Congratulations to Tony Bischoff and BES Racing Engines... 5X Engine Masters Champion

When Jon Kaase looked at his numbers after his dyno run on day four of the 2014 AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge he seemed crestfallen. He brought a powerful engine to the game, but when all was said and done after Thursday's end of the day run his gut told him he'd be coming up short in the final showdown.

Tony Bischoff (center) watches the numbers with BES Racing Engines on the block.

Sure enough, his instincts were keenly attuned to what was going on, and when the final story had been told, he didn't have it this year. Tony Bischoff started the final day with ginormous numbers and by day's end his score was insurmountable.

Congratulations, Tony. 5X Engine Master has to feel pretty good.

There was still a lot of power on display in the finals. When all was said and done, here's how it all shook out. 

1) SCORE: 3017.4 
ENTRY: BES Racing Engines ENGINE: 401ci Gen III Hemi 
AVERAGE PEAK POWER: 688.67 horsepower, 611.67 lb-ft

2) SCORE: 2920.9 
ENTRY: Bradley Built Engines ENGINE: 417ci Gen III Hemi 
AVERAGE PEAK POWER: 699.07 horsepower, 615.70 lb-ft

3) SCORE: 2913.5 
ENTRY: “Also BES,” John Lohone ENGINE: 401 LS 
AVERAGE PEAK POWER: 674.00 horsepower, 595.33 lb-ft

4) SCORE: 2904.1 
ENTRY: School of Automotive Machinists ENGINE: 436ci LS 
AVERAGE PEAK POWER: 725.33 horsepower, 644.00 lb-ft

5) SCORE: 2875.4 
ENTRY: Jon Kasse Racing ENGINE: 404ci Kaase Boss 9 
AVERAGE PEAK POWER: 677.33 horsepower, 597.00 lb-ft

For more details, and photos, visit the Hot Rod Blog.

Here are some additional shots from Lima, Ohio last week.

The Bradley Built Engine had some cool Brazilian technology affixed.

The local media dropped by to put our story on the evening news.

That's an oil pan, not a bed pan. All week the staff was exceedingly helpful.

John Lohone, like the other top guns, had double plugs per cylinder.

This was a first EMC for Hot Rod editor David Kennedy, here addressing the banquet.

The Brad Nagel made an impressive run, but came up short. 

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.

Day One: AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge

Buck Hinkle's beautiful 409 Hemi.

This is it. The AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge at the University of Northwestern Ohio is rockin', with engines in the loading bay ready to roll to the dynos. The dyno cells have been dialed in, and the facilities immaculate as always.

Ed Zinke and team have once again spent a year in preparation for this intense week of competition. Today is day one.

Monday is generally a lighter day of action and this year is no exception, but it's a good day for getting a feel for how things are going to play out. And it has to be a thrill to be in the first set of competitors because the top six are placed in a holding area until a bigger dog pushes you out. At least for the time being each of the first engines are in the running.

Buck Hinkle of Hinkle Performance Engines was slated to run first, followed by Eric Weingartner and his team, Weingartner Racing II. Third on the schedule is Barry Rabotnik of Survival Motorsports.

It's a great experience for every engine builder and a fantastic learning opportunity for the students who have the privilege of contributing to the overall success of the event.

Stay tuned. It's going to be an exciting week in Lima, Ohio.

Tuning the beast: Weingartner Racing II  

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.

Kaase Captures Fifth Engine Masters Crown

The builders who assembled at UNOH this past week for the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge each arrived with different aims. Many to experience the challenge, others to show their stuff, and some to match wits with the best of the best. A half dozen made it to the final six in the quarantine, five survived the cut to compete on Day 5. Only one would take home the title Engine Master. And in the end it was Jon Kaase with a Ford Mod motor powered by a FAST XFI 2.0 EFI system. It was a thing of beauty to look at and a beast on the dyno.

The finishing order for the top five went like this:
1) Jon Kaase Racing, 2961.7 points.
2) Accufab Inc., 2931
3) B.E.S. Racing, 2863.7
4) School of Automotive Machinists, 2858.6
5) Also B.E.S., 2853.7

These are veterans who know how to make a machine hum. They're also friends who watch each other and fine tune their skills for the future.

A lot of the builders specialize in certain kinds of engines. After his final run we Jon Kaase about the motors he builds and if he has a favorite as well as his motivation for selecting the Ford Mod motor.

"To be honest, some engines are popular for a while and then they’re not so you better have a wide range of things that you can do because the bills still come. You might like to work on top-end stuff everyday but it might not come in every day," Kaase said.

"I’ve never worked on a mod motor and I don’t know if I’ll ever work on anymore, but the only reason we’re working on that mod motor now is that by the rules it looked like the most competitive piece. There’s a pretty big carat out there this year and we’re not screwing around this year, we’re wanting to win. There’s been years we always wanted to win but we might have picked a Pontiac or something else and come to have a good time. We’re trying to have a good time but we’re trying to win this one."

