I've had a great afternoon with Jay and his beautiful '69 factory original L88 at Speed Merchant in San Jose. He too was plagued with a throttle bracket that moved, and still has a bit of a miss around 5000rpm that you could hear during its run. No a/f mixtures could be checked since it would required drilling through his original Factory Kustom headers for the O2 sensor bung. Yet after an initial run of 421hp. The throttle bracket was reinforced allowing full open throttle, the next run whistled up 471 horse power at the rear wheels. They said that was within about 19 horse power of the highest number ever generated on that dyno with a normally aspirated motor. They were very impressed with such potent results through technology more than 30 years old!

I have no doubt that there is still significantly more once the carb is dialed in, the miss is found, and better plug wires replace the wimpy little ones now being used. What a great car! I couldn't help but feel almost as proud as Jay, even though it's not my car. But as some might attest, I am a little smitten with L88's in general.

Chuck :cheers: :seeya

 

You should be dynoing in the same range then right??

 

wow 471 ponies....... very :cool: :cool:

:cheers:

Olivier

 

Chuck, 471RWHP WOW! Is that with the original motor in the L88 or a rebuilt motor? Your looking at 575HP at the crank with 18% loss. :eek:

 

With that power it should pull real hard :cool:


[Modified by Gordonm, 7:55 AM 8/16/2002]

 

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

 

Wow, when are you going to run yours Chuck :chevy

 

Probably next week sometime.

Chuck

 

Neighbors LS1 C5 is pulling 425 rwhp and it is a daily driver. :)

tom...

 

Hey I'll see you Sat. in Laguna seca. I just need to wash and wax tomorrow and i'll be over. Did you get a spot in the Vette corral?

 

Thanks again Chuck for coming down for the occasion.

For those who don't realize it yet, Chuck is a walking library of knowledge. It was a real pleasure to have him share some of it with me.

After the first couple of passes and 422 RWHP I was rather discouraged. When i walked up to the computer after the final run and saw 471 my eyes nearly popped out. My goal was to break 450. There were many naysayers out there who didn't believe I would break 400.

Long live the Rat motor!!! There is no replacement for displacement!!! (and compression) :chevy

The dyno at Speed Merchant in San Jose was really sweet, it hooked up directly to the rotors. Check it out if you geta chance. I will post pics this tomorrow.

On a lighter note, I had my baffles installed after the tests. I get home and I park in a garage two levels underground. Some chick is staring at me when I get out. It's a small building so I say Hi. She says, "Why is your car so loud?" I say, "Loud? I just got back from having the mufflers installed, just now. It was ten times louder this morning." She was speechless. Reminds me of when the reporter asked one of the Beatles at JFK if he was fgoing to get a haircut and he said he had just had one yesterday. Ba-dump-bump. OK, I'll keep my day job.

 

Congratulations on your impressive performance! What rpm did you obtain your peak torque and HP values? How tightly did you spin your engine? Is it possible you could post the actual curves?

Take care,

Mark

 

Nice to see "old technology" kick some serious butt. That is awesome.
:chevy :chevy :chevy
John

 

And to think I was told that 30 year old technology doesn't compare to what is available today!! Makes me wonder what mine would do!

 

I still chuckle when I think of all those folfs who think that the ZO6, albeit one fabulous streetable car, is the most powerful Vette ever sold to the public. My new Z did 353 at the rear wheels. People would look at me funny when I told them I believed the L88 put about 100 more horse power to the rear wheels.

The funny thing is that if someone has a new Z, which is fast, and would actually concede that the L88 puts out more power, they would then probably say that is too much power. You can't win! :crazy:

Chuck

 

Old technology?

Oh, I suppose old technology means no emissions !
I would take old tech like that anyday ! :cheers:

 

Makes ya wonder what a ZL-1 would be like to dyno.....

 

I have heard that aluminum blocks actually make about 10 to 15 hp less than iron blocks because of heat dissipation. Hot cylinders make more power. But the weight advantage more than makes up for a few hp less. Jay was actually running the same cam as the ZL1 (.560/.595" lifts) that was also believed to be used on many of the open chamber L88's too. Everything but the aluminum block is the same with the L88 and the ZL1. My DD200 shows very little power difference between the first design L88 cam and the 2nd design L88/ZL1 cam. I wouldn't be surprised that with some careful tuning on the dyno if Jay couldn't get real close to biting off 500 hp at the wheels!

BTW, Jay was running with factory a.i.r. pump fitted to headers. Thanks again for such a great afternoon Jay. It was a real treat to meet you and see your car!

Chuck

 

Really amazing for a 35 year old 427. Hope I get 500 at the fly wheel from my small block someday. 383 with supercharger should do the trick. :) Thanks for sharing your experience, both knowledge and the dyno day, very informative and interesting. :cheers:

 

:cheers: