Mike,
I think I covered this already but here is more clarification.
There is one shaft style rocker set up out there that I know of for AMC by Jesel. They were built specifically for the Indy heads. You will most likely have to do machining to your head for valve geometry to get them to fit right. They are $1100 direct from Jesel or almost $1300 through Indy. Who are all these other makers you talk about for an AMC head?
Mine are being based off of a cast iron AMC head and will work on any head that has a similar pedestal design for AMC engines. They will be 100% made in America and be priced much less than a Jesel set. The rockers will be able to withstand over 850lbs of spring pressure on the tip of the rocker at high RPM. This will make them a usable piece for 95% of the AMC public out there and not just for the all out race guy.
Stud girdles, well the one we used last year just plain sucked! Every time you would adjust the rocker and tighten the girdle, it would gull. I don't want metal flakes in any engine from a $1000 economy freshen up to an all out $15,000 race engine.
The guide plates, again I believe there is only one maker of these with a few people selling the same brand (wait two now with Edlebrock but they will only work on an Edlebrock head). Guide plates are pretty straight forward but one thing I noticed about the set on the market today is that all the edges where the push rods runs through are all sharp which wears on the push rods until it smooths out if you don't first debur them. Ours has all the edges debured before they are heat treated and oxide coated and they cost less.
My anti-walk kit, we have doing things similar to this since roller cams came around. I saw a need when building an engine years ago since a cam button sucks on an AMC and the only other thing out there was to hold the cam from the back of the engine. While this works fine, the draw back was if you wanted to change your cam, you had to pull the engine out to get at it to release the cam. My kit is very well designed and in my opinion, the best cam walk solution out there. It won't ruin a timing cover or force you to pull your engine to take the cam out. It also stabilizes timing, and reduces friction.
My stripes, again I saw a need for my own car as no one was making a correct 71-74 AMX T-stripe period (I make other stripes as well). Not only could I make it correct, but I also had the early 71 designs to go off of to reproduce the original early 71 T-stripe. Again, in my opinion and responses from the AMC community that has used one, the best and only accurate T-stripe on the market.
Now there are a number of other parts I have made or was a part of making that I won't go into. But if you look at what we have brought to the hobby, we have all benefited from most. Has anyone ever even attempted an H or I beam rod as a direct replacement for an AMC? Not to my knowledge. There are a lot of guys in our hobby who are making a difference. I applaud all of them. Without them taking the time, money and interest in our cars, we would have been out of parts a long time ago and not still have a large following for a car maker who has been gone for almost 20 years now.
Hope this helps clear things up on how this is helping the hobby. I guess in short, when I see a need for a part that is not available that I might need, I feel others need it also. If there is something out there where the quality or fitment is not that great and I can make it better, I do. It might not always be that way. I don't want to make parts where there is already a great part out there at a fair price.
DISCLAIMER: I did not front the money for the guide plates, just the idea and design. All other parts listed I paid for the whole project without the so called investors.
Thanks for reading,
Nick Alfano
Message-ID: <000601c57ea1$62baf060$0201a8c0@D9HMH051> From: "mike luke" <mluke11882@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: More new parts coming Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2005 21:00:04 -0400
Brien, while it is fun chatting with you. NIck Alfano still has not responded to my questions.. How is his new products, that are already available by other sources going to benifit the hobby? Are they better quality? Better price? How about it Nick??? whats UP???? Cool Hand Luke!!!