A local speed shop recently installed a dyno and I decided to go in and have a baseline pull. My first challenge was to get the car started at the shop; the weather in the Pacific Northwest is warming up and my lack of a high torque starter almost bit me today. The technician was ready to throw in the towel, but gave me a chance to work some magic. After several grunts from the starter, I got lucky and the car fired up.
I decided that for this effort, we would run it as is with no adjustments. The first pull was a little ugly; some black smoke but no apparent misses. The end result was 249.33 Horsepower and 285.53 Torque. I winced a little at the results, but the technician assurred me that the second pull would be better ("needed to blow out some carbon"). They fired her up and put the petal to the metal and cranked it up to 6200 RPMs. When the technician took his foot off the accelerator, the fan belt shot off the car! This time the results were better; 268.74 Horsepower and 291.22 Torque. Better but ..... Mike, one of technicians, suggested I bring it back on Monday for some carb and distributor tweaking. He thinks there's another 30 to 40 Horsepower waiting to be discovered ... will see!
A couple of observations: the Stewart Warner tach was reading 500 RPMs fast during the pulls so I guess I"ll have to explore alternatives, my alternator bracket needs to be replaced to allow sufficient range to properly tighten the belt and there is a high torque starter in my immediate future. More to follow ...
Bob