Engine Masters

The Holley 4150 has been the gold standard for performance since it was released to the aftermarket in the '60s. Resident carb whisperer Steve Brule walks through all the tips and tricks you need to know to get your 4150 running its best on any engine.

Driven by lunacy as much as novelty, Dulcich is at it again with his slant-six tomfoolery. With goals of his 225ci monster powering a daily driver '68 Dart, Steve puts four aftermarket intake manifolds to the test to see which gives him the most grunt.

A debate has raged in the LS community for years about the difference between dime-a-dozen cathedral ports and the rectangular ports found on the LS3. The rectangles have bigger intake ports, flow numbers, valves and chambers, but what does it add up to?

We're battling two iterations of the 5.7 III Hemi, and we're learning a TON in the process. With an eye toward engine-swap simplicity, we've stuffed both with the biggest cams they can handle and managed fuel and spark in the most affordable way possible.

The Windsor family gets its turn at an intake shootout! This Windsor is just begging for the best single-plane manifold to breathe through, and offerings from Edelbrock, Trick Flow, Ford Racing, AFR and SpeedMaster are sure to make our small Ford sing!

It's the age-old battle of power vs. price, but is it that simple? Are you really giving up power by choosing a solid flat tappet, or is the extra power of the hydraulic worth it? We talk duration, lobe intensity, spring pressures, dollars and horsepower.

Are cast manifolds enough to keep up with your turbo motor? And at what point should you run proper headers? We're running our LS with factory exhaust manifolds and again with turbo headers to show the difference in boost, back pressure and horsepower.

One fuel, two fuel, hot fuel, cool fuel. Inspired by their previous study of coolant-temperature testing, the guys go one step beyond icing down the manifold, deliberately heating and cooling fuel to see the difference it makes.

The Mopar Max Wedge head was once considered all but unobtanium, but the aftermarket has come to the rescue. We test a 270cc Trick Flow unit to see if the Max Wedge style, with its bigger intake runners and more direct flow path, is a worthwhile upgrade.

Manufacturers claim header wraps not only reduce radiant heat, but create more power through their scavenging effects and heat management. Is it true? We'll find out as we test painted, ceramic-coated and wrapped headers on our Ultimate Average 383.

So you've got an LS and you need to make a choice on an intake. The guys line up a bunch of Holley's "Ram" intakes one-by-one on their 550 rectangle-port-headed 6.2-liter LS to help you decide which power curve is best for you.

For folks out there running a carburetor on the new-fangled LS, we have six manifolds to sandwich between our old-school carb and our new-school 6.0 LS. We show you the differences between the manifolds and how to easily get your LS running with a carb.

Do exhaust cutouts serve any purpose beyond rattling passersby's eardrums? Proponents claim they make your car faster, but we see how they stack up against a full exhaust and a header extension behind our heavy-breathing 598-cubic-inch Big Block Chevy.

The crew shows how to unlock the power lurking in an existing engine combination without buying, changing or upgrading a single component. They use tricks they've learned over the years to tune every HP out of the 410 Windsor from David's Disgustang.

No matter how many LS swaps are out there, the old-school SBC is still an absolute force in the marketplace. The guys bolt three of the lowest-buck cylinder heads out there to their Ultimate Average 383 and make pulls for power.

This test is all about choosing the features you want and need on a carburetor, and how those features affect horsepower and tunability. Do mechanical secondaries really make any more power than vacuum-power ones? Does a choke horn restrict inlet airflow?

Same test, new twist. We've tested single V-split pattern cams before and concluded that a split pattern can increase top-end power without necessarily affecting bottom-end torque. Well, our findings have been challenged, and we're here for the science.

We all know oil pressure is critical. Not enough can leave you broken, and too much can cause leaks. But can too much also be robbing precious horsepower? To find out, the guys test three LS oil pumps in different volume and pressure configurations.

What do you do when your 800-horsepower 572 just won't get you consistent eight-second passes in your '31 Model A? Well, if you're David Freiburger, you strap it to the Westech dyno to tune, poke and swap at until you're at a comfortable 950+ horsepower.

The six pack was designed to supply part-throttle economy to the center while the outside carbs kick in for power. The guys shoot out three six pack designs to find out which is gimmick, which is greatness, and which makes the most power on a street 440.

With the power potential of E85 available only at limited stations, the ability to run a blend of gas and E85 is a game changer. Credit the flex fuel sensor, which samples fuel composition and adjusts fuel flow, making more power as you mix in more E85.

Do boost leaks really even matter? Can vacuum leaks make more power? You read those questions right. Come be surprised right along with us as we find power in unexpected places, and lose less than we'd expect in others.

So you've decided to run nitrous on your EFI manifold and need to know how a wet system stacks up against a dry system. Does one make more power or give you more problems than the other? Which is easier to set up, and which requires more tuning?

We've covered the battle of carburetor versus EFI as far back as Episode 2 of Engine Masters. This time, multipoint EFI gets its turn against the venerable Dominator. It's injectors versus jets, dry flow versus wet, and drivability versus horsepower.

One thousand horsepower is all too common these days and all too accessible. With these numbers well within reach, it's time we looked into two ways to get there: a supercharger on a medium-sized mill; and natural aspiration atop large-displacement.