cloudmaster's Journal: Chevelle engine!

So, this time I decided to have someone else rebuild my engine for me. Mainly due to having little time, but also because I wanted someone to break the thing in for me. So I had to find a shop with an engine dyno. I ended up going to Gustaf Engine in Moline, IL. Ron's a good, knowledgable guy, and worked with me to get things done pretty much within my budget. The final result is that I have a .040 over 350 (about 357-358 CID) which made 330 horsepower and 394 ft-lbs of torque. "What, just 332 horsepower?" Yes, and a whole mountain of torque across the whole RPM band - average from 2000 to 5000 RPMs is 370.8 ft-lbs. Combined with the 3.73:1 posi rear and the TH200-4R tranny, this car should be pretty fun to drive on the street. And since the transmission's "only" supposed to be built guaranteed up to 410 ft-lbs, I probably shoulnd't put much more power through it anyway. :)

This is why I wanted someone with an engine dyno to do it. I wanted to know the real numbers the car's making, sure, but there are better reasons. I wanted everything dialed in, and the thing first run on the dyno. They've got better instrumentation, and can make sure everything's working right during those critical first few minutes of runtime. That's more difficult in a car. And having the engine dialed in with real numbers, rather than going by the seat of my pants, well, it's well worth the $400 extra.

I also think it's cool that the engine holds 54PSI of oil pressure at 2000 RPMs, climbing to 68.3 PSI at 5K - which should be good for reliability - and that these numbers were generated with the coolant temperature at about 165. With my big aluminum radiator and dual high-volume electric fans, the 160 'stat should be able to maintain that pretty well.

Hopefully I'll get it in this week...

Dyno graph

[cloudmaster]

I forgot to include the actual graph [dannysauer.com].