Perry, we made a pact that what happens at dyno day stays at dyno day, so I’ll leave it to everyone else to post their numbers.
I went near the end of the group and the majority of those who preceded me had a lot of, what the diplomatic dyno operator referred to as, “hidden horsepower left in their engines”. I was expecting the worst, but my little un-stroked, un-bored 302 put out some fairly respectable numbers; 278rwhp and 276rwt at 6200rpm.
The whole dyno experience is pretty exciting and more than a little stressful to the initiate. You know how exhilarating it is to run your car up to six grand and bang the next gear. Now imagine 6000rpm while you’re sitting in a stationary car, especially one you have an emotional/financial bond with, and no shift in sight…you’re also inside a building and it’s loud…VERY loud…and you’re also a little giddy from all the super rich exhaust fumes you’ve been breathing all morning. The hp/torque on the cars that ran prior to me dropped off in the 4500- 5500 range, so 5500 is where I lifted on the first run. The dyno guy said, “You gotta go higher”. Next run was 6000rpm… ”Gotta go higher”. It seemed like a lifetime (these runs are done in 4th gear) to get up to 6200, but the engine pulled clean with no drama…i.e. con rods flying out of the dashboard.
Two days prior to the dyno event I changed out the primary and secondary jets, power valve, and primary squirters trying to fix a low end rich condition that’s plagued me since I put the Holley carb on the car. The change in the car’s performance was dramatic. It’s still a wee bit rich near top end, but going down one size on the sec jets should fix that. I’ve been corresponding with a Holley tech guy and he pretty much nailed the problem, as the dyno results attest to…I highly recommend them.
As an aside: the new carb parts sat on my work bench for over a month. What prompted me to finally do the work happened last week, up at Whistler, as I was pulling out the hotel parking garage (yes, there was still water sloshing around in the footwell two days after the rain). A guy and two kids were standing on the sidewalk, and the guy gives me the universal “DUDE, DO A BURNOUT!!!” gesture…you’ve seen it. Since I have no idea where my car is going to end up after a burnout and didn’t really want to take out any children, I revved up the motor instead. The biggest, ugliest, blackest cloud of smoke belched out of the side pipes and totally engulfed this poor guy and the kids. It was actually pretty impressive. I waved, drove away, and vowed to fix the carb problem before dyno day.
I’m looking forward to next year. We need more big blocks to show up...
