Brian Kurn

Four Stroke Design

Founder of Four Stroke Design

http://fourstrokedesign.com/content/

Brian Kurn is a cylinder head expert and has worked as a head porter for teams such as Reher-Morrison, Roush Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. The past 11 years of his 25 year career have been concentrated on highly technical aspects of Performance Engine Optimization. During his 7 year tenure with Hendrick Motorsports, Brian moved from the Cylinder Head Department to the Engine Development Group where he worked with Dr. Andy Randolph. He began working on Engine Simulation and Valvetrain Simulation. He used Spintron and measured in-cylinder combustion data to correlate the models and improve the predicted performance. This process is known as Virtual Prototyping. Brian eventually learned how to model ports in CAD and test the cylinder heads in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software. Few people possess the skills necessary to port cylinder heads by hand and then test the port designs in CFD. Brian left Hendrick in 2007 to join the Toyota team at Bill Davis Racing. While at Bill Davis, Brian concentrated on valvetrain development using Engine and Valvetrain simulation. He gained invaluable experience as he designed the lift curves and then tested the valvetrain himself in the Spintron and then assisted in the dyno testing where he would collect and post-process the in-cylinder combustion data acquisition to assess the changes each new design imposed on the valvetrain. Bill Davis Racing was sold in December 2008 and in January 2009 Brian founded his own company, Four Stroke Design in Mooresville, NC. Over the past four years, FSD has grown from an engine design and consulting business to a manufacturer of high-performance camshafts. Today, FSD provides many different services including Engine and Valvetrain simulation to premier teams in many forms of racing. Clients include NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup series teams, American LeMans Series, Daytona Prototypes, NHRA Pro Stock, Touring Cars in Brazil and Argentina, Truck Pulling and even Supercross.

Click Here for Four Stroke Design’s Home Page