The PowerFor years now, racers have been pushing Honda motors to the limits of their capabilities. It all started with building the SOHC D16 motors, then came turbo kits and twin cam engine swaps. Not long after that, it was almost commonplace to see Frankenstein conversions, crazy stroker kits, and superchargers. Seeing 10-second all-motor Hondas and 9-second turbo cars became routine. Today is a different story for drag racing, and those who don't kick it up a notch will get stuck in the staging lanes. If you've seen Steph's previous car, then a transversely mounted Honda engine should come as no surprise-except this time, it's coming at you as a rear-wheel-drive courtesy of a Lenco tranny and Mark Williams titanium differential. What will knock you off your seat is the 3.0L V6 motor found in the NSX.
We know what you're thinking, so we asked the question for you. Aside from the thrill of ripping the engine out of an exotic car and cramming it into a race car, what's the point of using the C30A motor? "The NSX motor is the best thing that Honda makes," John explains in a calm voice. As with all high-powered race motors, how well an engine is prepped directly reflects its output and stability. Cosworth Racing took care of the machine work for the motor except for porting and polishing the heads. John goes on to tell us, "We sent the motor to them because they're the best at what they do. When they told us that the stock heads were so close to perfect, we left them alone." But that didn't stop them from building up another set of heads, equipped with PSI valvesprings and other Del West valvetrain components, capable of withstanding 12,000rpm revs that the Crane cams and AEM sprockets are ready to put out. Each of the six cylinders is fitted with forged Wiseco pistons and Saenz titanium connecting rods with the ability to hold 275 hp per hole. Along with the rest of the bottom end, the stock NSX crank is balanced and blueprinted to perfection and carefully lubed with a Bill Dailey oil pump. So much so that several leak-down tests turned up the same numbers-0 percent all the way across. Leave it to us to find a flaw in something that seems so perfect.
From what John tells us, it's extremely hard to find parts for the C30A motor, even from the dealer. Sometimes parts have to be ordered months in advance because the C30A motor is so reliable and dealers don't stock anything for them. The AEM crew went one step further and ordered a whole surplus of engine components for future use. In fact, John tells us that they have enough parts to assemble four complete identical motors. There's gotta be something that we're doing wrong since we barely have enough turkey and cheese to make sandwiches for a week straight. It must be that Primedia direct-deduction payroll from our bank account.
Once everything is in order, the top and bottom ends are fused together in-house with ARP studs and custom AEM head gaskets. Billet plates are inserted between the runners of the Hogan intake manifold and along the front of the motor to increase its structural rigidity-a much-needed addition considering the amount of abuse that the custom Innovative Turbo Systems twin turbo setup can dish out. Working so closely with Rick Head of ITS has allowed the team to gather new information about turbo energy, which Bob Marker applied when designing the exhaust manifold. Fortunately, the newly acquired info resulted in much quicker spool-up times.