RHS-Powered Small Block Ford 454 For IMCA Competition

[CPG Marketing]

FordMuscle takes you inside a IMCA Modified Small Block Ford 454 build at TMeyer Inc.


As you probably surmised, due to the intensely competitive nature of the modified class, engine builds are a closely guarded secret. Not many racers (at least the winning ones anyway) are willing to reveal what goes into their powerplants. Recently Tim Meyer of TMeyer Inc. allowed us to get a rare look at 351W based 454 stroker that he was building for a client. This particular racer has always run 351W based 396 cid strokers in his race car, and this season wanted to up the displacement to 454cid using a new block and kit offered by RPM International.

This engine will be used in this seasons IMCA Modified series - however, not revealed to us was the drivers name, car number or anything else that would allow someone to identify where the engine you see below is going to be run!


RHS Pro Action 215cc Cast Iron Porting

Porting iron heads is a laborious task that is quickly becoming a lost art due to the prevelance of aluminum heads. Consequently you can expect to pay $1200 to have these RHS 215cc iron ported to the hilt by TMeyer. The results are well worth it, see below.

As with most professional cylinder head porters, TMeyer prefers buying their heads bare and then assembling with hardware and valvetrain components to match the needs of the motor. These heads get fitted with fairly common Manley valves and dual-springs as spec'd by Ultradyne for the chosen cam.

IMCA Modifieds must run steel (iron) cylinder heads. The spirit of the rule was to clearly keep costs down. At around $996/pr (bare castings), the RHS® ProAction 215cc heads are likely the best bang for the buck in the limited market of aftermarket Ford iron heads. Of course most racers aren't content with an out-of-the-box head so they opt for professional porting and flow optimization. TMeyer Inc. worked the bare RHS® heads to improve flow on both the intake and exhaust sides. The before and after results are shown below.

Dyno Results

At the time of this article Tim Meyer has the assembled Ford 454 loaded on his engine dyno and broken-in. While this engine will run alcohol at the race track, the initial dyno tests were performed with gasoline. The engine belted out over 625 horsepower and 600 ft.lbs. of torque! Tim expects another 20 horsepower increase with alcohol. We'll bring you that dyno result when it becomes available.

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