Well, we did it. We got the motor for the Advanced Performance 72 Duster Dynoed on 4/2/01 at Applied
Dyno Technology - located in Eagan, Mn. (651.681.1937, ask for Bob). Before this Dyno session I had been to only one other session, and it wasn't pretty. In fact, I never saw a clean pull
to this point. I thought I understood why people got motors Dynoed, but I was proved wrong at our session. The days of assuming you could put your heart and sole into building a solid motor, and
then go racing are gone for me. I though that Dynoing was just a tool used to document the results of your efforts, fine tune your motor and maybe get a couple extra horsies, and give you something
more to bring to those "bench racing" sessions. Yah! Ahhh, no. We got the motor hooked up to the Dyno around 10:30 AM, and had it broke in by 11:00 AM. After adjusting the
valve lash, we attempted the first pull. I was pretty nervous, remember - my first experience was not so good at the Dyno. Well, the motor fell WAY below expectations. It sputtered and
missed terribly at 5800 rpm. I looked at Frank, owner of Advanced Performance, he was pretty relaxed. He'd been here before, and he gave me a head's up before the session to be patient. I
had to leave the room. I was lucky to have the people around me that I did at that moment, because the session could have been over at that point for all I cared. "Let's tear it apart and start
over" I thought. First pull results: 521 HP, 493 Ft-lbs trq. The dyno shut down at 5800 rpm. Not good. The motor should have started coming to life at 5500
rpm, and sing all the way up to around 6800-7000 rpm. But instead, it died off at 5800 rpm, so the Dyno's safety mechanism shut it down. Lesson number 1: The most important
guy is the one running the Dyno. If he isn't willing to work with you, leave! Go somewhere else. Bob (owner of Applied Dyno) was awesome! He got right onto
troubleshooting. So did Frank, Don (see his car here), and Darrell, Frank's dad.Right off the bat, Bob had a bad feeling about the Carb. It was on the car when I bought it, and we had made
many changes to the motor this time around. Bob made some jetting changes, but the carb just wasn't responding. Lesson number 2: Bring extra parts to the Dyno session!
Borrow them if you need to. I'd say this is the minimum: Carb, Distributor, plugs, plug wires, jets, 1 & 2" spacers. In my case, it would have saved me 1 hour of Dyno time, and added 3 years
to my life expectancy. I drove 60 miles in 60 minutes chasing parts. Yes Officer, I was speeding just a "little". While I was chasing parts, the guys found that the distributor was
bad, causing the miss. I had another distributor, and now had plenty of Carb (Holley HP950), thanks to my buddie Rod S. See his car here
. Moving forward.Immediately off idle we could hear the difference with the new parts. Lesson number 3: Listen to your elders! Darrell told me immediately
after the first pull I would pick up 80 HP with a new carb. How did he know? I don't know. Experience I guess, but he was right. As soon as Bob started the "pull" with the new parts,
the motor came to life. Everyone in the room (except me) started jumping around like they just saw a new Top Fuel speed record set, and it was running on pump gas! It was gonna be a good one. The
r's kept climbing, all the way to 6400 rpm. I wasn't jumping around, I felt like I had just won the lottery and now Jennifer Lopez wanted my phone number.
Pull results: 621 HP, 564 ft-lbs trq. Exactly a 100 HP gain from the first pull. 7 pulls later, after fine tuning through jetting, timing, and adding a 2" spacer - we got a best pull
of: 645 HP, 587 ft-lbs trq. Lesson number 4: If the motor is gonna break, it should happen on the Dyno, not the track. Our motor survived the Dyno, and I'm ready
to hit the track... I feel every penny I spent at the Dyno was worth it. In fact, I think it was worth more. Thanks to Bob, Frank, Don, and Darrell for all your help. This
article is dedicated to you. Back to AP Bits All information in this website is copyright Advanced Performance 2001. |
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