Kenny Dangler Becomes First to the Threes / New Record Holder with a Hydraulic Cam LS Engine – Blasts to a 3.97 at 184.96 During Testing at US 131 Motorsports Park
Be it a 6-second street-legal Mustang or a 9-second full race Honda, Kenny Dangler has an addiction for speed and fun cars that’s burned bright since he first held his license.
But the latest build takes everything to a whole new level, breaking not only personal best performances for Kenny, but the first hydraulic camshaft LS engine to clock a 3-second pass.
With over 200 pages in every issue, lots of event coverage, and quality features, Sick the Magazine is the print magazine you should be reading! Click HERE, subscribe and get your copy!
For Kenny, this performance is just the latest chapter in a car-filled lifestyle that includes running his own business, Northern Performance, out of Gaylord, Michigan. “I always was into Camaros,” he said. “I owned a third-generation version, and wanted to do an LS swap back in 2004, but realized I might not be comfortable doing it.
When I moved to Florida in 2005, I was driving a Mustang Cobra, and got beat badly by a Honda. Back then the quick Hondas were in the eights, and I was intrigued and wanted to build one. I thought it was cool you could get 500-700 horsepower from a 4 cylinder, and I had not seen that up in Michigan.”
Once he set his mind to it, Dangler achieved his goal of building and owning a 9-second Honda. “At that point I was ready to move on, so I bought a black fourth generation Camaro just before I moved back north.”
That street-legal black Camaro got to a serious stage, running a best of 7.20 at 192 mph before Kenny sold it in 2019. “The reason I sold it, it was an all-steel, all-glass car that weighed 3200 pounds, and it seemed heavy for some classes and races,” said Kenny. “People kept bending the ‘street-legal’ rules for other stuff, and after it turned to no cruises, methanol fuel and me getting puppy kicked, I had enough. I figured I could build a Fox Mustang with a similar combo and get into the 6-second range.”
He did just that, picking up a notch Mustang that was a rolling chassis with a basic roll cage, and using a similar driveline combination to the Camaro, Kenny eventually ran those 6-second passes with just a turbo and converter upgrade from his black Camaro.
“I just wanted to run sixes,” he admitted. “I went 6.80s at 202, and then for an entire year, there wasn’t a single event I went to that was quarter-mile with the clocks on. It’s what I built the car for, and everything went eighth-mile within a reasonable drive of where I live.”
Eventually, the Mustang was sacrificed to invest the money in his growing business, but Kenny had lofty goals for his next build. “The next one would be a super-light third gen or another Fox Mustang, and I was going to put it on methanol and run in the 3-second range,” he boasted.
That car of choice would be a 1986 model Camaro, acquired in December of 2021. “It was another deal that kind of fell in my lap,” Kenny said. “My brother in-law started it as a project for the no-prep Street Outlaws deal. They started on the cage, painted it, and then it sat.”
It was a good deal for a rolling chassis, but being a bare one allowed Kenny to build it how he wanted. “I wanted the car to be 2500 pounds, but safe, and I think I added 118 pieces of roll bar tubing. Something like that,” he laughed.
When it came time to get the build underway, Kenny has already been doing the prep work. “There were a few parts I waited a while for to show up, mostly due to Covid and delays,” he said. “The cylinder heads were nearly eleven months on their own.” He assembled a huge chunk of parts, and eventually locked himself into a time slot to build the car.
The combination was built in house at Northern Performance, and starts with an Energy Manufacturing Ltd. billet LS block, a tall deck version. A combination of a Callies Performance 3.625-inch Magnum crankshaft, R & R Racing Products aluminum connecting rods, and off-the-shelf BTR-spec 4.125-inch Wiseco pistons comes up at 388 cubic inches.
A BTR-spec camshaft was selected for the near-9,000 RPM range Kenny planned to wind the LS to, and a pair of Brodix BR1 cathedral port cylinder heads also feature BTR rocker arms. Johnson lifters and Manton push rods complete the valvetrain package.
The Shaun’s Custom Alloy intake mixes the forced air and methanol together, and the air is given a big push from a Forced Inductions single 110 compressor / 113 turbine turbocharger. A full FuelTech system controls engine and spark, with a FT600 displaying the data for Kenny during a run.
