Bryan,
I don't have a garage and when I have to work on my car, even pulling an
engine, changing the oil or whatever I have to do it in the great outdoors in
England. This means that it is not unusual to get either wet or cold.
Although at present it is about an hours drive to get to a dyno in the early
days of ownership of this car I had to drive about 3 hours (in an English
winter with no heater). From what I have seen on postings to the list, a lot
of folk don't see drives of a couple of hours to be a problem and I would
have expected a chassis dyno to be within a couple of hours of most parts of
the USA. It is expensive here to spend time on the dyno, and given that the
only car I run (and I do have a family) is my Sprite and bearing my house
that doesn't have a garage or driveway it ought to be apparent that if I can
find money for dyno time those listers with several cars might be able to as
well. The best money I ever spent on performance tuning the engine in my car
was spent on dyno time and David Vizard says as much himself in his book.
If the lower spec cams work with you then I can't disagree with that. What
you say about torque lower down is also true. However, what gear used in
climbing a hill has as much to do with the final drive ratio as the torque
output of the engine. For example a car with a 4.5 final drive ratio is more
likely to be in 3rd than a car with a 3.9 or even 3.7 but this says nothing
about torque. I also still stand by my statement about making a DCOE and 286
cam work by using the Full Radius rams (like Ron just raved about, before he
went off list, hmm) and the CV exhaust (recommended by David Vizard) I bet
with those 2 mods my 1312 286 cam produces more torque over 2,000rpm than
your engine with a milder cam and smaller carb does.
Finally, my car might be the exception to the rule but if so it is because I
read Vizard cover to cover and spent my money (when I had some) smart rather
than on parts that didn't deliver.
Daniel1312
In a message dated 24/08/00 21:11:57 GMT Daylight Time,
Bryan.Vandiver@Eng.Sun.COM writes:
<< Daniel,
It really sounds like your car is 'an exception to the rule' and not typical
of
what can normally be achived, by the average home mechanic. Unfortuately,
most
of us don't happen to have a 'dyno' handy to put our cars on, and must rely
on
the 'tune by ear' method. Even so, dyno time at a shop can be quite
expensive,
and may not be a practical use of funds for the average spridget owner. I'll
still stick by my recommendation for the milder cams. The lower the torque
curve, the more drivable the vehicle. I rather be in 3rd or 4th gear running
up
hills than 2nd any day.
>>
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