David Vizard and CarTech books

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Asktoro

Asktoro

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Anyone serious about building engines or any kind of car related fun -- I SERIOUSLY suggest you pick up SA CarTech books.

So far I have one for making awesome horsepower that David Vizard wrote, engine blueprinting and car math. Each one has a treasure trove of information far more useful than any tool I've ever used. The more I read and absorb; the more confident I feel about building an engine. I'm also picking up some seriously badass tips that generally yield 2-40 hp gains. When you keep adding them up, the little things you do.... wooo crazy numbers! I honestly thought I knew all there was to know about engine building and parts but I keep picking up new stuff. The only thing I'm really sucky at is cams which is why I grabbed 2 new books, ive had engine blueprinting for years and loved it.
 
Sounds like I'll need to look at them. I have a very good collection of books now,but more never hurts!

Can you give an example of a tip you found helpfull?
 
Here is another one that although Pontiac specific has a heck of lot of great tips and has more exhaust things than many of the others. In fact, the CarTech Big Block MOPAR book references this one.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Performance-Pontiac-Design/dp/1884089674/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1310597444&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: How to Build Max Performance Pontiac V8s (S-A Design) (0601784000783): Jim Hand: Books[/ame]

View attachment Book cover.jpg
 
needsaresto said:
Sounds like I'll need to look at them. I have a very good collection of books now,but more never hurts!

Can you give an example of a tip you found helpfull?
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I'm slowly learning the black arts of cam-shaft kung-fu. 70% of the members here probably don't even have a good idea of what kind of cam shaft to use asides help desk tech suggestions or off the shelf.

I learned about plasma boosters.

Adding insulation/thermal proof foam to a manifold between the splash guard and mani to keep heat down. Learned what single and dual planes do. Learned some tricks on porting heads. Doing some neat **** with carbs.

I learned this long ago, but the lifter valley, you can epoxy a wire mesh screen to prevent further damage to the motor in event of SHTF situation.

Neat tweaks and exhaust tricks. The guy mostly speaks about 5.0 fords and chevys but it's not geared towards them, its more of a general engine building thing that has stuff that applies to any gasoline engine. Once I get a hold of a car to work on and the engine, ill share a lot of the stuff I learned and you'll probably get to see me port heads, knock off casting flanges, smooth the block out for a smoother finish.

If mopar didnt offer the 48 degrees angle blocks.... I'd have just did a seasoned junk yard block build...... but you seriously can't ignore how much potential their new r3 and r4 blocks have.
 
He used to be a contributor to gofastnews.com, but I don't know what's become of him.
He also wrote some articles for Popular Hot Rodding years ago. Probably one of the sharpest minds out there.IMO
 
He has some good tech write ups that don't appear to be influenced by the sponsor of the month.
 
Vizard has been around for years, and just released another "How to Build Horsepower". And, while the new one is a good read, it is worth picking up the earlier editions as the content is quite different and there is plenty of good info in the older books. If you followed his old gofastnews.com articles, the new book will look quite familiar.
 
sr71mopar said:
He has some good tech write ups that don't appear to be influenced by the sponsor of the month.
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I'll agree with this, although it seems he has certain preferences for brands.

He seems to really like K and N, MSD and Flowtech/dynomax but at the same time shows no bias. -- his only bias is if the part is good or not, so... lol.

One thing I actually love is that he says glasspacks aren't good performance wise, which I totally agree on, he also shows you importance of every and each part of the engine instead of, like many car magazines says "oh its all in the heads and cam!" sure there's a majority of it there and those are two of the most biggest tweaks/hp modifiers -- but he goes beyond magazine articles showing you every single thing that can add/affect horsepower/torque.
 
Very famous guy on both sides of the Atlantic!

I’m wanting to build a flow bench and he has some great ideas for a budget-bench.

He speaks about his first encounters with Mother Mopar and the 1970 Chrysler Avenger, known as a “Cricket” in the USA.

But my greatest admiration is his ability to connect with everyday folk...
 
My head porting has been to copy heads by the great and the good! Koffel, Jeff Hauser, Rob Loaring.
But I think it’s time to revisit my collection of over 30 pairs of Mopars finest iron and aluminium, with my own bench and David Vizard’s expertise.

Anyone here done a David Vizard seminar???
 
No, I have not seen a similar, woke up an old post .
:thumbsup:
 
polyjohn said:
Anyone here done a David Vizard seminar???
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I did enquirer and was given a date. But I was not available to go and have recieved no further updates on future classes. That’s good IMO since it keeps the mailing list small and there stuff unclogged. When I’m ready to spend a weekend away from it all, I’m going. Oh yea, I’m going!
 
I really learned quite a bit from this book: Performance With Economy by David Vizard.

An excellent read.

C15CD3AA-09B9-4004-BB23-6E2E729472C6.jpeg
 
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rumblefish360 said:
I did enquirer and was given a date. But I was not available to go and have recieved no further updates on future classes. That’s good IMO since it keeps the mailing list small and there stuff unclogged. When I’m ready to spend a weekend away from it all, I’m going. Oh yea, I’m going!
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Didnt Vizard have a really bad heart attack or a stroke or something? That was 2-3 years ago I think. IIRC whatever it was it was pretty bad. I don’t know if he is still doing the seminars. If he lives long enough and is still doing them I’d love to go to one.
 
IDK what/when his health issues are/were. But I’ll see ya ya the class.
 
Nice replies Guys!
His “Port and Flow test” publication is truly inspirational!
I have really took him very seriously since as he has “harped back” to his 4 cylinder days and the massive improvements he made with ‘grocery getter’ engines...
He even made the finest UK porter look average with his work on Weslake designed heads!

So my plan is to make a VRCB!

Vizards Really Cheap Bench lol...
 
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Asktoro said:
Anyone serious about building engines or any kind of car related fun -- I SERIOUSLY suggest you pick up SA CarTech books.

So far I have one for making awesome horsepower that David Vizard wrote, engine blueprinting and car math. Each one has a treasure trove of information far more useful than any tool I've ever used. The more I read and absorb; the more confident I feel about building an engine. I'm also picking up some seriously badass tips that generally yield 2-40 hp gains. When you keep adding them up, the little things you do.... wooo crazy numbers! I honestly thought I knew all there was to know about engine building and parts but I keep picking up new stuff. The only thing I'm really sucky at is cams which is why I grabbed 2 new books, ive had engine blueprinting for years and loved it.
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I bought that at a sawp meeting for 5 bucks.. great book
 
scatpackbee said:
I really learned quite a bit from this book: Performance With Economy by David Vizard.

An excellent read.

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That was the first book I bought by him, back in 1983. I’ve read that thing so much that the pages are deteriorating from finger oil‘s and sweat etc. and the pages are falling out. I’ve learned and retained a lot from the pages of that book, Even though it was written in 1980 I believe, during the Second energy crunch, The information within still applies. The one comical thing in the book is in the beginning when he states to the effect the glory days are not returning. Those were truly dismal years
 
DVs head porting book is indeed very informative, & he questions concepts that have been 'the' norm for years; what he says makes sense & is very logical.
 
All this talk about David Vizard’s books made me buy 3 more.

How to Build Horsepower Volumes 1 and 2

How to Port and Flow Cylinder Heads.

Looking forward to reading them.
 
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