Written by Moore Good Ink

Stacey David, connoisseur of American V8 power and host of Speed Channel’s Gearz program, visited Jon Kaase Racing Enginesrecently. The film team had arrived in Winder, Georgia to record the assembly and dyno testing of Kaase’s new P-38 cross ram, the firm’s latest innovation for small-block Fords.

Earlier, a 302 Windsor small block with over 100,000 miles of use had been retrieved from a junk yard. Kaase installed an upgraded camshaft, fly-cut valve reliefs in the existing pistons to allow the P-38’s canted valves to operate, installed the heads with 60cc combustion chambers and recorded 498hp with barely 9:1 compression ratio.

On the day before the film crew arrived they removed the heads and machined them, reducing their combustion chamber volumes from 60 to 48cc. Now with 10:1 compression ratio they mounted the engine on the dynamometer for the benefit of Gearz. It recorded 560hp and Stacey David laughed and said, “Not bad for a junkyard dog.”

Airing on the Speed channel and now entering its seventh season, the Gearz production team creates 13 to 15 episodes each year, which are broadcast nationwide. Interestingly, Gearz reaches enthusiastic audiences as distant as Russia and France.