Joe Mondello was FOOLED by this supposed TRUTH - Hidden Horsepower Podcast E74

[@marianoleonel8914]

excellent video, I am from Argentina, and six or five years ago, I made a course with a man who makes racing camshafts, his last name is Pellegrini. And he taught us about pressure volume diagrams, with a simulator we worked and learnt how to reduce the pumping lost, and how to calculate the length of the exhaust to make the wave in the right Time.. When I saw a genius like Billy or Lake, talking about the same things we learnt in the course, I think that course was awesome and learnt a lot, my teacher had very good knowledge, considering the race history in Argentina is very smaller compared with EEUU ,which I consider the Best in the world. Excellent videos my Friends regards from Argentina

[@davewilliams7173]

Just found this video. Ironically, I recently bought a 1970 GTO that had been sitting for 33 years in a woman’s garage, in the LA area…the engine a 400 built by Joe Mondello. Long story short, the woman’s son had the engine/heads built by Joe Mondello at his shop in LA, in 1989. The engine was dropped into the GTO, but never started, never even had any gas through it, it sat on the motor mounts for 33 years. A family tragedy left the car unattended after the engine was dropped in. After I bought it I took it to a racing/resto shop for a total rebuild. They pulled the heads to check the engine and called me to ask who built the engine. I was expecting bad news, but they told me they were blown away by what they found and the incredible quality of the machine work. 33 years later that engine is now putting out close to 500 HP. Whoever Joe Mondello was, he certainly knew how to build this engine.

[@hydroy1]

I went round & round with Joe Mondello on how strong the factory Olds 330,400 & 425 forged cranks really were. I still do twist them 7,500rpm on the 400 & 425s and 8,700rpm on the 330s with a solid flat tappet cam with zero issues for season after season. Joe keep telling me, no way you can twist one that high. So I sent him videos of the car running mid 9s in the 1/4 mile on NO-2 and the tach reading 8,800 in the traps with my 330 Oldsmobile motor. I even sent him a video of me replacing the rod & main bearings in the 330 after the end of the season, but I just cleaned them and put the very same bearings right back in as there was no reason to replace them. Joe was down my way for our big $ quick 16 race we had in Florida and he seen the 330 I built run mid 9s and Joe STILL refused to believe it was a factory forged Olds crank, but it was as I built the motor myself. So I was never very impressed with Joe Mondello. I think he was more hype than seat of the pants builder. Just my opinion.

[@olddirtybastardgarage]

YUP....I disagree with alot of his oiling bullshit to.

[@billlittle4285]

I have a 330 crank in my 350 super stock engine, 8400 !!

[@davelowets]

You're NEVER going to turn a factory block Olds big block with a stock crank to 7500rpms for a season, and then pop the bearings right back in it. NO way, NO how... NOT with a non centerweight crank, and the weak main structure of a stock block, girdle or NOT. I've been running Olds big blocks for 30 years, and I KNOW better. I've ripped the center 3 main saddles right out of the main bulkheads on an Olds big block TWICE. I KNOW better... Today I use an aftermarket block and billet crank. No more issues.

[@gothicpagan.666]

To get a fuller picture, try the same cam profiles on different combustion chamber shapes, in/ex valve size ratios; two and four valves per cylinder and valve inclination angles, then bore/stroke ratio. It's a life time of work.

[@williamstamper442]

I just found this video and i gotta say this...im so very much wanting to hear about crushing Joe Mondellos ideas... Im a life long Oldsmobile guy and been doing street/strip stuff with them for the past 40+ years. People worship Mondello, but in person he wasn't always nice. I learned back in the 90s his ideas were not that great overall. Before i come off as a Mondello basher, he was actually a decent dude in person, he just had a wall up to protect him from people who thought they might have better ideas. First time i met Joe was at his own show at Norwalk Ohio. Day before the race we were all at the hosr hotel and Joe was drinking a Rolling Rock beer in a bottle. Those are pretty good to be honest, if you like beer, but im getting off track. Joe came off as a know it all. Im sorry to say it, but thats the way it was. He had his VO twister Olds there and was trying to set the timing with a light. It was obvious he had not touched a timing light in over 20 years. Felt kinda sorry for the guy because the former low 10sec super stock car from 1971 was running 11.50s. So was my dirty street driven 3800 pound 455 olds powered 70 442 at same event. In fact my car ran 11.20s that day. And nothing Mondello was in the engine or on the car. I dont want to paint a terrible picture because Joe did stuff in the 60s and he made his money! And i do admire that.

[@gordonborsboom7460]

Mondello bit starts at 11:30

[@optimumperformance6998]

The more you learn, the less you know.

[@TotalSeal]

Absolutely!

