| nick Arias Hemi Engine Build engine Dyno
Recently, I had an opportunity to spend a day with "Mr. Horsepower" Nick Arias Jr., while covering a tech article pertaining to an Arias engine he built some time ago. Nick Arias is a man of genius when it comes to innovation, concept, design, pattern-making, development, and manufacturing of complete engines that produce nothing but mega horsepower.
Nick started building hot-rod engines during his early teenage years. He began working for Wayne Manufacturing, where he learned about engines, cylinder heads, combustion chamber, and piston design. During the '50s, Lake Mirage and Bonneville Salt Flats were like speed-freak magnets, where young men braved their dreams of land speed records. This was where Nick learned about straining engines past their parameters, and in doing so, he was known to bend a few.
| Nick Arias Jr. is known for his innovation of designing and building horsepower as a privateer; more than some of the domestic manufacturers. The Arias hemispherical aluminum cylinder heads, blocks, and pistons are unique and produce mega horsepower and torque.
Nick opened Arias Piston Manufacturing in 1969. If you wanted to go fast, you ran Arias pistons in your engine. Known for its very high-tensile strength billet aluminum, it was meltdown-proof. Nick was and still is today very meticulous, and he pays close attention to design and detail of all his Arias engine internal components. Arias custom-made pistons are continuously being analyzed and improved, which makes them some of the best manufactured pistons on the planet.
When Chrysler was dominating racing back in the '60s and '70s, you would think Chevrolet would have stepped up and challenged Chrysler and Ford. Nick had all the answers from his big cylinder head design, along with engine block and camshaft relocation to minimize valve train harmonics. These changes would have taken Chevrolet to the next level and raised the bar of domestic manufacturers power wars.
Instead, Arias went boat racing and it seamed a lot of performance engine builders were getting into battling it out, either on the liquid quarter-mile or offshore racing. The Arias engines were producing more than 890 hp. If you weren't running an Arias engine, you were just another weekend warrior.
| Arias power! Mike Boyd muscles the "Winged Express" fuel altered during another unique burnout at the '08 50th Anniversary March Meet at Famoso Raceway. The famed AA fuel-altered, "Winged Express" was piloted by the late Wild Willie Borsch in match races across America during the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Willie passed away in 1991, but car owner Al "Mousie" Marcellus and Mike Boyd still campaign the Winged Express making wild 1/8-mile burnouts and full throttle 1/4-mile passes.
Nick figured if his Chevy Hemispherical engine was fast on water, it would be fast on land. That's when he teamed up with the Over The Hill Gang drag-racing team, and his engines drew instant attention with the drag-racing crowd. His engines also did very well in the pro-stock division with Bob Glidden.
Currently Nick Arias Jr. and his good friends, Fred Blanchard and Steve Montrelli, are all back into the performance engine building business with Nick's new Arias Performance engine, which was built for the street-rod and muscle-car guys.
Also, for you '70s funny-car fans, Danny Pisano and the guys at Arias teamed up and have built a replicated Pisano & Matsubara Revell vega that will be campaigned during the newly formed NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series.
The engine I was interested in was an Arias engine combination Nick introduced to the boat drag racing and tractor pulling competitors a couple of years ago. One of these engines was purchased by Dan Dowdy, who shoehorned it between his '37 Hudson Terraplane pickup, which was featured in Truckin' volume 33, No. 8.
We caught up with Dan and his Arias two-stage nitrous-assisted 540ci BDS 1071 supercharged engine, as he was getting it dialed in and dynotested at Dyno Motive in yorba Linda, California.
Thanks again, Nick, for lunch.
Arias engine built and assembled by Nick Arias Jr. 540ci 8.8L 8:1 Compression Gen I Arias Aluminum Hemispherical big-block Chevy engine
8:1 Compression* Arias 540ci 8.8L virgin 356T6 aluminum block
* Arias double cross (horizontal) bolted main caps
* Arias aluminum block with 4-1/2-inch cylinder bores
* Camshaft bores raised 6 inches in block to minimize harmonic vibration
* Eagle Chevy BB crankshaft (4.250-inch stroke)
* Eagle steel H-beam connecting rods (7.4 inch)
* Arias Chevy Hemi forged aluminum pistons 0.990-inch wrist pin and ring set
* Hell Fire piston rings
* Iskenderian roller camshaft
* Clevite 77 main crank bearings, connecting rods
* Arias aluminum Hemispherical cylin der heads (143cc chambers)
* Hemi cylinder heads ported and polished by Joe Mondello
* SCE performance copper head gaskets with o-rings
* Manley stainless valves intake: 2.375-inch-diameter exhaust:1.940-inch-diameter
* Iskenderian double valve springs and retainers
* Iskenderian lifters
* Billet aluminum rocker stands and centerless ground shafts
* Manton 3/8-inch-diameter push rods* Arias intake valve rocker arms 1.75:1 ratio Timken needle bearings, with roller tips
* Arias lengthened exhaust valve rocker arms
* Arias cast-aluminum valve covers
* Arias gear drive
* Mandello flex-plate
* Arias blower intake manifold
* BDS Blower Drive Service 1071 blower
* BDS Blower Drive Service electronic fuel injection
* BDS Blower is 6-percent overdriven
* LB Machine 2-1/4-inch-diameter headers flow into 4-inch exhaust Flow Master dual-chamber mufflers
* Dowdy custom rectangular (12-inch x2-1/2-inch) stainless dual exhaust tips* High Tech Coatings applied by Headman Headers to entire exhaust system
* Aeromotive fuel pump
* Fuel line 12AN fittings, stainless steel braided fuel lines
* Mallory, MSD crankshaft trigger
* Mallory 7AL2 box chipped rev limiter 7,000 rpm
* Taylor 9mm ignition wires
* Avion oil pump
* Milodon oil pan
* Spal USA 16-inch-diameter dual, pusher, straight-blade fans
* Mattson's Radiator aluminum radiator
* Billet Specialties overflow reservoir
* Billet Specialties power steering reservoir
* Gotta Show stainless steel braided lines
* Fast fuel delivery computer system tuned by Harvey St. Mary, Harvs Dyno Tune, Whittier, California
* Arias engine horsepower rating: 1,100hp engine only
* Nitrous oxide system + 500 hp
* Arias engine horsepower rating: 963 hp; 1,500 hp on nitrous oxide
* Fuel: Vp C16 racing fuel
DYNO RESULTS RPM lb-ft HP 5,000 810 771 5,{{{100}}} 810 786 5,{{{200}}} 809 801 5,{{{300}}} 808 815 5,400 806 829 5,500 804 842 5,{{{600}}} 802 856 5,700 800 868 5,800 799 881 5,{{{900}}} 797 895 6,000 794 907 6,100 792 {{{929}}} 6,200 788 931 6,300 785 942 6,400 782 953 6,500 778 963
BOTTOM LINE: 963 hp 810 lb-ft torque Double shot of nitrous oxide 500hp gain
TOTAL HP 1,463!
