Assembly complete, now for some numbers
After completing reassembly of the flathead, we had Allied Engine check the Speedster’s powerplant on their dynamometer. Not that we thought it would blow up or anything, but we wanted it running like a pocket watch while we had the chance to play with it out of the chassis.
Some PVC pipe and hose modifications were necessary to mount our dual water pump engine to the dynamometer cooling system
We were glad we checked everything out in advance, because the rear cylinder on the driver’s side refused to fire. Eventually we tracked this down to the electronic distributor we were using. We had a spare dual point crab-style distributor we installed that solved that problem.
preliminary run
Although our first run showed an excellent improvement in performance, with 127hp and 216 lbs-ft at 3090rpm, Chris at Allied knew we could squeeze a little more hp out of it with a little tweaking.
Dynamometer as the engine heats up to operating temperature
For myself, it was just good to hear it start up on the first kick and run for a solid 20 minutes while it warmed up. Allied’s dyno is hooked up to a 75-gallon water tank so that took quite a while. After changing the advance on the distributor and substituting a Ford/Holley 94 for the Stromberg 97 carburetor, we lost a little torque but added another 5hp.
second run
After toying with it for an hour or so, we were able to get the engine up to 132hp and 195 lbs-ft at 3550rpm. Much better than the original specs for a ‘34 flathead block (85hp at 3800rpm and 148 lbs-ft). Even the overbore kit which brought us up to 239 cid surpassed the original flathead power ratings.
Chris Mayne from Allied Engine takes external header temperatures with a hand-held gauge
With the engine work complete, and a big sigh of relief, we proceeded to cram it back into the Speedster in time to get a few miles on it before loading it into the trailer for the trip to Oklahoma for the VCRA Rally. I will post results of how the Speedster did later this week.