If there is one challenge to the beehive revolution, it’s the perception of the masses. While most engine builders and performance enthusiasts know that the beehive works to improve their engines, many don’t realize the true benefits. Some established enthusiasts are confused and concerned that the smaller valve retainer and single spring used in the beehive system are capable of handling the same high performance loads carried by the conventional spring with two coils.
Beehive springs are a precision component just like any part you select for your engine. Using a tech line expert to help find just the right Beehive springs is critical to your engine’s ultimate performance and durability.
“There are some very knowledgeable engine builders who don’t understand how a single coil spring can be better than a dual conventional spring,” stated Thomas Griffin Head valve spring engineer for COMP Cams.
“The fact is the beehive springs, by virtue of the ovate spring shape and a variety of internal upgrades is compatible with virtually any application where a dual spring is used. That includes some engines with mechanical roller camshafts. The key is to review the required camshaft load and assess the aggressiveness of the camshaft.”
The key profile consideration of a camshaft can be denoted in the camshaft profile section. By reviewing the duration specs for your potential camshaft at 0.050-inch lift and again at 0.200-inch lift, the shape of the lobe can be projected. These are the key figures engineers use to determine beehive spring compatibility. Currently beehive springs for camshafts measuring up to 0.750-inch lift are available.
COMP Cams engineers used a Spintron machine to determine exactly what happens with valve spring dynamics at all levels of engine rpm. This high tech sensor was installed after cutting the cylinder head to make room. The Spintron data noted improved performance at reduced valve seat pressures, among other benefits previously mentioned.
No this isn’t going to be one of those talks and no we aren’t going to run out and hung a tree, ok…if you must…go ahead I’ll wait…..(insert bored whistling)……(more bored whistling)…..Ok…are you done?!!
As I get closer to getting the heads on the Mustang, I’m going to have to begin picking any changes I want made to the CJ heads. While cruising the web checking out options, I ran across this piece (Corvette related but springs are springs as far as an engine is concerned) and there are some good tips here.
Quick! What the fastest moving component in your engine? If you’ve taken a hint from the title of this article, you probably guessed correctly – it’s your valve springs, those tight little bundles of joy that open and close your engine’s valves.
Beehive springs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The benefits of moving to Beehive springs where possible (and today few situations are not Beehive compatible) are many.
Beehive springs, such as those offered by COMP Cams, offer a huge number of benefits over stock-style cylindrical springs; reduced valve spring mass, faster valve acceleration, increased valve train rigidity, reduced valve train component stress and a whole laundry list of other positives.
Best of all, the word has gotten out and folks all over the country are using them for a wide variety of applications from street performance to extreme racing endeavors. That’s a really good thing.
Along with their success has come some confusion over exactly which beehive is right to purchase. Currently there are over a dozen beehive spring styles out there, each offering some unique take, be it in the seat pocket diameter, ovate wiring diameter, pitch or internal spring “frequency.” Regardless increased selection has bred some minor confusion, albeit easily cured.
Beehive springs are conical shaped springs that employ this powerful shape in the creation of a spring that can deliver both excellent performance and lowered seat pressures. With lower seat pressure, valve train components (especially the pushrods, rockers and lifters) are less stressed to perform the same work.
This beehive spring weights in at 99 grams, while a comparable conventional spring is 121 grams.
The difference between beehive and conventional cylindrical springs is obvious especially when you compare them in this manner. Note the dramatic difference in retainer diameter equating to less valve train weight.
According to COMP, effective beehive springs can support an additional 700rpm over stock cylindrical springs. How? It just stands to reason that the smaller coils at the top of the spring don’t require as much force to get the valve moving quickly, much quicker than conventional style springs. The higher rpm potential equates to better durability and performance.
There are some very knowledgeable engine builders who don’t understand how a single coil spring can be better than a dual conventional spring.
“Its like watching a race car running 60-foot elapsed times on the drag strip,” stated Bill Godbold, Chief Engineer for COMP Cams. “For example, take two identical cars with equivalent 500 hp engines.
“One has stock suspension and the other a sophisticated racing suspension. The car with the race suspension will get going more quickly and achieves better 60-foot time. The same principle works with beehive spring mechanics.”
