Autocross is a timed driving event on a closed course with cones. You’re judged on how fast and accurately you can drive the course, not on highway speed.
Time attack is when you try to set the quickest time around a track. It’s more about getting the car to feel consistent and fast lap after lap than about wheel-to-wheel racing.
In drifting, the driver makes the car slide sideways through a turn but keeps it controlled. Judges usually look for how smoothly and accurately you can do it.
Drag racing is a straight-line race where cars race side-by-side over a short distance. It’s all about how hard you can accelerate and get traction right at the start.
A “70 Mustang” is a 1970 Ford Mustang, one of the most famous muscle cars ever made. People love it as a base for customizing because the look is iconic and it’s easy to modify.
An “LS swap” is when someone puts a GM LS V8 engine into a different car. People do it because the engine is powerful and there are lots of parts and know-how available. It usually takes some custom work to make everything fit and run correctly.
The “Slush Motorsports Festival” is the specific event where the speaker ran an autocross. It’s mentioned as a real-world venue for motorsports activities, which helps listeners place the alignment and handling discussion in context. The transcript doesn’t provide location details, but it’s clearly an organized driving event.
The BMW 3 Series is a compact car made by BMW that’s built to drive well, especially around turns. The E36 version is an older model that many people modify, including changing suspension settings like camber to help the tires grip better.
Negative camber means the wheels are angled so the top leans inward. A little can help grip in turns, but too much can make the car feel unpredictable. The speaker says their car got shaky and hard to recover from after adding too much.
A log book is a record of what you changed on the car and what happened afterward. It helps you remember the settings that worked. The speaker explains they couldn’t find their old notes, so they made a change without knowing where they’d left off.
The Dodge Ram is a large pickup truck made for work and towing. The engine setup mentioned—like a tunnel ram and two carburetors—refers to aftermarket performance parts that help the engine make more power and change the way it runs.
“Flowing” the carburetor means smoothing and matching the passages inside it so air and fuel can move through more easily. The goal is usually better throttle response and stronger breathing.
A tunnel ram is a special intake system that feeds air/fuel to the engine using a big, high-flow manifold. It usually works best at higher RPM, so it can be worse for stop-and-go driving.
RPMs tell you how fast the engine is spinning. Higher RPM usually means the engine is working harder and breathing better, which matters a lot for intake setups like a tunnel ram.
The 1971 Dodge Charger is a famous old-school muscle car. Here they’re talking about how, back then, people would add loud-looking performance parts like a tunnel ram to make it feel fast.
“Two fours” means the engine has two 4-barrel carburetors. More carburetor “mouth” can help the engine make more power, especially when you’re revving higher.
“440” is the engine size—440 cubic inches—used in some classic Mopar muscle cars. They’re saying they started with a mostly factory 440 and still learned that the wrong intake/cam combo can make it behave badly.
A drag strip is a track where cars race in a straight line to see which one accelerates faster. It’s usually focused on launches and top acceleration, not turning.
Term
dumps
“Dumps” is slang for dump valves or blow-off/dump-style exhaust systems used with forced induction setups. They vent pressure (or release exhaust) to create a distinctive sound and can help manage boost behavior during throttle changes.
Vacuum is a kind of suction created by the engine. Some car systems—like power brakes and stable idling—depend on it, so a “race cam” can make the car feel worse at idle.
Nitrous is a system that adds nitrous oxide to the engine to make extra power for a short time. It’s popular because it can be relatively cost-effective, but it has to be set up and tuned correctly.
Fuel injection is how the engine gets gasoline into the cylinders in the right amount. When you add boost or nitrous, the fuel has to be adjusted carefully so the engine doesn’t run dangerously lean.
A “dry kit” is a nitrous system that adds nitrous but doesn’t automatically add extra gasoline. That can make the engine run too lean, which can get hot and damage it.
A 1972 Vega wagon is a compact Chevrolet from the early ’70s. Here it matters because the host put a nitrous system on it, which can be very hard on the engine if fuel isn’t handled correctly.
Spider gears are the gears inside the rear differential that let the two rear wheels turn at different speeds when you’re cornering. If you lock or alter them, the car can hook up harder—but it can also stress the drivetrain.
A 1978 Camaro Z/28 is a performance version of the Camaro. The host is using it as a donor for rear-end gears, which affects how the rear axle transfers power to the wheels.
Direct injection means the engine squirts fuel straight into the cylinders instead of just into the intake. That can help the engine meter fuel more precisely, which is important when adding boosts like nitrous.
Direct injection is when fuel is sprayed right where it burns inside the engine. That matters with nitrous because nitrous adds a big boost of oxygen, so the engine needs the right amount of fuel at the same time.
A progressive controller makes the nitrous come on gradually rather than all at once. That helps the engine stay in a safer, more consistent tune while the nitrous is ramping up.
A dyno is a machine that measures how much power a car makes. Tuners use it to test things like nitrous pulls so they can see if the engine is running safely.
A “plate system” is a nitrous setup that uses a plate to route nitrous (and often fuel) into the intake. It has to be set up correctly so the fuel and nitrous come on together.
Solenoids in a nitrous system are electrically controlled valves that open to let nitrous (and sometimes fuel) flow when triggered. If the fuel-side solenoid/pump isn’t working, the nitrous can still inject, creating an unsafe lean condition.
A backfire is an ignition event occurring in the intake/exhaust rather than smoothly inside the cylinders. With nitrous, backfires often indicate a mixture/timing problem—commonly a lean condition when nitrous is flowing but fuel delivery isn’t.
Valves are the engine’s intake/exhaust doors that open and close to control airflow and exhaust. The host says they likely “took out some valves,” which implies the nitrous backfire/fire event caused mechanical damage or bent valves.
A fuel pump is what pushes gas from the tank to the engine. If you’re running a setup that needs more fuel, the pump has to keep up—otherwise the engine can run lean and misbehave.
