Cylinder head dyno shoot out

Any interest in a dyno shoot out of a few popular SBM heads?

  • Yes

    Votes: 132 97.8%
  • No

    Votes: 3 2.2%

  • Total voters
    135
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Well, let me try to steer this thread back on track. I dont mind anyone having a different opinion, but can we please keep the personal bickering out of this thread? It's a MAJOR undertaking to make this happen, and it's free information to anyone who follows, so please keep that in mind. The shortblock is complete, I will be doing final assembly soon, and initial break in and dyno testing will be with a set of 100% stock speedmasters. No porting, no bowl cleanup, nothing but guide clearance checks. Should be interesting to see the spread between a 400 dollar speedmaster and the "better" heads. So we plan to test stock speedmasters, promaxx shockers, trick flows, and the bloomers. Stay tuned.
That's why I've kept my mouth shut. I'm still here following along. Thanks.
 
I had a good conversation with NC Engine Builder about this and other topics related to the testing. I’m going to address this because he will not. At the moment, he will be spending a couple of days (at least) testing and countless hours preparing for the testing. He does have some assistance buying ‘hard’ parts, but no compensation for the prep labor, the testing labor or tear down. There are also hundreds upon hundreds of dollars in ‘soft’ parts such as gaskets, fluids, fuel, etc. And he is currently responsible for much (not all) of the dyno rental. So, add in the lost wages and the financial impact of this testing is in the thousands of dollars.

To answer the question about additional testing - if we can lessen or eliminate the financial burden, I believe he is open to more testing. I too would like to learn a few things about the actual effects of valve job, larger valves, MCSA and others.

I have been thinking of ways to help offset the costs. Do you guys think people would be interested in purchasing in depth technical data from the testing? Things like flow curves, port velocity curves, coefficient of discharge curves, port energy curves, MCSA dimensions, valve and spring specs, port volumes, chamber volumes and dyno charts for each of the heads tested? General information about the testing would be available for free, but the in depth data would need to be purchased, say for $40. I could post some examples of data in the morning. Think we could get 50-60 people interested, or is that a fantasy? Would also be nice to get some gaskets donated.

I did tell NC Engine Builder that I was going to post this, but this is totally my doing - he did not ask for it.

Feedback please, but I probably won’t answer until morning. It’s my bedtime.
I had every intention of doing this same type of test and was about 80% there to having all the pieces but then reality sunk in. There was no way I was going to be able to commit the money as well as the time considering my full time job, my side job and all the rest of life to make it happen in any reasonable amount of time. Understanding the commitment this test requires I am extremely happy to see you guys taking this on and am really looking forward to seeing the results. As far as funding my suggestion is to do a go fund me or put up a paypal address for all those who want to donate, I would be happy to pitch in and obviously so would a lot of others.
 
I had every intention of doing this same type of test and was about 80% there to having all the pieces but then reality sunk in. There was no way I was going to be able to commit the money as well as the time considering my full time job, my side job and all the rest of life to make it happen in any reasonable amount of time. Understanding the commitment this test requires I am extremely happy to see you guys taking this on and am really looking forward to seeing the results. As far as funding my suggestion is to do a go fund me or put up a paypal address for all those who want to donate, I would be happy to pitch in and obviously so would a lot of others.
Does anyone know of an ‘escrow’ type of account/arrangement that would return money back to the donor if testing does not happen? Lots of things could derail these plans between now and test time.
 
I'm willing to donate. Wish we had a Mopar specific engine builder YouTube channel to do all the testing we want to see. Well, at least a large majority of it.
 
I'm willing to donate. Wish we had a Mopar specific engine builder YouTube channel to do all the testing we want to see. Well, at least a large majority of it.


Again, who is going to pay for what you want to see? I’d do the testing but I’m not paying for it.

It’s an incredible amount of work as well.

Some of the **** guys want to see tested makes zero sense. I mean, who wants to see some OEM iron head get tested against four different Chicom heads when it’s pretty clear what the results will be?

Or trying to test a W2/5 head against any non offset rocker head? It’s a ***** to set everything up for two completely different rocker arm arrangements.

I get guys want to see lots of things. Some of it’s already been done and some of it makes zero sense.

Either way, the cost is astronomical.

I’d rather spend my time testing different fuels but that is highly cost prohibitive to do it correctly.

Or testing oil. That takes far more time and money to test oil correctly. It’s astonishing what it costs d how much oil you burn through just to test a single oil.

Sometimes it’s just not worth the time, money and effort.
 
Does anyone know of an ‘escrow’ type of account/arrangement that would return money back to the donor if testing does not happen? Lots of things could derail these plans between now and test time.
Would be very easy to set up something like a GoFundMe page. Could even do something like a venmo deal directly to NC builder.
 
Does anyone know of an ‘escrow’ type of account/arrangement that would return money back to the donor if testing does not happen? Lots of things could derail these plans between now and test time.
Off the top of my head, something like GoFundMe or Kickstarter would be the right move. I believe that historically Kickstarter would hold the $ until goals were reached.
 
So back on this project, got the I-J crank scraper trimmed to fit, slid the custom comp solid roller in and degreed it to 104° which did require advancing 2° to get there. Oh, and installed the "controversial" plugs behind the cam retainer plate.

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Bushed lifter bores... I may have missed it but what lifters?

Using a larger diameter degree wheel makes the degree job much easier. More expensive tool of course but worth it.
 
That looks really nice Sean. I'm just curious. What do you get for V8 lifter bushings?
 
Bushed lifter bores... I may have missed it but what lifters?

Using a larger diameter degree wheel makes the degree job much easier. More expensive tool of course but worth it.
Comp 8043-16 Pretty much because that was what was available at the time.
 
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