In this episode of Racing Insiders Podcast, Kate and Steve discuss valve springs, air filters, and running the chip with special guest Alex Hendren! They also discuss Kate's drag racing adventures, carb spacers, Alex's fancy skin care routine, spark plugs, octane choices, and fuel pressure. To close the show, Alex talked about how important the relationship you have with your shock guy is, and why. 

Is a 1/4 inch carb spacer better for torque on a 3/8 mile track versus a 1/2? Track rules say open spacer, no divider. (12:43)

Not that I found, no. So I guess no dividers? That means no, four hole.  But what what kind of engine? Because is it a 604/602? Or 525? I assume it's going to be 604/602. But generally, like on 604 the plenum on that intake manifold is actually a little bit on the large side anyway. So that 5/8 has been about the ideal thing. We tried 1/2 inch and lost, we've tried 1 inch and lost, we've tried 3/4 and lost. But that 5/8 is like about the happy medium, sweet spot. I mean, and this depends also on the carburetor that you're using. There's many different variables, but on average, that 5/8 is about the best on a 604/602.

If you gotta run an open, that sucks. Now I'd still run the one inch. It's a dual plane, you gotta give that fuel enough time to, you know, get separated between the big ledge there in the middle. Yeah, in my opinion.

Do you prefer Walker Oil or the new dry filter? (13:40)

(Alex) Personally in my opinion, like I said, opinions vary, but I prefer the dry media. Just due to the fact that with that oil filter, as soon as you get it, it's perfect. You know, nice, nice and oiled up and you use it a few times. And then it comes to the point where you have to wash it. So you wash it. And then the problem I was having, which I don't know if some maybe other people get it right and I just can't figure it out, but I either oil too much or not enough. So not enough. I get dirt like down the carburetor. You see dirt trails, and too much and I'm getting blue goo down the carb. Yeah. So what I found with with the dry media is I ran that thing for two races and a practice now, and I'm just now watching it but no dirt in the carburetor. And as far as the dyno part of things go, we only saw about a 2-3 horsepower loss with the dry medium, which isn't going to win or lose yet, right? So just for the pure fact of convenience. I'm choosing the dry media like 100%.

Well, and I learned something about that too, because I asked Leo out at Walker and where you would run into the situation where you were getting dirt in your engine with the oil filter, it's more likely that it's too much oil. Because when you put too much oil on the filter happen is now you've given a it's excess. So you've given yourself a surface for dust to stick to and it drags it into the engine. And then yes, as the suction happens, then that excess oil is being dragged in and now there's dirt attached to that oil getting sucked into the engine. And that's why so you know, I think it's hard to get it Goldilocks, you know, it's kind of, you know, not too much, not too little.

Would a lower heat range plug help with a car that would maybe be running rich or overloading? I'm currently on our 5724-8. Running 93 or VP110 Mix. (17:04)

The NGK plugs have been pretty much go to, for us for a while. But then, you know, Autolite has that AR-94, which nowadays, like, especially running E85 actually prefer that plug. But we did a bunch of tests on the dyno with different plugs. And every result came back to the AR-94. Having to run 93 is it's so unpredictable. Yeah, you can't you can't get it the same every time. I mean, you know, Joe Blow is going up the road to Sheetz and getting 93 You know, there's some racing 93 And it's just ridiculous. But no, that will not know that won't help. I wouldn't want to go hotter. Because, again, 93 is totally unpredictable. It'd be better to focus attention on the carburetor, then.

How many races, either from brand new or rebuild, when do you think it's the right time to change valves springs? (23:36)

Again, depends on 602 or 604. So what we found with 604 is the newest spring being produced by GM which is not the blue one. So it's just like a natural colored spring with white stripe on it, so that spring is made by pack. So that spring is actually extremely reliable. Knock on wood. Knock knock. I have yet to see one of those fail. Awesome. Like, I have yet to see one of those springs fail. I've seen those springs probably go 25-30 races. So what I have seen with 602, however, it's still a shitty made in China. Basically spring, and those are extremely, you know they're made in Mexico. But at any rate, those springs are extremely inconsistent. Matter of fact, they're definitely horrible. So if it's a 602, I recommend, I would randomly change them every 5 races. And again, you can buy the match set. Or you can buy just the standard set and just randomly change them. But without having a bench tester, it's really impossible to get a good baseline. As far as like what you need to do. I think everyone should own a bench tester, but they're quite expensive. Oh, yeah, they are. And it's quite quite, quite time consuming, pulling springs off and testing on a bench tester. So most people are going to have an on the car type tester. So when the springs are new, that'll give you a baseline on what you know. And make sure the same person pulls it every day and make sure the same person pulls the spring tester every time, you know, on the on the car tester.

Purchased a set of your 602 valve springs, and there was a bag of intakes and a bag of exhausts what is the difference matched at different rates? (33:37)

So the actual higher rated spring is on the intake because it's a heavier valve, the lower rated springs on the exhaust.

What carb would you recommend running on a 604, going in a street truck? (37:31)

Honestly, it is hard to beat a 600 Secondary Holley. Just throw that thing on there and go go drive it around. I mean, those things are awesome. Easy to work on.

