Westech Dyno, TEA Trickflow Heads, 569HP

The CobraLads had an awesome time at the Westech Dyno in Mira Loma. If you read any car mags with dyno tests, the odds are that you are looking at Westech Dyno since they do the bulk of magazine article work. I posted the long version of ths story to the cobra and ford forums. Now for some additional details and notes on the adventure. Here are some pics. The one thing that always amazes me is just how accurate dyno2000 is. It takes so time to get used to using it as their is a learning curve, especially with cams and head data entry.

With dyno2000, I predicted 579. The one trick I use with the software is to always select small tube headers into open exhaust. This generally is the closest to most real life pure dyno tests. Superflo has a terrific dyno viewer program that you can download here. If you want to see an exact 569 run, here is the file. Click the No.2 button to get the adjusted correct figures. The first full pull scores a 530HP. Steve the dyno master then worked his magic, searching high and low to find more and more power. He started with timing. Usually you can find an optimal timing zone between 30-36 total advance. My engine was dead rock solid in that whole range. We could not even budge the graph. The next test we thought we would change the oil out from the corn syrup Valvoline Race 20w50 to watery 10w30. Once again, we were surprised that this did not budge the graph. If did drop oil pressure 10-15 lbs. I think we started around the 60 mark and dropped into the high 40s low 50s at idle by switching grades. Next was carb adjustments. Steve was amazing as he adjusted the Holley 750 for all it was worth. First we jetted up and down. We started with 73 square (all four jets the same at 73). Steve decided to keep the holley square and go up to 75 and then I think even 77 as we were lean on one side at 73. Once again we weren't finding much HP but we were getting the fuel ratio and curve perfect. Next Steve dove into the black magic air bleeds. Soon HP was being found.

The numbers kept climbing. In three hours we went from 530HP to 571HP. We forgot to record the 571 run. The last tests we did were fun air filter tests. Since I have very little space under my hood, I run a 2"x11" K&N with Xtreme flow top. We ran a test with the 2"x11" and the silver lid. Me, Scott and Steve were flabbergasted. We were sure huge HP would be lost. The graph only dipped 7HP from peak! Next Scott snugged on the Xtreme flow lid. Once again we were totallay shocked! The engine pulled 569HP! The air filter even cleaned out the bobble at 6200 a little and showed the engine wanted to run even higher. In the end, the day at the dyno was a huge success. If I ever build another engine, I will definitely be taking it right back to the engine dyno. You get your engine totally dialed in. You also get an incredible education.

Did we leave a little HP on the table? There are a few areas we could of scored a little more HP. Early in the tests two header bolts fell on the floor and this melted one header port. I am sure it was not sealing as well for the remainder of the tests. Next we had the Danny Bee belt drive system. Since this was my first time at the dyno, I was far too nervous to try anything but standard procedure. Next time I would pop off the water pump and retard timing. I think 5-10 HP would be found here. I think we lost some HP with the shallow race oil pan. Steve wasn't positive, but we kept getting a bobble at 6200 rpm range that would recorrect. This can usually be a windage tray issue. Joe Sherman who won the first small block Engine Masters Challenge is quoted in saying "Using a pan like this with its matching oil pump and pickup--also from Moroso...we've seen gains in horsepower over factory pans, sometimes as much as 25 hp." The one thing I noticed about his pan right away is the curve!

Most windage trays are flat and yet the crank is curved. Its a trade off in cobra since you need a low pan often for ground clearance issues. The last easy area we left HP was rpm! It was the end of the day when we did the K&N filter test. If you notice in that run, we stopped the revs at 6800 and the engine was still gaining 2HP per 100rpm. I think there was probably 4HP sitting right there! Crane calls for maximum revs of 7000 and valve float at 7500 so we had room to test. We were no were near valve float as yet. Those are my stories for now. I'll be back some day top say how you get from 570 to 600 with the pump gas small block. I learnt this from Steve at the Dyno and reading the Joe Sherman story several times.