. We still don't know. That's the great mystery. We never figured that out. No, there was no think it got high. If I can remember the thing to end the race is to make sure it finished cuz I had pretty good size lead so I could slow down. Same block, same heads, same manifold, new valve train, same rod. We found out the rods are older than both Jackson and Benjamin. Two of my kids. brand new pistons, new ring package and all that. So, we'll let them do all their normal stuff. Then we're going to have some fun and we'll put on this. We'll put in the Q16 and put in the 016 oil. That'll give us a really go for it. Oh, yeah. So, there's going to be two phases to this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, okay, what what does she do? Call it the the normal way. Then we'll pull in all the fun stuff. So, this block looks a lot different than the last time we saw it. Can you explain what you guys were doing in here while we were flying all over the place making videos about all the parts that are going in it? We updated the the valve train, the lifters. We checked the line hone, honed it, then it went over to the CNC shop over here and we machined it for the keyed sleeves. So, can you explain to people what the benefit is of a key lifter versus a link bar? Without saying it's better, it's a lot better. You're you're guided off that that lug basically right here. Mhm. [clears throat] See the lug? So, there's a slot in the lifter bar that uh guides it. So, you get rid of the bar. There's a bar that connects most people now. It goes to the other lifter. There's just a lot more stability here. Durability is better. Has a bigger wheel. It just gives you a lot of different options on a on a bigger cam. And to uh go the direction we want where that wheel is probably 785,000. This wheel is 850. And then Comp Cams designed a cam. Anybody watching this should have seen that video already. Yeah. If they didn't, all the specs are in here. That's right. We have a video about the pistons, about the rods, the cam shaft, the cylinder hone. First thing I notic is how much smaller in diameter these springs are. The old ones, they look like some big block springs. They were huge. That would be a modern valve spring that we run in NASCAR and road racing. There'll be a lot more stability in the valve train. Our compression is probably four points higher than it was before. Just four. Yeah, that's right. [laughter] Was that 13 to1 now? Uh, close. Close to 13. Mhm. That's going to be fun. This is the pan that was on this engine. I never looked at this pan until about a week ago when we were getting ready to mock things up and I noticed it's like, "Hey, this thing's got sprayers in it." Looked back on the cart, looked at the block. There were no lines on the cart. There was no provisions on the block for oiling. So, this pan at some point was put on this engine. It was from somebody else's cuz the the cup teams were just starting to put oilers on in the '90s. We basically ran line ran the lines back inside the pan. This is the supply. It'll come through here inside of it. We supply oil to that manifold right there and it crosses over and supplies it to this one. This engine did not have sprayers hooked up. That's actually a positive cuz it's, you know, we we pretty much have sprayers and everything we build now or we try to. So, and then and then also we added a pickup for road racing. When you make right-hand turns, it was only set up for left-hand turns. So, if this was run on a road course, it was destined to have a problem. Interesting. if you had enough right-hand corners. So, cuz what'll happen is you'll fill this pan up on the righthanders and not get enough back in the tank and you will lose oil pressure at some point. Surprised it wasn't like that already with what he was doing with it. Well, he bought a motor probably at an auctioner. He had it and it was set up for oval track. We inherit a lot of business that way. People will buy an engine, put it in a car and run it in a different platform, then it blows up. It was built just fine. It was just used in the wrong application without the update. What did you do to the manifold? It looks all shiny now. Jim went in and did the plenum. He did some work in the plenum and then when he he updated the ports on the heads, he had to raise them just a little bit, but he he got a lot of the We went from a 2100 intake valve to a 2150, [clears throat] which is still isn't that big. So, that'll be an improvement. Improved the seat ring on the flow, the intake port, little bit on exhaust, and then he did some work on the intake. How much flow did the heads pick up from what he did? I think 35 38 CFM on the intake or exhaust. Intake. Exhaust was I think 14 or 15. I don't mean I don't know a ton about that stuff. Percentage. It's about seems like a lot. It's about 10%. And there was more there but you know what we're trying to do here we felt like would be good for this project. Yeah. You go too much then it's like kind of out of the spirit of what this intended to be. Yeah. So you do this pretty quickly. Yeah. We try. The Ford lends itself to being a uh a pretty userfriendly motor to work on. I think is that just cuz you're a Ford guy? Well, not just that. I think [laughter] I think even Chevy guys that worked on these in the day I'll tell you it's a lot less complicated than the the modern engines that we race now, you know, you have all these different fasteners in different locations. These are everything's pretty much the same. When they went to the D3 head after this, it was, you know, very similar also. So, now knowing what you know about specs that you've measured and the heads that you've flowed and the cam specs that you know for sure, now that it's all here, what is your professional prediction of what this thing is going to do on the dyno? Boy, I knew you were going to ask that question. What if I if I over overpromise and underdel? We hate that, don't we? Give us your your actual one and then give us what you would give us if you were a customer didn't want to hurt their feelings and overpromise under deliver. How about that? You get to pick two. What you really think and then what you would actually tell somebody. [laughter] What I really think, uh, I would I would, if I had a promise, I'd save it 725, but what I what I think it is, it's going to be 7:45. 