Full transparency means you share your victories and defeats.

We’ve had Mike’s engine (WM EN: 23-01) on the dyno twice so far this summer, and neither time went as we had planned. First we broke the engine trying to brake it in. Once we fixed it, it didn’t make the power we hoped for. And we’re still not sure why.

Big thanks to Alan Gould at Racers Edge Performance in Williamson NY for helping us out and being patient with us when things didn’t go to plan. Alan has dynoed hundreds of circle track engines and his knowledge on them is second to none.

Dyno Session #1 – Wipe Out (June 2023)

The first time we had the engine on the dyno, we wiped a cam lobe during break-in. This was caused by the top-end oil restrictors I installed in lifter oil galleys. Oops. No big deal – install new cam, try again.

Dyno Session #2 – No Power (July 2023)

Well this was a kick in the nards. We were hoping to make 460hp+, but we only made 420. Engine is healthy, and has more airflow than the previous engines we’ve built, but it just isn’t using that air efficiently.

There were a couple known issues that robbed this engine of a few ponies while it was on the dyno;

• Oil Weight – Ran with 15w-50 instead of the desired 5w-30.
• Ignition Timing – TDC timing mark was off by 1°, which means our final was 1° less than we wanted.
• Carburetor Fueling Curve – The carb was super rich at the top end, which killed power above 5000 RPM

So we got the right oil, fixed the timing mark and ignition timing, and got our hands on a known good carb. Unfortunately the biggest race of the season is next weekend and we don’t have time to put the engine back on the dyno to find out what we really have. The engine is in the car and finally headed to the track.

2023 Build #2 – Chilling in Long Beach

During the short IndyCar mid-summer break, I started building another engine for the Willis Motorsports works team. The short block is together and waiting for the heads to come back from the machine shop. The goal is to get this engine together in time to have the guys run it for the last couple races of the season.

Once the season is over we’ll get both the first (Mike’s) engine and the new engine on the dyno. At this point we’ll verify the performance of both engines in their final configuration, and maybe experiment to see what else helps make power. We’ll keep you posted with what we find!

Go Bills.