I did a search and found some hits on Pipemax but the content was directed mostly to header design (as is the intent of the program).
I'm fiddling around now trying to iron out some requirements for the 416ci build I'm working on. I'd already roughed in the intake port work when I got curious about trying to optimize CSA and throat diameter and port speed. I should have done this before starting the port work, but I sort of stumbled on the info as I went. Originally I was just looking to knock out the ugly bits in the ports.
Anyway, I started using Pipemax to try to model airflow requirements, airspeed, minimum CSA, etc. It just seems odd to me that you don't input any airflow for the program, it just uses VE at a certain displacement and RPM and delivers Tq/HP, and computes the airflow requirement.
Every time I model a combo, seems that the airflow requirements are very low unless I crank up the VE to "race engine" type numbers 105-110%. I realize that full optimized combos can pull 550hp out of 250cfm of intake flow, but from what I've seen, that's a really optimized combo that would usually use a good bit of cam and compression. The program takes cam and compression into consideration, though. I do understand that the program is taking carb and intake flow into consideration as well, which I don't have any way of guessing/measuring right now. I want to see, for instance, how power would be impacted by going from say 275cfm to 300cfm at .600" valve lift, but basically there's no way in Pipemax to do that, as I see it. You can fudge the VE numbers and then that will adjust the airflow requirements so I suppose that's a way to back into it.
So, am I on the right track here, or missing some function in the program where you can input flow numbers?
I will say, I plugged in a build I had dyno'd years ago, and it hit the hp and tq numbers to 1%. The heads flowed quite a bit more than the airflow requirement shown in the program, but there again it's assuming airflow through carb and intake.
