It is good info to know about.. and good to know of reputable firms doing this work.... thanks everyone for sharing. it still irks me that we buy 'good' aftermarket stuff that just doesn't fit.... i am talking right up and down the line.... and Doug i wouldn't mind having one of those old school Repco brabhams in my shed.. it still looks great. Darryl

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Hi Doug
Thanks, that will give them a bit more info on how it all works, and to think my cam grinder once looked that good
Graham Russell

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"It's better to be not informed than ill-informed"

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Have a Nice Day.
If already having a nice day please disregard.

850man
My be you should ring up the companies you mentioned and tell them where to get their followers machined because Steve Whitten from MED can not find any body to grind them, including ARROWS who said they can not grind them or will not grind them, so you would be doing them a BIG favour to find some body to do it.
Do you think Keith would be going to all this trouble to air freight this machine to the UK if they could find some body to do it let me tell you it was not cheap to ship it.
Like I said in the first place YOU WILL BE SUPRISED AT THE COMPANIES THAT WANT HIM TO GRIND THEIR FOLLOWERS.
May be you should do your home work be for making a stupid statement like you did.
Graham Russell

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"It's better to be not informed than ill-informed"

I will underline this - all the cam followers sold by the various A-series specialists and cam manufacturers come from the same sources. There are only two as far as I am aware, and NEITHER grind the correct profile on the follower face. As Graham has said, we have been discussing this problem for years, but the suppliers to the specialists are deaf/blind to the problem. Consequently Graham has helped me source a decent grinder (there are NONE known in the UK from my investigations) so I can sort the problem. It is not a CHEAP solution, but is THE solution. The named specialist engine builders are using the followers as supplied to them. Though I know one does go through a pile of them, selects the best and sends the other 40% back... Folks just don't do follower grinding any more because the vast majority of engines are OHC, and 'new' followers are so damned cheap, even though they are defective from new.

850 man
Would you PLEASE explain how you arrived at the statement you made about the English building the fastest mini motors in the WORLD to us all it would be very interesting how you arrived at that? have you ever dynoed their engines, flow tested their cylinder heads run them back to back with our ones, run their cams and done back to back testing against our cams I doubt it very much.
I have made about 13 cams this year both road and race so why would I make something that was not better than what is on the market at the moment that is just a wast of time and money,and I know where I stand with power compared with the UK motors this is why I am building two motors to take them on, mini 7s and app K historic class.
If I had the time and money to build an historic app K car and ship it to the UK I would then may be sit some one like Andrew in the car he would possibly dial to there circuits and tyres quicker than I would and i'm dam sure he would not be down the back of the field,i'm getting to old for this stuff but I love it, and i'm not doing to bad for an old fart when all goes well.
But it looks like we may have a young guy over there that drives really well and we can put our motors in his cars.
Then you are for getting the talent that is in New Zealand there are some very very talented engine builders over there, the likes of Lynn Rogers/ Brian Hartley/ Phill Dean/ Reg Cook/Tony Marsh and the list goes on, a few years back a man by the name of Chris Lewis who was the quickest in the UK at the time took his car to NZ to race in the off season and got whipped by the NZ guys he then had Lynn Rogers build him an engine, and with that he was very completive.

Then there is your little comment at the end of your post about you would rather finish the race than be the fastest and not finish, well let me tell you I would rather be the fastest and not finish that way I know i'm doing some thing right I just have to fix the problem why I didn't finish, how do I test things to find out if they work under racing conditions if I don't
try them in my engines.
I don't think other people would like it if I said try this cam in your engine and see how it goes, oh buy the you may drop a valve, I don't think they would like it very much.
Take the Muscle car masters this year I had a bad run starting with qualifying electronic ignition failed in the first session, the fell off the spark plug in the second session but the third one it all started to work, but the biggest problem was I tried a new cam shaft all went well till I got to 7000 rpm and then the valve spring could not cope an it got really ugly from then on, but on the brighter side in the wet race on sunday when Andrew an I left the rest of the field way behind I did'nt have to rev the engine and I was half a second a faster than Andrew with our best laps, so now I hope fully I have now fixed the problem.
Waiting for your answer
Graham Russell

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"It's better to be not informed than ill-informed"

850Man,
Just for you 850man. Here is one of Swiftunes, full race, all singing, all dancing, 1.5" inlets, 1.25" exhaust offset.
The presentation of this cylinder head was impeccable, awesome, great! (unlike mine ) This is a $4000aud cylinder head, landed here in Sydney.
My full race heads look nothing like this, and for good reason.













Graham Russell

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"It's better to be not informed than ill-informed"

hey GR sorry to ask this, i dont want to get yelled at, but what does that head actually flow, compared to yours, in the same spec, i know you might not want to tell. and thats cool.
ive seen CNC ported chev heads get out out flowed buy a guy doing it in his backyard, it doesnt matter what it looks like or how much you spend its what best suits your application.
but for $4000 that head would want to be the bee's knee's.

