Decided to dyno the '93 last Saturday at the Ford show. Felt pretty good about it, third time on the roller for the old girl and felt it would run pretty good with the catted H pipe vs the old X pipe I made. The H feels a whole lot stronger vs the X. Anyway, sitting next to the dyno is a mystic painted fox hatch for sale with a list of parts similiar to mine that turned out to belong to the dyno operator so I felt more confident about having him run my car.
Happened across a friend from work as I waited and he was talking to me about running the stang on the dyno and how exciting it must feel to finally see what it'll do. I replied that actually it's quite stressfull knowing you are 60 miles from home letting someone you've never met before run you car up to 6000rpm under load while hoping the whole mess doesn't come unglued... That conversation came back to haunt me the whole way home.
The first bad omen was the operator hopped in the car (on a towel to keep from getting it dirty) and didn't adjust the seat (I'm 6'8", he was about 5'10"). Remarkably he was having trouble getting it to go into reverse to get it on the ramps. On the forth attempt he made it up the ramps and I hopped in the passenger seat for the run ups. I remember asking him if he got nervous having all these people watching as he dyno'd cars and he replied that it didn't bother him at all.
After grinding the tranny a few times he got it rolling in first and then into second, got confused looking for third, but found it after hitting every gear but reverse, and finally settled into fourth (he thought). Clicked the button at 2100rpm and romped it to the floor, hit 6000rpm about two seconds later as the tires went up in smoke on the rollers and of course he was watching the screen tach and not the actual tach and it sat on the fuel limiter for at least two solid seconds (about ten minutes when it's your car).
Now I'm a pretty patient fella, but his casual reply that he must have been in second instead of fourth started to piss me off. Then he commented about the shifter being really tight and hard to get into gear. At that point I mildly asked him to adjust the f'ing seat so he could push the mother f'ing clutch all the way in so he could shift the f'ing thing without trashing the synchro's any more. Remarkably enough he didn't say a word, but adjusted the seat and got through the gears and into fourth for the pull. Funny because there were about a hundred people watching.
Things looked up as the pull was over in about nine seconds at 6k, but he didn't clutch it, just slammed the throttle shut. O the humanity. The blower overpressured and stalled spinning the belt off the pulleys and finally blowing the tube off the throttle body stalling the car. At the time I didn't notice the belt, but got the tubing locked back down, overtorquing the clamp in the process (nerves and above about patience). Readout says 355 RWHP @5000rpm and 385ftlbs @4500. Down 35hp and 5ftlbs vs the off road X pipe, but the pull times were the same.
Fire the car up for the next pull and heard the slapping of the belt segments on the radiator hoses and shut it back down. Checked it out and decided to call it a day. Rolled the car off the dyno, trimmed the rest of the damaged rib off the belt and rode it back the rest of the way on the pulleys with my pocket knife and the starter. Started the car somewhat shakily and took it back to the show field.
My confidence in the car was really shaken and I was rattled enough that I forgot to double check the hood before leaving and it came up on the latch as I was getting on the interstate for home (thank God I spend so much time making sure the hood can't get off the catch during installs). Then fifty minutes of concentrating on hearing the belt coming apart or the throttle tube coming loose had me boggled enough I ran the damn thing out of gas (didn't notice the fuel pressure drop off). Dad was behind me in his coupe so I sat and watched the traffic for a half hour while he got some fuel.
Had a fairly good weekend except for the dyno mishaps. Found parts cheap, but the food and event shirts were way overpriced.
Jamie
Happened across a friend from work as I waited and he was talking to me about running the stang on the dyno and how exciting it must feel to finally see what it'll do. I replied that actually it's quite stressfull knowing you are 60 miles from home letting someone you've never met before run you car up to 6000rpm under load while hoping the whole mess doesn't come unglued... That conversation came back to haunt me the whole way home.
The first bad omen was the operator hopped in the car (on a towel to keep from getting it dirty) and didn't adjust the seat (I'm 6'8", he was about 5'10"). Remarkably he was having trouble getting it to go into reverse to get it on the ramps. On the forth attempt he made it up the ramps and I hopped in the passenger seat for the run ups. I remember asking him if he got nervous having all these people watching as he dyno'd cars and he replied that it didn't bother him at all.
After grinding the tranny a few times he got it rolling in first and then into second, got confused looking for third, but found it after hitting every gear but reverse, and finally settled into fourth (he thought). Clicked the button at 2100rpm and romped it to the floor, hit 6000rpm about two seconds later as the tires went up in smoke on the rollers and of course he was watching the screen tach and not the actual tach and it sat on the fuel limiter for at least two solid seconds (about ten minutes when it's your car).
Now I'm a pretty patient fella, but his casual reply that he must have been in second instead of fourth started to piss me off. Then he commented about the shifter being really tight and hard to get into gear. At that point I mildly asked him to adjust the f'ing seat so he could push the mother f'ing clutch all the way in so he could shift the f'ing thing without trashing the synchro's any more. Remarkably enough he didn't say a word, but adjusted the seat and got through the gears and into fourth for the pull. Funny because there were about a hundred people watching.
Things looked up as the pull was over in about nine seconds at 6k, but he didn't clutch it, just slammed the throttle shut. O the humanity. The blower overpressured and stalled spinning the belt off the pulleys and finally blowing the tube off the throttle body stalling the car. At the time I didn't notice the belt, but got the tubing locked back down, overtorquing the clamp in the process (nerves and above about patience). Readout says 355 RWHP @5000rpm and 385ftlbs @4500. Down 35hp and 5ftlbs vs the off road X pipe, but the pull times were the same.
Fire the car up for the next pull and heard the slapping of the belt segments on the radiator hoses and shut it back down. Checked it out and decided to call it a day. Rolled the car off the dyno, trimmed the rest of the damaged rib off the belt and rode it back the rest of the way on the pulleys with my pocket knife and the starter. Started the car somewhat shakily and took it back to the show field.
My confidence in the car was really shaken and I was rattled enough that I forgot to double check the hood before leaving and it came up on the latch as I was getting on the interstate for home (thank God I spend so much time making sure the hood can't get off the catch during installs). Then fifty minutes of concentrating on hearing the belt coming apart or the throttle tube coming loose had me boggled enough I ran the damn thing out of gas (didn't notice the fuel pressure drop off). Dad was behind me in his coupe so I sat and watched the traffic for a half hour while he got some fuel.
Had a fairly good weekend except for the dyno mishaps. Found parts cheap, but the food and event shirts were way overpriced.
Jamie
second guy ground reverse once, then got it in, stalled the car 7 times, then smoked my clutch "trying" to get it up the lift.