The radiator fan blows air through the radiator to keep the engine from overheating. In a race, airflow and load change a lot, so how the fan is controlled can matter.
A “temp switch” turns something on or off when the engine gets hot enough. It’s a simple automatic control so you don’t have to manually manage cooling during driving.
A road course is a type of race track with lots of corners and braking. In that kind of racing, you’re focused on driving lines and timing, so it’s easy to miss things like engine temperature.
Overheat means the engine is getting too hot. The speaker is saying that if the cooling system isn’t running, the engine can overheat before you even reach town.
Concept
automatically have stuff come off and on
They’re saying you shouldn’t rely on someone remembering to flip switches for important systems. Automatic control helps prevent mistakes that can cause problems like overheating.
Corrected altitude is a way of accounting for how high up you are and how that affects air density. Thinner air can change how much power your engine makes, especially with nitrous.
Ambient temperature is just the outside air temperature. Colder air changes how the engine burns fuel, so the same setup can behave differently at 60°F versus 80–85°F.
Air-fuel ratio means how much fuel the engine mixes with the air before it burns. If it’s too rich or too lean—especially when adding nitrous—the engine can run badly or get damaged.
Knock is when the engine starts burning fuel in a rough, uncontrolled way instead of smoothly. It can sound like pinging and can damage the engine, so tuning (fuel and timing) matters a lot when you add power.
Spark advance is about timing—when the engine fires the spark before the piston hits the top. If it’s timed too aggressively, the engine can knock and get damaged, especially when you’re pushing more power.
Power adders are upgrades that make the engine produce more power than it did stock. Because they change how the engine burns fuel, you usually need to tune timing and fueling to run safely.
Pulling timing out means making the ignition happen later (less aggressive). When you’re adding power, the engine can start knocking, and backing off timing helps prevent damage.
In racing, “variables” are the things that affect how the car performs that you can’t ignore. Things like grip and conditions can make the same car feel totally different from one run to the next.
Tire compound is the type of rubber in the tire. Softer compounds usually grip harder but wear faster, while harder ones last longer but may not bite as well.
A tune is the car’s settings for how it runs—like how much fuel it uses and when it sparks. Street driving and drag racing can need different settings because the car loads and grips differently.
The camshaft is a rotating part that tells the engine when to open and close the valves. If it’s installed or timed wrong, the engine won’t run as intended.
A thrust bearing helps keep the crankshaft from moving around too much. If the clearance isn’t correct, the engine can wear out faster or start making bad noises.
Plastic gauge is a cheap measuring strip used to check the tiny clearance between engine parts. It helps you confirm the fit is correct before you fully assemble everything.
Degreeing a cam means checking that the cam opens the valves at the right crankshaft position. Marks can be off, so builders measure it to make sure the timing is truly correct.
Compression ratio is a number that describes how tightly the engine squeezes the air-fuel mixture. Higher compression can make more power, but it also increases the risk of knocking if the setup isn’t right.
A stroker kit is an upgrade that makes the engine bigger by increasing the crank’s stroke. Because it changes internal geometry, it can also affect compression and clearances—so you can’t just bolt it on blindly.
The head gasket is the seal between the engine block and the cylinder head. Its thickness can change compression, which can make the engine need better fuel or careful tuning.
Concept
where your compression's at
They’re saying compression matters in practice, not just on paper. It affects how the engine runs and what kind of fuel it needs.
That’s the engine speed range (RPM) they’re talking about—where it should feel strong and work best. Engine parts like the camshaft and compression affect that range.
The crankshaft is the main rotating part that turns the engine’s motion into usable power. If it’s not made correctly, the engine can’t run smoothly and can fail quickly.
Blueprinting means carefully measuring engine parts and building it to exact specs. Instead of assuming everything is right, you verify the important measurements before you put it together.
It’s the small space between moving metal parts inside the engine. If that gap is wrong, the parts can wear out faster or even get damaged. That’s why builders measure it carefully during a rebuild.
This is about the small gap at the ends of the piston rings. When the engine gets hot, the rings expand, so they need enough room to avoid touching and getting damaged. Too little gap can lead to serious failure.
Thermal expansion means parts get bigger when they heat up. Racing and nitrous create a lot more heat, so piston rings expand more than you’d see in normal driving. The engine build has to leave enough clearance for that growth.
A power curve shows how much power the engine makes at different RPMs. When you tune the engine, you’re trying to improve that curve—especially where you’ll use the power.
The Plymouth Road Runner is an older muscle car made for fast driving. In the context you shared, it sounds like someone built and modified one, which is common with these cars to make them stronger and more exciting to drive.
Term
board 30 over
“.030 over” means the engine cylinders are bored a little bigger than factory. That increases displacement, which can help make more power and torque.
Ring gap is the small space between the ends of the piston rings. With high-power setups like nitrous, that gap has to be set right so the rings don’t overheat, stick, or fail.
Pistons are the parts inside the engine cylinders that get pushed by combustion pressure. If pistons get damaged, it’s usually a sign something went seriously wrong.
A boosted application is an engine that uses a turbo or supercharger to make more power. That extra pressure makes the engine more demanding, so setup and tuning mistakes can cause damage.
A converter is part of an automatic transmission that helps the car launch smoothly and multiply torque. If it’s not set up correctly, the car can behave badly and stress components.
Turbos are devices that use exhaust gases to spin a compressor and push more air into the engine. More air means more power, but it also means the engine has to be set up correctly.
A supercharger is a device that forces extra air into the engine to make more power. Because it increases pressure, the engine needs the right setup to stay safe.
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car designed for fast driving and strong performance. People often modify them for more power, especially if they’re using the car on roads or track days.
Turbo lag is the momentary delay before a turbo engine really “kicks in.” On a track, that delay can make the car feel unpredictable when you’re trying to control it through corners.
Dual throttle bodies means the engine uses two air-control valves instead of one. That can help the engine respond more crisply to your right foot, making it easier to control power on a track.
