January 2021 – Eaton Balancing

Cylinder Head Testing – Part 1

What was originally planned as a simple cylinder head test on the 312 dyno mule ended up being a test that ultimately involved over two dozen different sets of cylinder heads. While part of this testing was a precursor to determining which pair of heads were to be used for an extensive exhaust system test, the remainder of the cylinder head test was to answer some questions about the significance of milling and porting on some of the various heads. This test saw no fewer than thirty different head changes on the engine as some of those pairs of heads were reworked differently between the tests or were reinstalled as part of the base-lining that was being performed to insure that the engine performance was remaining constant.

Cylinder Head Testing – Part 2

With the basics of the cylinder head test being introduced in YBM issue #153, part II of this article will concentrate more heavily on the more pertinent details of the various heads that were tested.

Ford Y-Block Exhaust Testing

When the question came up as to how well some of the various exhaust and header designs perform on the Ford Y-Block family of engines, the 312 dyno mule was again put to work in doing an extensive exhaust system test. Twenty-four different exhaust systems ranging from single exhaust to stepped headers were tested with each system being tried in a variety of configurations. Where possible, the different exhaust systems were also tested with and without mufflers and a variety of head-pipe lengths. When mufflers were used, they were sized according to the pipe size going into them which required having a variety of chambered mufflers on hand for this test. Except in the case of where the headers used for the 2010 EMC competition were used, mufflers were a deterrent for making additional power. While there are mufflers out there that are not a detriment for power production, those simply were not on hand for this test.