So am I crazy?

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Ironmike

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Well today was sunny and 32 degrees. No salt dust on the roads......Perfect day to take a blast, maybe my last blast with this engine.
A beast as usual although not much fun because of the cold roads. Not much hook....
Just turned 3000 miles on this thing with absolutely no issue. Long summer rides, short blasts....a few passes. Many, many street "challenges".
It made 559 HP on the dyno right after I put it together. A local dyno. Not a "customer happy" dyno.
Not a leak, drip, or weep. I could park on a white carpet. Never let me down.

20170226_173016.jpg

So off to the dyno Thursday with the new one. Waaay more head flow, more cam, more compression. Stronger bottom end. All the good stuff. If all goes well I will yank the present for the new bullet.
Wifey says today I'm nuts. Now after my last ride today, I think she maybe right.
Is it all worth maybe 50 more horsepower?
20170226_173102.jpg
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Ironmike said:
Well today was sunny and 32 degrees. No salt dust on the roads......Perfect day to take a blast, maybe my last blast with this engine.
A beast as usual although not much fun because of the cold roads. Not much hook....
Just turned 3000 miles on this thing with absolutely no issue. Long summer rides, short blasts....a few passes. Many, many street "challenges".
It made 559 HP on the dyno right after I put it together. A local dyno. Not a "customer happy" dyno.
Not a leak, drip, or weep. I could park on a white carpet. Never let me down.

View attachment 1715022145
So off to the dyno Thursday with the new one. Waaay more head flow, more cam, more compression. Stronger bottom end. All the good stuff. If all goes well I will yank the present for the new bullet.
Wifey says today I'm nuts. Now after my last ride today, I think she maybe right.
Is it all worth maybe 50 more horsepower?
View attachment 1715022148 View attachment 1715022150
Click to expand...
Crazy like a fox! Enjoy what your doing .
 
You should do a comparison test. Buy another car that is like yours and put the new bullet in that one. Test drive them both for three years under identical conditions. Then make your choice.
 
There is more to it than just horsepower. It's about the shape of the curve, how well you get the converter and gearing sorted out and BSFC all make a difference.

You can have two engines with identical power curves and the one with the lower BSFC will go quicker.
 
My man, they are for fun. And in my view ~ you are having fun. How lucky are we that we can do this? 550HP engine / and you go build another faster one. I think that is great.

I had a warm 360HP small lump in my Dart for years. It was great. Always started, would yank one wheel with slicks. Great lumpy idle. Ran cool. Did not ever give me a lick of trouble... So thinking that I liked that - I knew I would like more. So I built a dressed up stroker with some of the same ideals you have & put the old one on a stand. And why not?!

Good on you. Keep it up.
 
fratzog lover said:
If it's reliable, maybe not. You have a known entity now. A lot to be said for that.
Click to expand...

There is a lot to be said for a known quantity!

559HP and you have more flow now? You had pretty good flow to make 559HP and now you plan to make better than 600HP! Please keep us in the loop with your latest. J.Rob
 
Ironmike said:
Well today was sunny and 32 degrees. No salt dust on the roads......Perfect day to take a blast, maybe my last blast with this engine.
A beast as usual although not much fun because of the cold roads. Not much hook....
Just turned 3000 miles on this thing with absolutely no issue. Long summer rides, short blasts....a few passes. Many, many street "challenges".
It made 559 HP on the dyno right after I put it together. A local dyno. Not a "customer happy" dyno.
Not a leak, drip, or weep. I could park on a white carpet. Never let me down.
Click to expand...

Nice. What has it ran? Weight?
 
If it ain't broke..... get another car and dump the new mill in it. Great opportunity to bring another classic back from the dead.
 
fratzog lover said:
If it's reliable, maybe not. You have a known entity now. A lot to be said for that.
Click to expand...
Boy that's a key statement, right there. Exactly what runs through my head.

I guess if the new one survives the dyno, the old will become a back-up.
Story is......I'm certainly not a rich dude, but came into a few extra grand last summer. Decided to build a back-up engine over the winter. Living here in PA, summer is everything if you're a car guy. A catastrophic failure early or mid summer and your season is over. Done. Us guys here.....we live for summer and if you're down you're done. So I decided on a back up motor in case something goes bad in the summer. Couple days and you're running again and having fun.

Somewhere along the winter a "back-up" engine became a whole lot more. A little at a time.
Coulda paid off my truck, coulda had a 4 link and Altercation, coulda learned gambling.....hell I could have donated to the Humane Society. Nope. So here I am, feeling kinda guilty for throwing all that money away. Bad thing is I have $800 bucks left and I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my HP950 or switch from stepped TTI'S to the 1 7/8 headers.......:realcrazy:
 
Ironmike said:
Boy that's a key statement, right there. Exactly what runs through my head.

I guess if the new one survives the dyno, the old will become a back-up.
Story is......I'm certainly not a rich dude, but came into a few extra grand last summer. Decided to build a back-up engine over the winter. Living here in PA, summer is everything if you're a car guy. A catastrophic failure early or mid summer and your season is over. Done. Us guys here.....we live for summer and if you're down you're done. So I decided on a back up motor in case something goes bad in the summer. Couple days and you're running again and having fun.

Somewhere along the winter a "back-up" engine became a whole lot more. A little at a time.
Coulda paid off my truck, coulda had a 4 link and Altercation, coulda learned gambling.....hell I could have donated to the Humane Society. Nope. So here I am, feeling kinda guilty for throwing all that money away. Bad thing is I have $800 bucks left and I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my HP950 or switch from stepped TTI'S to the 1 7/8 headers.......:realcrazy:
Click to expand...


If you don't have 1.875 headers that's where I'd spend my money.
 
Ironmike said:
Boy that's a key statement, right there. Exactly what runs through my head.

I guess if the new one survives the dyno, the old will become a back-up.
Story is......I'm certainly not a rich dude, but came into a few extra grand last summer. Decided to build a back-up engine over the winter. Living here in PA, summer is everything if you're a car guy. A catastrophic failure early or mid summer and your season is over. Done. Us guys here.....we live for summer and if you're down you're done. So I decided on a back up motor in case something goes bad in the summer. Couple days and you're running again and having fun.

Somewhere along the winter a "back-up" engine became a whole lot more. A little at a time.
Coulda paid off my truck, coulda had a 4 link and Altercation, coulda learned gambling.....hell I could have donated to the Humane Society. Nope. So here I am, feeling kinda guilty for throwing all that money away. Bad thing is I have $800 bucks left and I'm trying to decide if I should upgrade my HP950 or switch from stepped TTI'S to the 1 7/8 headers.......:realcrazy:
Click to expand...

I wouldn't look at it like you threw money away. Look at it like you bought insurance. You said it yourself that if something goes bad early to mid summer and you're done for the year, so now you have insurance that you can get through the year if something breaks.

I hope you get to enjoy the new motor. Oh yeah, buy the headers:thumbsup:
 
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