A camshaft is a shaft that contains a row of pointed cams, in order to convert rotational motion to reciprocating motion. Camshafts are used in piston engines, mechanically controlled ignition systems and early electric motor speed controllers.
The inline-six engine is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balance, resulting in fewer vibrations than other designs of six or fewer cylinders.
Top Fuel is a type of drag racing whose dragsters are the quickest accelerating racing cars in the world and the fastest sanctioned category of drag racing, with the fastest competitors reaching speeds of 338 miles per hour (544.0 km/h) and finishing the 1,000 foot (304.8 m) runs in 3.62 seconds.
A hemispherical combustion chamber is a type of combustion chamber in a reciprocating internal combustion engine with a domed cylinder head notionally in the approximate shape of a hemisphere. An engine featuring this type of hemispherical chamber is known as a hemi engine.
A replacement automobile engine is an engine or a major part of one that is sold individually without any other parts required to make a functional car. These engines are produced either as aftermarket parts or as reproductions of an engine that has gone out of production.
Variable valve timing (VVT) is the process of altering the timing of a valve lift event in an internal combustion engine, and is often used to improve performance, fuel economy or emissions. It is increasingly being used in combination with variable valve lift systems. There are many ways in which this can be achieved, ranging from mechanical devices to electro-hydraulic and camless systems. Increasingly strict emissions regulations are causing many automotive manufacturers to use VVT systems.
The GM Ecotec engine, also known by its codename L850, is a family of all-aluminium inline-four engines, displacing between 1.4 and 2.5 litres. Confusingly, the Ecotec name was also applied to both the Buick V6 Engine when used in Holden Vehicles, as well as the final DOHC derivatives of the previous GM Family II engine; the architecture was substantially re-engineered for this new Ecotec application produced since 2000. This engine family replaced the GM Family II engine, the GM 122 engine, the Saab H engine, and the Quad 4 engine. It is manufactured in multiple locations, to include Spring Hill Manufacturing, in Spring Hill, Tennessee, with engine blocks and cylinder heads cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations in Saginaw, Michigan.
The General Motors LS-based small-block engines are a family of V8 and V6 engines designed and manufactured by American automotive company General Motors. First introduced in 1997, the family is a continuation of the earlier first- and second-generation Chevrolet small-block engine, of which over 100 million have been produced altogether, and is also considered to be one of the most popular V8 engines ever. Spanning three generations, a new, sixth generation is expected to enter production soon. Various small-block V8s were and still are available as crate engines.
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine in which the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion chamber in the engine block.
An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a pushrod engine, is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with flathead engines, where the valves were located below the combustion chamber in the engine block.
The Ford flathead V8 is a V8 engine with a flat cylinder head designed by the Ford Motor Company and built by Ford and various licensees. During the engine's first decade of production, when overhead-valve engines were used by only a small minority of makes, it was usually known simply as the Ford V‑8, and the first car model in which it was installed, the Model 18, was often called simply the "Ford V-8", after its new engine. Although the V8 configuration was not new when the Ford V8 was introduced in 1932, the latter was a market first in the respect that it made an 8-cylinder affordable and a V engine affordable to the emerging mass market consumer for the first time. It was the first independently designed and built V8 engine produced by Ford for mass production, and it ranks as one of the company's most important developments. A fascination with ever-more-powerful engines was perhaps the most salient aspect of the American car and truck market for a half century, from 1923 until 1973. The engine was intended to be used for big passenger cars and trucks; it was installed in such until 1953, making the engine's 21-year production run for the U.S. consumer market longer than the 19-year run of the Ford Model T engine for that market. The engine was on Ward's list of the 10 best engines of the 20th century. It was a staple of hot rodders in the 1950s, and it remains famous in the classic car hobbies even today, despite the huge variety of other popular V8s that followed.
A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine or valve-in-block engine, is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as in an overhead valve engine.
A tappet is a valve train component which converts rotating motion into linear motion in activating a valve. It is most commonly found in internal combustion engines, which converts the rotating motion of the camshaft into linear motion of intake and exhaust valves, either directly or indirectly.
A valvetrain or valve train is a mechanical system that controls the operation of the intake and exhaust valves in an internal combustion engine. The intake valves control the flow of air/fuel mixture into the combustion chamber, while the exhaust valves control the flow of spent exhaust gasses out of the combustion chamber once combustion is completed.
Dean Moon was an American automobile designer. He grew up in Norwalk, California. Moon was around cars and racing from his youth. His father owned "Moon Café" and had a go-kart track he called "Moonza", a pun on Monza. Dean was involved in dry lakes hot-rodding in the late 1940s. He founded MOON Speed Equipment (c.1950) and worked to improve the quality and safety of speed and racing products his entire life.
Competition Cams, Inc., often styled as COMP Cams, is a specialty performance automotive aftermarket, motorcycle, and kart parts manufacturer. The company has five US locations including headquarters in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
Jack Engle was a Canadian-born American hot rodder, camshaft grinder, and engine builder.
A dragster is a specialized competition automobile used in drag racing.
Howard Johansen is an American gasser drag racer. He won the first ever National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) C/Gas national title, at Great Bend, Kansas, in 1955,.
The Donovan hemi is an American Top Fuel drag racing engine, designed and built by Ed Donovan and first appearing in 1971. In the 1970s, it was the most popular engine in Top Fuel dragsters.