2300 Head Alignment Dowels

[TastySloth]

My old man raced mini stocks and Outlaws for years using this engine and has done all kinds of tricks to pull just a little more power. Even turning down the aux cam and making his own flywheels. As far as I remember, he never did this on any of his engines.

Okay, a few months ago (more like in the summer) I was at the hydroplane races and the guys there were all running 2300's in their boats. I watched one of the mechanics put a new head on his engine when something weird happened. He set the head on the block, put some of the head bolts in loose-like then shoved the head to the back of the block. I realized he didn't have any dowels in that SOB. Then I started thinking... (obviously not fast enough because I didn't think to ask)

Does this enhance performance at all? I mean, the offset of the combustion chamber can't be easy on the head gasket, but does it raise compression or what? Clearance for bigger exhaust or intake valves? (Honestly I don't know because I haven't looked closely at one of the heads for almost a year.) I don't know any of the rules regarding valve size, cam, or crank stroke or what kind of fuel they are using.

I wouldn't do it on any engine driven more than a race or two, but I am curious. There has to be something to it because the guy went out and won after that...

 

[Mark_88]

Hmmmm...not much play in them once you put a few bolts in...when I did mine the last time I didn't even use the dowels...just plopped it on as close as I could and then used my fingers to align it a millimeter or so...

I would think any offset would worsen combustion because, like I mentioned, there is very little room to move it around...and since the water jacket holes and oil holes are p;etty small you wouldn't want to be offsetting those too much because that would definitely affect performace...eventually...

Maybe different if you rebuild after every race though...don't know to be honest why they would want to otherwise though...