Ten Questions With Jim D’Amore

Jim D’Amore is in love with motors. More specifically, he loves everything “Ford,” and through years of hard work and focused efforts he is among the best-known engine builders America. For the last 30 years his life work has been designing and building exclusively Ford performance engines and his legendary work with the Ford modular engine has earned him reputation of being “the authority” for this engine class.




Today his company, JDM Engineering, produces the most sought after Ford modular high-performance engines available in the marketplace. And to say his engines are the best of their type would be a total understatement. As a matter of fact, over the past ten years his JDM Engineering Ford modular engines have been to the winners circle and produced more championships than any other company in the world.

We thought it would be interesting to talk with Jim to fill in some of the gaps in his career so we caught up with him while he was on his way from New Jersey to Florida. We asked some questions that provide insight into the person and his career.



Here are Ten Questions With Jim D’Amore:

How did you get into the automotive industry?
My father had an automotive repair and body shop in Wall Township, NJ, and as many have done, I started off by sweeping the floors. I was 14 and I was learning some about the business by doing body work and paint work.

When did you get started with engine work?
Somewhere around the age of 14 and a half, I got my first car. I got it because the engine was blown. Dad said I could have the car as long as I repaired the motor to make it run. It was a 1966 Ford Fairlane with a 390 V-8. The outside was in good shape and the interior was in great shape but the motor was seized from overheating.

Back then you could get a driver’s license at 16 so I had a year and a half to get the car running. I took the engine apart and learned everything I could learn about engines.

Do you have a formal education in engine building?
Not really. Since dad had an automotive business, you might think that he was my teacher, but he was a firm believer that if you were going to do something you should do it on your own. He gave me some guidance but he made me do all the research, so I did this first project pretty much on my own. My education has come from doing it mostly myself.

How did you make the transition to high performance engine work?
Well, when I built the engine I wanted more power so I spoke with a man by the name of Nate Cohen; he was part of a factory backed Ford Fairlane race team running in stock and super stock clases at the Englishtown, NJ dragstrip. He helped me and that’s how I first got connected to one of the top engine builders at that time.

When did you get involved with Ford Motor Company?
I got hooked with Ford Motor Co. in the early 90s. I bought a 1990 Ford Lightning truck and when I was on the way home with it, a Buick Grand National pulled up beside me at a traffic light. We went at it. Well, he beat me bad, so I said ‘I need to do something with this engine.’ The electronics of the engine was speed density and the only way to make camshafts, cylinder heads, or super chargers do whatever you wanted it to do you had to convert it to mass air to get the best drivability out of the vehicle.

So I developed mass air system for the Lightning, which meant I had to reverse engineer everything and work with the engine computer and the computer that controlled the E4OD transmission. I put a cam in it, ported the heads, reworked the intake, put a super charger on and tuned it. I then became known as a tuning guy.

The guys at Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords magazine got interested and did a story on the truck. They liked the fact that I reengineered everything. Super Ford magazine put it on the cover, so with that kind of coverage you could say my truck and my work on it became instantly famous.

Some of the guys from Ford saw the magazines called me and wanted me to come to Detroit. They had a new intake manifold and wanted to see how it worked with supercharging and mass air. They viewed it as a way to save a million dollars in engineering and R&D by using my truck for testing since I already had the setup they wanted to use.

I went there for a week and worked with Tom Johnson in Special Vehicle Engineering Group and that’s how I got started with Ford Motor Company.

How did you get hooked on the 4-valve class of Ford engines?
Well when I took my Lightning to Ford they told me I was going to lose the truck for a couple of days and they gave me another car to drive while I was there. This was in 1993 and the car they gave me turned out to be a 1994 prototype King Cobra Mustang. I thought that it was really cool. I took one look under the hood and saw the 4.6L 4-valve engine and said to myself that I have to get involved with this.

A little later, Ford did some re-engineering of the 4-valve cylinder head. I made some design recommendations, which they used and along the way I became involved in the 4-valve engine.

How did you get involved with COMP Cams®?
My company was the only one doing 2 and 4 valve engines beginning in 1993. I began working with Scooter Brothers at COMP Cams® in late 1994. I was on a mission to make the 4-valve engine very efficient and COMP Cams® made a full set of cams that in the end made the engine more powerful and efficient.

I also worked closely with Billy Godbold at COMP Cams®. His expertise and enthusiasm for cams is amazing. The parts and service I get form COMP Cams® is great. He’s worked with me to produce a proven and powerful combo between our cylinder heads and COMP Cams® camshafts.

Today my company makes 11 to 18 motors a year to give to companies to do testing in their facility. COMP Cams® is one of those companies and they provide us with some of the most valuable information we get anywhere. Every time I call them I am amazed with the enthusiasm. Every time I need a cam fast, they do it overnight. They go above and beyond the call of duty. I get goose bumps when I talk to them. They are just incredibly good to work with.

What is a favorite memory?
The call from Ford Motor Co. to come up there with my Ford Lightning truck sticks out most to me. It became the pivotal moment which led to where I am today. I get to make engines for a really broad range of people’s personal cars from a lot of unique walks of life. I do engines for basketball players, movie stars, NASCAR racers and others. It’s all possible because of the call from Ford.

Who was the biggest influence in your career?
My Father James - I grew up working in the business he started. He was known for his trick paint work in the industry. He lived his life to the fullest and thankfully got me involved with racers, street cars and show cars. My dad was a man of few words. He wanted me to figure things out myself and today he is my biggest cheerleader.

What advice would you give to those coming into the industry?
Don’t do it unless you can be the best. My father taught me that unless you are going to do it to be the best then don’t do it. That advice worked for me and it will work for someone coming into the business.

Source:

JDM Engineering
60 Jerseyville Ave
Freehold, New Jersey 07728
732-780-0770
732-780-1715 Fax
www.teamjdm.com