Today was probably one of the most satisfying dyno days I've ever had.
For those that are reading that are not familiar with JJ, JJ is my pet 352 project that has been ongoing for the past couple years. Ross nicknamed him JJ because I called it Junky Junk.
JJ came from a '66 F100 off of Craigslist. It came to me as a worn-out 2 barrel motor. Junk. But it ran. I changed the oil in it, primed the pump, then me and Ross put it on the dyno for fun during one of his trips to visit. It ended up making 208 hp @ 4250 and 300 lb-ft with the Autolite 2100. Changing to a Holley 500 2-bbl got us to 234 hp. Changing the intake to a BT 1x4 and the carb to a 650 DP got us to 264 hp and 344 lb-ft.
Going through the entire engine was the goal, along with some upgrades. It ended up with a freshly ground 3.500" crankshaft, Molnar rods, some Racetec pistons (10.25:1) with some 1mm/1mm/2mm rings, one of my custom solid rollers, and a ported "F" PI intake. With a Holley 830 carb, it made 433 hp @ 6800.
I had always planned on this engine being a dyno mule, so we were then off to do some A/B testing. The next variable that we changed was some head work. The heads are factory C6AE-R heads, with 2.08/1.6 valves with 5/16" stems. I had put on some small diameter PAC valve springs with some Manley titanium retainers in preparation for all the testing, so we only needed some flow. With Joe Craine's porting, we went from 240 cfm to almost cracking 290.
With it all back together, during the next dyno session we were rewarded with 465 hp @ 7200.
Replacing the ported PI intake with a BT 2x4 MR intake and a pair of Holley 600's really didn't change the numbers much. It made 450 hp until we watched the videos and found out the vacuum secondaries weren't opening. Once we figured that out, a couple of zip ties got us back up to 465 hp.
That's where we were until a month or so ago.
I always thought the engine was lacking *something*. It just didn't want to accelerate well and I honestly thought that the engine just should be making more hp. I first thought was the camshaft had too much overlap (and I'm still leaning towards that way, but after today I will put that on the back burner), so I ordered a new camshaft to be on the ready. I was also thinking that the runner length on the intake manifolds that I had been using just weren't tuned correctly for the rpm range and application that I was trying to push.
Pulling the BT MR intake off, I bought a new FE Power intake adapter and a new Weiand 351C tunnel ram off of Joe Craine. Both had been ported by Joe and I thought if the engine was going to do anything at all, it should do it with this combo.
I had SCE gaskets make me some .030" LR and MR intake gaskets since the heads and block have been milled to death on this engine to get to a decent compression ratio without putting a big heavy domed piston in the engine. With a flange cut on the adapter, we were in good shape, and some Mr. Gasket 351C 4V intake gaskets allowed me to bolt the tunnel ram on.
I had been waiting for the day and after a long Memorial Day weekend, I decided today was going to be the day.
I got to the dyno at 8:30 this morning and got the engine mounted up on the dyno cart. It wasn't too long before we were making noise. Reset the timing to 42° and let the engine warm up.
After warm-up, the first full pull out of the gate rewarded us with 476 hp @ 6400. Very odd that it moved the peak hp rpm down that far, but hey, we gained 11 hp from last time, so I was giggly.
I had put my iPhone and camera tripod next to the engine, with the camera zoomed in on the secondaries. I watched the video after the dyno and the secondaries were opening, but I just didn't think they were opening as far as they could.
I had talked with Jay on getting some extra carburetors down here just in case. Jay sent me a set of his dyno mule 660's to use (much obliged, Jay). I had driven around to several different places between Sunday and Monday trying to find some heim joints but after going to 3-4 different places, I had given in and just decided that we would have to rig something together to make them work.
We dug around through the "junk piles" at Dale's and found a piece of angle steel with a bunch of holes drilled in it. That would have to work.
Got the carbs bolted down, fuel lines hooked up, jogged the pump a couple of times to get fuel pressure, and noticed that one carb was puking out the vent. Pulled it off, pulled the bowl off, everything looked ok, but when we blew through the fuel fitting, there wasn't any way that we could completely block off the air, so I just went ahead and pulled a bowl off of one of my 600's and bolted it on. That fixed the situation temporarily and we were ready to fire it up.
JJ just doesn't have the butt to handle a pair of 1:1 linkaged 660's down low, so loading the dyno was an interesting task. Glad I wasn't driving.
First pull with the 660's got us to 496 hp @ 7000 and 441 lb-ft of torque at 5600.
At that point, I was ecstatic, doing little dances, and I think I even gave JJ a kiss.
We were so close to 500 that I made the executive decision to pull the belt off the water pump and mounted an electric water pump motor to the water pump.
With the engine not driving the water pump, we made 512 hp @ 7000 and 445 lb-ft of torque at 5800.
I called it a day.
I still have this new camshaft to install, but I'm trying to logistically and strategically plan my next step. I think my next goal is to get my own pair of 660's and mount them side saddle with the appropriate tunnel ram linkages. Obviously that won't make more horsepower, but I'm so excited about the appearance and performance of this engine that I plan to go that route for good.
I hate to dive right into the engine internally, but after receiving my aluminum rods, it might be nice to throw some high compression at it and see what happens.
As a recap:
*Stock 352, Autolite 2100 - 208 hp
*Stock 352, Holley 500 - 234 hp
*Stock 352, BT 1X4 MR, 650DP, 264 hp
*Rebuilt 352, stock heads, ported PI - 433 hp
*Rebuilt 352, ported heads, ported PI - 465 hp
*Rebuilt 352, ported heads, BT 8V MR, Holley 600's - 465 hp
*Rebuilt 352, ported heads, ported intake adapter, ported Weiand 351C TR, Holley 600's - 476 hp
*Rebuilt 352, ported heads, ported intake adapter, ported Weiand 351C TR, Holley 660's - 496 hp
*Rebuilt 352, ported heads, ported intake adapter, ported Weiand 351C TR, Holley 660's, electric water pump drive - 512 hp
If you haven't watched the videos about JJ on my YouTube channel, I would encourage you to do that. Later on I will put some dyno videos up of today's adventures.