How close are the chips in an MSD to actual RPM on the tach? (39:21)

All right, tachs suck. Yeah, especially those TellTachs their piles of crap. So always trust the chip. Don't trust a tach. That being said, Generally, you can overrun that chip by 100-200 rpm. Especially you know, I mean with momentum, or if you're like bouncing through holes and stuff like that.

we had a guy that came in to dyno the other day, and he was saying that he wasn't turned on enough rpm and hooked him up to the dyno and everything. And I noticed immediately I was looking at our computer monitor over here, and I'm running at 3500 and his tachs 3000. So, I mean, that's, that's your problem, right? And then once you get up to that, are you still winning? Yeah, yeah, I'm still we're still winning. But like, once you get once you get up to speed, it's, it's I mean, there's probably a little less, it's probably like 300 less, but still, like the tach is wrong. And like, the the tach that I've the tach that I use is a long anchor one, it's a it's digital and analog all in one. So it's got the digital readout, and then it's got an analog as well. And then you also have a record button. So you can press the record button before you go out for qualifying. And you can see like, everything on the track everything on the track, like if you hit a bump, you know, and that just the RPM spikes or something like that, then you can see that or if you're just constantly hitting the chip, and you know, like, Hey, I got to change gears or whatever the case may be so but ya know that these, these other tachs like, some of the quickcar ones I've seen, they're off by 100-200, something like that. But the TellTachs I've seen are the worst for being off. The Longacre is the only one I will put in my car. 

I have a 602 and my Bmod. I'm turning 6150 RPMs and not seeming to ever hit the chip. When I had more gear and I was hitting the chip, the car seemed faster, but I was worried about hurting something. How hard can I be on the chip? And what do you recommend for speed and also for longevity? (41:46)

For this, you know, anything over 6400 we you know, anything higher than that you go and develop float. So that would be like the limit. And he's like, Well, I have a 602 We have to run a 6200 chip. My question is, how hard do I need to be on the chip? When I'm racing? Should I hit it a lot? Should I never hit it? Does it hurt anything by hitting the chip? It depends on the racetrack, honestly. So like, you'll run into scenarios where you got like a, let's say, a quarter mile track. And it may be advantageous to you, depending on the track surface and the configuration everything to be on the chip at flag stand. But it could also be more advantageous to be on the chip, as you're entering the corner, or never been on the chip at all. You look at some place like, you know going dad's memorial race right in Pennsylvania. Remember when they had the is the big block modifieds up there that they had 602 in or whatever. Those guys were like on the chip other on the damn racetrack. And you and I are sitting there going, what the frickin hell is going on here, pull some gear out of that bitch and go faster and everybody else has a big half mile. That makes no sense to me. A quarter mile scenario, it can make sense to actually be on the chip.

Technically, technically, you can't hurt the engine. I mean, there's old wives tales that yeah, you can hurt the engine, but technically you can't. Now, like MSD, it fires air, it knocks out every other ignition pulse, but it can actually do the same cylinder twice. Whereas like back in the day when we had the fast ignition, they would cycle through them on site. Well, it would never knock out the same one twice. Right. So it was almost like it almost felt like this is back when I was racing. It almost felt like you'd like drove through the rev limiter, so it never slowed you down. So in MSD one it almost feels like a Jake brake comes on once you're in the chip, or once you're in the rev limiter. So I mean Again, it's just going to be track variable is going to be what is needed on that night to go fast.

What's a good jet size was for a 602 with a 650 Willy's carb on 102 fuel? (49:57)

That's a Willy's question. If you've got a guy's carburetor, call that guy and ask him what's wrong. Honestly. Yeah, everybody does their internal differently. Everything's different, like on all the stuff we do, we don't even change jets anymore. It's all done with air bleeds and emulsion bleeds and everything else.

What octane? If you had a choice between 93, 110,  50/50 mix, or a straight 110, which would you pick? At sea level. (50:58)

Well, honestly, even though like if you're getting 93, it'll produce more power more power in I assume this is a 602? 93 will produce more power. But due to consistency. I would rather work on the 110.

Is 3/8 fuel line enough to supply a 650 Carb on a 602? It's a quarter mile asphalt track.(52:06)

Not my opinion. I'd be using ship probably half an inch.

My 602 Late Model fuel pressure, I watched your video. And I understand it needs to be between 6-8 psi with no more than a pound or so up or down under load minus fluctuating four pounds or more from idle to higher RPM. My question is would the regulator be bad or the fuel pump? (52:27)

Can be one of one either either or honestly. Usually, if you're dropping fuel pressure at RPM, it's generally going to be a pump issue. Rather than a regulator issue, especially if it's a bypass, if it's the bypass is always going to be a pump issue. Yeah.