An “on-off pedal” is when the gas pedal feels jumpy—like it’s either not doing much or suddenly doing a lot. On a track, that makes it harder to fine-tune power through corners.
“Modulate it” means you gently and gradually control the inputs—like the gas—so the car behaves smoothly. On track, that helps you keep traction instead of suddenly spinning or sliding.
Slip angle is basically how much the tires are “aimed” versus how the car is really moving. When that mismatch gets too big, the car starts to lose grip and slide.
A flywheel is a heavy-ish spinning part that helps the engine stay smooth. Using aluminum makes it lighter, so the engine speed changes faster—great for quick shifting, but it can make it easier to stall or feel jerky in stop-and-go traffic.
Inertia is basically how much a spinning part “wants” to keep spinning at the same speed. If it’s low, the engine speed can drop quickly when you disengage the clutch, so you have to be more careful not to stall.
A twin disc clutch uses two friction plates to transmit torque to the transmission. Compared with a single-plate clutch, it can handle more power and can feel more responsive, but it may also be less smooth for everyday street driving depending on setup and driving style.
The host is saying you should build or modify a car for how you’ll really drive it. What feels great on a track or during aggressive driving can be frustrating in normal street traffic.
“Turbo 350” is a common automatic transmission used in a lot of classic performance builds. People choose it along with the right torque converter so the engine revs and accelerates the way they want.
“Stall” here means the RPM where the automatic transmission’s torque converter lets the engine rev up under load. If it’s set too high or too low for your engine, the car won’t launch or accelerate the way you expect.
Term
power you're making
He’s talking about how strong the engine is. If the engine makes more power, the transmission parts (like the torque converter) often need to be matched so the car accelerates smoothly.
The power band is the range of engine RPM where the engine feels strongest. The goal is to keep the engine in that sweet spot when you accelerate.
LIVE
It is two guys ride podcast here is Kevin Byrd. I will be being today. Well today
We're just batting it back between Kevin and I haven't some fun talking about lessons learned because I feel like God
Man, there's been so many lessons learned especially in the last several years when it comes to
Well, just racing and you know all forms of racing the thing about Kevin and I was we both enjoy
Like you guys listening right doesn't matter if it's a road course a time attack
autocross
Drift event a roundee of round event
You know circle drag or drag race. I love them all man. I've raced them all. It's been a blast. Yeah, no doubt
You know, we've got so many years of experience working on so many different types of cars
And you know, there's a million things that we've picked up or learned or you know lessons or whatever like
What would we do on our next hot rod build, right? What would we not do again, right? What road did we go down?
It's like oh bother man. That was not worth the effort
So we've collected just an um
obscene amount of right different experiences across the
The plethora, you know, we focus a lot on the hot rods because you know, that's kind of what we do
It's the fun part. So I think we'll kind of dial in around the you know
The next hot rod kind of build and we love the old stuff
Of course, we love the new as well
But you know, we're typically taking some old rusty thing and turning it into something
Semi-modern and cool and fast and crazy. Yeah, man
It is kind of funny man because we both
Kind of fixate on some of the older cars and the older shapes
You got a badass 70 Mustang and I don't say that about a lot of mustangs
Um, and you got to write this, you know beamer ls swap build and all kinds of other cool hot rods
At me, you know, I've got several of those mopar hot rods and no most cars and a few shabbies and
Like you man, I just enjoy racing
I got a ls swap bmw2 and a few other things
I I like to do a little you know a little time attack and autocross stuff and do some drift events
So it really is man when you look over just racing in general
It is something that once it gets in your blood it's become so addicting and you know regardless of your platform
We all tend to make some similar mistakes, you know
Well, we like to try new things different ideas or different approaches and
You know, sometimes you realize that some of those work and maybe some of them are not worth the effort
Maybe they just didn't pay back, right? We had terry ferro on not too long ago on a podcast and after the podcast is over
I was telling him man. I was doing an autocross
For the slush motorsports festival a couple weeks ago
I put some negative camber in my my e36
Because you know, I I'd been messing around with it and you know
My problem is I wasn't writing this down. I was making quick adjustments on the fly
So I forgot where it was, but I had a log book where I changed it like a year ago
But I swear I couldn't find it and I was hustling
So I put some negative camber in it and all of a sudden man the car was just it was not happy. It was
Really shifty and and anybody's had too much negative camber to the rear understands that but it was it was awful, man. It was
It made for a shaky ride and then I had no way to get out of it because I'm very committed to it
So, you know, uh, you tend to make, you know, small mistakes or you know, there's there's big mistakes
And I think, you know, we probably have made that mistake. I started making mistakes early on. I remember when I was
Bro when I was 16, I was the kid in town that had a tunnel ram and two fours
And I gotta tell you you're you're biting out quite a bit to chew with the tunnel ram and two fours
But you know, I I look I did it as smart as possible because I didn't I didn't put tunnel ram two 750s
Right, right, right 266 fifties. I tunnel ram
Two holly three nineties. There you go, right? And I I grounded off every if you look at a holly if you look in the bowl
It's got square edges, you know the lip is square edge
I I I took a dremel and took every bit of that off. I rounded all the edges off
So I flowed the carburetor. So it actually flowed a little over 400
On each of them it made a good combo
But if you're just island through town, you know doing your cruise thing a tunnel ram is stupid
It makes no power
It's just you gotta be way up in the rpms. You utilize it
But I was that kid, man
I was that kid a 71 dodge charger and had a tunnel ram and two fours and there was nothing going to change my mind about
Mind you, this is the mid 80s. So give me a break right late 80s
But but I was that kid, man
That's the era and I'm sure it still gets, you know stumbled upon every now and then with
You know too much intake and either or too much cam
Just way too much cam. I wanted one at the bottom of the page. Yeah. Yeah, I had an immense amount of cam
And I was like sure sure. I've turned this stock 440, you know, 8,000 rpms
Uh, but yeah, you know, it made for a quick uh, a quick lesson for sure
But that's the focus of today is lessons learned and that was definitely one of them
But more to come it's the two guys ride podcast. He's Kevin Brown and Willie B
We're talking lessons learned after the break
It is two guys garage podcast. He's Kevin bird. I'm Willie B. We're talking lessons learned and you know what this is
Look, it's both embarrassing and uh, kind of fun for us to revisit some of these ideas and concepts
We were just talking in the break there how
How every kid in the late 80s, you know, mid to late 80s wanted something hanging out of his hood
I couldn't afford a 671 blower. So I was like, man, I gotta have me a tunnel ram
Uh, no one that they didn't make as much power like even back then it was obvious
They didn't or you'd have to be you run around your little hometown at 8,000 rpms to make any power out of it
But yeah, man, I was that kid and I loved it, bro. I loved it. I was like, yeah, that's right
That's a tunnel ram. Yeah, you can't be anywhere south of 20 something
And not go to a drag strip and just want to emulate everything you see right from a blower out to the tunnel ram
You know big and littles like on the street and and and right like oh, I got dumps and I don't need
I don't need mufflers and man
Check out that cam. Just listen to that thing man. It sounds so rad. Oh, meanwhile, you got no vacuum
You got no bar breaks. You got oh man
Just can't idle around you can't cruise
Man your engine's running hot
Remember everybody in shop class. I got three quarter inch race cam. What the hell was that? What was that?
