Leonard Wood's Workshop: Half Size Holley Carb and Ford 429 Hemi Project! (Wood Brothers Racing)

See the little valve I'm working on? I made a distributor. Okay, let's stop here. Let's talk about, uh, Okay. Yes. I mean, I cleared...Oh, here it is . Let's do this. Well, this is Leonard. How are you, sir? Nice to meet you, Mitchell. Hello, Logan. Nice to meet you. What about 65? Yes, to the point. Well done. Let's show them the little engine back here. Yes. Oh, okay. You have to see it. We were hoping we could...This is great. Get ready. Yes. Good. So, they are working on one now. 429 Hemi in 1:2 scale. This one will work. There's even little saddles and guides and all that. Saddles, guides, everything is as it should be. And Leonard does all the contouring to make it look like a cast part. This is a real crankshaft. Oh, wow . It came out of a steel bar, just like this one. They did everything: from rods to throttle bodies, shafts, absolutely everything. Now let's see how it works. That's pretty cool. You see how everything is coming back to normal . He started with a map, like a small car , and now he's doing it again . Did you manage one like that in the army? Yes. This is a 390cc Ford engine, which was used, for example, in the 61 Star Liner. So this is one of his little engines in 1:2 scale. I zoom in as he starts up, and then I zoom out and you see this tiny one. This is the original size. Good. It looks like it's less than half, but it's, uh, 1:2 scale . And when you first made the 1:2 scale carburetor, was the goal to try to put it on a full-size engine, or did you just think, "Oh, I wonder if it would work"? And then it worked? Oh, no. No, no. Uh, we built a 427 in 1:2 scale, it's in the Henry Ford Museum, and, uh, it doesn't work, and the carburetors didn't work either. I told Len I could get the carburetors working. He said, "I will make them work." So, I made nine carburetors that make them work. We only made them to prove we could. I've actually worked with my own carburetors my whole life. And, uh, so making this thing was easy. The little floats were very difficult to make so that they would shut off the fuel, you know. So, uh, it works just as well as a big carburetor. We don't have this properly yet. Okay . Diffusers play a big role in the operation of the carburetor and how it sucks in the mixture . Have you tried running this engine on a test stand? Did you see how much power it produces? Yes, I was just doing one of the carburetors, and before I was finished I had a shaft. He was n't ready. I just held the shaft with pliers. The pliers fell. The throttle opened completely, and the engine burst into flames. Yes. At half throttle , the valves freeze, the hydraulic lifters expand—this is approximately 5,000 rpm, only at half throttle . And it makes about the same power as a 7/8 restrictor plate engine before switching to an injector. Its airflow is about the same. That is, it produces about 425–450 horsepower. This is really cool. Yes, it's immediately obvious that you've worked hard on this. Yes, there are a lot of small holes in this dosing unit. How do you see all this ? Well, I use a magnifying glass and all that. I think you saw the 4500th. I showed them the blocks and stuff. It's a little sturdier than this one, but we like this one because it's very compact. It is smaller than the other one. And all of this is made from a single aluminum bar. I do everything by hand. And Benny Bell, a very talented craftsman, does the machining, and I do all the handwork. What is this little engine for? Well, this is a test stand. He probably didn't tell you anything about roller pushers, did he ? No. We are building a camshaft for this engine and are going to put a cam from the map. And the card cam required a mushroom-shaped pusher about an inch in size. And the engine we're building only holds half an inch. So the pushrod would hit the cam. So I came up with a roller tappet with a brass bushing and pin to keep it from turning, and installed it in the engine. And we put it in this kart engine for the test. It worked for 4 hours at 3600 rpm and didn't wear out at all. That's it . And I also tested the spark plug. This is a candle that fits him. And it looks almost like a glow plug, like in a model airplane engine. And I was worried that this thing might work like a glow plug in the engine. So I took a big spark plug, mounted this in it, screwed it into the kart, gave it full throttle and turned it off. It instantly went silent, which told me it would work. Ha? I do n't know if you see this. They're in that little cylinder head up there. Yes. Do you see them? No, I didn't notice that . Yes, it has these spark plugs . I already made the distributor, I spun it up, and it lights those spark plugs in that head. Where is the distributor located? He's in this engine here. Yes, we didn't see any of those small details. Oh, I noticed the distributor. This is a small distributor. Benny drilled all the holes and I shaped the rest by hand. I