So Alex, you know, just just tell us a little bit of out some, you know, some helpful information that would help help racers in regards to shock guys. (54:58)

(Alex) Like I was saying before, it's just those four corners man, they mean everything on your car. And having a having a good shock guy that's, that's on top of his game and those what he's doing is key these days, you know if you if you got Billy Joe ray in the backyard doing your shocks, and I can promise you, you're not going fast. You need guys that are in the here in the now that are always up to date on what's going on. And I mean, it took me a few years to find the guy that I trust, but I trust him wholeheartedly. And every time I've been on the racetrack and finished the race, I haven't finished out of the top five. I've had, you know, obviously I've had some DNS and stuff like that, you know, we're just stupid stuff has happened. But as far as having a racecar that you can trust, and you know is not gonna let you down. And you can control and it's not controlling you. It, it means the world. And if you can control that car then and you can put it where you want to then you're going fast. Like I said, I mean, I'll tell you straight up my guy is Wyatt Hardison. And that man is the smartest joker alive that that I know of at the moment. We've switched to him, last year, end the last year or middle of last year sometime. And like I said, He's helped me tremendously. We've been testing together, we've been R&D together, we've been doing all kinds of stuff. And we've we've found a really good package, I think so. We're about to, I don't know if I'd say debut it, but we're about to find out what it does here at Gaffney on July 3. So I'm looking forward to it. And just, like I said, it's imperative that you find somebody like that, you got all these guys running around, I mean, even national levels, you look at these national level teams, they run around with engineers, you know, like all these guys that, just stepped down from like NASCAR and things like that. And they just have so much knowledge behind them. And these dirt late model teams are utilizing these guys, and going out there and winning and, and just creating new things and all that stuff kind of trickles down from the higher ups, so to speak. So like, in Lucas Oil, they might find something that's good. And then I don't know, they might have it for two or three months, and then it'll trickle down the line, and then everybody else will get it. So like I said, the thing that really sets Wyatt apart from everybody, in my opinion is that he's just he's on top of everything. He knows what the next best thing is when it happens. So like I say, we're always trying stuff and like he's just been, honestly, he's been a blessing to our team. So I'm happy to have him and happy to have him on board for sure. Well, again, back to relationships, right? And yeah, it means everything. Yeah. Relationships mean everything. Like, get your shock guy to go test with you. They've gotta go test with you. If you're testing without your shock guy, then you could be doing adjustments and he will tell you you're doing it all wrong. 

(Kate) I'm gonna fall back on race logic chassis schools. So race logic, VIP, if you, you know, whether if you've got a street stock, or if you've got a crate, late model, especially, we got some incredible classes over there. There. I say we because I actually, you know, help participate. I actually film all of that and help out with the website, but I'm not an expert in any of that. One thing I have learned from that is, you know, let's talk about how a person can, you know, really connect with a shock guy. And one of the tips that I received at race logic is if you call a shock guy, and you're like, hey, I mean, I, I need you know, I'm looking for somebody to do shocks for my street stock. If they're just like, okay, yeah, don't. Then the next thing that should happen is they should ask you a million questions all about your driving style and and I guess I'm That would be like maybe where I look to you guys and say, you know, when if you are shopping for shock guy other than the tip that I just gave, what particular questions? Would you ask if you were interviewing? Because this is this is someone you're basically hiring in their own way. I mean, sure you're not paying them by the hour, but you're basically hiring someone to be on your race team. So what questions are you asking of a potential shock guy to make sure that you are landing with the right person? Cuz there's a lot of great shock guys out there. It's not just your guy. I mean, I mean, I know. I mean, so I've done work with him with race logic, Robbie Bilbrey is a freaking NASA engineer, amazing. Ben Baker over at AFCO. And Ben's done every kind of racing that you can imagine. And, you know, whether whether you go testing with him or not, I think it depends on where you are on the on your experience level, and how much you can communicate. Because if you call up and say, Hey, here's what's happening, you know, I'm, you know, and you get into all the nitty gritty, and you truly know your race car, and you know, your racing style. And you can explain, you know, what the outside looks like from the inside, I think you could have a telecommunications relationship with your, with your shock guy. But in those first interviews, throw out some questions that you would put into an interview of finding the right shot guy for you?

(Alex) It's like this with a lot of things. But there's, you gotta find somebody that you can relate with, first of all, so there's guys that you're going to call that, you know, you'll tell them what you want, what you need, or whatever. And then they'll just send you a bill. And then there's other guys that will actually dive in deeper and be like, you know, hey, what's going on? Like, how does it feel here? Like, let's break the corners down on where you're feeling this and like people that actually, like, want to help you. Those are the people that you need to be following, not the people that are just like, oh, yeah, I would go to him because, you know, my shocks are good, and this and that. And then you get to them, and they just front you a bill and you're like, I don't know what I've got, I don't know how to tune it, you know, I don't know what I'm doing. And then you don't hear a peep from them until you need to get them rebuilt.

How can a racetrack run without a tech man? (1:06:54)

Not very Damn well. It depends on how good they are. Well, yeah, I mean, you got the tech man that like goes there for his hot dogs is free hot dogs and is like can coke and then you get like, you know, tracks that actually will have tech man, which does not exist very often in very many places. I will I will say, I'll brag on the Rush series, at least like they go around and just randomly show up at tracks. And then they go through tech. So I'm gonna go even if they've got a man. Yeah, there's prerace tech and she'll show up and do that stuff.