[kjett]

Well, after 2.5+ years of blood, sweat and tears my car is almost done. I built a pump gas 540 for the car nearly 2 years ago right after I put the car in the first (of 3) body shop to begin the frame off restoration. I first dynoed the engine with a Super Victor intake and an 1,130 CFM Pro Systems dominator. The engine made 758 peak hp at 6,700RPMs and 668ft lbs of torque at 5,600 RPMs. I went through an ordeal trying to get the body and paint work done on the car. During this time I decided to switch the engine over to fuel injection. Initially I had the Super Vic intake modified for fuel injection and purchased a FAST dominator style throttle body. I did some initial tuning with the BigStuff 3 EFI controller and was able to get the car to idle clean, but I never got around to dyno tuning the car with this setup. I had a 4" cowl hood on the car with the Super Vic/FAST throttle body. I needed the 4" cowl to clear the intake, TB and spacer. The 4" cowl hood turned out nice, but it really didn't suit my taste. I started thinking about how I could use the factory hood to retain the stock look of the car. I had both hoods painted as part of the restoration. I ended up calling Hogan's racing manifolds. Tim Hogan was really good to work with and ended up building a custom FI intake that would clear the stock hood.

Fast forward to yesterday... I took the car to Atlanta Chassis Dyno yesterday to have them build an intake pipe for the manifold and to do final tuning on the BS3 system. The engine was smoking a lot and I was worried that I might have washed the rings with all the trial and error (on my part) trying to learn the EFI tuning parameters. After several hours of tuning and a few full pulls on the dyno we were able to get the engine cleaned up and running good. The engine made 593 RWHP and 542RWTQ at 6,200 and 5,300 respectively. The HP peak is down 500 RPMs from my engine dyno testing and the torque peak is down ~400 RPMs. Without knowing for certain, I attribute the peak RPM shift to the new manifold. The new manifold has pretty short runners in order to clear the hood. I wasn't really thinking that this would pull the peak RPM down, but perhaps it did.

Now to the HP/TQ numbers. I was actually expecting about 650 to the tires. Brad Brand is the owner of Atlanta Chassis Dyno. He looked at the engine dyno sheets and said he would have expected about 630 at the wheels based on drivetrain (6 speed manual tranny) losses, etc...When the engine was dynoed out of the car it had an electric water pump and no other accessories turning. As it sits in the car today (and as was dynoed yesterday), the engine is turning a mechanical water pump, power steering pump and 120AMP alternator. The room temperature was 100.23 degrees when we tested yesterday with about 3% humidity.

When I initially built this engine it was my intention to build a pump gas bracket engine (I was competing full time in division 2 bracket at the time). The cam that's in the engine is pretty healthy (.760 lift, 268/274@.050 on a 110lsa). In the future (maybe this winter) I intend to pick another cam for the car, either a smaller solid roller with less spring pressure or perhaps even a hydraulic roller with the new Morel lifters. It looks like based on my induction system I need a cam that makes peak power at ~6,200-6,300 RPMs. Brad seemed to think a smaller cam would make the same power or even more with a little better street manners. I think as it sits at the moment the cam/induction system are pretty mismatched.

I did road drive the car yesterday. The engine ran great, no cooling issues, good street manners considering the cam size, etc... I was worried the engine would lug in overdrive with the cam. It was really happy at anything above 2,000 RPMs. I only got into 5th gear (didn't make it to 6th). At ~60mph the engine was turning 2,100 RPMs in 5th gear (.74 ratio). I still have another gear (6th) with a .54 final drive ration, so I should be able to drive this thing anywhere On a side note, the Hydratec/Hydroboost brake system is unbelievable!!! First time I hit the brakes it almost threw Brad and I through the windshield without locking up the tires. Will definitely take some getting used to (hair trigger), lol.

The G-Force tranny works killer and the sintered iron clutch grabs like nobody's business. The rear end is whining worse than a 3 year old. It started doing this towards the end of the '05 points season. Also, the spool is going to be a no-go for me on the street. Moving the car at slow speeds to back up, turn, etc... is a PITA. The tires are fighting the pavement with the spool. I'm thinking about swapping in an Eaton/Detroit TrueTrac. According to Moser, the TrueTrac is quiter, more efficient and stronger than a posi (no clutches in the TrueTrac) and the only thing that might hold up to the power level/weight of my car. Only other alternative I can think of is a Furd 9" with two center sections, a posi for street and a spool for the track. Ain't gonna happen :no: No Furd parts going in my car other than my autolite plugs and my TPS sensor

As is often the case, the dyno was a humbling experience. I'm hoping that with a cam change and some tuning I can get it up to around 625-650 at the tires with real good drivability. I'll let you know when I get there

[onovakind67]

How does the exhaust system in the car compare to the exhaust system used on the engine dyno?

[kjett]

Originally Posted by onovakind67

How does the exhaust system in the car compare to the exhaust system used on the engine dyno?

The engine was dynoed with Hedman Hustler 2-1/4" primary tubes and 4" collectors (not sure of primary tube length). I had Lemon's build me a set of stepped headers (2-1/8" to 2-1/4") with a 4" collector. The collectors have reversion cones. I'm coming out of the 4" collector into a 3.5" reducer which goes into a Dr. Gas X-pipe and then into a set of large case Magnaflow mufflers with turn downs. The x-pipe gives the engine a really nice sound. This thing revs unbelievably quick for a BBC.

Also worth noting, the engine only wanted a total of 32 degrees advance. And in case anyone asks, yes the balancer/timing pointer is reading correctly. I measured TDC with a deck bridge and dial indicator when setting up the pointer. The chamber must be pretty efficient on these heads (Ray Frank Profilers). I'm also running a pretty tight quench (.038").

