You Could Be The Winner Of This Custom-Built Engine!

Go To Syntectopshop.Com And Vote For Your Favorite EngineAfter months of building our engine, the Castrol Top Shop Challenge is finally coming to a close. As we mentioned in the past, this engine build is one of the most fun projects we've done in a while. Some people had doubts that a lowrider builder could produce so much power, but we proved them wrong by creating a 1,000-plus horsepower monster with this awesome small-block, all put together by Jerry Stettler of Ace Machine.

Last month we showed you how Jerry tackled putting together the long-block, leaving it ready for the final assembly. Some of the Lowrider extras that were done included prepping the block and candy painting the outside surface using SEM custom colors. We felt that touches like this would make sure to separate us from the rest of the competition. Plus, you know we're all about the paint and chrome.

The top end of an engine is where all of the horsepower comes from, so with two custom-made Comp turbos in the works we started preparing the CNC Trick Flow heads to take everything that we could throw at it.

In the "Head Game" article (October), Jerry took a new set of Trick Flow heads and took them apart because we wanted to polish them, not because the heads needed to be gone through. In fact these heads were flow benched right out of the box and outperformed all of the heads. This is exactly what we need to build a winning engine. After carefully taking them apart, the Trick Flow heads were sent out to be cosmetically polished by Speedy's Polishing, who was careful not to bend or damage the out-of-the-box performance heads.

Jerry has been putting together this engine in stages. After allowing the paint to dry, he assembled the Lunati bottom end. This Lunati billet crank was used to help the engine stay together with all of the torque that the Trick Flow heads and Comp turbos put out. Now that Jerry finished off the bottom end, he's trying to get ready for the final assembly and tuning of the Castrol Syntec Lowrider engine.

Today Jerry is assembling the block and doing any adjustments on the turbo manifolds that were being built simultaneously on a mock-up engine. These manifolds needed to be big enough so that they won't restrict the high-flowing Comp turbos that we're using for the build. Once the turbo manifolds were done, they were installed on the painted engine. Now follow along as Jerry completes our Castrol Top Shop Challenge engine and tunes it at WesTech, as we get this project wrapped up and ready for the Castrol Syntec Top Shop Challenge.

After some extreme polishing,...        read full caption After some extreme polishing, the top end was looking good and is ready to be put back together.	We continue building our Castrol...        read full caption We continue building our Castrol Syntec Top Shop engine right where we left off last month.	To make sure that the heads...        read full caption To make sure that the heads were not damaged at the polishing shop, Jerry took the precaution of checking the valves and also took the opportunity to check the piston clearances.
The polished Trick Flow heads...        read full caption The polished Trick Flow heads were fully reassembled.	Jerry started the careful...        read full caption Jerry started the careful reassembling of the aluminum out-of-the-box performance heads.	As you can see in this picture,...        read full caption As you can see in this picture, the valves and the pistons had good tolerances. This process is needed to be done for each and every individual piston and guide valves.
Fel-Pro performance gaskets...        read full caption Fel-Pro performance gaskets were used throughout the build, including the install for the heads.	We used ARP stainless steel...        read full caption We used ARP stainless steel bolts to assemble our engine.	These polished heads really...        read full caption These polished heads really complement the Candy Red World Products long-block.
These are the pair of Comp...        read full caption These are the pair of Comp turbos that we're going to use for our build.	As you can see, there is a...        read full caption As you can see, there is a lot of work involved in creating this manifold pair. The fast fuel intake and throttle body was placed on to build the air induction that would connect the hat on the throttle body.	These Fel-Pro high-quality...        read full caption These Fel-Pro high-quality gaskets are going to make a good seal between the valves and pistons.
This Comp hydraulic roller...        read full caption This Comp hydraulic roller valvetrain is going to allow the engine to perform and produce power.	The roller rockers and holding...        read full caption The roller rockers and holding brackets were installed, finishing off the assembly of the valvetrain.	The custom turbo manifolds...        read full caption The custom turbo manifolds were both built individually using a mock-up engine to ensure that we didn't damage our candy-painted block.