So I’m thumbing through one of the latest “here are the new cars” periodicals (I don’t spend much time with them…I don’t care much if a Mazda sedan and out perform a VW sedan…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) and ran across that stated “Chrysler looks to the ‘Cuda to replace Dodge‘s Challenger.”
Ok…come on heee…er (New York accent). Didn’t we just have the conversation about the “Dodge Dart“??? Like how it looked more like a Neon!!! And correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t we all agree that the Charger was a cool as “Honda Accord“? Yes, I believe we did!
So now lets take the Challenger the one they got “right’ in a retro sense. So why replace it? Well some could argue in the 70’s the Cuda was a better looking car and you know they bring a lot more money. So just maybe….but read this!!!
“A Barracuda replacement would be much more trim, though still on a RWD platform. Chrysler and…(cough) Fiat are said to be jointly developing a new platform that’s smaller the current Charger… Gille’s Barracuda will be far less literal interpretation of its namesake.”
So let me see if I have this straight….you’re gonna take the Challenger that looks somewhat similar the orig…and you’re gonna replace it with a car that won’t look like this original?
Another common problem, especially among home mechanics (yours truly included) is the issue of bent fins. Radiator design hasn’t changed much in the past 100 years, save for switching the tanks from a top-to-bottom setup to a crossflow (side-to-side) setup. In all radiators, hot water from the engine flows into the radiator, and then passes through a number of narrow tubes with fins on either side. Air flows over these fins (either from forward motion or pulled through by the fan) which dramatically increases the ability of a radiator to shed heat, allowing the water inside to drop as much as 30 degrees before going back into the engine block.
As important as these fins are, they are also extremely delicate, and sometimes us home mechanics have the bad habit of banging and shoving parts like the radiator into place. This can bend and damage the fins, which is never a good thing. “Any time you bend that fin, it will prevent the air from going through the radiator,” says Jason. “This will in turn effect how it can cool. Small rocks can bend fins, or if you hit a bird or debris on the road. If you’re into driving off-road, mud or dirt can get into those fins too, blocking the air the same as a bent fin would.” Jason recommends giving your radiator the occasional blast of water to blow out debris that collects over time.
A close-up of what bent fins look like. While a few bent fins are nothing to worry about, anything larger than the size of a baseball could dramatically reduce the ability of a radiator to shed heat.
Our New AFCO Dual-Pass Radiator
To compliment our crate engine in our project car, we ripped out the stock radiator that was consistently failing us and outfitted it with a brand new dual-stage AFCO radiator. Beyond cooling though, what are the advantages of upgrading a radiator?
All Aluminum design allows us to take a little unneeded weight off the nose of the car.
The dual-pass allows water to stay in the radiator longer for additional cooling.
100% pressure tested before it leaves the factory.
If you have bent fins though, don’t get too worried just yet; a few bent fins here or there isn’t the end of the world, or even your radiator. “If you have some decent-sized areas, like baseball-sized or larger, that could greatly affect the way the radiator cools,” says Jason. Even if you have a large area of bent fins, chances are your radiator can still be saved so long as the cooling tubes themselves aren’t pinched. “Most auto parts stores sell or loan what they call a radiator comb, which is used to straighten the fins back out. Unless the fins are broken, you should be able to straighten them out.Digging Deeper Into The Cooling System
Dirty and corrosive coolant, loose hoses, and bent fins are common causes of an overheating engine, but sometimes the problem is deeper than the radiator itself. In maintaining our “Fix the simple stuff first” theme, it’s time to start looking outside of the radiator for overheating issues. “You have to make sure that the water is flowing through the engine,” explains Jason. “Stuck thermostats will impede that flow, as well as a blockage a radiator hose. It could also be a sign of a broken water pump.”
“A lot of cars these days are equipped with electric fans. A pretty good sign that you have a fan problem is if your car overheats while you’re sitting on the grid or under caution, but while you’re moving the temperature stays down,” says Jason.
If you’ve gotten this far, but are still having cooling problems, the issue could be one of the most dreaded engine malfunctions known to mechanics the world over; a blown headgasket. For the average passenger car, a blown headgasket is a problem that can be ignored for a quite a while. For serious racers though a blown headgasket could mean a whole lot of damage to the engine, including the radiator.