7:45 is your authentic number. Yeah. No feelings attached. That's right. Okay. There's a lot to think about there. I'd also like to point out that we're having a conversation with you and you're just running through these heads like you don't even have to think about [laughter] the torque pattern. And I and I get on my guys for doing this, right? That this is not what you do, right? You just know it. How many times have you done this? Oh, a lot. And I'm capable of a lot of mistakes. Last night we were mocking this stuff up cuz I thought I had everything. And these stands right here. Uhhuh. I put the rockers that Nick Ramy we had found on it and they were along a pivot length and I had to go looking for stands. So, we had to go through the archives cuz the stands that were on this were for a shorter pivot length rocker arm. Huh. Luckily, we found them. Maybe Lake will need to refresh his other engine after this. That's right. The one that's supposedly good. Oh, does he have another one? Yeah. Okay. He has another one that was just like this sitting around. Why is this in the back of my truck right now? Okay. So, we've had so much fun with the first one. Well, there's two engines and there's two cars. What is going to happen to this engine once it's [laughter] running? What's the vintage on these rockers? Oh, old. Not not as old as the ones that were on it or they looked a little bit longer in the tooth. Is it coming up? That's what she said. [laughter] What kind of lash is this cam on? Well, that's a really good question. 20,000. First time I ever did a cam swap in anything, I put a solid roller in my big block, not knowing what solid lifters even were when I ordered the parts. I just knew that that was what I needed cuz somebody told me that's what kind made the most power. Okay. And the guy on the phone, cam company I got the stuff from said, "Yeah, your lashes would be about 18,000 or something and that's about the thickness of a piece of paper." So when it came time to put the motor together, I said, "Well," he said the gap between the roller and the valve is about the thickness of a piece of paper. So, I thought I'll just put a piece of paper in there and tighten this down that way. So, I used the cam card to set the lash and I got the engine fired up. And this was like a huge cam. It didn't thump at all. And I was like, "What is wrong with this thing? It doesn't sound like a bigger can than the one that came out of there." And I took the valve covers off, took the rockers off, and all my push rods looked like bananas. Really? Yeah. That was my introduction to working on engines. That's how we learn, right? Yeah. That's how we learn. Is there a specific level of force you're feeling for on that feeling gauge? Yeah, often. That's good right there. Often times if you have two different feeler blades, you can go with no go. It's specific to each guy. You got to work in like in here the assembler and dino guy have to be on the same page. I mean, you want it right, but you will have people that with a little different feel. You don't want to have to force it. You want a little drag on it. That's good. Interesting. So, if you say you have like a go or no go, if you're looking for 20, you would have a a 20 and a 18 and a 21 or something or 19 and a 21. One's going to have a drag tight, one's going to be a little bit looser. And you know, you're kind of in that sweet spot. That's pretty good. I can't I could just about this here pull out to the side. Ah. Without too much force. On something like this. How often does the lash change enough that you have to change it? Like go back and redo it. Not a whole lot. You get a little bit if you get valve recession or wear something wears, you really don't want it to wear, but some some cylinders are tend to as the heat goes in the engine. Um, some may be a little bit different, but they'll check it hot in there. They'll run it for 30 minutes or so, and then he'll check it hot after he times it and uh set it. And hopefully what I said it's mine's a pretty conservative 12. So I'm expecting he's going to say they're 18 to 20 in there. But So you're setting it at 12 now? Yeah. To account for expansion. That's correct. Yes. Does the lash on a aluminum head grow more than an iron head? Yes. An iron head is almost depending on the rocker arm. It's it's pretty much cold and hot is pretty much the same. You have steel rockers and steel head steel block. There's not much difference. And now just to make sure we're good, we'll go through and we'll just check them. If you start out with all these loose, when they're all tight, when you're done, you know you didn't miss one. Is that why you went through loosening them all as you were putting them on? Yes. Yes. Try to idiot proof it. Yes. Try to teach you things here. What is that plug for right there? That that can be a drain back. And it apparently it's not on this. See the oil there? Mhm. It's not drilled through. It's plugged so that it just scavenges out of the valley. Ah. Uh, so if you're running this as wet sump, you would want this. See how it's in the front? Yeah, it can drain back and and we did that then when we started scavenging up