[CNHSS1]

hiya,

re block crank brace, i havent had any made for a few years. The easiest option is using the DET cast crank brace. It nearly fits, just two front corners need trimming off as it catches the 8v sump and stops it fitting down to the block neatly. 10 mins with a grinder will do the trick.
The machined ones i had made were lighter and took up less space in the sump than the DET version.

re cam, id also look at the Autosprint cam. when i built the 8v engine for my racer, i had Geoff create a cam profile. I gave him my old Piper cam and he worked from there. His creation doesnt need a vernier cam pulley (which i also had made at the time), but had a trick assymetric profile, giving a curved side and almost flat side to the cam lobe, a trick from his old ford tuning days. Certainly worked REALLY well, and is now pretty much the standard fit for all the guys that sprint and hillclimb or circuit race using the 8v engine.

he wont tell you the lift and duration, but i didnt care as it brought the numbers on the dyno and massively improved the breathing over 5k, so i never bothered measuring it.
they used to cost about £100 as a regrind although the scimitar club have done a few group buys of 10 cams and got down to be 80quid each plus return postage which is a bargain.

im not familiar with the rods you mention, but the 8v rods are the weak point once you run more boost, revs and forged pistons. they are like tooth picks! ive bent a few. id look at aftermarket or DET rods (bigger gudgeon little end pin so you will need different pistons).

I used one of the Canadian spec CA20E inlet manifolds, gave a few bhp over stock manifold but a fair hike in torque at same boost. Its a better design than the stock one and the more develeoped your engine becomes the more the benefits.

The stock exh manifold will improve torque to a point as its runners are short and bores small, but ultimately be restrictive when you are looking at 250+hp imho. I made a tubular manifold and that ran 282hp/266lbft at 18psi boost on a low lag T28 custom Turbo Technics turbo. To be honest, i should have changed the wastegate sprimg and had remapped because i think 22psi would have seen 320hp and another hike in torque.

one think i would say is the head design is crap, really poor. Cleaning up the ports and radiusing them to try and reduce the 90 deg bend from port to valve is important, but its always going to be a problem. S13 Eater had an 8v head done which was pretty extreme, but again its the overall design tahts bad--you cant polish a turd as they say!