Replacing a head gasket is a lot more involved than replacing a radiator, or thermostat, and so you want to be sure that that is really the problem. “If you do a pressure test on the radiator, and it doesn’t hold pressure, that could be a sign of a blown head gasket,” explains Jason. “If you’re losing coolant but don’t know where its going, you could have a blown head gasket. But you’re going to want to run further tests, like a cylinder leak down test first. If you’ve got coolant in your oil, it is a pretty good sign you have a head gasket.”
The Football Blowout Issue
But what if you check to ensure the radiator isn’t leaking, the thermostat and water pump is working, and you fix the broken head gasket, but the system is still not cooling right? That blown head gasket may have damaged your radiator more than you know. As Eric Saffell over at AFCO Racing explains to us, excessive internal pressure can be a very big problem. “The case I want to talk about is a racer who sent us back his radiator due to a cooling issue,” says Eric. “Naturally you want to make sure that the thermostat and water pump are working, and that the radiator itself isn’t leaking. This case that all checked out.”
The left side of this radiator is what a core should like; the right side has been “blown up” by excessive internal pressure caused by a leaking head gasket.
However, if an engine loses a head gasket, all of that compression (in the cylinders) has to go somewhere,” Eric explains. “If the engine is leaking on the compression stroke, that compression is leaking into the water cooling system. The capillary tubes, which are wide and very flat, can be deformed by this pressure, taking on an almost football shape, pointed on the ends by rather thick in the middle.”
“What happens,” says Eric. “Is that the pressure essentially crushes the fins, restricting airflow through the radiator. In that instance, you’ll have a particular section of the radiator, or in a worst-case scenario, almost the entire core of the radiator, and you’ll see all the fins look like they’ve been smashed. A quick check for this is to drain the radiator of all the fluids, take it out of the car, and hold it up to the light. If you can’t see look through the radiator, you want to do a more thorough visual inspection.”
“In this case though, you could see that the whole core itself was swollen in a football pattern. The common thinking is if a radiator isn’t leaking, it’s fine,” says Eric. “We’ve probably seen this more in circle track applications, but with power adders becoming more commonplace in drag racing we’re likely to see this happen more often there as well. You know when guys lift the head, they don’t think they’re damaging the radiator or cooling system, but in this case a lot of damage was done, and the only solution was to replace the radiator completely. If you had a pressure checker in the cooling system, you’d definitely see a spike in pressure in the cooling system in cars where this happened.”
Chemistry In Your Coolant
As of late, Eric has also seen the increasing use of cooling additives in the radiator. Back in the day, a lot of radiators were made from brass or copper, but today radiators are more and more made from aluminum. These metals all have different properties, and mixing and matching can be corrosive. “Sometimes you’ll have guys who find an old bottle of radiator additive and they’ll add it without thinking, causing a chemical reaction within the radiator that can eat away at the internals. It will eventually find a place to create a pinhole or a series of pinholes.” To avoid this, just make sure whatever stop leak or cooling additive you use is designed for an aluminum radiator (if that is what you’re using…which you probably are.)
Corrosion is a silent killer, and can be caused by anything from old, dirty coolant to improper additives, or even a poorly-grounded ignition system. Bent fins don’t help much either.
Another problem? Electrolysis. “When the ignition system isn’t properly grounded, the electrical current can run through the chassis and through the radiator,” says Eric. “Electrolysis can cause rapid corrosion through an electrochemical reaction in aluminum radiators. You can actually measure the electrical current in the chassis and the radiator.” The easiest way to check for electrolysis is to hook up a test light to your radiator while turning on the car and making sure you ground your ignition system properly.
For such a simple-yet-integral part of an engine, there seems to be a million and one things that can go wrong with them. But if you start off your diagnosis with the simple stuff, chances are you can save yourself a whole lot of time and frustration. Sometimes though a leaky radiator is a symptom, rather than a cause. This guide should help you get through some of the agony and irritation of fixing an overheating problem, and hopefully next time your radiator springs a leak you’ll be better prepared get it back to working order. And big thanks to Jason Danley and and Eric Saffell for helping us put this article together.
