Looking forward to your dual quad testing information, Ted.



THANKS for all that you do. APPRECIATED!



Regards,


NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

While I’ve never tried to equate dyno pulls to a highway mileage value, I have for my own record keeping purposes considered each dyno pull the equivalent of a ¼ mile dragstrip pass.  In answer to Ivan’s question, then the dyno mule would have well over 100 miles of full throttle operation.  Relating that to a street mile value would be difficult and would not be the same for all engines depending upon compression ratios and other factors within the engine.  But for the dyno mule in a ’57 Ford being used by a teenager, let’s call the 400 plus dyno pulls roughly 4500 miles and total life expectancy of the engine in the neighborhood of 12-14K miles.  While the engine is holding up fine, I’m reasonably sure that a large number of trannies have been in and out of that teenager driven car by this point.  I’m obviously digressing here.

 

In the case of the 312 dyno mule, the engine bottomend was disassembled and examined closely at pull number 365 when a cylinder wall needed servicing due to a crack in it.  The engine bearings still looked extremely good at that point.  Good enough in fact that they were reused and the engine is still running strong today at well over 400 dyno pulls.

 

One thing I have found regarding engine life is the general tuneup.  If the engine is always kept in good tune, then engine life is greatly extended.  Any issues with fuel mixtures or ignition timing speeds up any wear issues that may be cropping up.  Fuel wash ends up damaging the cylinder walls while ignition timing variances are destructive to both the valves and the engine bearings.  Fuel injection and electronic ignition are both big players in keeping an engine in top tune and keeping wear factors to a minimum.

 

The dyno mule is currently being tested with a Teapot intake manfold and that’s being used to sort out some Lincoln Teapot carbs.  With another cylinder head change in the works, the engine will be used for an extensive dual quad intake test this upcoming winter.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

What street mileage would you say is the equivalent of 400 pulls?

The 292 was factory with about 180 hp, I would say conservatively I am sitting in the neighborhood of about 230 or so with the offy and g heads, and about 12* of timing still have stock cam, pistons etc. I am not planning on wringing out all of the performance as I do not want to push the bottom end and stress a lot of 50 year old parts until I am ready to rebuild fully. It has a lot more grunt and let's face it we do 3x2s cause they look really cool, not cause they are practical. Nothing makes sense about running 3 carbs that were obsolete 50 years ago. But that is why we love hot rods. Ted has shown numerous times that you can get better performance out of a blue thunder or mummet with a 4bbl and let's face it 1 carb is way easier than 3.

The 3x2 with progressive is really nice that if I keep my foot out of it and do not bring in the outers I get pretty good gas mileage ( about 16-18 mpg) if I stick my foot in it it will jump off the line and even break loose in 2nd gear. I slung a TH 350 behind it cause my wife wanted to drive it and I got it really cheap. It was a small sacrifice to make since she actually pretended she cared when I found some cast off g heads at a swap meet for $150 for the pair. Guy actually thought they were for a dodge.

Maybe I am trying to convince myself, but let's face it no matter what you get there is always some better bit of go faster gear.

I could probably pick up a little more hp running better headers, but I am running cast wrapped ram horns cause I think they look cool as hell. It is always about how much you want to spend.


Mike Rizzo

1963 F100 "Rudy"

Daniel Island, SC

Here’s a graph displaying the torque curves for three of the 3X2  intakes that were tested on the 322” dyno mule.

 

Where the Edmunds intake has superior lowend performance for everyday driving and the Edelbrock has a very good high end capability with only a slight sacrifice in lowend power, the Offenhauser intake falls shorts on both ends of the scale.  Like Bill says, the Offy intake is still an improvement over a stock two barrel.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

As carl said run it, just because it doesnt flow the best compared to the best doesnt mean its no good! And if you are happy and can feel an improvement, enjoy it! Get tired of comparisons and myths that dont compare to reality.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

I have the offy- I did get it for a cheap price. It is definitely better than the stock 2bbl on it. From seat of the pants I am running orig 94s and G heads--figure i picked up about 40-50 hp which is nothing to sneeze at--It works while I wait to find out if Vic is ever going to repro the edelbrock or find one for the right price. Figure if I can make the swap easily if I do. Until then the only beef I have is with gas boiling in the carbs. Some phenolic spacers cured that for the time being. Worst case is I will block the heat risers if it is not just due to warm winter and winter blend gas.

The offy gets a bad rap cause it is obviously not the best performance, but I wanted a 3x2 and it was there. IMho run it since you got it and if you find a better for a good price snatch one for me.

Mike Rizzo

1963 F100 "Rudy"

Daniel Island, SC

If you aren"t going to go raceing and just going to use the center carb what is the problem with the offenhouser manifold?

According to an article in YBM way back, as I recall, the Offy down runners are a very poor design, & it really shows up in testing. The problems are not likely to be readily addressed. Best re sell it cheap or shine it up & put it up on your garage wall...

Paul