Passing the power to the back is tasked to a FTI Performance Powerglide, and the level 5.5 transmission features a Sonnx 1.58 first gear. A Pete Nichols-spec’d Circle D Specialties 10.25-inch bolt-together spragless converter couples the engine and transmission together. A Tin Soldier Race Cars fabricated 9-inch rear end packs a Strange Engineering aluminum case with a 3.90 gear set, 40-spline gun drilled axles and spool.
The four corners are supported by AFCO Racing products, with off-the-shelf Big Gun shocks in the back, and Competitive Suspension-tweaked AFCO struts up front. A full set of TBM Brakes slows the third-gen on each pass, sitting behind polished Weld V-Series wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson rubber, the rear being a 275 Pro drag radial.
The car was completed by February 15th, and made its debut at Street Car Takeover’s opening event of the 2024 season at Bradenton Motorsports Park less than a week later. “It’s an annual trip I take,” said Kenny of the Michigan to Florida excursion. “I was a little nervous. I was thinking ‘I welded this car together myself; this can’t go well’, but it drove smooth and I was really happy with how it worked.”
Other than the carbon-fiber hood coming apart early in the event, the trip was a success, with the Camaro clocking a best pass of 4.125 at 181.9 mph, with a 1.06 60 foot, and getting the class win at Street Car Takeover.
Despite a tremendous first showing, Kenny still wasn’t satisfied. “My goals from the beginning were a 3-second pass,” he admitted. “I told friends I was doing it, and some were like ‘yeah, right’ and it just motivated me even more. After that first outing, I knew it was a possibility.” About seven weeks later, Kenny was ready for more laps. So he visited US 131 Motorsports Park in early April for a test session.
The test session didn’t start well. “I went to make the first pass, and it lost crank sync and blew the burst panel,” said Kenny. Thankfully a spare was located nearby, and he managed to make one pass before the rental was done due to weather, where the Camaro delivered a 4.06 at 181 mph on a 1.033 60 foot time. “I thought it was promising. All I did was take .02 seconds out of the ramp tune up I used at Street Car Takeover.”
Returning to US 131 Motorsports Park for another rental on Thursday, April 25th, Kenny knew he’d need to get aggressive with the tune up to collect the 3-second time slip he desired. “I have to take advantage of the car being 2520 pounds, and get after quicker 60 and 330 foot numbers. I put it in my mind that I would shorten up the ramp, and turn up the starting line RPM.”
The results of his first run? Tire spin. “I thought, I’m going to leave it alone, let a few more people go down and the track get a little more heat in it, and then go try again. The second run netted a 1.02 60 foot and a 4.04 pass.” He continued to whittle away at the tune up, shortening the ramp until the Camaro was down to 1.00 60 foot times.
“At that point I knew it needed more power, so I commanded more dome pressure to bring up the boost. But from 45 pounds to 50 pounds, it didn’t make a huge difference. So I told the computer I wanted 25 more pounds of boost. I put the boost safety at 110 psi, and said ‘let’s get it,’” he admitted.
Kenny even added 10 more pounds of boost on the scramble button, which he pressed three seconds into the run. Less than a second and 57 pounds of turbo boost later, the eighth-mile was complete at 3.977 second and 184.96 mph for speed, coupled with a 1.004 60 foot time. “I could feel in the car on that run, it was a drastic change,” Kenny said. “It was one of the best feelings of my life.”
Kenny decided to make one more hit before the rental was done, and the back-up run came in at 3.982 at 185.72 mph with a 1.007 60 foot time. Now, with the car having just three outings and twelve complete runs, Kenny’s goals of a win, as well as a 3-second time slip, have been accomplished.
What’s next? The turbocharger has been sent back to Forced Inductions to see if there’s much left before stepping up to a bigger version. But for now, Kenny will focus on growing the business, which includes a move in the next four weeks. “We sold our current building, and I have a lot of stuff to move to the new location. Once that’s done, maybe we can work on the 3.8-second range.”
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Hard Target Images and Kenny Dangler.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com