Olds 5.7 Diesel Ressurection (or Immolation)

[SuperBuickGuy]

you know, after careful consideration, I have a question .... why not put that motor in a fiero?

[Maxzillian]

I thought about it, seriously. Knowing how tight a SBC is and knowing the engine may need to swap to a pair of gas heads and intake in the middle of a race; I decided not to open that can of worms.

What I'm pondering right now is how to cobble together an engine dyno, but I'm having hell deciding where to find a retarder for cheap to load the engine with. I have thought about converting another engine into an air pump and choking the exhaust to control load, but that seems like a hell of a bulky setup compared to a water brake.

The other thought was to build a small trailer and use the engine to drive an axle. Hitch it up to the truck and use the truck as a load to push against, but the thought of trying to dyno an engine on the open road isn't exactly appealing either.

[DanStokes]

I thought about it, seriously. Knowing how tight a SBC is and knowing the engine may need to swap to a pair of gas heads and intake in the middle of a race; I decided not to open that can of worms.

What I'm pondering right now is how to cobble together an engine dyno, but I'm having hell deciding where to find a retarder for cheap to load the engine with. I have thought about converting another engine into an air pump and choking the exhaust to control load, but that seems like a hell of a bulky setup compared to a water brake.

The other thought was to build a small trailer and use the engine to drive an axle. Hitch it up to the truck and use the truck as a load to push against, but the thought of trying to dyno an engine on the open road isn't exactly appealing either.

Drop me a PM and I'll send you some contact info for used dynos. I'd go with a used Eddy current. Water brakes have a definite life span and it's NOT indefinite! They deteriorate internally as a result of corrosion from the water and there's no bringing them back. Superflow does as well as anyone in "hardening" theirs against this but even so there's a limit.

With careful shopping you should be able to piece together an Eddy current for a reasonable price. Negotiate for all the instrumentation you can get - too much is just about right. Big time users are constantly upgrading both their dynos and their instrumentation so there are used bits out there.

You might start with G-E-M in Michigan (http://g-e-m-inc.com/) and Midwest Absorbers in, IIRC, the Chicago area. I just went online and Midwest seems to have been bought out by Dyne Systems. They used to specialize in used (often rebuilt) dynos and there may still be some of that going on. I have connections to others as well.

As you might be able to tell, I spent 30+ years in the dyno testing profession.

Dan

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'll point out that the reason a SBC is so tight in a Fiero is because people keep the trunk "box" behind the motor - remove the box and you should have plenty of room

and Dan knows dynos

[Mater]

you could also use one of those motorhome and toronado thm425 unites and have it longitudinally mounted just use the oil pan for the 455 or 307 that was used with it and your golden.

[Maxzillian]

A quick thought concerning my valve tip wear. Shouldn't the rocker arms have a small oil hole where the push rod resides so oil from the lifter gets pumped up and drained out over the top of the rocker? Both the rockers that came off the engine and the ones I installed are lacking this hole. I'm wondering if this led to a lack of lubrication to the valve stems.

[SuperBuickGuy]

sounds like a reasonable hypothesis, however, are you certain that it had adequate oil pressure? even without the hole (which most SBC's don't have), there is still a substantial amount of oil slinging about.

[Maxzillian]

That's certainly a good question. Idling cold is was around 30-40 psi, but that doesn't tell much.