The 1932 Buick had a Ride Regulator. Yup. It was a manually controlled suspension adjustment system was by moving a six position lever on the steering column.
It also featured a button next to the clutch pedal would activate the vacuum-operated Wizard Control for clutch-less shifting.
I ran across on ton http://www.corvettereport.com and thought I pass it along. If only they made some of these!!! You got to check out the 1991 C4 body.
Hot rodder Shinoda teams up with Bill Mitchell and defined the “Corvette look.”
Perhaps it was “in the stars” that Larry Shinoda was in the right place at the right time. If you strictly look at Shinoda’s resume in 1956, you might ask, “How did this guy get in the front door?” As a young man, the only thing Larry ever graduated from was high school, Army boot camp, and the School of Hard Knocks. Twelve-year-old Larry had his life turned inside out when along with thousands of Japanese-Americans, he and his family were sent to interment camps for the duration of WW II. The experience had a profound effect on his personality. A self-professed “malcontent” Shinoda could be a little difficult to work with.
After his Army tour of duty in Korea, Shinoda attended Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, but truly hated being there. He could see no purpose in taking the classes in design and the various art mediums, such as watercolor painting. He was a car guy/hot rodder and he wanted to draw and design cars! So he left Art Center without graduating and based strictly on his car illustrations, landed a job at Ford, then Studebaker/Packard. Just a year after starting his career, he landed a job as a designer at General Motors.
The rest is the stuff of legend. Street racing and blowing the doors off of Bill Mitchell’s souped up Buick and quickly being taken under Mitchell’s wing. Things like that happens, but rarely. There was obviously some chemistry between the two men, perhaps it was because both men could be brash and had strong opinions.
Shinoda got his first big break when Mitchell tapped the 28-year-old to translate the body design of the ‘57 Q-Corvette on to the mule chassis from Duntov’s aborted Corvette SS project. The finished car became Mitchell’s 1959 Stingray Racer, which formed the styling theme for the ‘63 Corvette. From there, Shinoda got one peach project after another. It’s worth noting that the design of the Stingray Racer is held in such high esteem that current Corvette chief designer, Tom Peters (C6 Corvette and late model Camaro designer) is on record stating that his ‘09 Corvette Stingray Concept (aka Transformers Corvette) was influenced by the ‘59 Stingray.
During his almost 13 years at GM, Larry designed numerous special Corvettes, Corvairs, and several race cars, as well as his usual duties working out the styling details of various production cars. Presented here are Larry Shinoda’s most important Corvette designs. Later this week, we’ll take a look at Larry’s very slick Corvairs, and race cars, including the body design for Pat Flaherty’s 1956 Indy 500-winning Watson-Offenhauser.– Scott
1959 Stingray Racer The 1959 Stingray Racer is still a stunningly beautiful car design. The idea of a “broad, flat top surface” was to create a reverse airfoil that would pull the car down. The problem was that the sharp leading edge was too high and at high speed, more air was knifing under the car rather than going over the car, causing a serious front lift problem. The production Sting Rays and even the Grand Sport Corvettes all had the same trouble. This could have been corrected with a slight forward rake, if the nose had drooped down a n inch or so, and a chin spoiled was added. The Grand Sport replica cars from Duntov Motors use these corrections and front end stays where it belongs at high speed – DOWN.
1963 Sting Ray Concept Art The road to fully worked out new car designs was littered with concept art – most of which was probably thrown away. Here we see a headlight treatment study. Sorting out the production car’s rotating hidden-headlight design was a brilliant but challenging project. Note the absence of hood lines and windshield wipers. It also looks like they were considering scoops on the back edge of the doors.
1961 Mako Shark I Showcar – AKA “The Corvette Shark”
With the basic Sting Ray design approved for production, Bill Mitchell had Shinoda design an exaggerated version for a teaser show car. Known today as the Mako Shark-I, the car’s original name was simply, “Corvette Shark.” 1961 was still the “Jet Age,” so the car was originally shown with a plexi bubble top. It was kind of “Jetsons” neat-looking, but would anyone really want one for their daily driver?