here. I think I say we a lot of people we still let oil run in the front. I mean, I don't know if it's cuz we didn't trust having everything blocked off and something happened, it couldn't get back. That theory could be on who you talk to. Yeah, it seems like it could make a good fail safe because if you're And I do remember at Darlington or Rockingham and I think it was Pinsky where they actually had one a motor fill up with too much weld way back in the day. I always wondered if it was from a failure up here or something. There might be somebody that can answer that question. I'm sure there is. Funny there's all that intricate stuff going inside there and you put it on it just looks like a big ugly bathtub. Yeah. Yes, it is. Cuz this is a steel pan. usually see aluminum pans. Yeah, they are. I mean, NASCAR back in the day, we had to run a steel pan. Was that a rule? Oh, yeah. It's still until recently, you still have to have a steel shield on your Most of the P teams have aluminum pans and some don't now, but they made you you have to have a steel shield on it. Was that for containment reasons? I don't think so. I think it was more of that's [clears throat] how it always was. Is there a particular brand of silicone you like to use? This one right here, dill 732. Okay. So, we didn't have enough we didn't have enough coil buying clearance on a few because this cam is so darn big. We kind of got to make a little more clearance. And we'll cut a another 5,000 off of this and we should be good. You got a really specific number you're looking for once it's all put together. That's right. You got to have just enough. You don't have too much. You don't have enough, everybody's in trouble. But, uh, you don't want to have too much either. But in our case, we didn't have enough. Few details here. We'll be ready for you guys next go around on the dyno here. Through the magic of editing, that'll be like right now. She's warmed up. Breakin runs are done. So, let's see what she's got. So, what fuel is it running on right now? Right now, it's the E15. E5. The Senokco E15. Yes. Which is basically the current NASCAR race fuel. The back in the day fuel was more potent than this stuff probably. So, so we've got it's this unled. So, we we got some leaded VP Q16. So, we can lean on it a little harder like you did back in the day. Now, for reference, Rusty's engine made 750, right? 753, I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And that was with the, you know, error correct stuff. Sure. We're not even done yet. This is This is just the baseline. Let's see what Let's see what Frankie can do here. I said 761 on that last one. What do you got? Okay. So, we already beat uh already beat Rusty's. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And we're we're not even We're still breaking oil in there. So, we haven't even put the good stuff in there yet. Is standing here in a dino cell seeing one of these engines making noise like giving you any Yeah. The biggest difference is I don't have to have headphones on to be in here. They got this thing quieted down so much that the uh what do you call it? The noise suppression is awesome in this cell. I've never been in a cell was so quiet. Huh. So when yours you have to be operating it with headphones headset on. Oh god. Yes. [laughter] It was really loud. It was really loud. Give you a headache. Yeah. Horses didn't like that. All the neighbors would call and say it was that sounded really good. [laughter] You making some more power this week? You making more power this week. Are you excited? Yeah. It's cool to see. You know, this is his This was his world. Yeah. This is my world for a long time. Actually, I ran the dyno most of the time. [laughter] So, this is all different. He He had to pay all the bills, so he had to protect his investments. I think what it was I think for John in particular was he was nervous about something happening while he was running it. you right here. [laughter] See, I'm not afraid to push the going to make a mistake. He wanted me to do it right here. These are the spark plugs that were in the engine when we pulled it from Lake Speed's garage. These are the ones that he last raced with. If you want one, you can find out how to get one at the end of the video. So, you got brand new asphalt rocket and they can set up with a road course in there, too. A little road course. Yeah. probably go to a VR where let the thing do something down on a little big danky track. He wants to be out in the parking lot. He wants to run it hardly. So, yeah. VR is I think where the last place last time I ran probably the right gear in the car and everything. Okay. Vir is then do that. [laughter] Try to put all the best minds together. You got to give it fuel and you got to give it air. I wasn't gonna trust the out of the box Holly A30 or that old ratty thing dad had on [laughter] there. Right. If we're gonna try to make some horsepower, I got to call the guy that I know can make horsepower. One of the reasons that I wanted to call you and get this carburetor for my dad's engine is because So now we got the Bill Pink carburetor on there. Yeah. And we're going to run it how he put it together. Yeah. We'll run it just the way he put it together. Then we can get the baseline on how it's flowing. then we can make the adjustment because one great thing is we've got O2 sensors in each bank. So that's going to be able to tell us the actual air fuel ratio in each bank knowing that the BPQ16 needs a 13.3 air fuel ratio. This will give Frankie the baseline to know what if we need to make any jet changes when we put the Q16 in. Where are we? So we know if I'm not sure what the air fuel ratio for the E15 is. What what's your target value for air fuel with the with this? 880. That's…