Stan Sainty and his new three-valve, overhead cam, all-billet race engine have experienced observers already taking note.

Drag racing has always appealed to the do-it-yourselfer, the guy who is more happy with making it work himself, even if it takes longer, than in paying someone else to do it and make it work now. That attitude is most often reflected in tinkering with a tune up or the set up on a suspension, but every now and then some brave individual decides to take on a massive project that most would not even consider.

Stan Sainty has never been one to turn away from hard work, or of doing anything that it might take to build a better mouse trap. His latest production is a three-valve all billet overhead cam engine that is already being looked at with envy from many sides.

Operating on a limited budget Sainty was unable to make his big block Chev engines live well enough in the late 1970s to ensure success with his Unlimited Hydroplane drag boat, so he redesigned the Chev format and made his own engine that eliminated most of the Chev's weak spots. Over the years that engine went through a number of evolutionary steps, with new features being added as they were perceived to be necessary.

It was a successful formula, with Sainty making up for his lack of bulk dollars by hard work. The boat ran well, setting national records and making quite a name for the Sydney machinist.

By the mid-80s Sainty was just beginning to look with interest at drag racing on the dry quarter mile when Castlereagh drag strip in Sydney was closed down. He abandoned the idea until there was talk of Eastern Creek opening its drag racing operations, and he straight away began to work on a race car.

Sainty bought Santo Rapisarda's old "Trackburner" rolling dragster, and rebuilt most of it before fitting it out with one of his drag boat engines. Aimed at Top Fuel the engine that had performed so well on the water never wanted to work on dry land. Despite the input of many tuners, from the US and locally, it frequently failed to get down the track without either hydraulicing or burning out pistons. The tune up seemed impossible.

Sainty and his crew began to take a long hard look at what they had, and asked themselves where the problem lay. There were some obvious areas where the engine could have been better in terms of strength or serviceability, but the biggest problem seemed to be in the cylinder heads and the engine's thermodynamics - its ability to use heat, and that's what internal combustion engines are all about.

All the bench racing that had gone on around the old engine's problems was put together and planning begun on a brand new engine for the Eagle Ignition Leads fueler, one that would be as near bullet-proof as possible, and with the right breathing and thermodynamics. Eighteen months later the finished product is on the track, and before it's even fired a shot in anger it is attracting serious attention from a number of knowledgeable observers.

The original idea was to build an all-billet engine, since that would be as near unbreakable as possible. Even fittings that would normally be cast were given over to being machined from solid blocks of metal.

"The trouble involved in having patterns made and then having to deal with the foundries is just too lengthy. The only part we had cast was the manifold, and that's taken months and we still only have one," explained Sainty.

After all the talking the basic plans were drawn up on a computer by Dennis McCann, who then programmed all the CNC computer controlled milling equipment used to machine up the solid blocks of aluminium.

The engine is built around a block which was cut from a solid chunk of 6061 aircraft quality aluminium, the best class of aluminium on which welding can still be done. It's rated as being seven times stronger than a casting, so should provide enormous strength in terms of resisting the sort of forces that tear the more traditional engines apart.

Somewhat surprisingly there has been very little copied from the standard Chrysler pattern as used in KB/JP-1/TFX designs.

Sainty admitted this could be seen as a shortcoming in terms of there being little available off-the-shelf for the engine, but it also meant that in every aspect they were able to improve on existing designs.

Only the bolt pattern on the unboltable rear flange remains the same as a Chrysler, to enable the use of the appropriately certified US clutch cans and flywheel assemblies.

The cylinder spacing is 0.100 in. bigger, which makes for better sealing between cylinders, yet the block is 1 in. shorter than a KB because it does not run the front mag drive, etc, of the standard design. This means that the crankshaft is 1 in. shorter, and therefore stronger, because it brings the bottom blower pulley back closer to the front main bearing.

It also means that the crazy Chrysler-based design of having two super powerful magnetos right alongside, where they can and do constantly interfere with each other, can be modified, and in Sainty's engine the magnetos are separated by the width of the chassis.

The engine is also unique in running 3 in. mains (against the Chrysler's 2-3/4 in.), with 2 in. big ends (compared to 2-3/8 in.), which also adds to strength. The necessary bearings are readily available, however, as these are standard Ford items.

There are six bolts around each cylinder to hold the head, and all are evenly spaced (whereas the old Sainty design had four bolts, and the KBs, etc, run five unevenly spaced bolts).

The main caps are cut from 7075 aluminium, and are side-bolted on all five mains, compared to the centre three of the KBs, etc.

Each cylinder bank is able to be removed, which makes it easier to machine and the engine more repairable (a damaged cylinder bank can be replaced in the pits, instead of having to replace a whole engine).

