Day Four: Big Guns at the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge

In second place after good dyno run.

It's all business here at UNOH in Lima as we open up the Day 4 of the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge. We arrive to find RCS Racing Engine / RCS-AMS on the block in Dyno Cell #1. The Ford 414 kicked out enough power to propel the team into second place as we start this final day of prelims.

Team captain Ron Stanislawczyk (left) has been building engines since he was a boy. His company, RCS Racing Engines has been building them for over 30 years. "We’re a pretty big facility. We built over 5,000 race engines in the past thirty years. We do dirt, asphalt, limited classes, crate engine classes. From NHRA Pro Stock, IHRA Pro-Stock, all the way down to the competition classes," said Stanislawczyk.

In the next cell Adney Brown of Performance Crankshaft was setting up. Brown selected Dominator 5W-20 for his 414 cu. in. Chevy engine, which took fourth place the first year he brought it. But the technology has changed significantly since then and he's thinking it may be time to step up. "It’s always been a good experience, good people, really an enjoyable competition," Brown noted.

The numbers tell the story.

Third up was Chris Thomas of Almost Kaase. Jon Kaase picked up Chris from the School of Automotive Machinist and it's clear the young man has received some strong training. After getting the engine hooked up, Jon Kaase went in and had the vent adjusted, saying, "This engine needs all the air it can get." When all was said and done, Team Almost Kaase leaped to the top of the heap with some superlative numbers.

Bradley Built Engines is on Dyno 2 getting ready to run, and then we'll break for lunch. Here are a few photos from today's action thus far.

Brad Nagel pouring 0W-20 into his 417 cu.in. Hemi.

Adney Brown prepares his Chev.

Hot Rod magazine getting the inside line on event coverage.

Between dyno runs, everyone is editing, sending, messaging, & just plain busy.

AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge Update: Two Weeks Away from Crowning New Power Kings

For those who have been following, the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge (EMC) is a premiere event that pits some of the nations best engine builders in a head-to-head dyno competition unlike any other.

A news story today talks about the roots of the EMC. The Engine Masters Challenge was the brainchild of Scott Parkhurst and the Popular Hot Rodding magazine staff way back in the year 2000. The idea was simple: they shoot out three different engines on the same dyno under the same conditions and with a clear set of rules used to establish a single winner.  

5X winner Jon Kaase making adjustments.

Earlier this year Popular Hot Rodding magazine was folded into the powerful Hot Rod magazine, a change that will only help give the competition an even higher profile. There are other changes for 2014, as editor Steve Dulcich explains. “The competition will be scored in a new way, taking an aggregate score based on average horsepower and torque over the entire scored operating rpm range and then adding in the peak power and torque per cubic inch in determining the final score. The effect of this change in the scoring system is to place a higher weight on peak horsepower and torque numbers. This will reduce the influence on the score of engine performance at very low rpm.” 

One thing that will remain a constant is the excitement generated beginning the morning of October 6 when the first engines are brought into their respective dyno cells. One Friday October 10, two weeks from today and at approximately this very hour, the 2014 AMSOIL Engine Masters champion team will be announced.

Read Thursday's Hot Rod news for more details.

Special thanks to everyone at the University of Northwest Ohio (UNOH) for providing such great facilities and hospitality. We look foward to seeing you soon.