That afternoon, checks were awarded to the top three. Jon Kaase achieved the goal he'd set for himself, and compensated accordingly with a check for $66,500.00. Congratulations, Team!

This event would not have been possible without the wonderful assistance of the University of Northwest Ohio, the staff of Popular Hot Rodding and all the great teams of builders who make this event such a highly regarded event.

Winding Down on Day Four at the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge at UNOH

Kaase's 409 cu. in. Modular Monster

The last of the Big Guns are getting ready to run as we near the end of another dramatic AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge. In less than two hours we’ll know who the six finalists will be, and at tonight’s Builder’s Banquet they’ll find out in what order they’ll be going on Friday.

The biggest change this year has to do with how the dynos are scored. According to Ed Zinke, publisher of Engine Masters magazine, “When they pull a dyno run they don’t have to tell us in advance whether it’s going to be a test or a qualifying pull. They have their entire time frame to pick the score that they want. So some can come and shoot for a couple of quick pulls and make some changes or others are making changes along the way.” As a result many of the teams are making more pulls. Once the meter is running, they have 27 minutes to make as many adjustments as they choose. Why 27 minutes? “Kind of an arbitrary number,” Zinke explained. “That’s really what it came down to. Honestly, it was my son’s hockey and football number.”

Bret Bowers: Always lookin' good.

Judson Nagel and Judson Massingill have yet to run, but at this point John Milhovetz has held the lead since racking up a boatload of points in his mid-day run Tuesday. On his heels is John Lohone and his team Also B.E.S. Lohone, who has been building engines since he was 12 or 13 said earlier today, called the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge a highlight of his career "because this is a test of people building engines. We’re just testing engines. We’re not testing drivers, we’re not testing chassis set ups or track conditions, it’s engines and that’s my passion."

At this point the engines in quarantine belong to Accufa
b, Kaase, B.E.S., Also B.E.S., Almost Kaase and Greg Brown Race Engines. Bradley Built and the School of Automotive Machinists are getting set up in Dyno Cells 1 and 2.

Hold on to your hats.

Racing Engine Design team in the control center.

A view from inside the dyno cell just before the action begins.

Wesley Roberson pointing out how the score can be improved.

Another Strong Day of Dyno Runs at the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge

Student rolls Joe Carroll's #6 engine to the staging area.

The bustle and excitement on the University of Northwestern Ohio is palpable when the AMSOIL Engine masters Challenge is in town. As we were winding down toward the late afternoon of Day 3 it was apparent that some things never change and some things will always be new. One of the unchanging features is an engaged student body of volunteers assisting the nations leading engine builders with hookups, teardowns and many other matters related to the Engine master Throwdown. A new feature this year is a rules change that has produced some interesting results.

The rules change of note is that instead of competitors doing three warm up dyno runs and three actual runs, the builders this year have 27 minutes to do as many runs as they would like and to choose their best three from whatever should come. It's intriguing because some builders know what they want and set up for those three top tier efforts. Others, however, get a chance to do three runs, then tinker, do another run, tinker a little more and keep making modifications till their time runs out. It has certainly made an impact on the strategy.

Publisher Ed Zinke

Ed Zinke, publisher of Popular Hot Rodding and Engine Masters magazines, noted that he's been keeping track of the dyno scores these past several years and the total numbers of torque and horsepower pulled since AMSOIL took over the reigns as title sponsor are quite astonishing. Check out these numbers:

2010
Torque   16,650
Horsepower   15,126

2011
Torque  21,938.9
Horsepower   18,008.5

2012
Torque   19,568.2
Horsepower  19,165.1

Total to Date
Torque:  58,037.1

Putting together a winning engine means a lot of attention to detail.

HOW THEY STAND
After three days of competition the six engines currently residing in the locked quarantine area are as follows, listed in order of highest numbers and most stout performance.

#23  John Milhovetz, Accufab Inc.
#20  Greg Brown, Greg Brown Race Engines
#38  Mark Dalquist, Throttle's Performance
#13  Ron Stanislawck, RCS Racing Engines/RCS/ AMS Vortech
#37  Chris Henderson, Henderson Power Sports
#11  Adney Brown, Performance Crankshaft Inc.

How they finish will be another story. At the end of tomorrow the teams left standing will remain through Friday for the playoff finals and, of course, an awards ceremony where only one team will be again be declared Engine Master.

Engines in quarantine cannot be touched or tinkered with.

AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge Is On at UNOH

One of last year's star contenders.

We're back at the University of Northwestern Ohio for the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge presented by Popular Hot Rodding. As in years past, it's an experience unlike any other. Engine builders from around the country gather for a week of competition in a head-to-head dyno shootout with the ultimate build going home with the title Engine Master. After four solid days of dyno runs, six finalists will each give their best on a final day of nail biting excitemen. Though the event is but a week in length, these teams prepare all year, constantly studying the finer points of the rules in order to see how and where each one can get their edge.

