Unfortunately, engine builders that are discussing dyno results may just as well be discussing abortion, politics, or religion....LOL

What it all boils down to is that for us who are selling horsepower (and I'm saying it that way because most guys wanna see the dyno sheets), we always end up in conversations where our stuff is being compared to somebody else's stuff. 

When my stuff is 100 hp down to somebody else's stuff when the components are essentially the same, I wanna know if it's the way my stuff was measured, or if I'm just stupid.   If it's the way it's measured, there's not much I can do about that.  If it's because I'm stupid, then I need to learn more and try harder.  Nothing wrong with that.

"Accurate" is relative. 

Dynos are a necessary evil.  To a builder, they're a way of making sure the engine doesn't come apart, it doesn't leak, doesn't smoke, carb is tuned, timing is right, etc.  It's also a great way to show incremental changes.   To the general public, it's a bragging right, and most guys just wanna see that peak hp number.

This is something I discuss with almost every other builder, including Barry, Keith, and Blair, because it's a "thorn in the side" to all of us. 

From what I've seen in the use of several engine dynos in the area, most do not read the same.  This was one of the factors behind the EMC...you get a bunch of guys on the same dyno, then all the guessing and variables can go away.   I'm sure Barry or Blair will tell you the same thing, but as a builder, you basically pick a dyno that you're familiar with and then stick with that one so you can have a way of comparing past/future builds.  Barry has his own.  Blair uses Jim Morgan's dyno.  I use Dale Meers' dyno.  That way, if I do a 482 with a specific cam/head/intake package, then change a cam on the next 482 while keeping the other variables the same, I can see what the difference is. 

I'm often concerned that the numbers I'm getting are "accurate".  The correction factor has a large part in the numbers and where the weather station is located has a large part in the numbers.  If the computer is getting STP from the intake air, it will show different numbers than if the computer is getting STP from the dyno room, where the engine is running and the headers are adding to ambient temperature.

On the dyno I use, it's typical to see correction factors anywhere from 1.06 to 1.1.  That's a 6-11% correction right off the bat, and it will vary based on whether I dyno in the winter, dyno in the summer, etc.   I've even taken the time to gather weather data independently and calculate the correction factor manually, just to compare to what the dyno is seeing.  Again, the general jist of it is that if I dyno that same engine in the winter or summer, the numbers should be the same because the computer should be correcting.

I have already made plans with Barry to dyno one of my engines here, then make some pulls up there.   I'm curious to see the difference as we often compare notes and commonly see the same horsepower between similar builds, but I tend to show more torque.  If I dyno here and then dyno there and show a lot less torque, then it will be more data for us to sift through and decipher.   To be brutally honest, we all want to know how we compare to each other.  I'll be the first one to raise my hand and say that I'm not as sharp as Blair,  but it would be nice to get us all on the same dyno one day to see what the difference actually is.
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Thanks Brent for the compliment.......I really spend zero time wondering how my junk compares to anybody else.  We build and dyno alot of engines....about 99% FE engines, and I very rarely post any results on the forums any more.  Without fail, someone will make comments to suggest that the numbers I get are not real.  Fact one:  We do not, and have never purposefully blown up a dyno number (and it is easy to do).  Fact two:  I swept up a bunch of junk I had in the floor in 2008 and took it to Engine Masters.......a filled Ford 428 block, a pair of Dove heads I had laying here that I extensively worked, a Ford intake cast in 1963 that I worked on, and a 4150 carb (in a field of Dominators) and as a LUCKY coincidence I had the highest scoring Ford FE on the grounds.  The EMC dyno showed me 14 more HP than Morgan's on that engine.  Fact three:  I do not care what the dyno NUMBER or the flow bench NUMBER says, as long as the board at the end of the race track shows the right numbers, and the little light comes on when someone wins a heads-up race with an engine or parts of an engine from here.  Fact four:  I've been doing this stuff with FE engines for an honest 37 years, and I am 45 now..........I apply everything I have stumbled across, every day, and sometimes I see something I did not see yesterday that makes improvement.    When I went faster than anyone else in my classes, some said...oh, he's gotta be cheating...........funny, NHRA's most rigorous tech man of the time tore my junk apart numerous times and found nothing illegal.  Now I apply alot of what I learned over my life of this to the Nostalgia and street FE stuff, and poof!.........it's gotta be the dyno.  I went to the EMC and that told me all I needed to know.  I took substandard and outdated junk up there and had the highest scored FE..........that was not my dyno!  I spent way too much money for no gain on that.  If I spent 30-40K and a chunk of my life, I could easily make their top 5 with a Ford FE, but if you do not win, for whatever reason, it is a waste of time and money.

I would rather focus on continuous R&D, accurate COMPARISON TESTING, and feedback from customers,  to improve the product we sell.  I do not worry or care what the other guys do, or how they do it, but it does piss me off pretty good when some Joe Blo implies either directly or indirectly, that my "numbers" are inflated.  To those fellers I say....before you judge, pick any class running FE's heads-up and bring it on.  The race track does not lie.  The rest is bullshit and speculation.