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In the last installment of this series, we showed you the installation of the Trick Flow R-Series intake manifold. At the time, it had not been to the porting room for airflow enhancements. Trick Flow filled in the manifold floor and raised the port roofs to match the revised intake ports on the PowerPort 360 heads.

Here you can see the recontouring of the R-Series’ plenum. The port separators were thinned and smoothed, and the plenum walls were smoothed to give the air/fuel charge a more direct, less turbulent path to the cylinder head intake ports.

The finished product on Trick Flow’s Superflow engine dyno. The carburetor is a 1,250 cfm Holley Ultra Dominator. The headers are Hedman Huslers used for dyno testing (2 3/8-inch to 2 ½-inch stepped primaries). The MSD Pro-Billet distributor is directly connected to the dyno’s MSD 6AL ignition controller.

After breaking in the engine, Todd Hodges and Cory Roth made a series of 10 power pulls on C-12 fuel, gradually increasing the timing and fiddling with carburetor jetting. The 565 liked the changes, so Todd and Cory decided to try 116 octane Q16 fuel, a highly oxygenated fuel that allows more aggressive tuning. Just changing fuel added 13 horsepower—but that pull used up all the Q16 available at the shop.

After switching back to C-12 fuel, Todd and Cory added a one inch carburetor spacer and increased engine vacuum. The 565 rewarded them with the big number—1,013 peak horsepower to be exact. Torque production was impressive too, going from 650 lbs.-ft. at 4,000 rpm up to a peak of 770 lbs.-ft. at 6,200 rpm, never falling below 700 at a lofty 7,500 rpm.

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In our Top Class 565 (part two), we showcased cylinder head and valvetrain assembly for Trick Flow’s 565-cubic-inch big block Chevy. This time around, we’re gonna find out what this conglomeration of parts is worth on the dyno. Without giving up the results in the first paragraph, let’s just say those parts are worth a lot of horsepower.

In case you missed the first two posts, this 565 will be installed in the American Racing Cars dragster that is part of the prize package awarded to the 2012 Summit Racing SuperSeries Top Class Champion.

The engine was configured and built by the cylinder head experts at Trick Flow Specialties, and uses readily available parts and requires minimal machine work. Better still, the 565 is adaptable to many IHRA sportsman and bracket classes.

The Last of the Bolt-Ons

We last left the 565 with the installation of the Trick Flow PowerPort® 360 cylinder heads, which had been massaged by Summit Racing/KB Racing Pro Stock driver (and diehard engine guy) Jason Line. We also bolted on the Trick Flow R-Series intake manifold for photo purposes; it was removed for a trip to the porting and polishing room for some airflow enhancements. We’ll be showing you those here.

The rest of the bolt-ons included the following:

• Holley Ultra Dominator carburetor, 1,250 cfm
• MSD Pro-Billet crank trigger distributor and crank trigger kit
• Moroso electric water pump
• Moroso vacuum pump
• Moroso valve covers

Powa!

With the engine all buttoned up, it was rolled into Trick Flow’s Superflow dyno room for some power pulls. Engine builder and dyno operator Todd Hodges added a set of Hedman Husler 2 3/8 inch to 2 1/2 inch stepped headers and hooked the distributor to the dyno’s MSD 6AL ignition system.

After making the break-in pull, Hodges and Trick Flow’s resident tuning expert Cory Roth made several power pulls on VP C-12 racing fuel, making incremental timing and carburetor jetting changes. Hodges also tried a power pull with Q16, a 116 octane fuel that is highly oxygenated, allowing more aggressive tuning. With no other changes, the Q16 was worth an extra 13 horsepower.

Unfortunately, Hodges and Roth ran out of Q16 before he could make tuning changes to take advantage of the fuel’s power potential. They switched back to C-12, reduced carburetor jetting from 106 to 102, added a carburetor spacer, and increased engine vacuum in a final attempt to break the 1,000 horsepower mark. The changes worked, netting 1,013 peak horsepower at 7,400 rpm and 770 lbs.-ft. peak torque at 6,100 rpm.

Check out the dyno video below or shuffle through the slide show above for pics from the dyno sessions.

Epilogue

The 565 is proof positive of what kind of power you can make with the proper selection of parts and some well-thought-out airflow enhancements. The engine is currently at American Racing Cars, waiting to be test-fit to the dragster that goes to this season’s Summit Racing SuperSeries Top Class champion.

Congratulations in advance to the Summit SuperSeries Top Class winner Tim Butler—and enjoy your Trick Flow horsepower in 2013!

Parts List

HLY-0-80532-2BK     Holley Ultra Dominator Race Carburetor

MSD-8558                 MSD Pro-Billet Crank Trigger Distributor

MSD-8620                 MSD Flying Magnet Crank Trigger Kit

MOR-63547              Moroso Billet Aluminum Electric Water Pump

MOR-22640              Moroso 3-Vane Vacuum Pump

MOR-68356              Moroso Fabricated Aluminum Valve Covers