Fords, Mopars, Chevys, big blocks and small bocks, Fuel Injected and old school motors all compete on identical dynos under identical atmospheric conditions. Many competitors are simply here for the adventure, but others only have their eye on the prize. And from what we've been hearing, more builders have asked rules-related questions than ever before, so we're expecting some of the most innovative engine designs ever this year.

Over $85,000 in contingency cash is on the line, so there's a pretty serious bit of gamesmanship going on. As in years past, Clarence Barnes is on hand as Master of Ceremonies to keep the show going while teams wait their turn to attack their targets.

The first team on the dyno this year was headed by Midwesterner Mark Dalquist of Throttle's Performance who drove all night to be there. After three dyno Dalquist's numbers set the bar. By day's end, he was still in first place, a good place to be heading into Day Two.

To get a feel for the action here check out this video from UNOH and the AMSOIL Engine Masters Dyno Challenge 2013.

Three Down, Three to Go

As we approach mid-day at at the University of Northwestern Ohio, the drama is building. Three teams have completed their dyno runs. The first on the block was TPIS… a Chevy engine that ran Wednesday, Myron Cottrell's #17.

Second up this morning was RED, Race Engine Designs, Bret Bowers and his Chevy build, #14. Last year's champ Jon Kaase Racing was third to the dyno cell, also a Chevy.

We can't talk about results thus far, but the excitement is building as we listen to the Scott Main's #11 gurgle to life. MPG Heads has a Ford engine on the block which there were able to get started with 15 seconds to spare. No one can predict what will happen, and certainly unpredictable is the norm at the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge.

5th to run will be JL Reliable, John Lohone’s Chevy engine, #19. 6th and last to run today will be Tony Bischoff’s Chrysler, BES Racing Engines, #12.

After each run, engines are rolled back to staging for teardown and inspection. The drama is building as we approach the last hours of a grueling week. Some big guns already went home empty handed, but most of the teams are sticking around to see how everything shakes out. There really is a whole lot of shaking goin' on.

Photo captions: Students prepare engines for teardown and final inspection (above) and Jon Kaase's valve cover (below).

Day Four AMSOIL EMC Winds Toward Close

What a week it's been. 38 teams of builders have been putting their engines through the paces and we're down to the last three runs. Right this minute Hot Heads Research is getting their Mopar hooked onto the dyno, tightening and tuning. On deck in the other dyno cell is Judson Massingill from the School of Automotive Design. The final contestant of the day will be last year's winner Jon Kaase of Jon Kaase Racing.

Tonight there will be an awards banquet for the builders while the top six engines remain locked in quarantine, untouchable till rolled out for the final day's runs tomorrow. Two teams will receive checks for $1,000 courtesy AMSOIL for highest torque and highest horsepower of the week. But tomorrow is the big prize... The numbers will tell the story.

We asked one of the students, Craig Buckets, to tell us a little about this school that hosts the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge, University of Northwestern Ohio. "We have an automotive program, a diesel program, an alternative fuels program and then we are actually back right now in the high performance program. I’d say right now we’ve probably got somewhere between 1,000-1,500 kids in the high performance area. We do just about everything as far as even in the high performance building. We do stuff like wiring stereo systems, pinstriping and airbrushing, anything involving power trains, engines, transmissions, rear ends, high performance steering & suspension set ups. We do welding, fabrication, chassis work, whatever. We’ll teach you how to mill stuff. The amount of equipment that we have here definitely helps us keep busy."

"This is just a great experience for the students. We get to talk to a lot of these engine builders and hopefully they will impart some of their knowledge to us, it’s just what you can squeak out of them. It just depends on what some of these guys are into. Some of the stock car racers are a little more into chassis building and getting all your steering stuff set up and they are not quite into the engines. Then we have other guys that are into doing engines and transmissions and all that drive train stuff."

Many of the instructors told us how really wonderful this experience is for the students, even beyond these walls. For example, last year's winner Jon Kaase stopped at the UNOH booth last year at the PRI Show to visit with the students. He then took them for a walk around the show floor and gave them insights into all the various things going on, sharing lessons with the appreciative students there.

Just a few minutes ago the Hot Heads teams got some rum luck as detonation caused two head gaskets to blow, with sparks flying and a a lot of excitement in the room. As we entered the dyno cell, was could see water pouring out in a stream... and Dan Miller's crew ended with a DNF. A dramatic moment here as the last two teams set their sights on pushing two more engines out of quarantine.

Oh no. Judson Massingill's Ford engine failed to run its paces. Never even got to run a pull. They're bummed. Two DNFs in a row. We're down to one final competitor, last year's champion... and we're setting up. Nothing is wholly predictable, however, and no one is taking anything for granted.

Till next, from UNOH and the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge.