360 block limits
This is where we disagree, it's painting with a broad brush. The guys I mentioned are a good ten to fifteen years younger than me and were running imports before they could afford the "old school" muscle but made the switch as soon as they could. They have done it all the different ways including starting out with cheap ebay turbos.
Cheap ebay turbos are a relatively recent thing. How long would you estimate that they have been tuning?
these guys know first hand what it takes to do both and will tell you although the basics remain the same what the engines want is different.
Did the guys you're talking about give any indication of what specifically the engine wanted which was different?
I am interested to know specifics because what you're telling me doesn't align with my own experiences tinkering with engines of various displacements, or what I've heard/read/seen from tuning professionals.
If they have expertise in something which I don't have knowledge of, I'd very much like to know what it is.
So imagine you with your skill set right now being asked to tune a big inch, 1,200 hp v8 with a procharger and efi at the track tonight for a competitive race -not a test and tune.
I wouldn't even attempt to tune to the ragged edge, since i have nothing to do with competitive cars.
Not many people would ask a non-professional to tune their competitive boosted big-inch car, and even fewer would expect it to be ready to race that night. Seems a bit unreasonable really.
Are you certain that the experience you have with tuning 2.0s is going to transition over seamlessly to the v8 and allow that car to be competitive after a couple trial runs?
Will my knowledge transition? I certainly think so.
seamlessly? How exactly do you define that?
Different engines can respond differently based on a number of factors, especially with ignition timing.
The process of getting the AFR where you want it doesn't change much between engines though
as far as i can tell, the displacement and number of cylinders generally aren't prohibiting factors in tuning EFI effectively. I can't fathom why they would be.
Will it be competitive after a couple of test hits?
No, it won't. And you'd have to be hopping mad to expect this.
Absolutely not, a competitive tune would require a combination of dyno time with knock ears and then afterwards many, many trial runs. even for a professional what you're asking for is impossible.
. I am splitting hairs but that's what it takes to keep big power alive and performing at the top of their game, it's a very small tune up window. defenitely not talking about a daily here.
I haven't done a procharged V8. But the linear boost curve of a blower is much more predictable and repeatable than a turbo.
I'm confident I could dial-in a decent reliable tune with my current abilities, a professional tuner with a dyno might get 5-6% more output.
Most of the people I know would be extremely happy with a reliable 1130hp in their non-competitive street car, and could live with leaving 70hp on the table.
