I know about Cola cranks, but never heard much about Cola rods. I have a chance to pick up a set for my big block build up and was wondering if anyone has any opinon about them.

Thanks.

Rich

 

I am using a Cola crank in my buildup, but I didn't know that they made rods. I checked their site and there is nothing mentioned of Cola rods. Where are you getting your info on the Cola rods?

 

They are new, in box but were sitting on the shelf for quite a while. AFAIK they do not make them any longer.

Rich

 

I'm clear now. I take it that they are forged, but are they H beam or I beam? Just curious.

 

4340 H-beam with ARP cap screws. Cola was founded by Joe Mondello, a big name in drag racing at one time (is he still around?). Anyway, their cranks are very nice but I never heard much about their rods, hence the question and as we both said, they don't appear to make rods any more.

Rich

 

Cola is an offshoot of LA Billet crankshaft way back when. Raul is the person you want to talk to, he runs the place. The rods you're looking at are good pieces, made in the USA with USA material. When they were available you had 3 choices. Carrillo H-beam, Manley H-beam, or Cola H-beam. These aren't the **** fu rods you see all over today. They were about $100 each back in the early 90's.

 

Thanks for the info. I figured they were nice pieces given Cola's reputation.
BTW: I have two Aeromotive pumps on the Camaro! I am going to be converting my alcohol big block to EFI, just because I can and I hate carbs (in case you were wondering). Any thought on an electric vs. mechanical pump? It's a mild motor making in the range of 600hp.

Rich

 

Rich-Enlighten us on your big block project. Now you're talking some cool stuff! I run an Enderle mechanical set-up on a NA big block jet drag boat and on a blown Altered drag car both on alcohol with mechanical cam driven pumps. I love this style set-up and would recommend it to anyone interested. I would like to try running an EFI set-up in the future just for the challenge of making it work.

 

Rich, ya we can help with that. My first choice would be our belt pump if you have, or wouldn't be adverse to a front mounted cell. We offer a BBC mount/mandrel kit for it or it is also available with an enderle style mounting collar. It'll put out 1700 #/hr @ 3000 pump rpm (50% crank speed). You're gonna need roughly 700#/hr including a bit of extra capacity for your combo. Our eliminator electric pump #11104 will give a bit over 700#/hr @ 45 psi if you'd rather go that route. Couple either of these with a 13110 regulator for excellent pressure control. I'm happy to hear you're an Aeromotive user. I've enjoyed many of your posts on the forum. Feel free to give me a call anytime.

Mark

 

It's a case of "where angels fear to tread", I guess. The precise control over fuel that EFI provides has it all oever a carb. And carbs always bugged me, somehow EFI seems intuitive to me and a carb does not. I wouldn't have a street car any more without EFI, so I says to myself "why should I have a race car without EFI??"

I understand fully that the main advantage to EFI accrues during part throttle and startup and that at WOT over the relatively narrow rpm range of a drag motor a carb makes as much, or more hp. But that still doesn't mean I don't want EFI. Eventually, I think I am going to go with a centrifugal blower for a really unique combo on a drag car: EFI alcohol and a centrifugal. What I have now is the car and a tradtional mild big block setup with a carb and alcohol. I am going to run it for a season while collecting parts for the next step. All I have so far is a block (Dart), a set of rods (Cola) and the EFI system (Electromotive Tec3r). I am trying to figure out the rest of it. Now that I know Mark's name and given my good prior experience with Aeromotive, I am thinking that that's the way I will go for a pump. Most likely electric, as that would go along with the whole EFI theme I am developing.

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Rich

 

Mark Micke has a combination similar to what your are talking about building. He was the Outlaw 10.5 champion at the Clash of the Titans series in 2003. It is a Procharged alky efi setup with I believe 20 injectors at this time. While I realize this is probably a bit more than you were thinking about, he would be a good person to contact. He is a good friend of mine and always willing to help, and they build the finest transmissions and converters for racing available.
http://www.mandmtransmission.com/contact_us.htm

http://www.theclashofthetitans.com/g...cat.asp?iCat=1

 

I would presume that an electric high pressure pump would be the most straight forward way to go when running an EFI system since your fuel pressure would not be RPM dependent as it would be with a mechanical cam or belt driven pump. It would seem to me that a variable fuel pressure system would over-complicate an EFI set-up, but maybe there are some advantages to this. Does the Tec3R system allow individual injector pulse width tuning, simular to selective jetting on a mechanical system? Also, does it allow for a hi-speed lean-out if desirable? I would like to know more about the different available EFI systems/programs.

 

I was thinking the same thing about an electric pump. The TEC3r can tune each cylinder individually. There is a lot of flexibility in the inputs used to determine the pulse width. Normally, rpm, throttle position, and manifold pressure (which reflect load) are used along with coolant temperature. You could configure additional inputs such as gear selected, line lock activation, and so on. A street car also uses O2 sensors to operate in "closed loop" mode, though this wouldn't seem to be applicable to a race car. There is a lot of tuning flexibility, much more so than a mechanical system - which is one of the attractions.

As I understand them, the reason mechanical systems often need a high speed lean out is that once the motor is past max VE there is a different relationship between fuel and rpm, less fuel is needed based on the lower VE. With a mechanical pump, fuel delivery continues to increae as rpm increases. This would be easy to tune for with an EFI system, especially with an electric pump providing constant fuel delivery. Though it would also seem fairly easy to do with a mechanical pump as well.

Rich

 

We have a regulator that is designed to work with our mechanical pump. The pressure curve remains linear to whatever you set it to. Only the volume increases with rpm. The regulator is specifically designed to be able to control fuel pressure over the entire flow range of the pump. This is unique to the fuel system business as many available regulators work over a fairly narrow flow range. Besides it is only an option for you. Blown alchohol has shown to waste nearly 25% of your fuel short circuiting out the exhaust. This number is for more max effort type racing, but the thought should be there. Those engines have a BSFC of roughly 1.4. Rick if its a drag race only application and you want to run electric our ProSeries fuel pump flows over 1000# hr @ 45 psi and over 800 # @ 60 psi. These numbers are @ 12 volts. Volume will increase 20% @ 13.5 volts.

 

Mark: could you give me part numbers for the parts you have referred to?

Thanks.

Rich