Bang for the Buck Dyno Testing Parts Combo Power Gains

Hey, welcome to horsepower. You remember our modified race car from several shows ago? Well, today we're gonna put the finishing touches on it as we get ready for some serious track time. Meanwhile, though, we're pretty pumped about a new ongoing feature you're gonna see on the show called Quite simply Bang for the Buck.

Last week, we introduced our new DTs Tower Mark engine dyno

that's housed inside a cell built by industrial noise control.

Our

dyno has a continuous capacity of 2000 horse power and 1500 ft pounds of torque

starting today. We'll put it to work by testing the power benefits of various engine combinations offered by the aftermarket.

Now, in essence, we're going to use our dyno

to give you an idea on what might be the best engine upgrades for you and your cash. In other words, your bang for the buck.

Now, of course, we need a mule or test motor for these experiments. And for now it's going to be this 350 small block from GM performance parts.

It's an 8.5 to 1 compression crate motor with an iron crank. I draw like cam and cast iron heads. Now they dyno it using

a cast iron manifold and a quadri jet car results.

Well, there it is 290 horsepower, 326 ft pounds of torque. And that's our baseline.

Even though it is a crate motor, we still had to get a few extra parts like this water pump, these pulleys balancer distributor, even new wires and plugs,

by the way, no pricey parts here.

These are just basic pieces

you can pick up from your local auto parts store.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, we'll test all kinds of engine combinations on a frequent basis on the show and get this. You can check them all out right here on Power block.com.

You'll find the page for each combination with

dyno results, description of the parts, their prices and even where to buy them for our first bang for the buck test. We want to see what happens on our dyno with this combination of

it's a low profile GM performance part aluminum intake and a 600 CFM Haley carb.

Now, the intake is a lot lighter than a stock cast iron piece and it's got an improved runner design for improved airflow which should result in a little more horsepower.

After dropping a set of Mr

gasket intake gaskets down, we can go ahead and set the intake in place and get it bolted

by the way. GM spec this Holly 600 as a good match for their manifold. It's got an electric choke back of secondaries and power valve blowout protection all in all pretty good choice for street performance small blocks.

Another good thing about this car is the fact that it's tunable and replacement parts are easy to find.

Now, we do have to mention that the factory dyno tested that engine using an 87 octane pump gas

and that's exactly what we're gonna use.

Ok.

For an exhaust system on our mule motor, we're using a pair of one and 58 inch headers from Doug's that feed into 2.5 inch exhaust pipes back here. 40 series mufflers from Flowmaster. Oh, notice how we left the bins and the exhaust pipes to simulate the way they work under the car.

Looks good in here. Let's check in with that old mutt.

Ok, man. What's the game plan here? Well, Joe, since this motor is brand new, I'm gonna want to break it in for about 20 minutes.

Now GM recommends 34 degrees total timing. So I'm gonna lock it down at that

and make a few short poles to check the fuel curves.

After that. I'll go in there, change the oil and filter

and it's ready to run a 5200 RPM.

All right, there it is Joe.

This engine made 306 horsepower and just a hair shy of 340 ft pounds of torque. Plus, check out how this thing made over 300 ft pounds of torque all the way from 2500 RPM

to our peak of 5300 RPM.

Pretty impressive. What about the power curve? Uh check this out? Look at that smooth green horse power curve.

Good job bud

and pretty good little combination to kick off this new series of ours. Yeah. Why don't we go ahead and take a close look and see exactly how much bang for the buck. We got out of this thing.

A GM performance parts, low profile aluminum manifold combined with the Holly 600 carb

and for the bang, we picked up an extra 16 horsepower at peak 14 ft pounds of torque and the bucks $559.87

as a combo. We'll try yet another combination on our mule motor next week. Meanwhile, we've got a cover up in store for a modified race car that is after the break.

Hey, welcome back to horse power. Now, we know it's been a long time since you've seen our build up on this I MC. A dirt modified race car

has been a long time now, we haven't forgotten the thing. We just got busy with other projects

today. However, we got the final phase covered literally with a body kit. Now, before we get busy and get to work, here's a look back at what we've done so far.

We got all pumped up for the project by going trackside at events like this one out in Lincoln, Nebraska

modified racers are the headliners of circle track contests like this. And it's easy to see why they're growing in popularity for fans and weekend competitors alike.

