American Performance

09/29/2025

Family time at the Nostalgia Day car show

05/22/2025

Local car clubs showed up at Jim's Breakfast in Pleasanton to show respect for Jim's passing. Photos from Bill Miller and drone shot from Dustin Goff.

05/17/2025

01/25/2022

Tuning tip of the week: (1-25-22)
Complete information for your engine builder, and rely on your tuner for keeping the build on target!!!
There are lots of combinations that are being built that are NOT suited for the intended or final combination/s. One blatantly obvious one is n/a builds that will ultimately be turbo'd or heavily NOS'ed.
As an EXPERIENCED tuner, and having seen and heard of too many horrible engine failures based on the original build, be prepared to spend that extra time, effort, and money so you WON'T have to start over multiple times for your end result. BTDT myself once;-)
The easily bolt on stuff like throttle body/s, headers, turbos, NOS, pulleys, cold air kits, and similar are easy enough and can be tested easily on the dyno before and after. This will let you see what you've actually gained/lost in power. There is NOTHING simple about this next group...
Suited final application items may include in this order of importance:

Choice of tuned factory processor or standalone EMS
Head gasket design/material
Proper ring gap/s...
Rod/main bearing clearance
Rod side clearance
Rod design
Piston design/material/clearance
Compression ratio
Cam/s
Head flow numbers
Crank design/material

01/15/2022

Tuning tip of the WEEK...(1-15-22)
Finding an engine miss on the dyno can be simple. Lets say the power curve looks good till 4000ish rpm, and duplicates every time... makeing a short pull (through 3000rpm) with a plug wire (or coil pack) disconnected, if the engine power falls, reconect and move to the next cylinder, repeat till at some point you WILL have the cylinder ID'd that is causing the issue (not down on power with plug wire off). At this point, tighten up on plug gap, replace plug, replace plug wire/coil pack, or possible injector. IF this doesn't cue it, then start looking for a mechanical issue/s. Bent valve, weak valve spring/s, and or lack of compression...

01/08/2022

Tuning tip of the week (01-07-22): Fuel.
When tuning, always start on the rich side (Lower numeric AFR's). This will often require changing plugs & will offer a lot more safety for the engine. On the chance the engine requires two or three sets of plugs to get a good tune, it's a lot more economical than rebuilding an engine that was run too lean before it was ever finish tuned...

Allen

01/06/2022