made this distributor. So you started by cutting a piece of plastic for this, or is it painted metal? This is acetal. Do you see this? See how the little valve works? Yes. So, do you need to make some kind of gap on this, or how do you calculate it? Well, you'll give about 4 thousandths of an inch. Here's a little roller pusher. This is incredible. And he comes inside here. You have to pull the pin out, but it goes in here . And then it is fixed in place in the block. This is what I was talking about. And, uh, little spark plugs . Oh my God. Wow. I would never have noticed they were there. I don't think so. These are spark plugs from a model airplane engine, or did you make them yourself? No, we ordered them... Apparently they make aviation candles. Some of the larger remote- controlled planes have these. But you see, the fact is that it didn't work like a glow plug. It's like a four-stroke glow plug, where it's marked in pink. Is this a place that needs additional processing? Benny makes it look like this. He does all the mechanical work here. Mhm. And then I take it and make it look like this. It is not easy to drill a hole at an angle. I made a few tools to do this. Do you have a small workspace where you sit down and cut something out? Um, I work back there all the time. This is my playroom, as they call it. This rocker will look different when we finish it. We will give it shape, but the principle of operation will remain the same, although the appearance will be different. That is, it will look like this. Of course. You first make sure the mechanics work before you make it pretty, right? Are you installing that little nut as an adjustable clearance stop ? Yes. There will be a lock nut on it. Do you see this piece of steel? Yes, Benny. This is Benny Bolson. He made it right here from that nut on the CNC machine. Here on this lathe. And then you have to drill all these holes. And you need to drill that hole so that it comes out in the center right here. So, these are functional oil channels. Yes. So how are you going to drill this hole so it comes out here? I do n't know. We have to start with So here's the 4500 carburetor. And the drive was hard to do inside. What do you do with the oil pump? Oil pump. We are going to use a similar oil pump that we put on large engines as the rear axle cooling pump. Like a small dry sump pump. Yes. It will have a dry sump system. Interesting. It turns out that each small component of this engine is a separate project. Oh yes. And even if it did n't work, seeing the layout of the parts is a sight to behold. This, this, this is extremely cool. Even the detailing of this, uh, main bearing cap is here. There is a small pin for the bearing. And you can make your own bearings too. He just made them. It would be interesting to make different camshafts for it for different sounds to do power tests on the cam profiles. Yes. Do you think you'll get there ? We are going to use a high performance racing cam for karts and it will be mounted on the shaft. He's already standing there, with one fist on him. A. And then you set the cams to the correct timing, and it's going to be a long keyway, so to speak, along this shaft, and then let's see he takes it on a turntable, he grades it and he cuts a groove in the cam so that it's the correct timing on all of them. This will not be easy. But he is simply amazing. It seems like there's nothing easy about this. He just did these pull-ups. ? Is n't that beautiful? Yes, that's right. This is extremely beautiful. This is the '71 American , driven by David Pearson. Well, I had made some with fiberglass bodies, and Eddie wanted me to make an aluminum one. So I took the steel, I made it , I worked on it, I shaped it, and then you take a thin aluminum sheet and you hand-form it over one half, then the other half , you weld them together—and you get the result. This is interesting. I would never have thought of it. And , of course, there will be windshield mounts. Right now it's just pasted in, but I'll do something else. And there will be a rear window. And to do that—it has to be chrome around the glass. And I have this little tool that gives shape. Then you scrape it like this . And you just keep cutting. And that creates this. Wow. without any welding. So, you made this tool yourself? Ha? Did you make this tool yourself? Oh yes. What other tools did you make yourself for this kind of work? Oh, let's see. I made a small carburetor. There are a few small holes in the O, it's not there. This is a small drill. And I made it so that it went into the hole , you know, with a short drill bit on the end. And then, of course, it's a saw. I had to saw small grooves. And, uh, I have a nozzle on this one. So it works pretty much the same way . This, uh, I can show you. This is so cool. See that groove? Yes. The groove is right there. You see, when you open it, fuel goes through it when you accelerate, and to cut through it, I needed a small saw for that carburetor. Hmm. So that's why I