[Judge273]

Here is my freshly rebuilt HO engine and recently dynoed to keep the talk going. It was built by Dan Jensen to meet P/S rules. Dyno results from DJ's emails paraphrased:

"Installing just the air cleaner base (open) to help direct the air into the carb, power jumped to 386 and torque stayed the same at 503.

We removed the long 2.5" exhaust pipe extensions off the headpipes and replaced them with big 6" pipes (used for engines with aftermarket headers) to simulate a modern X-pipe exhaust system with the best muffler technology. This was our best combination. Power peaked at 393 hp @ 4600 and 514 tq @ 3300! We beat the Desktop Dyno HP predictions by 3 and were only off TQ by 2! Not bad.

Then we installed the complete air cleaner (base, lid, and filter inside) to simulate power when installed in the car, fully dressed. The engine still made 385 hp @ 4800 and 512 tq @ 3300!

We called it a day after 22 pulls. We made all our runs starting at 3200 rpm, and ended them at 5200. What was really encouraging was the the power was holding on strong at 5200, even though peak was at 4800 on most runs. I'd have to look at all the data, but hp was still in the 380s up there! My engine peaked at 4800 on the dyno too. I shift it at 5500, and I think you will have to as well.

To summarize, all our HOs (yours, mine, and Marks) and the SD make similar power (in the 390 range), but the HO makes a little more tq, so your engine is right on target!"

Keeping in the spirit of HO HO HO! Nice engines Giles, and Lloyd and thanks for sharing those pix!