This is a fun story...had lots of fun today. I freshened up my JW 470 engine this winter after two seasons of hard bracket racing and upgraded to Stg 2 SE heads with a full port job from Chris Scaling. The Olds was in the engine shop for basically the same thing; new Eddy heads and fresen-up. I had a cash bet with the Old's guy on top HP. We both went to R&R Performance today to Dyno. Builds: Olds, E-85, 12.5-1 compression, Ported Eddys, BIG cam. My engine is an early JW 470. 10.5-1 compression and a VERY mild Comp Cam grind picked by Jim with only 231-238 duration and 580 lift. Buick pulled 648 HP on the checkout pull and the Old's guy paid me before we even took the Buick off the stand! Ha, Ha. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were glazed! Engine idles at 750, 600+ torque from 3000 to over 5000 RPM and our best pull was just over 650. Makes me a little nervous...no girdle buts is all studded up and super accurate balance. I can't run into the 9's and be legal so I will de-tune just a bit to help it live. I'm hoping Chris will help post a picture or two...I sent him a couple and I can't do that from my system. Chris? Install this weekend! Yippi!
Olds would probably want more intake, looks like a torker intake maybe, congrats on the solid numbers very impressive for no more than it has
I'm not saying the intake is what kept it from equaling the Buford, just that that combo would more than likely want more plenum volume, but yea of course with the stiff comp and larger cam it should have put up a hella fight, but that's just another reason why Buicks are awesome they generally make more with less than the brand Xers
Congrats Jim, very impressive numbers, especially from basically just a head swap! Those are incredible gains, real quality work. Enjoy your new found giddy-up !
The dyno pulls with the new heads were also dyno'd on the same dyno and with same operator etc used on the first round of dyno testing with the old heads.
Olds had big squeeze, E85 with a 1050 4500 carb and made 577hp. Would have been a great match with the old combo.
Yes, the Olds made 577. I picked up the engine today and it will be in my race car by noon tomorrow! My California GS weighs about 3050 with me. I run 4.10 rear gears and expect about 6100-62 at the stripe this year...perfect. I just want to say...I get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I contemplate making 650HP with a combination that includes heads from Scaling and a short block combo and cam selection from JW. it brings a tear to my eyes when I think about the effort and cooperation to help Jimmy's little race car! (Kudo's to Mike and the TA gang too!) **** only three weeks ago I wanted to sell all my Buick stuff and run Chevy. Thanks to another shot of "the Kool Aid", and 650 HP, I'm a Buick racer again!