Of course, even if there is damage to any component of the engine it is completely repairable by welding.

The deck height of 11 in. is greater than in KBs, which helps with internal clearances, and gives the engine the capacity to be taken out to 650 ci. The block is designed to take up to a 5 in. crank and 4.650 in. bore.

The engine runs dry liners, compared to the KB's wet liners (designed to have water through the block), which means they are specially machined, but existing items could be adapted if necessary.

The finished block, minus sleeves and head studs, weighs 104 lb., which is within a couple of pounds of the KBs, an important factor in ensuring the thermodynamics are appropriate.

One unique aspect of the engine is that all mating surfaces in it are O-ringed, and the only gaskets required are for the heads.

The front cover shows as much thought as the rest of the engine, incorporating engine mounts on each side and a blower idler mount built into it, for added strength in this area of great stress that the Sainty's believe is under-engineered in most cars today.

The sump, like the rest of the engine, is cut from billet metal and is fully O-ringed. Like the Sainty's previous engine it is fully dry-sumped.

The heads are what will make this engine work, and are billet units that weigh just under 40 lb. each, comparable with existing KB-type heads, such as from Veney, again ensuring thermodynamic response similar to that in the established designs.

The chambers are a three-valve combination that's half way between a hemispheric design and a pent-roof. On the intake side, because of the necessity of fitting in the two intake valves side by side it has to be a pent roof format, while the exhaust side, with its single 1.90 in. valve, it can be close to a hemi pattern. The valve sizes are the same as in a 308 Holden. The three-valve format is regarded as curing much of the problems experienced with the older engine, which was a four-valve configuration.

The two 1.6 in. intake valves, at 0.700 in. lift, flow a hefty 800 hp on petrol, so on methanol would produce power equal to that in any Top Alcohol engine, and would be as good as any existing nitro engine's, based on figures from two leading engine builders.

The design also incorporates some neat ideas that in theory promise some additional benefits over existing designs in Chrysler-based engines. Each chamber is a dual plug design, with the plugs inserted from the outside and entering the chamber adjacent to and pointing at the intake valves. In theory this will achieve maximum cooling of the plugs, to minimise or eliminate detonation, allowing the engine to run leaner and making more top end power.

The chamber also allows all valves to come fully off their seat, beyond maximum lift, without any of them touching, eliminating a major source of failure in conventional hemi-type engines in an over-rev situation.

With between-round maintenance in mind the heads can be removed with all rocker gear in place, allowing valve lash to be checked and adjusted off the car while other work may be being done to the engine. The heads are held by 10 bolts which run to the bottom of the crank case and eight bolts on each side of each head, eight in the valley and eight on the outside.

The rocker covers are also cut from solid billets, starting out as 45 kg. blocks and finishing as 2 kg. units.

The manifold, the only cast item in the Sainty's inventory, is held in place by 10 bolts, five on each side, that are easily reached, allowing the manifold, blower and hat to be removed as a one-piece unit for ease of work between rounds.

In their initial test engine Sainty has chosen a Ross piston which has all the reinforcing in the right places, but after looking at all the available mass production rod designs on the market they have decided to make their own con rods from billet material. The lack of internal cams has created extra internal room, which permits the running of a wider and longer rod, which makes for greater strength.

The Saintys have not stopped there, and their car - built by themselves in their own workshop at Wentworthville, in Sydney's western suburbs - runs hardly a single part not made by themselves, or custom made for them to their own design.

The wheels and blower are certainly US-built units, but the injection hat (as run by Tom Hoover during his January race dates here) and barrel valve are all Sainty items. The fuel pumps are also Sainty designed and, built, and have the pump potential equal to anything available from the USA.

In fact, the completion of this project has been held up primarily by the time required to manufacture all the ancillary equipment. The Sainty team has built all its own clutch, floaters, cannon, coupler and other driveline parts. All the dry sump components, including the pumps, are from Sainty's workshops. Even the computer control of the clutch system was designed by team driver Terry Sainty and built by the team members, In total the whole unit draws less than 2 amps compared to 3 amps per control switch in the US clutch control systems.

The whole system has been a terrific burden on Sainty Engineering and the members of the team, most of whom contribute much or most of their spare time to the job, but they've all done it with the dream in their mind of building something that was unique. Obviously, they are proud of what they've produced, especially considering there is not a qualified mechanic among them.

Stan and Terry Sainty and their team are looking forward to getting the engine on the track, and will be doing testing at Eastern Creek's October meeting. They had hoped to do some laps at the September event but a tuning oversight resulted in a broken cam follower in a pit start-up, the engine's first, and the operation simply sat on display in front of a constantly interested crowd in the pits.

