I was up at the Lane Automotive Annual Car Show yesterday and they had a dyno set up to dyno your car for free. A guy with a beautiful 57 T-Bird had his dynoed and I saw the results afterwards. In three pulls his average was about 167 hp @ 4200 rpm. That really shocked me. I figured rear wheel horsepower would have been more than that. I didn't get a chance to talk to him because when I was at his car there were a bunch of people using him up. Seemed like a nice guy, obviously a patient guy. Jim
Hmmmm, seems to be down about 100 hp. Although the 270 or so factory rating was measured at the flywheel. I don't see picking up 75 hp with carb tuning, timing changes, etc, to match the factory rating. Maybe Ford was fudging on the those ratings.
Randy
I think ford rated at flywheel hp. The T bird was on a chassis dyno which measures hp loss through the drivetrain..if it had a fordomatic..that explains it. Those things eat power which is why a manual trans would always outdrag a slushbox, all else being equal.
It had a Fordomatic transmission.
Many factors could hurt its horsepower. If the secondary's aren't opening that really kills it. Also if it had the incorrect t-pots, which most 2-4setups do, and had a set of 56 Ford carbs it would run to rich and the secondary's would never open.
If the y-block was ever rebuilt the compression would be way down too, as when you use modern composite heads gaskets compression ratio is lowered over the factory steel shims.
Tuning could make a major improvement. Just advancing the initial another 5-8 degrees over factory specs would add a bunch.
The factory tested the motors with open exhaust and no accessories. The fodomatic really could hurt the power to the wheels.
I ran An E-code set-up for awhile and got it to finally run really good. Then I went the VR57 blower and it instantly went a second faster with no other changes. So much for 270 hp vs 300 for a blower car.
Ted Eaton I'd some dyno tests with original E-code set-ups and found a properly tuned 2-4 package was a big jump in hp over the early 4v carb.
I'm glad I changed my mind about swapping for a 2x4 setup now...hopefully getting the blower brackets from frank soon...
I am thinking of going to a supercharger. I believe the stock compression ratio of a 1957 312 engine is 9:1. Is that correct, and does this compression ratio need to be lowered in order to run the McCullough supercharger? Thanks
471 or orig f code heads should give around 8:1 or less...looking for a set of those again for mine...unless I can somehow swing a set of mummert's heads...awesome bolt on right there...how does it run Pat?
Guys:
Don't know if it is the result of having the Edelbrock RPM Heads and their flat tappet RPM cam on my 351W. But I'm running 9.5:1 compression ratio with the "mild" Paxton-Novi supercharger which has a max boost pressure of 7 psi @ 6,000 RPM, using 91 octane COSTCO gas. No detonation problems and it puts out 140 hp over the non-supercharged single quad. 475 hp to the rear wheels is plenty for me and very street friendly in LA traffic. By the way, the pistons are TRW forged, which could also be a factor.
Bob
57 AGIN