Chassis dyno answers fuel/air questions.

[Mark1972]

So last week I took my car to a local speed shop to properly set up the Edelbrock AVS2 800 and just make sure all is good. They asked me if they could do it on the chassis dyno, which was there preferred way of setting up vehicles. I agreed. I had posted a question in here about having enough air with my stock hood, and 14"x2" air filter. Well, they ran my car up to 5940rpm, and after setting the carb and timing properly, the air fuel numbers were 12.5-12.6. Also, the car was still building horsepower at 5940, not dropping off. When factoring in parasitic loss, he said the engine was more like 446hp, than the 488 the dyno shop got on the original test. Either way, it would seem obvious that I'm not starving for air, and I also shouldn't need to upgrade my fuel line to 3/8" from 5/16", which I though would be necessary as well. After racking up another almost 200 miles this weekend, the only thing I really need to get now is an electric fan. When I come off the highway, and to a complete stop idling, it takes about 10 minutes and it's getting really hot. How hot? Not sure. It's the original gauge, with no numbers, but it was way to the right. All in all, it sure is fun to just drive and not worry about spending 12 hour days wrenching anymore.

 

[Bad B-rad]

GREAT news on your 440!!!
Glad you can enjoy it now, and not just wrench, all the time!
I would get a mechanical gauge, for your water temp(or electric with actual degree readings) just so you know where you are at.
An electric fan, is not a bad idea, you can wire it to come on at a certain temp to help keep her cool, or just a on/off toggle that you can toss on when you see her creeping up.

I have never had money for big buck aluminum radiator, but even with a cool flow aluminum (hi flow) water pump, and aluminum water pump housing, all of my hopped up 440's ran a touch hotter then other engines.
With stock radiator, and the HI FLOW water pump, and aluminum housing, I ran 190-210, it would hit 220 ONCE in a while, like in traffic or after beating on it.(I also had 3.91 gear)
I didn't have a rad shroud and I was running the Mopar performance viscous drive fan.
Mine never over heated, but it did alarm me the first few times she got to 210-220 degrees, after a bit, I just figured it was "normal".

I always thought about an electric fan as a back up, or to help when it started to creep up, I just never did it.

Continue to enjoy it, for all us guys who are still stuck wrenching, and cant drive yet!

 

[66Satellite47]

I'd consider an aluminum radiator - 2 row w/1" tubes. My setup has not required a shroud yet, but I've got alum heads & water pump housing.
Your A/F looks great & the HP is good. I'd also still upgrade the fuel line, fuel starvation is a PITA & sometimes hard to figure out.

 

[Nate S]

So out of curiosity, how far from stock did the jetting need to go on the carb? Richer? Leaner?

 

[Mark1972]

It had to go one step leaner than how it was shipped. I haven't looked at the kit to see exactly which parts were used. I'll look and post. But my car runs a little rich down low, and then at 2500 starts to lean out to a proper ratio of 12.5/12.6.

 

[myk r sanchez]

I'd get an aftermarket temp gauge on that real quick. Congratulations though!