That was like a thing for a minute. That was everybody's answer dude. I was winning
I was winning because I was seven eighths cam. I had a seven eighths cam in my car, dude
It was crushing the three quarter cams. I had a 13 16th camp
Huh?
Uh, yeah, that was one of the things man
But you know, I really started learning lessons
So I still think and people can debate this but I still think even in today's environment
Nitrous is a is a fun power adder that's really affordable
We'll talk about superchargers and turbos in a minute. There's a lot involved with them. Obviously a number one thing fuel injection b
Uh, you know a lot of piping tubing you got a man's heat
And then just everything goes in with that with nitrous early on a nitrous
There are things that would allow you imagine this you guys like nowadays. You don't see them
But back in the day you could go into your speed shop
I remember going into super shops if you guys remember that and buying a dry kit
You know what a dry kit was 125 shot of nitrous
Sometimes you get him 150, but it added zero fuel to the car
No fuel it just threw 125 to 150 shot of nitrous and and nothing up
It's just like here you go. This could burn your engine up
But it make a little bit faster for sure
So so I was running around with a dry kit on and I had this little Vega wagon and this thing was
This thing was a 72 Vega wagon painted canary yellow and I had a a little roller 350 in it
I welded the spider gears of his a 78 z 28 in the in the rear end of it
And so I had this little junkyard 350 I put a dry kit of nitrous on it
And man, I used to burn a bottle of nitrous like every single night
It got to the point where I bought my own nitrous refill station
Me and my twin brother because we were running so much nitrous
With no fuel no fuel that's where you do like a sign of the cross and a couple of prayers
Every time you go to hit that button man that button was under shifter. I would hit that thing constantly
I didn't even care. know what it was doing
But when I finally tore that engine apart it was so wild because the piston was
It was wild. It looked like a diesel piston now
It's so dished and the the ring lands and stuff were all raised really high up on it like it it
Manipulated to warp those pistons to the point. I I couldn't even describe it now
You like it looks like a deep dish diesel piston it would they were all hammered
And you know it wasn't that long after that that you know you started to understand
You know when I started running and doing a lot of racing, you know when I moved out of colorado
Got my 70 charger. I was running a big
You know, if you remember there was plate systems, but if you're running a direct injection system on the ports
Like in os remember in os like the first nitrous thing like I got a direct injected
On the ports of the intake runner intake that I did
Through a carbon still run the carburetor just the nitrous jets were drilled in and man
I ran that system on a progressive controller
For a number of years and got it really consistent and that was the thing you got to have a consistent
You got to have a progressive controller. I think that gets consistency
But there were ways to do it. I will tell you this one hard lesson I learned and you'll appreciate this kevin
On the dyno, I used to have a buddy that had a dyno shop and I had
Dual holly blues running my first plate system
Well, I let my buddy run my car because it was his dyno
So I had here's one mistake you can never make when you run a nitrous
Don't run two separate fuel pumps
So in this particular case my buddy was in my car
He I gave the okay to do a nitrous run
He turned everything on but he forgot to turn the nitrous fuel pump on
So when he goes to load up on the and dump the nitrous in nitrous
Silinoids drop their load, but there was nothing in the fuel silinoids and he goes
Wow
Big old huge backfire and fire through the carburetor. I'm like, oh no
As soon as I I started again, you got to
Do the carb and I knew I'd taken out some valves
So, yeah, that was the uh, that was a quick end of that season
And it was just because my buddy forgot to turn on the nitrous fuel pump
So I'd say one of the harder lessons I learned
Um
Is make sure you have a single fuel pump
That's adequate enough to handle both your nitrous the addition
There's no fuel needed for nitrous
Without any, you know
Load on the pump
Nitrous best around, you know, eight pounds of pressure on the carburetor more obviously fuel injection
Uh, but yeah, man, that was a lesson. I learned the hard way back in the day
Well, that that kind of reminds me of a little bit, you know, we're going way back in time
Um, you know, first I thought of a few things in the last, you know, five 10 years and then
As we're going I'm thinking oh my god all this stuff from 20 or 30 years back
But yeah, like the decision on what do you put on a switch?