"Robert Dane and Eagle Ignition leads have stuck by us through all this, and have agreed to stay with us with the new engine, and with their support and that of a few other people we'll make this work," said Sainty.

It is not planned, at this stage at least, that the engine will be mass produced. "We've built 10 engines, or at least have enough components for that many," explained Sainty, "but if there was to be a sudden demand for them the tooling and set up to make them would be probably beyond us. Anyway, I won't be selling any of them until I am happy that they're able to get down the track in serious order. There's no point selling something to somebody if it isn't ready or not fully developed."

Would they do it again? "If I was to start again on it tomorrow I don't think there's much in it I would change," explained Stan Sainty. "I suppose that's a good sign, because there are few things in life that we do where we wouldn't want to make some changes the second time around."

The proof of this quarter mile pudding, like all others, will be definitely in its ability to get down the track, but in the theoretical stages at least it appears to be well on the way to solving much that is a compromise or outdated with existing drag racing engine designs. If the opinions of various expert observers are anything to go by, this engine's progress is going to be closely watched by a number of envious eyes.

While there is no immediate plan to put the Sainty cammer on the market, there is a serious plan to tool up and produce a billet version of a small block Chevy bottom end, for which the Saintys already have tentative orders.

The block - all that the Saintys plan to manufacture - will use all the same bore and stud pattern spacings as a Chevy, enabling the use of all existing small-block Chev bolt-on and bolt-in equipment.

"People will be able to bolt on their own heads, or cranks, or cams, or whatever they want," explained Stan Sainty, "but they will get the advantage of having a block that is CNC machined from the very beginning, and at least seven times stronger than any casting they're likely to ever get."

It is planned that production will start in about six months, once all the work on completing the pieces for the nitro cammer engine is out of the way.

The development of an engine like the Sainty cammer was not without theoretical and practical input from many people, and there have been a number of interested observers who have watched it come together from nothing but a bunch of ideas. What do these people think?

The crew chief for Cowin Motorsport has been intimately involved in much of the theory that's gone into the Sainty engine, and he's impressed with the outcome.

"When they sit around and bench race about engines in the States this is the sort of thing that everyone there recognises needs to be designed and built. The problem for those guys is that they don't have the luxury of being able to take time away from their racing to do it. They have to be there, almost every weekend, qualifying in every show. This is the sort of thing they dream about. We can all be proud that it's been done here in Australia.

"This ought to be able to make more power than any engine we're using on nitro now, and on alcohol it'd be a killer. I'm impressed. It has all the thermodynamic qualities of a Chrysler design - which is one of the principal things that has made them work so uniquely - combined with 1990s technology.

"This is going to make nitro racing affordable for someone like Stan. To make 5500 horsepower takes big dollars, but in this engine the only expendables will be the pistons, rods, bearings, rings and other cheap stuff. It doesn't have to run titanium valves, so rebuilds will be cheaper, things like the valve springs will last longer because the twin intakes mean the cam grinds don't have to be as radical.

"I think if there's any area where they have trouble, the first thing to be changed will be to reduce the size of the intake valves, because they're going to be getting so much in there they may have trouble controlling it.

"I'm genuinely impressed!"

The US tuner on Rachelle Splatt's Top Fuel car, and an experienced, though budget-constrained Top Fuel racer in America, saw the virtually complete engine recently. He rushed off and brought back American members of the Splatt crew to show them.

His comment: "Man, this is what I call a purpose built race engine, not like that 1964 model band-aided piece of junk we run."

The Brisbane king of flow benches and tune ups is in the process of preparing a new Top Fuel team with racing partner, Roy Smith. Atholwood took one look at the engine, borrowed a head and took it to his Brisbane workshops where he flowed it. His opinion? "I'm going to run one of these engines, and I can't wait to get it. That head flowed as good as the latest Brad Anderson heads on the exhaust and I didn't even bother to flow the intake because it had to be better, given the size of the valve area. The rest of the engine is really just an air pump to get the fuel and air in and out, and those heads are going to make it all work.

"I just love it. Stan's a genius. I know there have been some knockers, but Stan's built a work of art here, it's something that's beyond just about anybody else I can think of here, and when they fired it up the other day it kicked as soon as they turned the ignition switch. Stan was just like a dad with his first child.

"I have already lined up Crow Cams to do the cams for my engine, and they reckon they have already put it through their computer design system and claim they can produce me a profile that will keep the valves on the seat to 10,000 rpm with only 120 lb. seat pressure!

"The whole design is brilliant. They've done away with the cam tunnel, which always cracks in a KB, they've done away with all the lifters and other stuff that bends or breaks, and got rid of that 300 lb. seat tension on every valve. It's got to work."