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.

Two Down, Three to Go

The School of Automotive Design is out of the cell and the engine for Also B.E.S. has been wheeled in. The students and staff of UNOH are busy with the hookups. The third run of the day will be taking place soon. The last two teams after John Lohone's Also B.E.S. will be John Milhovetz's Accufab team and last, but never least, Tony Bischoff with his B.E.S. group.

I've just discovered we can post scores after all, so here are the number Jon Kaase generated to open the day: 721 peak horsepower and a sizzling 675 ft-lbs of torque with 600 lb-ft at just 3200 rpm! Kaase’s effort bumped yesterday's score a remarkable 45.2 points to 2961.7.

Massingill's School of Automotive Machinists, with a Chevy LS engine, reached 773 peak horsepower and 679 lb-ft of torque. Their final score came to 2858 points.

Mapping enables pilot to find the optimal decision points.

John Lohone, captain of Also B.E.S. from Southeastern Indiana, has been working on engines since he was 12 or 13. "It’s always what I’ve wanted to do," says Lohone. "There's a lot of people that don’t know what they want to do in life and that’s always what I wanted to do." Lohone has proven he's excelled at his passion by being one of the finalists here this year.

During Also B.E.S.'s 27 minute run a regulator on the dyno failed. There's a pause in the action as they replace the faulty unit. As soon as this team finishes, the first teardown will begin.

John Lohone (center), captain of Also B.E.S., like others here came to win.

Jon Kaase Sets the Bar

Jon Kaase makes beautiful engines that exhibit eye-popping numbers.

The final day of the AMSOIL Engine Masters Challenge is underway. Jon Kaase has just completed his run and set the bar for the four teams of engine builders that will follow. We can't divulge his scores but during the course of nine dyno pulls each one improved over the previous and that final pull knocked it out of the park.

Nevertheless, we've only just begun.  Judson Massingill and the School of Automotive Machinists is now setting up in the cell. All action today will be in Dyno Cell #2.

At last night Engine Builder Banquet a number of awards were handed out, including $1,000 prizes from AMSOIL for the Torque Monster and the Horsepower King. The winner of both prizes was David Freelander of Montreal's Freelander Race Engines/Oakley Motorsports. Rob Orava accepted the awards on Freelander's behalf because the team captain had to return to Saudi Arabia. Orava was quite familiar with AMSOIL long before this competition as he has been an AMSOIL Preferred Customer for quite some time.

As title sponsor AMSOIL has provided the each builder with lubricants in advance to experiment with before selecting what they believe will be the optimal viscosity. Here is a page of AMSOIL synthetic racing oils that these teams chose their oils from.

Meantime, we've got ignition in cell #2 and the Massingill Team is on its way to giving us their first run. That rumbling growl is music to our ears.

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.