Like I remember we had a little formula race car and uh, you know, it was a cold day
And we had the fan the cooling fan, you know, radiator fan on a switch
Uh versus just having it on a you know a temp switch automatic and I remember going into the race and I forget who was driving
I remember this mistake too and and it was um
It could have been me drive but somebody was like and you know, you got all the things going on with the race
And it's like you're you're jumping in the car. You're about to go head to head
And someone's like man, it's cold and the engine's cold
Just turn the switch on like halfway through the race
You know when you're like on a road course, dude, you know, you're just thinking about your shift point your brake points
All these things the last thing you're doing and you should be looking at gauges
But man when corners are coming up past a lot of times you're just looking at our p.m. And
Oh man. Yeah at some point. It's like people are waving and you're like waving back like hey, you know
They're like no no no they're pointing it back and it's like steam coming out
You know the radiators are behind they're in this particular setup, you know like
Oh, but yeah, what do you put on a switch?
And then that is so true because I run an electric water pump with several my my hot rods
Yeah, you know and same mistake. Um, I let my wife drive 11 time
I'm not thinking you know
Hey, I gotta tell her to turn the damn radiator the water pump on or the you know
It's gonna overheat sure enough man by the time we get into town. It's like, yeah
I'm like what happened
If there's a way to automatically have stuff come off and on that's that's what I'm gonna do
Right. Don't rely on on switches because man like you said your buddy or your wife somebody could be driving it
Or somebody's in your ear things are happening and you're not paying attention to a gauge comes up to a certain
Pressure temperature or whatever put stuff on automatic for sure. That's so true
That is true. Um, and I will tell you something else while we're discussing nitrous
Or at least throwing back to some things understanding variables. I feel like it's really important even, um, I got a 69 charger
That that clicks low nines out of here in Denver. I'm in Denver, Colorado
So, you know our corrected altitude is 9 to 10 000 feet on a given race day
So to click, you know a 906 and you know a buck 50 is doing something
Uh, I think it actually go quicker now, but we don't have race track out here currently
But we're there is a hope for us, uh, bandamere just now the other day
They were breaking ground so that that was big for everybody here
but on a
on a nitrous note
temperature is
A massive influence on how that engine is going to react
I've seen because I used to run Colorado street outlaws here
So many guys with nitrous setups
Not get their engine to temperature
And then when the nitrous comes on they have one of the worst backfires if it's too cold
And the air temperature is cold
Bad combination the engine needs to be warmed up to temperature if you're throwing nitrous at it
Don't let yourself go out there with a cold engine
Throw nitrous at it or just do a you know a quick warm up throw nitrous at it. Oh, it's gonna get ugly quick, man
Major backfires
Big mistakes there happen and it's just again understanding variables
Ambient temperature if you're racing and it's 60 degrees it's gonna be much different than a race at 80 degrees or 85 degrees
Um, just knowing that knowing, you know, if your car's been sitting for a minute and it's completely cooled down
And you're caught up or draw a number and you're up to race
You need to get that car to temperature before you go out there and lean on it
Especially with nitrous. Yeah, there's a lot of lessons learned with
Just an engine man. Just an engine. I mean, I remember
Just taking years to really understand. Yeah air fuel ratio at spark that seems so
straightforward
but really the interaction of it and like
Spark advance at low rpm versus higher p.m. Is completely different and then yeah, you think oh, I just I'm at my ideal fuel
Well, yeah, once you start building power well now you need extra fuel just to cool
So you don't knock and what is knocking man? There's a lot of lessons there. I mean you probably
Almost did it the best. I don't know what what cost that
440 was when you threw nitrous on it and just went around bottle after bottle
But at least you got a whole bunch of experience before that first pop
Um, which you know for a lot of people you could spend a lot of money and pop something real fast because man
It can go awry really quick
Uh, so yeah, once you start doing power adders you probably ought to start
With the basics first really understand
Right, just what air fuel and spark advance and all that is really doing
Before you start adding power adders because that's just gonna get you in trouble a whole lot quicker
Yeah, and a side note of that making sure that you're pulling timing out when you're adding big power both
You know in boosted applications and in nitrous
Um, you know, you got so many people don't include that and you got to pull a couple degrees for every hundred horsepower
You're dropping in nitrous, uh, or you're gonna be toast
So a lot of people just don't think about that. Maybe don't have it automatically set up
I always run, you know a 7a l box or something like that where I could pull it out automatically
Um, but you're right man, um
understanding
Variables and and what is the cause and and the reaction from it is key when you're racing because you know somebody times
You're racing especially, you know back of the day when I used to do a lot of racing, you know, just
I don't uh, I'm not
Advocating this but I used to do some street racing and man you got to understand the conditions road not overpowering the course to track
Uh, any what you know what tire using what compound you're using for for grip and bite and you know
How much to put it in on the street tune versus a uh, you know a tune you got on the drag strip
I I have a completely different setup. I got a street tune on my progressive controllers
And I got a race tune a completely different
Um, and the car reacts completely different. So just understanding
certain variables
Play big and to you know having a great night or a really really bad night. Yeah, amen
well, you know if we talk about engines like today it seems like
most I'd say most people are going to
Either a crate motor or a builder
Right, it seemed like a rite of passage when we were younger right 80s 90s, whatever
Was build your own engine
You know and and you're always trying to find that you know that rare
Cylinder had that flowed more and then you'd port it or you do this or you'd do that
Um, so you know back in the day it was all about you know building motors
And I know you've built tons of different stuff supposed especially in the mopar world
Um, so for for the few out there that are actually building man
What were some of the mistakes or lessons learned just in the build process?
Um, you know what would be some good ones?
Put the camshaft in first
For the mopar guys, that's always one. Where do you start?
