Steve Sanchez started Total Flow Products when he was eleven years old – only he didn’t know it, at the time.  Watching his uncle race set the racing hook hard and motorsports began to insidiously reel Steve in.  At one of the legendary funny car match races, he was transfixed by the pheromones of nitro methane, burning rubber and earthshaking noise.  Steve was in the net.

In the Genesee Area Skill Center’s summer Auto Mechanic program, he met instructors Jim Gray and Don Koeppen.  Their philosophy of doing all work properly molded Steve’s work ethic and both instructors have remained advisors to this day.  In the skill center’s high school program, Steve was the instructor’s aide and in the thick of a D/Gas race car class project.

After completing Ferris State College’s Auto Machining program, Steve joined Diamond Racing Engines and met the mentor who would teach him cylinder head porting.  Butch Elkins put a grinder in Steve’s hands, sat him down before a pile of heads and said, “Grind here.”  By emphasizing the art of shaping metal, over just removing metal, Elkins set Steve’s course to becoming a human CNC machine.

When Richard Maskin put Elkins to work on his AMC pro stock head, Elkins called on Steve and his grinder.  Elkins’ tutoring turned Steve’s basic grinding into the craft of simple porting and polishing.  But, Steve went beyond that by carefully observing Elkins’ systematic problem solving in locating valves, matching cylinder bores and combustion chambers, determining valve face and seat angles, resolving intake manifold fit and other processes.  Although, as wizards often do, Elkins wouldn’t reveal the science of air flow, Steve learned how to find that secret himself. 

Hundreds of Diamond’s iron NASCAR cylinder heads passed through Steve’s porting station, on their way to top NASCAR teams.  Neil Bonnett liked Steve’s work ethic and put Steve on his and Coo Coo Marlin’s pit crews, as the jack man – Steve’s dream job.  Elkins then dragged Steve to Smokey Yunick’s, for a mysterious flow bench project.  After three years of intense observing, listening, practicing and doing, Steve was ready to move on.

Landing at Roush, Steve ported Roush’s own pro stock heads and production race heads.  That lasted until Total Engineering called.  Andy and Tony Mannarino, Richard Maskin, Gary St. Denis and Leonard Giannuzzi suggested Steve start a business of his own, within their new operation.  Total Flow Products was finally in the frying pan and Steve Sanchez was tending the fire.

He applied his ideas and honed his understanding of ports on Total Engineering’s Pro Stock Firebird.  Aftermarket race heads were bought for Steve to analyze on his new Super Flow 300 bench.  He meticulously measured and shaped the heads, benchmarked them and shaped them again, putting all his experience in and taking new knowledge out.  Dyno testing, integral to Steve’s process, proved or disproved his work and quickly identified which flow bench numbers were important and which were not.  His first set of Chevy heads outperformed the purchased heads and powered the Firebird to ninth, nationally, in an abbreviated season.  Repeating the process with Oldsmobile heads put the Firebird in sixth, the following year – again during a partial season. 

When Dart Cylinder Heads opened, Steve was asked to design ports for their first top fuel Hemi head.  In 1984, all but five U.S. Nationals nitro category qualifiers were using Total Flow Products-prepared Dart heads.  The 1984 Indy 500 pole-winning Buick V-6 also wore Total Flow Products-prepared heads.   In 1985, Don Garlits won NHRA’s National Championship with Total Flow Products-prepared Dart heads.  His winning car is now in the Smithsonian Institute, along with a Total Flow Products/Dart cylinder head display.

As nitro cars began using bigger cams, fuel pumps and blowers, Total Flow Products responded with bigger intake ports and four different port combinations.  Eventually, Dart introduced a forged Hemi head with ports only roughed-in.  Total Flow Products ported those heads by hand, building Steve’s ability to mimic CNC machines.  At the end of 1988, Steve struck out on his own.

Working alone, he mastered metal preparation and welding to specialize in head repair.  CNC machines were increasingly taking over basic port work.  After seeing – and correcting – CNC head repairs by other shops, Steve soon understood, as he did with flow numbers, important CNC operations and unimportant, cosmetic ones.

In 1991, Steve manually reworked a set of heads for Roland Leong.  At the U.S. Nationals, Roland’s car ran 5.14, at over 290 mph, qualified number one in funny car (good enough for number two in top fuel dragster), set both ends of the national record, won the Big Bud Shootout and won the race.  Orders started coming in.  Kenny Bernstein used Total Flow Products-prepared heads, in 1992, to break 300 mph – three times – when no one else did it even once.  Orders poured in.  Dart Machinery and Brad Anderson can rightfully claim they manufactured the cylinder heads, but race preparation by Total Flow Products made the difference.  By 1999, approximately 75% of nitro cars were using Total Flow Products’ services.

Steve finally designed and produced his first Total Flow Products cylinder head – the Hemi 99.  It didn’t receive proper attention until much later, when it came alive with a camshaft design that was previously unavailable.  Later, he manufactured a version of the Oldsmobile billet (DRCE) head, incorporating exhaust port and valve train advantages over previously available Olds heads.

In 2001, rumors circulated that Steve’s head repairs were “too expensive.”  His refusal to weld on extra aluminum, solely to enable “cosmetic” CNC machining, possibly sparked the rumor.  Steve believed (still does) the process compromised the aluminum head’s integrity and the finished product’s quality.  He ignored the rumors and turned to the alcohol drag racer and tractor puller markets.

Frank and Dan Parker, long-time Total Flow Products customers, were first to use Steve’s new alcohol hemi heads in a serious TAFC program.  Their success opened alcohol racer’s eyes and Total Flow Products’ shipping dock was again piled high with orders and shipments.  Similar successes in pulling added to the traffic.  When news of Steve’s quality, and affordability, reached the nitro pits, former customers returned in droves.

Today, Total Flow Products manufactures, prepares, services and repairs cylinder heads for record holders in top fuel, top alcohol, stock, super stock, truck and tractor pullers, short track, sports car, offshore boat, street rod, muscle car restoration and motorcycle applications.  Racers, enthusiasts and engine builders throughout the United States depend on Total Flow Products to provide, improve or resurrect their aluminum and cast iron treasures.