[@donniestreetcarr]

Listening to the portion about the exhaust opening timing of the valve and being dependent upon the header length. What affect is there on a NA car like mine with full exhaust? 2" primaries, 3.5" collector, 3.5" x-pipe into 3" borla mufflers with 3" tailpipes out the back. Just with a guess, my assumption would be the measurement would be to the x pipe itself? And if this setup constitutes a camshaft change?

[@TotalSeal]

All of it matters since each step affects the speed of the exhaust flow. The X pipe length does matter. It is a double edge sword, if you change the exhaust (say for car packaging), you will need to optimize the cam for that exhaust. Alternatively, if you change cams, you will need to optimize the exhaust for that cam. All of this assumes you want the most efficiency.

[@donniestreetcarr]

@@TotalSeal so it would be safe to assume. If i was to remove the 3” portion of the exhaust, also making it shorter. It may not pick up power due to less restriction, but better cam timing for the exhaust used?

[@garlandjones7709]

​​@@donniestreetcarrthe measurement will go all the way back to the tailpipes for total. However. Not only do all diameters come into play, your primary pipe length, collector length, length to your crossover, and length of tailpipes and muffler placement all weigh in. There are a few ways to skin the cat here on figuring out what you need optimally. Id suggest purchasing and playing with PipeMax Always run the best you can fit, and tolerate if a street car and cam according to the exhaust. Never the other way around. They're a team trying to handle one function (the exhaust lobe anyways) and the better your exhaust is the smaller you can go on the lobe which doesn't really hwve a downside. Only upside in my opinion. The same is true when singlinf out the induction side of the engine.

[@scottosborne8735]

Over-scavenging is dangerous for street/cruise reliability. A street/strip axle gear, driven on highway cruise with too much scavenging, such as full length exhaust, optimized for as much scavenging as can be manifested, with too much overlap will destroy an engine due to the force applied to the piston, overheating the oil. I had a version of this with too much side clearance on the rods and it survived better than the later engine with side clearance normalized. Oil temp would skyrocket as soon as I got on the freeway. A long drive would kill the bottom end. 80 mph = 3800 rpm in 450 CI Pontiac.

[@garlandjones7709]

I asked about this in another vid and never responded back. You need to post this in speed-talk or yellowbullet and see what kindve responses come out. Not sure what big names are still at speed-talk, but hopefully you'll get some good discussion. Those two forums are in a class above the rest. At one point speed-talk was THE forum, but some of the greats bo longer post there. There's invaluable information available for searching though

[@jmflournoy386]

Stahl did a lot of investigation of headers vs cams back in the day

[@johnelliott7375]

59:43 I am still waiting for why Joe was running the wrong ones, data?

[@fascistpedant758]

Great participants = great podcast. Thanks. You know it'll be good when Lake Speed is involved. I'm unclear about the graphs at 49:40 and 50:00. Are they the radius measured on the lifter compared to the profile measured across the lobe after wear-in. Is the lifter also measured after wear-in.

[@TotalSeal]

The lifter graph was before break-in.

[@RollingRoadEFI]

Hey it's Ben Strader. Love that guy.

[@TotalSeal]

He's awesome!

[@jeffbonifield8981]

As always…Thanks again guys 😎

[@TotalSeal]

Our pleasure!

[@jimhalbrook9155]

Thxu all

[@terrysmith8133]

it's nice to be able to get this kind of information just watching a video

[@TotalSeal]

Glad to hear that!

[@johnnystanley4469]

So much knowledge being shared thanks

[@TotalSeal]

Thanks for watching!

[@autonomous_collective]

Link to Mark?

[@autonomous_collective]

Good interview conversation(s).

[@TotalSeal]

Thanks!

[@Trev-fl1oe]

Excellent video gentleman throughly enjoyed. Peace

[@TotalSeal]

Thanks!

[@billlittle4285]

People run too much overlap on the exh side!!

[@Hitman-ds1ei]

I did a dyno class with ben some 20 years ago in Perth Western Australia and it has been my base knowledge ever since and fuelling my quest for knowledge still today

[@TotalSeal]

Ben is the Man!

[@Hitman-ds1ei]

@@TotalSeal I think they are all masters in their fields I'm just lucky enough to have met Ben but the others are on my list

[@WFORadio]

These guys are geniuses!!!

[@TotalSeal]

Yes they are!

[@rollandsicard1628]

The point about Mondello was not made. What was his shortcoming? What I heard from your get together is a lot of hot wind not and physics or science just a lot of hot wind.

[@garlandjones7709]

Was related to pushrod deflection and lofting the valves. This is discussed around the 14 minute mark.

[@scottosborne8735]

OVERLAP

[@davidthroop9552]

Cool