Uh, but really, you know what cleaning it making sure everything's machined right balance, right? I'd say that's key
um
Thrust bearing, uh, that's something you got to get right how to plastic gauge
Um, that's probably something you got to learn how to you know, how to degree in a cam
A lot of times people don't realize this but you know for a lot of mopar guys
Don't just go to that first notch in the advanced section and put it on that
But you got to really know how to degree a cam
Uh and and get a set right
In order to get the most performance
You know out of this engine so I think there's a few things like that
Uh that are always kind of constant and key things to remember
Um, but you know checking out your compression ratios before understanding where your compression is going to be at
So you match, you know a lot of times when people don't realize they'll buy a stroker kit
And you know the stroker kits 12 and a half to one where you can't run pump gas to that
They'll put a thin head gasket in there and they won't be able to drive the car because they can't run a pump gas
So, you know, you got to know what thickness head gasket to get you got to know where your compression's at
What the combination is going to do and where it's really going to you know, be happy at is it?
3000 to 8000 or 7000 is it 4000 to 8000 where where you need this engine to live at to be happy? Yeah
Yeah, that's a whole lot of them all in one breath
for sure
Hey man, because I made all those mistakes
I that totterham had the biggest camshaft in the world, but yeah, it didn't work
Yeah, compression ratio is a lot like camshaft people just want too much of them
You know like oh compression ratio. I picked up power. I went more of it
Like how much y'all taking and you run 12 and a half to one. You're like
Why do I have to pull my spark completely out and I'm running a lot of this crap here, you know, like
Yeah, man. I'm running 13 to 1 on pump gas. Great. I'm not going anywhere. Yeah, it's never gonna work
Um, but hey man, that's what lessons learned is all about some of us learn them the hard way
Some of them learn from watching our buddies do stupid things
Uh more than that in just a minute to two guys garage podcast kevin bird will be we're back after the break
It is two guys garage podcast he's kevin bird. I'm will be and we're talking about lessons learned and unfortunately
I don't know why it's this way, but sometimes the best lessons
Come in a painful dressing. I'll tell you I mean
Oh backfires
Blow-ups some of them still hurt. You know, yeah, absolutely 100 time ago. Yep. Yeah 100
But they guide you that's the only that's the positive side right guide you for the future
I tell you what when we go back to to engines and I might have shared this before but
um, you know 16 17 just started building small black chevies for my camaro and
And uh, you know worked at this machine shop or that race shop and I'd learned something or I pick up a set of heads
So I was always just tearing apart building something new or I'd learn how to port and polish because I'd have a race head
I could copy or you know all that stuff and uh, but one of my first engines that was built and just you know small black chevy
um
My lesson is about
Kind of trust, you know, I'm only
Whatever was 17 years old and I'm thinking the machine shop man. Those guys know everything, right?
Took off my crank took my block, right?
Everything's balanced and and I go to put it together and I'm using
Plastic gauge because you know all the you know the real tools measurement tools are are expensive
And uh, yeah that first motor I built or not first but anyway one variant and you know
With a couple hundred miles my old pressure went to zero
You know and after a whole bunch of hard egg figuring out it's like pull thing apart just
Bearing material everywhere the machine shop had miss machined the crank somehow
Out around like if you measured it with a mic it'd be different. It was like egg shaped. I don't know how they did that
But the plastic gauge did not pick it up. So
that was a huge but it was
Powerful because right it's trust you trust that everything is good. I just assemble it in the right order. It's gonna be great
So I I really got into more of the blueprinting, right?
Measure every damn thing
Critical especially on that bottom and before you put it together
And I remember even that same lesson like getting into college, you know
meeting different friends and I had a buddy who was racing scca with his dad for years and years and and um
You know, he kind of scoffed at the blueprinting and you don't need it
Me and my dad have built this same engine over and over again
And you know come to find out the thing's blown up a number of times, you know
Why you gotta rebuild it every year to racing? Yeah, they just yeah to racing and finally like one day
After the thing it had blown up or had some issues
They they really you know brought it someone and they tore down it and they realized that something was completely out of spec
And it had been screwing them up this whole time, right?
So that just reinforced to me
And and again, I get it. It's not easy to do you don't have the equipment
But maybe that's where you really work with a machinist
If you want to do some of the assembly yourself is make sure somebody
Has got the measurement equipment and you know what every bearing clearance is and right checking your thrust and it
It's all in spec
Right and then just work your way up like, you know, you're talking about nitrous and and power adders
Then you start thinking about what are my ringing gaps, right little details about wow
I got a lot more heat in there. So now I got thermal expansion and now my rings are growing
Yeah, I want to butt together
So there's a lot of little lessons in there
Oh man, have you ever had those ring ring ends come together and
Literally take a chunk of the piss top of the piston off. No, thank god, but I've seen plenty of and
Yeah, and and I've been you know, I've worked for it for 20 something years in powertrain and so
um, man
You talk about uh, a brand new configuration
I mean stuff no one's ever built before right brand new designs. You're an r&d
And so yeah, you're calculating and you're going on experience like what ring and gap should be or whatever
But man, you put it on a dyno and somebody is sitting there for the first time
Like walking up that watt run. Yeah, you know listening for the knock
Like how much spark can I put in and fuel I tell you even at the professional level like the oe level
I mean now we have knock sensors and things that really help
so even before that like
You know, we'd have a microphone in the dyno cell and it would try to filter out all the sounds except for that little
You know and you're just praying that your dyno operator is paying attention because you got this
One off build, you know, which is not much different than when you're doing it yourself
Like I put a lot of time and effort into this
I only got one
And you know, you're walking up that watt curve just trying to eat getting that little extra degree of spark right finding every horsepower
Trying not to get that rattle rattle rattle clackety clack bang, you know
And it can happen fast. Oh, it can happen fast man. You reminded me of a buddy of mine paul who built the roadrunner
Uh, he loved my 70 charger
Out of here. It was a 10 second car at this point and he was like, I want to copy that engine
So it was a simple deal. It was a 493 stroker kit. It was board 30 over
I made a five basically 500 cubic inch
engine, but I built mine and
He had his built. Well, I did the ring gap. I did the ring you got for nitrous
so I knew I was gonna be had nitrous in it and
He didn't when he had his built and he put the same nitrous kit that I had on my car because he wanted the exact same engine
But he didn't tell the guy he didn't know about
The the rings and how to gap them for nitrous and man, honestly, god
It was six months after he got this car on the road
We're up with the track just on like a
Test-and-tune day and he's like, I'm gonna hit it with nitrous man. I'm like, all right. Yeah, dude
Can't wait to see what it runs because I had mine up there
He went about I'd say buddy
He may might have got to a hundred percent on the progressive controller and that thing said boom
And man, he knocked the top ring lands off on two or three pistons. Like it was it was awful
I mean, it was ugly in every way. He shelled that engine and honestly god. He put so much money in it
Uh, I mean he had a lot of money. So I didn't I guess heard him that much to build another one
But yeah, man things like that. You don't necessarily contend for what about boosted applications
A lot of times guys chase technology, especially in boosted applications, right? So chasing technology is you know
Nowadays for example in in the racing world
There's so many things electronics that you can get that help your
Reaction time or help you leave or you know get you up on a converter and some things do it
You know just on a digital setting
Well, if you don't know and understand that technology
I had a buddy just out in vegas burns converter down because he set the cube wrong
And it went up on a converter way too long
The guy wasn't even in the other light and he didn't he didn't shut it off
He just let it sit there and eat it and man it just you know things like that
I think our um our detrimental if you don't understand it
You're just going with what's the latest and greatest and throwing money at it. You got to understand it
What is doing? I think which is what why I'm always, you know, knocking on kevin's door like hey, man
Help me out of here. What what are you doing? We're sitting here like you got to understand it
Meanwhile, we're telling you all the dumb we did
Yeah, how did we learn?
