Heads, Part II

Head Development

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Pictured below is Len Hoffman, owner of Hoffman Automotive machine. Len is working closely with us as we combine thoughts and ideas with real world "Risk and Development" while attempting to seek out the deficiencies of the stock Type IV cylinder head.

Today Len came to our shop with his new cylinder head flow bench that he built himself. This bench utilizes flow quik software for data acquisition. When I met with Len the first time, and he and I discussed cylinder heads I knew I wanted him to become part of our "Ring of Aircooled Precison Performance". Len and I share many thoughts, but disagree on just enough to try and prove our theories. This enhances the testing by creating a constant challenge between us. Len's outgoing, supportive and optimistic style has made him a super beneficial part of the network and we are seeing the benefits of that every time we fire up a new engine on the dyno with his head work.

The emphesis of todays testing was to test several different stock and modified Type IV cylinder heads and attain data from them to share here on the net, as well as with the Technical Editors from Excellence magazine. Excellence will be doing a comprehensive article on type IV cylinder heads and will incorporate this comparative data. Some of this data will be posted here on our site in pages to be later added after the stories are printed in Excellence!

This is a pic of one part of Lens flow bench. This controller helps to measure vacuum, weather, and pressures inside the plenums.

Here is one pic from the computer screen of Len's awesome flow bench. In these pics below you can see the exhaust port of our "MassIVe prototype heads" ... These heads have already seen a whopping ONE HUNDRED CFM gain in flow over a stock Type IV, 2.0 914 spec cylinder head.We will improve upon this as our plans call for some new port shapes based upon Lens findings with pitot tubes in the ports to measure velocities.Note, the pic you see here of CFGM on the far left of the screen near the top is NOT the maximum we have seen from this cylinder head! (its all we want to show you right now)

Remember, we are striving for better performing engines all around. Even though this work may seem like its being done for "Full race engines" its really not. The street / dual purpose engine is our biggest area of specialty, so those with even stock engines will benefit from our network of dedicated individuals- not just the racers (They benefit in the winners circle, and on the podium).

As developments with the Type IV cylinder heads progress we will update these pages. As any Performance Engine Builder will tell you- Power is unlocked in the cylinder heads- Our network couples those head developments with super efficient engine designs (camshaft, compression ratio,intake and exhaust systems)based upon the cylinder head specifications and desired application. This is the way we effectively design the engine the driver needs for his application- The first time, with no guesswork.

Jake Raby