It’s now official in that a Y will not be in the chosen first thirty participants in the EMC competition.  I received a letter from the EMC committee and it simply states that the Y engine that I proposed will be alternate #15 which puts it far enough down the list that it’s very unlikely to be in the competition.  It’s definitely a hard call at this point to go forward with an EMC specific Y engine for the challenge but I will go ahead and start doing the machine work on the 312 combination towards that end.  The compression ratio and the camshaft are really the only items that make this engine an EMC specific combination in that it’s just a tad roudy for a street engine and just too tame for a race engine.  The 10½:1 compression makes it a bit tempermental for everyday use on pump gas with the camshaft I had in mind but that can be ultimately changed out if necessary.  And if the engine doesn’t make it to the competition, then a decision will have to be made on what to actually do with the engine as there will be healthy investment in it at that point.

I can only guess at the number of reasons a Y wasn’t selected.  Being non-main stream would be at the top of the list but I also have to think that there would be some concerns on EMC’s end about actually connecting a Y engine to the dynometer without a flywheel and bellhousing as will be done with the main stream engines.  Another reason for not selecting it could potentially be their lack of confidence in a Y engine not making respectable numbers or on the flip side, actually showing better than expected numbers considering how old a design it really is.  Hard to guess at the reasons for not being selected as their letter to me did not go into the selection criteria.

With all that said, I will respond to their letter and let the EMC committee know of my intent to put together a combination for the EMC Challenge.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)