The cylinder heads are Sonny’s custom CNC symmetrical port units with custom alloy material seats and Inconel exhaust valves designed to live in the high-heat environment of a gasoline engine combustion chamber. According to Sonny, the heads exhaust port flows 550 cfm at .800 lift.
 Prior to installing the heads the Sonny’s/Crane .904 lifters are installed |
 The Manley/Stealth valves with CSI springs |
The titanium intake valve has a diameter of 2.55 inches. Sonny uses a titanium valve for its acceleration and weight properties for increased spring life. The exhaust valve measures 1.930 in diameter and the valves are from Manley and Stealth. The rods are by Carrillo, the dished piston is from Venolia, and the crankshaft is by Sonny Bryant and it features .145 radii to reduce crankshaft flex.
In order to burn pump gas, the static compression measured 10.3-1. The camshaft is a custom built, 60 mm, billet roller. (Don’t even ask for specific lift and duration numbers, are you kidding?) A shaft rocker arm system designed by Sonny’s and T&D control the PSI springs. The oiling system on the engine we saw is Moroso and features a four-stage pump, vacuum pump and oil pan, but Sonny says he will build the engine with a wet-sump oiling system if a customer wants it.
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The version I saw on the dyno had an SAR sheet metal 4x2 intake with split Dominators, but Sonny says that he also will build this engine with an EFI fuel system. He is going to offer a supercharged version down the road. A call to Sonny’s will get you a complete spec sheet if you need to know about all of the bells and whistles.
Now let's talk a little about application and uses for this engine. Sonny designed this engine initially for the street guy who wanted something unique, but during my visit to the shop it became apparent that with more than 1100 horsepower and torque available from this low RPM engine, it might have other applications as a bracket motor or even a powerplant for an NHRA or IHRA 8.90, 9.90 or 10.90 racer.
The obvious benefits right from the start are that the engine can be run with 89-octane pump gas and that it makes its power on the lower end of the power band. According to Sonny, the valvetrain is engineered so that even though it is mechanical it is so solid that the valves won’t need adjusting for about 1,000 miles, which means if you are racing this engine, maybe never.
He also says that if the engine were street driven it would need freshened about every 4,000-5,000 miles. Again, if you are bracket racing it, you would probably only have to freshen the engine when your conscience was bothering you. Since the engine was initially designed for use on the street or in a marine application, if you were to buy one for drag racing you might make a few changes, but that won’t be a problem as all of Sonny’s engines are hand built one at a time for his customers.
If there is a catch to this it is that one of these engines will set you back just about $55,000, but if you're buying a 650-700 inch bracket motor that costs you $30,000, why not a really big old engine that shouldn’t require major maintenance for a long time? After all, where else can you get 1100 horsepower and buy your racing gas at the Quickie Mart along with a Slurpie.