Hi GR, I notice the end exhaust ports are D shaped. In my imagination I've thought that would be a good idea
and this is the first time I've seen it......What's your take on it?

HI Norm74
I WON'T YELL AT YOU, i would rather not say what the flow figures are as flow benches can vary in figures depending on how many motors you have pulling air through the port, the slower the air speed the easier it is fore the air to turn a corner especially with the mini where the air has to do right angle turn.
We tend to use high air speed to flow the heads as this lets you know if the air is going to brake away from the head when turning the corner, lets just say I get more flow and better flow across the lift range by using a smaller valve this also keeps the velocity up for better filling, think about what is happening at 8000rpm you have a valve that is closed when it opens it has to get that air that is stopped behind the valve moving and fill the cylinder before the valve closes all in a fraction of a second,
The bigger the port the the harder it is to get that air moving, now with flow benches they are the biggest liars of all because the bigger the hole you make in the head the more air it will flow,(ever heard the phrase it flows like a drain pipe) that's it in a nut shell the bigger the hole the more air you can flow through it that's why you have to determine what size valve and what size port you are going to use and get the best flow you can through those holes, and that's where shape comes in to it.
Graham Russell

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"It's better to be not informed than ill-informed"

This thread has somehow yet again turned into a "Please explain why you think I am not the best engine builder in the world" pissing contest.


Here is some footage of the KAD powered Mini driven by Endaf Owens. Bill Richards won this years "fastest mini in the world" race, hence my comment about the poms building the quickest engines.
http://youtu.be/64yiOXRlh2s
http://www.billrichardsracing.com/bill- ... -world-261
As for not dyno testing, flow bench testing etc other peoples heads, you have no idea what I have done or seen over the last 20 years & I really cant be bothered explaining further. I did fit the KAD 16 valve race engine to Barry Cannys sports sedan in the late 90's, that engine was purchased from the UK, it won the race mentioned above. I also rebuilt it when it exploded. Toby Tylers son now owns it.

My comment in my signature, "It's better to finish the race than be the quickest" still holds strong, I would rather have a reliable engine that goes the distance, than a hand grenade that gives me an DNF. I have seen it a number of times recently, and we all know what happened at the Mini 50th race at Wakefield.

As for Swiftunes head, there are many ways to make a head flow, and high flow rates in ports may look good on paper, and give good dyno figures, but it all comes down to how the engine performs on the racetrack, many a head has been ruined due to a "professional" relying on a flow bench.

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Have a Nice Day.
If already having a nice day please disregard.

I thought i had made a comment earlier on that swiftune head. ... maybe lost somewhere.... it was similar to norms - i wouldn't like to know the volume but rather the velocities,, - i thought those heads weren't available separately but rather only on Swiftune built engines? Is this the one with the widened valve offset as standard and slightly 'higher' port entry?

MG rocket - i would have thought the ideal exhaust port exit shape was round to match the extractor - and maybe the D shape is half way there- and maybe because of everything else in the way it stays like that - but i do wonder why new alloy heads don't use the shape...perhaps again on reflection the cross sectional area would be too big?

850man - i agree that 'flow bench testing' theory has probably led to crucifying pretty reasonable heads over time..... but it is a bit inevitable - everyone going towards the limit and sometimes the only way you know you are there is when you step over it - it is also part of the cleverness of engine tuning - where the sum of all can indeed be different to all the individual things and experience is vital for knowing what things just work..

however if i think back to the 70's and 80's to a lesser extent - where bigger, bigger, and bigger meant better - we now 'believe' that more than .5 lift is not necessarily useful, more than 1.5 rockers similar, valve diameter s reduced etc - just as we believed bigger was better before (alliteration for fun)

so in terms of your signature line - for the most part - weekend warriors can't afford expensive rebuilds -and reliability is valued - but for a small percentage of time - we do need someone to be pushing the envelope- striving for the edge - i am sure there is room for both ends of the spectrum and all points in between-

wouldn't it be great to see a single series - one build rule across the world - the likes of Richards, Swift, Owens, Huffaker et al.GR, AB, Henry Draper, Jason Armstrong competing at Winton, Goodwood, Mid Ohio ( lots of other names could be added to the list)edit late addition if this series occurs in the next 20 years add Ken Nelson's name to the list... he will be just about be coming into his prime by then and loves to race fast

Round for sure, just probably not feasible on the standard cast iron head without some sort of filler
on the inside radius.
Just that on the heads I have, it seems that the last bit of the port needs straightening so the easy way
to do this would be to grind out that D shape.

Here are my cam followers before and after grinding. One of them in particular was badly pitted and at least 4 others were concave.
Thanks for the pick up Graham and the invaluable advice and support.
After

Before