made it. How did you handle the body lines and everything else on the car? What? He's in that car over there. How did you make all the body lines? How did you shape this? Well, I just took the shape of a real car. And I'm not done yet. I'll have, you know, small extensions. I have to collect it first , and then do it here as well. But I just kept working with it, tapping and shaping, looking at the machine, at the correct contours. And that's why I wanted to, you know, tap the metal and make it look like that. I'm just amazed and stunned that this can be done. I, I, I'm restoring a '67 Mustang , and a lot of the parts have to be done myself, it's quite an experience, and I do n't understand how people can be so talented to do this with metal . You know, sometimes if you really want to, and with great concentration, you can do more than you think, you know. I don't know if you've seen the lawnmowers I made, but I got tired of walking around with a regular one, twisting my legs, so I just made one for myself , wide enough so it wouldn't tip over. So, if you have a problem that inspires you, ask yourself: what can I do to solve it? Mhm. You know, when they built race cars, handling or something like that. What can I do to improve handling, but right now you are pretty much limited by what you can and can't do with the machines. I wasn't ready for this . Damn, the battery died, and the backpack was still ahead. OK. What did I miss? I was talking about his draft car that he made. He's going to... You've never seen her, have you? No. Yes. Well, this...I drove it to the NASCAR tech center in Edel, and I actually drove it, it's running. You know, you can ride it, and it will actually outrun a go-kart, but you're sitting right on it. You know, it doesn't feel like it, it's too shaky. You wouldn't want to, I wouldn't want to drive it that fast. But I could tell by the way she was driving that she would outrun the go-kart. As they say, if you don't use it, you lose it. If you like the saying: if you don't use it, you lose it. I always talk about aging, you know, if you don't train, you lose skills. This ...I totally agree with this , all my focus and what I do with my age helps me stay young. Well, you know, I thank the Lord every day that I've lived this long, but I feel like as long as I'm doing as well as I am now, I'll keep working. Would you have to build a car on a scale of one to two to put it there? If I were younger, I would have built a '71 Mercury and put it there. Now, I'm going to make a set of exhaust manifolds. It will have the same manifolds as the Mercury 71 , and we will put it on the stand, start it, and run it with the manifolds like on the Pearson Mercury. Is this your favorite race car? One of them. Uh...that '58 convertible that Glenn drove and that I really liked. Were these manifolds on that engine with equal length primary pipes, or is there some science to this configuration? Yes, you could look at it in different ways. You could make them all the same length, all curves and stuff, and then we figured out a way to optimize the exhaust pipes in front, and then we folded them up to the exhaust pipe to get the same length. But it turned out that streamlined shapes also work. You know, we had some that worked better than the equal-length ones . Are you talking about how each primary pipe was flat and they looked like an organ going into the exhaust that came out the side? Yes. Like your pipe... your first pipe comes in here, and your short pipe comes in here at the back. Put them here. Yes. Yes. I've seen this kind of construction before. Yes. I didn't know why they did it. And also, and also, you had a big box, a big box, this long and this wide. And then there was the first pipe without length inside the box. The long pipe and then the short pipe had the long pipe inside the box to make them the same length. Did it affect horsepower? Oh, yes. Really? Yes. This... this made them equal in length again. Back then, the front ones were streamlined. This is fascinating. They were not crooked. Hmm. This is cool because I was experimenting with equal-length pipes , and I didn't know that instead of bringing them together into one manifold, you could arrange them in a staggered pattern inside an empty chamber, almost like a receiver. Yes. This is fascinating. Yeah, I made a box, well, a set of exhaust manifolds with boxes on both sides , you know, and Dan Gurney was playing for us at Riverside and giving us signals all the time . We couldn't understand what he was saying. Then he began to cover his ears with his hands. We couldn't understand what had happened. And as it turned out, the top of that box was torn off. Yes. And now she's crawling on the bottom, you know. But, in the end, you still won the race. Yes, that's Benny Belcher. How are you, sir? One of the greatest mechanics of all time. Well, anyone could have wasted all that money and done all that work . What did you think when you were tasked with making these tiny