1963 4-Seater Sting Ray Split-Window Coupe
The XP-720 4-Seater Corvette Sting Ray was an exploration into the possibility of the Corvette competing with the much better-selling Ford Thunderbird. Ed Cole, head of the GM car and truck group, thought it was a pretty good idea. After all, GM is in the business of selling cars – LOTS of cars. Since the public bought 73,051 Thunderbirds in 1961, compared to 10, 939 Corvettes, it seemed like a no-brainer. The story goes that a tall executive got stuck in the back seat and needed quite a bit of help getting out. The 4-seater concept was quickly dropped. Good!
1963 Production Corvette Sting Ray Split-Window Coupe
Look at 1963 cars from America and Europe and there’s NOTHING like the Corvete Sting Ray. The split-window was one of Bill Mitchell’s pet design elements and was a one year deal. Although the design concept of a “split rear window” wasn’t new with the Sting Ray (the 1950 VW Beetle had a “split” rear window), the overall presentation of the Split-Window Coupe Sting Ray looked like NOTHING else.
1964 XP-819 Rear-Engine Corvette Engineering Study
The Corvair was the only production car to come out of Ed Cole’s ‘57 Q-Chevrolet initiative and was considered very exotic when it came out in 1960. But trouble quickly set in and it wasn’t just Ralph Nader’s doing. The early Corvairs were not good cars. But the “rear-engine” concept was very alluring to Chevy engineer Frank Winchell. Frank insisted that with the correct size tires the inherent oversteering problem could be corrected. Winchell envisioned a rear-engine Corvette and Zora Duntov said, “No!” To prove his point, Winchell had Shinoda design a pretty body to cover the big V8 engine hanging out behind the trans-axle. Upon seeing Shinoda’s rough full-size drawing, Duntov asked, “Where did you cheat?” Where he cheated was that there were no real rear bumpers or crash zone on the back end. The concept was quickly dropped. it was also discovered that the car did excellent wheelies!
1966 Running Mako Shark-II Showcar
Bill Mitchell verbalized the parameters of the design and Larry Shinoda and a small group of designers and stylists worked out the details. It was as if lightning had struck twice – first with the Sting Ray and a few years later with the Mako Shark-II. The exaggerated fender humps have become THE signature Corvette profile. A non-running full-size version was shown to GM’s management in ‘65 and received unanimous approval as the next Corvette. While the new body and interior designs were being worked out, a second “running” Mako Shark-II was built to keep the Corvette fans stoked. Almost 50 years later, the Mako Shark-II is still a jaw-dropper!
1991 Mears-Shinoda C4 Corvette Body Kit
Larry left GM in 1968, stayed at Ford for one year, then formed his own design studio where he worked on all kinds of automotive and non-automotive design projects. Corvette body kits and add-on parts became very popular though the ‘70s and ‘80s. Three-time Indy 500 winner, Rick Mears teamed up with Shinoda and businessman Jim Williams in 1991 to create and offer the Rick Mears Special Edition Corvette.
Arguably the cleanest full-body-kit ever offered for a C4 Corvete, the coupe version lowered the coefficient of drag on the car from .34 to .30. The complete kit cost approximately $5,200, plus $3,000 for installation, and around $1,000 for a new paint job. With a cost of just over 10 grand on top of a $32,455 new ‘91 Corvette, there weren’t many takers. But, it was a very nice design.
Shinoda C5 Sting Ray Concept
The all-new C5 1997 Corvette was released in the Fall of ‘96 and Larry Shinoda got right on it. Note the date on the rendering, “1-6-97.” Obviously, Larry wanted to see more “Sting Ray” in the new C5. If you’re a mid-year Corvette fan, Shinoda’s concept looks pretty good. Larry died the following November and to the best of my knowing, there was never an effort to make a full-body kit based on what may well have been Larry’s last Corvette design project. Any fiberglass fabricators out there that would like to take a shot at the Shinoda C5 Sting Ray???
No it’s not real Corvette – but the Collector’s Promo Revell Model. In the original box.
All you have to do is guess the year of the Corvette the part pictured belongs too!!! First one to post the answer gets 1 point. The first one that gets 4 correct wins the car.