Then we made a trip to Speedway Motors where our chassis was welded together

and our rear end was built according to I MC A specs.

Now back at the horsepower shop, we completed the suspension and brakes, Plus we installed a fuel cell and ran our fuel and brake lines.

We also installed an OEM steering box again according to the

rules of the sanctioning body.

Ever since the modified hit the scene back in 1979 they've had a $525 engine claim rule. Now what this means is at the end of the race, a competitor can buy your engine for 525 bucks. So to keep it competitive but economical, we went with a cast iron GM performance block with four bolt mains.

Then we added an eagle rotating assembly. We turned a crane for the valve train which included a flat tap at cam which is spec by the rule book

to feed our small block. We used the Holly 4150 Pro series car

and for exhaust, a set of rule friendly show and felt headers.

Of course, we can't run this thing the way it looks now. So we got this body kit from speedway that'll protect the driver from dirt and mud

and make this thing look like a real modified racer.

We're starting with the rear panels.

You want to lay all the panels in place and light them up before you rivet them to the frame.

And for that, if you're a real man, use the old manual method and build up your arms like Popeye in the meantime.

Come on, baby.

How about olive oil?

Hey, sweet p you got that thing done yet

or if you're smart and in half your mind, you'd go ahead and fork out for one of these air rivet guns that we also picked up from the speedway catalog.

Give me that damn thing.

Sure.

This last rear panel goes in place over the fuel cell

and it's held in place with a Zeus fastener. This way we can remove it to refuel at the track

and not waste any time.

Well, we're almost done. Now notice how this panel's hinged to allow access to the brake master cylinder.

Now, let's see if the spring loaded safety net will fit.

Yeah, that works too. Yeah, baby.

These front windshield bars are designed to keep debris from entering the driver's compartment, whether it be off the track or from another modified.

And we're getting really close. Now,

I see

these things go inside

inside.

Now with that big fat moroso air cleaner in place, we can drop on the hood, fasten it down and that finishes our modified body build.

Now that the body is together, Joe's taking pictures to send them to the guys at

Aras.

That way their graphic designers can get busy and design us another cool scheme. Can't wait to see what they come up with. Well, next time you see this thing, we'll wrap it, take it to the racetrack and you'll finally get to sling some dirt hopefully sooner than later this time. You bet. Well, we got some racing of a different kind coming up.

Stay with us.

What do you think? Pretty good,

pretty sharp

right now. Horsepower heads to Northern Indiana where the terrain is flat and the corn grows mighty tall.

Now, this is no field of dreams.

I'm obviously not. Kevin Costner in the story.

Well, it ain't about baseball.

No, it's about grassroots drag racing with the NSC A

and it's not so much about who wins the race. It's more about what they race in hopes of winning. Now, if you've entertained ideas of racing in events like this, there are countless classes to choose from, depending on your budget and need for speed.

My

name is

Stephanie dyno.

I'm currently the

Nostalgia Super Stock for the National Street Car Association.

Stephanie

Dimino 65 Impala is perfect for nostalgia Super Stock. It's a class made from factory Hot rods that must keep the original looks and most of the original power plants.

It's a handicap class with indexes from 950 to 13 seconds.

It's a lot cheaper than the faster heads up classes, but almost as much fun, especially when your brother and his Flaming Red Fairlane are in second place. Now, it's the first time I've been in second place and she, well, she's been first. She actually won a championship and therefore four. So I'm pretty close to her, so I'm gonna try and take it away from her. How many times have you guys gone up against each other?

Quite a few, quite a few. And I love it every time. If there was anybody, I could be racing the finals. I hope every time it's him.

Have you ever beaten Stephanie a

couple of times? Yeah, but she usually gets me in the back door because she knows how to, she can bra a race like a champ. She's good. Meanwhile, Nostalgia Pro Street is the heads of class of choice for Pete Reichert

and his 65 Ford Fairlane

where the muscle cars have real skill looks on the outside, but two chassis underneath

and enough power to get them down the quarter mile in the mid seven.

It's all metal except for the hood which is fiberglass.