What did we break to figure out don't do that anymore?
Oh, absolutely, man
Um, you know between superchargers and turbos had a number of them
Uh, I learned a few lessons of that never ever
I used to have a pretty fast road course corvette and then I just kept going for more power
And uh, yeah, I ruined my road course times
Uh, you can always out power a track like like we spoke with terry flare
It's easy to overpower a track and I quickly learned that you're going much slower
When you have too much power and you can't control it on the track on a road course anyway
Uh, you're just you're shooting yourself at a foot power is great as long as you can use it
But if you can't use it you're just killing yourself
Yeah, and that could come in a lot of different forms, right?
Whether it's turbo lag, right? Then it becomes just so
Unpredictable unusable when you're trying to navigate a really
Dancy curve. Uh, it could be right was as you kind of mentioned we were talking with terry fair from borsch lag
It's he went to uh, it's an n a ls making 700 plus at the tire for his uh,
Trackday car, but he went to dual throttle bodies to try to get better
You know, so you don't have an on-off pedal, right? Yeah, so
Yeah, any which way of trying to make sure you've got the power, but you can modulate it
Especially if you're hanging on corners, right? Like you got four wheels slight drift going on you got slip angle and
Man the wrong input your sideways. Oh when when my corvette when I first the first
iteration of it it was like 800 and I was I was hard to beat on the road course
Um, that thing for for what it was, you know was was really wicked on the you know, the local road course here
Uh, so on open track days, I'd have a blast. Well, then
You know the next evolution of the car it was about a 50
And man all of a sudden I was much slower and much easier to beat on the road course
Like I was getting mopped up by cars. They were significantly lower in power than me
The only place I catch them is on the straights
So that kind of sucked. I knew when I went to 12 over 1200
It just became just stupid to try to put on a road course because you couldn't use it
Like you said turbo lag you got it yet get into the throttle well before the apex so that you could compensate for the lag
Uh, and you just beat yourself up when you're trying to you know, road course race a big turbo car
It doesn't work. So I wouldn't recommend that at all
Um, but yeah, it lesson learned right? Uh, it turned it into a you know
A mile long course car and had some fun with it
But inevitably that
1260 horsepower set up it wasn't fun for me. So I traded the car to my brother
Yeah, now he has it
Well that that that I mean right there sums up a lot of well, you know
What a bunch of us did is
Is you take something that's great and you take it so far
Because it was great at that point you want more of it and at some point, right?
It goes back to the too much cam too much turbo too much
Anything and it becomes right unwieldy it becomes untamable
Right uncontrollable or just not fun anymore, right? You've lost the connection the tightness of how it used to feel when you drove it
Yeah, it's easy to get out of hand
easy got it
And yeah, and I'm sure knowing what you've done and built and have had under, you know
Uh a pedal I'm I'm sure, you know, that's a pretty common mistake for for everybody
And I'm sure you've uh, you probably had to deal with it at some point too without a doubt
No, no another thing that just kind of came to mind as far as taking something too far. Um, you know when my past builds
um
You know, I love road course. I love the heel toast your rev matching the engine and
And right you you want to lighten up that flywheel? Yeah. Yeah, uh, so I went to uh, right full aluminum flywheel
Right so very low inertia, you know smaller diameter twin disc clutch
And and absolutely man when the thing is
Moving it's the best most amazing shifting especially the downshift rev matching
But right it's one of those things. It's like, well, what's the primary use of the car?
It's a street car
I mean, I thought about track and I've taken it to the track a number of times but
Predominantly I'm driving it on the street and so I find out like oh man every light
Because it doesn't have the inertia to keep the engine moving when you start to engage the clutch
I have to think stop and think
What are my feet doing get that sucker going don't stall it. Okay, there we go. Okay chatter chatter chatter. Yep. Yep
So clutch can be another one of those things where our flywheel or combination or even, you know on a torque converter, right?
How much slip do you put on torque converter?
That's another one where you can go. Oh my god too much like on a drag strip. Yes
Wine that sucker out man launch that thing to the moon
But right in a street application
All right, here comes this honesty thing with yourself. What am I going to do with this vehicle?
