And now for something different

[Royce]

I recently dyno tested a couple of new engine builds and I thought some might enjoying seeing the results, even though not FEs. One however is the litter mate of the FE and the other a progenitor.

The litter mate is a MEL. It started life as a 66 462 Lincoln. It is bored to 4.42 and stroked to 4.21 for 517 inches. Heads ported by Joe Craine to 300 intake and 219 exhaust. 10.5 compression  Hydraulic cam 244/244 .500 lift 110LSA.  I used an adapter to mount a Performer RPM for a 429 CJ on the old MEL. It is otherwise pretty a straight forward build.  534 horse and 598 ft lb.. Will make a nice street engine.

The Progenitor is a Ford Y Block.  3.83 x 3.62 for 333 inches.  There is a lot of work and expense in this one. Fully ported Mummert aluminum heads by Joe Craine.  Joe Craine ported Mummert intake.  12.1 compression, custom Wiseco pistons, NASCAR cast off rods from Yates, 6.3 inch, 2.0 rod bearing, and 19mm pin. I think they are Pankl.  ARP main and head studs. 3/8 inch pan rail stud girdle with steel main caps. (hoping to keep the cast crank alive). Trend Performance tool steel lifters, Harland Sharp 1.6 rockers, PAC beehive springs 1.94 intake 1.52 exhaust valve. The Cam is an ISKY 262/262 .625 lift 108 LSA.

This one made 500 horse at 6600 and 429 tq at 5200.   a nice tidy 1.5 hp/cu in.

On a side note, We had been struggling to hit the 500 number with the Y block and I had resigned myself to coming up 10 horse short. Jerry Christenson had fabbed up a tunnel ram that he wanted to try. After we exhausted our tuning options on my manifold, we bolted his on.. Although looking a little ungainly the tunnel ram immediately pushed the torque and horsepower numbers higher.. One jet change and we had our 500.  In the end it made 15 ftlb and 12 horse more on the average than my best intake...

[jayb]

Royce, I think you posted two dyno sheets from the MEL engine; can you post one from the Y-block engine also?  And do you have a picture of the infamous intake you mentioned?

Those are great results from those engines; 600 lb-ft from the MEL is pretty cool.  And a 500 HP Y-block is also pretty impressive; it wasn't that long ago that 500 horse from a naturally aspirated Y-block was essentially unreachable.   I'm glad to see that one of Christenson's manifolds finally made some power!  What other intakes did you try on the Y-block?

[Joe-jdc]

Jay, check out the dyno tests on manifolds from Ted Eaton's site:   www.eatonbalancing.com and go to articles.  There are many different tests on intakes and heads.  I say Royce's heads and intake make 577hp on a 375CI shortblock.  One has to wonder if Jerry's tunnelram would have pushed the 585hp Y over the 600hp mark on that same shortblock.  Joe-JDC

[Royce]

Oops  it was late when I posted.. Is there a way to get around the 192 kb limit on attachments?

[Royce]

I tried 2 different inductions before Christenson's tunnel ram.. Hilborn injection on E-85 and the Joe Craine ported Mummert dual plane manifold. As Joe said that dual plane intake made 577 horse on a bigger motor which is flat amazing (magic of over/under ports)  lol . The injection and dual plane essentially tied in max hp but the injector had a much fatter midrange torque curve.. If I had the dyno time to do it I would have played with stack length and used a high speed lean circuit and I think it would have hit 500 just like the tunnel ram..  By the way those carbs on the tunnel ram.. From Christenson's stash of carburetors,  2 650 Holley 2bbl.. I never knew they existed, but they worked like a charm

[Royce]

Here it is with Hilborns 2 3/8 butterflies

[Royce]

The 517 MEL on the R&R dyno

[Royce]

A couple of graphs comparing 2 plane intake, Injection, and tunnel ram.

[cjshaker]

Really cool engines. I love that homemade tunnel ram intake. It looks like it's straight out of the fifties.

The numbers on the MEL seem pretty impressive for what is a pretty tame cam. I suppose it's the cubic inches along with the excellent flow numbers that really do the job, coupled with a good modern intake. That Y-block has numbers I wouldn't have guessed possible being naturally aspirated. Impressive, Royce!

[jayb]

Really cool engines. I love that homemade tunnel ram intake. It looks like it's straight out of the fifties.

The builder is straight out of the 50s!  It all makes sense 

[jayb]

That Hilborn setup is cool, Royce.  The over/under Y-block ports give that injector setup a very unique look.  It would make the Chevy guys do a double take, that's for sure.

On the photo limit, for some reason I have never been able to override that, but if you host your photos online somewhere, like Photobucket, you can post pictures as big as you want.

[machoneman]

Very cool results! I also dig the injectors as that makes one mean looking hombre 

[price5113]

Very impressive builds! What did you use for pistons/rods on the MEL? And rocker arms? I was thinking the MEL used the same rocker as the FE...............

[Royce]

I offset ground the crank to BBC rod bearing size then used a 6.7 inch Eagle rod and custom piston from Ross. I got a rebuilt stock set from Rockerarms unlimited.. I think the MEL rocker is slightly different than the FE..  I have moderate spring pressures 130/350 and low rpm so the stock stuff should live

[price5113]

Must have been the lifters I was thinking of that interchanged. The build sure has some serious 'grunt' down low! That intake must have really helped out the overall combo! Did you make the intake adapters your self? What carb & distributor did you end up using? These ole MEL's were always intriged me! I heard from a few guys around my area that many years ago it was a fairly common swap into Pick-Ups. They said the MEL made a great truck motor........