Uh, you know, we got the

Kuntz motor. It's 638 cubic inch, got all the Brock Nitrous system on it, got a pro system, uh

carburetor on, it was about 1800 CFM. I got my motor is so big. I gotta run uh alcohol jets on it. Get it rolling. Car, we 3377 going over the scales yesterday, which is, uh,

scales are running a little heavy but, you know, I went on a diet last night so maybe I'll drop it down a little bit, you know,

in the N hr A top sportsman is a bracket glass, but here the cars get to go. Heads up

in the six is thanks to the use of a power

at

Randy Jewel prefers this NSC, a version for his Corvette powered by a 615 inch big one.

I mean, all the rules are crossed over. You know, it's minimum weight of like 2400 and 50 pounds.

They made it very easy. You don't have to run mufflers, you can have stickers. It's one stage of nitrous. Um,

you know, like I said, blower cars can pretty much run what they need to. It's a good motor, it's a small motor for the class, but it runs really

trans brake button is right here next to the shift or easy to get to J I'm a little bit quicker here with my arm coming back than trying to come straight off behind.

I like the steering wheel real close to me when I drive normal top sportsman stuff. You're trying to braket race. You kind of got to look next door to see who's there, but heads up stuff, you just kind of look at the end of the track.

I'm Ryan Tucci,

the normal one, the crazy ones up there, the

NSC is in Town Morocco. Us 41. Let's get on track with horsepower TV.

Well, qualifying action continued throughout the afternoon of this event. Then after the Indiana sunset, there was fierce fast elimination action here on the cool night time track

and our featured racers. Well, both John and Stephanie were victims of the big bad red light.

Ewell ran great up to the semi finals where he lost by a tack

and Reichert

fought his way to the finals before late night, Duke fell on the track postponing the finals where he lost.

But again, this story was about the racers and their means of getting to the end of the strip. Some pretty mean competitors. I'd say

here in the fun world of grassroots drag race.

So I like going fast. You know, some people like, you know, reading books, I like going fast.

Hey, welcome back to horsepower. Now, earlier today we started our first bang for the buck series and our first test combination was a GM performance parts aluminum manifold with the Holly 600 carb.

The result was 16 horsepower over the baseline of 290 with an extra 14 ft pounds of torque.

Well, that test is a done deal and if you like horsepower and have your

own dyno, it's hard to leave one alone.

Yeah, we're curious to see if we can make a little more power using a one inch spacer. Now, a carb spacer makes power by increasing the plenum volume and creating a more efficient fuel atomization.

We got both of these from HP H. This is their popular four into 14 spacer hose

leads into one big opening,

but it won't work well on a dual plane intake like ours. So we're going to try this Split Spacer design that also increases volume in the plenum

and smooths out the airflow distribution as it enters the runners. We'll see if it helps our hurts our little mule motor.

Well, what did we get that pull

this time, Mike, we got another 4 ft pounds of torque and nine more horsepower. Wow, that's a lot more than we expected. Now, that wouldn't have been possible without the intake and carb combo it was designed for now, a spacer like this will run you about 100 and 12 bucks, but for the extra horsepower and a little bit of labor involved, it's definitely well worth the investment. Now, next week, in addition to our bang for the buck combo, we're also going to try out a few different sets of headers to see which one makes the most ponies on the engine, dyno.

So if your hot rod needs a fuel pump that's constant quiet and compact. Well, B G's got one that just may fit the bill. This is their speed sumo for EF I engines.

It's a fuel cooled Geo rotor style with a built in heat sink and a compact design that fits in tight places. It's good for up to 650 horsepower and works in conjunction with this bypassing

fuel pressure regulator.

Now, they've also got a new version for carbureted engines each going for less than $300.

There's not much you can do about high fuel prices these days, but there is something you can do about fuel efficiency. This is a fuel catalyst from Fitch and it's designed to return fuel to its refinery, Fresh State. Now, Fitch claims this thing reverses the effects of oxidation with the fuel, therefore, given a cleaner, more efficient burn. Now, the overall effect is more power and better fuel efficiency out of both gasoline and diesel engines. The price. Well, it's for the whole kit. They start out at 200 bucks need some new valve covers for your race car. Well, B SS R products has got you covered with these. They are constructed from sheet aluminum. They've got CNC cut rails and custom breather locations,

plus steel bushing inserts for long life. You can get them with oil supporters to cool down your valve springs and they make custom applications for just about any racing set up. They'll set you up with a pair like this for 310 bucks.

All right, next week, another bang for the buck test. Plus a new car project. That promises to be the weirdest wildest thing we've ever done? See you then?