Well, uh, yeah too much on the clutch I too much on the torque converter side can
Take a fun thing and make it less fun
Oh, it makes it awful. Hey, I I ran around for a minute for about three days
Maybe four days before I could get that thing out. I put a 4 000 stall torque converter in my street car
Yeah, man, it's look it's a 542 indy headed. You know, it's a beast that runs low nines out of here in colorado
But yeah, man, you try to drive that on the street and it's like it's ridiculous. It's just awful in every way
Uh, and it just it it's just something that like you said takes all the fun out of it
Uh, tranny temps are through the roof
Yeah, I remember finding way back in the day of my little Thurgeon Camaro with all these motor builds and stuff and
Trans swaps right a little turbo 350 and and trying to walk up to that perfect
Torque converter and thank god it didn't go over because you don't know your first time around
You get a torque versus 3,500. Well, is it going to stall there? No, it doesn't really stall at 3,500
It's something less than 3,500. Well, what what is it? You know, like I don't know which one again
It depends on how much power you're making
How much does the vehicle weigh you're like crap, dude, right, right? Give me that one. I'll see how it works
But yeah, thankfully man, I found that
Perfect one and you know, you don't have money to spend when you're young
I mean, not that I want to throw it away now, but you know a couple hundred bucks is like
Oh, that's weeks and is saving up
But yeah, I found found just the perfect street for my turbo 350
It just got the thing in the power band and wow, but man, I've been so many vehicles were too much
Yeah, man, one final thing I'll add the chasing technology
Um is if you're doing a build here's something to smart. Um, I've been guilty of this
I doubt kevin has but because he's a little smarter than I am. I'll admit that
um
Uh, but but I have made the mistake
We always love to go engine first and build the car around the engine
But you'll find out technology
Changes so fast nowadays that if you get that badass turbo
Maybe by the time you finish your transmission your roll cage
Your paint body get everything started and everything else
Maybe, you know, that technology is a little outdated. I've got in my shop
Of precision turbo. It's uh, the their x in 106
It has never had a run on it because my race car
Right back of the day. I was building this badass. I got a 69 super v race car
On alcohol just getting ready to bring it out
Well back of the day that was the baddest turbo I had for it
Well, now all these pro mods make a 33 to 4000 horsepower
Well, I was gonna be obsolete my car is just now done
But I had the wrong turbo on it and guess what now
I'm updated. I got the new precision pro mod turbo
But who knows by the time they have a racetrack here in denver
It may be obsolete too
So yeah, you you just you chase technology often
Uh, and unfortunately buying a big big bill item like that a big ticket item
Uh, you may understand you're gonna build a turbo car
But you may want to wait till the end portion of the build
Before you, you know drop the big the big hammer on the big money turbo or a big supercharger
Because if you're gonna wait another year to 18 months technology is gonna change man
And you'll be chasing it. No, that's a really good one. Um
Get it goes back to honesty with yourself. Like how long is this project gonna take me?
You know
And what's gonna change by then? I mean it could be the style like oh like
You know these wheels are so hot right now, but you know if you're on a five-year build
You know like everybody and their brother is gonna have those wheels and
You know
Not such a cool thing anymore. So where do you start on a build one?
Try to be honest how long is it gonna take you and then I think that's a very good point
Maybe stack up like all right. There's a whole bunch of grunt work like I got patch panels
I got a quarter panel. I got let me just do all that stuff. Let me get closer to the finish line
You know like I don't need my motor. I just need a mock-up motor if I'm gonna try to fit headers
You know, so
Yeah, how much can I borrow or use or mock up or whatever until I have to buy the thing because right you've seen
Fuel injection just
Wow
The progression the last 10 years or so, you know like the ease of use the cost is coming down
So yeah any of that stuff that's changing so much from style to uh to technology
So man, you know, I feel like we just barely scratched the surface here
I I was scribbling just
Brainstorming a list of all these things and I was like
I only scratched it off like four
We'll have to come back man
Share some more. Oh, no, hopefully you guys are laughing with with us. Maybe not
us
Uh for some of the things we share, but yeah, we can take it
You think I make bad decisions. You ought to see my life choices
Hey, make sure you check out our show air and weekends on the motor to network
Check your local listings also available in discovery plus and max thinks our producer scoop our executive producer bob ecker
And senior producer justin carter. Yeah, check out our website two guys garage.com our social at two guys garage
The two guys garage podcast. It's copyright 2025 print productions incorporated all rights reserved
Man, you know, when you look back, dude, what a long road like so many
Just challenges and discoveries and kind of
Momentary failures, but then you move on and it's like collectively man. That's a lot of interesting stuff that
We've done over the years, right?
A lot of lessons learned if only you could infuse some of that in your brain when you're younger
Save you some energy, but it's part of the process. You know embrace it
It is a process
Don't be afraid guys. Just get out there and do it fail
Pick it up
buy another one
Keep going man. Keep going
It's worth it. Smile while you're doing it, man. Smile while you're doing it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Just know that
Even some of the best, I mean all the best out there started where you did so
We're all in the same boat
All right. Hope you had some fun with this. Maybe we'll come back with a few more of these
We're willing to share and we'll catch you on the next two guys garage podcast
Two guys garage podcast is a production of britain productions for more episodes visit i heart radio apple podcast
Spotify or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
About this episode
Racing and hot-rod lessons get stitched together around real mistakes and practical fixes. Setup changes like alignment can make an E36 “not happy,” and old-school tunnel ram/cam choices can deliver power while feeling wrong for cruising. Nitrous is framed as affordable, but fueling and safety details matter—forgetting the nitrous fuel pump can cause “big old huge backfire and fire through the carburetor.” The conversation expands into tuning, cooling control, and engine-building measurement/blueprinting, plus road-course drivability tradeoffs and build-planning.
Join Kevin and Willie as they recount their most epic automotive blunders from decades of hot rod building and racing. From over-cammed street cars and nitrous nightmares to the perils of too much horsepower on the track, the guys share many of their hard-earned lessons that transformed mistakes into future motoring triumphs.
