Part 1 Here The Moral of the story: Never let a local shop work on your BBB when you can do it yourself with v8Buick.com knowledge! Main/Rod clearances were fine, but I did have to go through the rings. Wall clearance was also OK at 0.005. All mating surfaces were OK. The head torque was unforgivable though... 40lb-ft on 3 of the bolts, the other were between 60-80. The shop assured me they were all torqued to 90, which was still too low. I bothered to calulate the creep factor and found that 90 lbs degrades to 70lbs after 8 hours. Anyone STILL think you don't need to retorque head studs? Leak down showed through on #3 and #6, at the point where the head torque was the least. I retested leakdown after I got the engine back and re-did everything myself. She was all good! We started Dyno on Friday, finished up late Saturday night. Here's the results: Oil pressure was 50 @ 3000, 65@4000. Oil temp held steady at 167*. Pulled the oil filters a part and found almost nothing! I've seen way more in the past on regular streeet engines. Pushrods are a little too big and are just rubbing the block, I'll order a new set. Valve train was a little noisy (probably due to the pushrods) but well within spec. Revved VERY fast, redline is at 5000 RPM. Water temp holds right at 160*. A/F was just slightly rich (11-13) on the primaries and secondaries, overall a nice clean fuel curve though. She uses 180lbs/ hour. Very slight manifold vaccum at 4500+ rpm, probably means I could use a bigger carb? Idles fine at 700-800 RPM. Very little lope despite the SP-1 and 413 cam. Pulls 18-19" of vaccum. I could probably advance the cam a little more. Should be extremely streetable with that much vaccum. She fires up with just a single flick to the starter. All in all I'm very pleased with those results. The engine should last a good long time in the Wagon. The idle means I keep my stealth too! The streetability really was the main goal. I'm hoping to have a long lasting street strip machine. Secondary goal was to make 450-500 HP. After tweaking of the timing (37* total!) and carb we finally got to these numbers (corrected for Calgary air). 482HP@5000 540TQ@4000 Simulations showed 480@5500 and 530@4200. Not bad. Made about 20 different pulls with various air cleaners, carbs, and timing settings, all trying to simulate real-world conditions. Here's one result that blew me away. We tried the standard Buick 455 air cleaner (not the dual snorkel) and lost 60HP all along the curve! That thing did not like to work with the SP-1 IMHO. 35* timing was about 15-20 avg HP less than 37* with this combo. Anyone know why 2* made such a difference? Still wondering about advancing the cam a bit and adding a bigger carb, but that'll have to be done with some track tuning. The top end was surprising as it does fall off and rebound a bit above 5000 rpm. Anyone know why this happens? Engine's going to be running within the next few weeks. Maybe I'll get to do little :3gears: this summer. Thanks again for all the support and advice here guys, I'd still be wondering what went wrong without the board.
Great results. More dyno numbers with diffferent equip. would be awesome. Never thought 2 degrees would have that effect.
If you are pulling vacuum at WOT and the upper end of the RPM band, chances are the engine would make a bit more power on the top with the bigger carb. If you have a cooperative buddy that will loan one to you, that's how I would test it.
:beer: Excellent! Glad to hear that you got it together good this time. The numbers are reallly good! :grin:
Clint-super dyno results.You will be thrilled to know that according to my dyno tests if you had used the dual snorkel air cleaner there would have been a loss of only 42 horsepower!That was using a Performer intake though. Rod
Thanks for the comments guys. I'll be getting a soft copy later this week if anyone wants some numbers. I went and sold my Hol last year after getting much better streetability from the Q-jet. This thing breathes a lot deeper, I'll have to seriously consider a switch. Steve, Thanks again for all your help on the cam selection. The final results of good idle and reasonable HP came out to what I wanted. The 284-08H will go in the new AL head engine I'm building up now. Rod, I'm almost scared to try a StarWars air cleaner. I'll go with the custom cowl pickup and an open base.
No problem. I think you knew what you wanted anyway. Cams are always a fun topic. I don't think you could go wrong with the cam you chose... so many people like it. So, when will you have it in the car and rolling? :Brow:
Not soon enough! It's in the engine bay with the headers bolted up... next weekend if work leaves me alone.
Hi Clint, good numbers on that baby!!! Odd too, my engine was also down almost 20hp with a 2 degree change (in my case 34 vs 32). Where did you dyno it?? later Tim
Thanks Tim, now I just need to get it running right in the Wagon! Both Dyno sessions were done at Pierre Guyon's place, Dyno Plus. He does excellent work, helped out quite a bit
Once you get that thing in and set up, you need to dyno it again on a chassis dyno....I was going to do that with my car but have changed heads before it happened so no way to get an accurate measurement. Would like to see for ourselves what a 455 loses in the driveline...then we can see what alternator, exhaust and all that good stuff actually does vs everyone guessing. I plan on doing that with my next engine as well, so we could start comparing numbers.. Know a guy with a dyno, very reasonable prices. What do you figure?? later Tim
I'm halfway there, I'm a dyno nazi. I brought belts etc for the real-world test and ran the waterpump and alternator for the above numbers. I don't run a mech fan. Made 4-5 difference, no big whoop. I agree that chassis dyno numbers owuld be very cool. Who do you reccomend?
Have his card at home, newer shop, is buddies with guy I work with...very reasonable rates but all he does is run dyno/car...you do the tuning yourself.... I'll fire you an e-mail tonight..... later Tim
5700' The correction factor is ridiculously high in Calgary. I have all the results with inhg and in h20 barometric and adapted air temp though to recalc it myself.