[JOHN WILSON]

Good stuff, Ken!

Must feel pretty good to finally get some seat time.

[yanniz]

Ken sounds great, and I agree that you should be higher than that...

as a comparison, I dynoed my 555 last Friday and it put little over 550 at the wheels at 6200 and was climbing...

10.1:1, .610/.630 HR cam, Dart 335 heads, Victor Jr. intake, 4150 style 1000HP carb (85/94 jets.) I have a bunch of power robbing stuff on the car, serpentine system, Flowmaster 50 series crapflers, 2" Super Comp beat up headers, Gear Vendor OD, 9" rear end....

In either case, I bet your car is a blast to drive....enjoy it.

[10secBu]

Great read!

Glad to hear the project is near completion and your able to finally take it out and enjoy driving it this summer.

What hood will the car have now, the Super Sport?

[kjett]

Originally Posted by JOHN WILSON

Good stuff, Ken!

Must feel pretty good to finally get some seat time.

Yep John. Almost done. A few electrical issues to work and will need to do something with the rear end setup, but a much shorter list now.

Originally Posted by yanniz

Ken sounds great, and I agree that you should be higher than that...

as a comparison, I dynoed my 555 last Friday and it put little over 550 at the wheels at 6200 and was climbing...

10.1:1, .610/.630 HR cam, Dart 335 heads, Victor Jr. intake, 4150 style 1000HP carb (85/94 jets.) I have a bunch of power robbing stuff on the car, serpentine system, Flowmaster 50 series crapflers, 2" Super Comp beat up headers, Gear Vendor OD, 9" rear end....

In either case, I bet your car is a blast to drive....enjoy it.

Yanniz, I'm also running a 6 rib March serpentine setup turning the aforementioned accessories. I also have 11" heavy ass rear drums from MPB. I'm not making excuses. It is what it is. I do believe a cam swap and perhaps a little head work from Larry Meaux down the road I can reach my goal of 625-650 very streetable RWHP.

Originally Posted by 10secBu

Great read!

Glad to hear the project is near completion and your able to finally take it out and enjoy driving it this summer.

What hood will the car have now, the Super Sport?

The SS hood is already on the car. It looks and fits perfect. The car is an all steel total sleeper, with full/stock interior including knee knocker tach. Only thing not stock is the exhaust note and the Budnik 17" wheels

[Rmchevelle]

Kjett,

Great update. Post some more pics when you have an opportunity, would love to see what she looks like currently. Are the Profiler heads still in production? I saw an ad for a second hand/new set the other day.

Glad you changed your mind about no longer posting here. Always enjoyed your progress and test/tune/racing reports. I'm sure many would agree that members like you who share their ups and downs with their Chevelles are too valuable a resource to lose.

[Georgia69]

Very cool Ken, thanks for posting. Photos? Would love to see the FI hadware.

[kjett]

Thanks Rod/Mike. Here are a few more pics. Once I get the remaining things done I'll take it to a nice place and do some outdoor pictures. The garage shots really don't do the car justice.

I need to take the air pipe to the powder coaters and I still need to buy an air filter. We didn't dyno test without the air pipe. Might have been interesting to try. The pipe is 4" diameter, but the radius into the throttle body is pretty tight due to space constraints. I would have liked to have plumbed some cool air into the intake, but there just wasn't enough room in the engine compartment.

[kjett]

On another note, I went back through some of my old dyno pulls for other combinations I've ran in this car. With the 460 pump gas engine (.030" over, canfield heads, lukovich intake, 2" headers, HP-950 carb, Comp XR-286 solid roller, etc...), 8" ATI converter and 4.11 gears the car chassis dynoed at 484RWHP on the same chassis dyno. Not sure what the actual torque was as it showed well over 500 ft lbs and was skewed by the converter. With that configuration and a race weight of 3,745 lbs the car ran a best of 10.53@127.11 in real good air. I think I've probably added 150lbs to the weight of the car (heavier bowtie block, heater back in, power steering pump added, heavier 700 series power steering box, some pretty heavy stereo equipment, heavy stainless steel gas tank, dyno mat everywhere including the roof). The good news is the driver is a little lighter (20lbs so far, shooting for another 15) than before I'm guessing the race weight will be right at 3,900lbs. Wonder what it will do with another 110+ RWHP and ~150lbs more weight? Granted it's a stick now and not an auto, but assuming I can launch the car...?

[cstraub]

Ken,
For one I think you have done a hell of job on this build and your informative post to the board I know has helped many others. I think you got one hell of a bullet.

[CDN SS]

Originally Posted by cstraub

Ken,
For one I think you have done a hell of job on this build and your informative post to the board I know has helped many others. I think you got one hell of a bullet.

What he said BTW I agree Glad to see you did what's necessary to get that stock hood .on car

Timing ... 32* yes good chambers but would suggest with FI you able to get A/f lean for big power as opposed to rich with lots of timing to burn off the fuel which on engine dyno shows up as making more power when you advance ..........gotta love computer controlled cars for the best tune /power

[CDN SS]

Ken ....curious to know what your dyno operator uses as a percentage loss with the manual trans etc ......

[kjett]

Thanks again, guys.

Brad said that he normally sees about 17% on overdrive trannies and he does a ton of F-bodies/Fox bodies with T-56 trannies. My numbers are showing about 22% loss, or 5% too high. I think a large part of that is due to the apparent mismatch between the intake, heads and cam. I will fix it at some point. For now I just want to fix a few remaining issues and "cruise" with it