parts? Well, I mean, I've been making parts my whole life . My former boss used to say that details are just details, but this is a difficult task, but very interesting, and I hope, with God's help, we will make it work soon. What about the cylinder head gasket? What will it be like? Yes, we can do it in different ways. We'll probably take copper, make it out of solid soft copper. Yes, that will work. And then you can put in the O-rings on the combustion chamber side and all that, but right now the plan is to make a copper gasket. Since I knew what size half would be in half the size, instead of making pistons, I searched the internet until I found them. This is simply incredible. Uh, here's your half. When you sit with a buzzing air tool carving, do you wear headphones? Do you listen to music? Do you just ignore the noise? How does it happen, do you just disconnect from the world and enter a state of flow? I never wear headphones. And you can still hear well, unlike me. You hear very well. I am surprised. Well, it's strange, but in church I can't make out what they're saying up front. Echoes in the building. Yes. Many places have echoes, but up close I can hear you very clearly, like never before. But if you were in a big building with an echo, I wouldn't understand you. Ha? Yes. I do n't know why. And on TV I understand everything that Steve Harvey and the participants say, but for some reason I don't hear anything in the movies. I can imagine. This is logical. That is, especially considering that you have a strong voice and I speak more softly. Yes. So it's like voice projection. Yes. This is interesting. What about the flow state, do you enter it when you are passionate about something? Are you thinking about something, or are you just doing your thing about what I'm doing? No. Full concentration. If I was designing an intake manifold or something else , I never put it off to wait. I was finishing the work. I concentrated until I got what I wanted. You forget to eat or go to bed , or... Well, you know, this sounds unbelievable, but I was home from Dover, Delaware, getting ready for a big race, I had a big project, and I worked that night, the next day, another night, and the next day until Tuesday. Wednesday morning without sleep . I worked all this time without stopping. Do you just want to finish the job or But it's impossible to do. But you are so interested in making it work that you can do it. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to do it at all. Will there be a water pump? Yes. Oh, yes. There will be a timing cover and a water pump. But there is no water in that block . It's not designed for water, but I'll put a water pump in there anyway, you know . So it looks like what we could do is, we could, you know, cut off half an inch of the block, then bore out the inside, put a plate on top and seal it. But this makes no sense. All we want is to just make it work. Well, if someone gives you a million dollars, you can do anything you want. But there is no need for this . Is this a go-kart piston? This is a stock piston from a Yamaha 125cc scooter . see. So, basically, it is what it is. It's a small, little mini bike. Are you using them in that engine? Mhm. So you just took your calculated cylinder size to half scale and found the closest option that would fit. And this is 54 mm, which was the closest value to half the diameter of the cylinder. Well, and of course, you know, the crankshaft is half the size in every dimension compared to the real thing. But this piston pin hole in the piston is higher than half of a standard piston. So the connecting rod is actually longer, if you measure from center to center, so that the height of the cylinder block fits. I have n't put the little pins in there yet. They, well, they'll spin. But like I said, I turned it over, and it gives a spark to the spark plugs. Connected the ignition coil and everything . I turned the drill and it sparked the spark plug. What is the ignition order? 1-5-4-2, 6-3-7-8. Yes. Is this standard Ford procedure for that time? Ignition order. When I look at the engine, I see the numbering like a Chevy. I don't speak " Ford". So I kind of have to translate it. Yes. The Chevy, uh, has a five on the right side, right? Yes. There are even and odd numbers. Leonard talked about how you need to get into a certain state when you're doing something and not be distracted by anything else. That's exactly how I felt when I was turning the crankshaft. I told the young woman at the reception: “If they call me, take a message, don’t call me back or interrupt me, because in this kind of work it’s easy to make mistakes .” And in general, it is very easy to make a mistake in such a matter . So I was kind of in another dimension for those six weeks while I was working on it. I didn't think about anything else. Didn't do anything else. I didn't stop, well, I stopped for lunch, but I didn't take breaks or anything like that. I just didn't leave work. Did you keep thinking about it…