The 2011 AMSOIL/Mopar Muscle Engine Challenge - Budget Big Block

We'd all love to be able to build and test multiple engine combinations on the dyno before deciding which engine is right for our Mopar, but most of us just don't have the resources (i.e. the cash) to perform this type of testing. Fortunately, the AMSOIL/Mopar Muscle Engine Challenge offers our readers the opportunity to compare eight different engine combinations without spending a dime more than the subscription rate. Even better, the engines competing in our contest are dyno'd at Comp Cams' research facility and we provide all the numbers for comparison.

Each year of our annual competition we highlight a different Mopar engine, and vary the rules of the contest just to keep things interesting. We also test the engines using Rockett Brand 93 octane gasoline, which forces the competitors to build engines that will run on fuel with a similar octane rating to what they can get at the local station right out of the pump. For the 2011 contest we decided to judge the motors in a similar manner as last year, horsepower per cubic inch, but added an additional twist to keep the price of these engines within the reach of the average enthusiast. In addition to factoring the peak horsepower of each engine into the engine's displacement, the engine builders were allowed a maximum budget of $5,500 for the parts in their big-block.

For some of us $5,500 is a lot of money, but in today's world it is actually a reasonable parts budget for an engine build, especially considering the amount of power this year's contestants made. And while our rules did allow the engine builders to exceed the budget limit if they felt they needed to, they would be docked ten horsepower for every hundred dollars they went over, which encouraged them to remain within the budget. While we did want the engine builders to show what kind of power could be made for a reasonable price, we didn't necessarily want junk yard motors in the contest so there was no benefit for using less than the allotted amount for the engine parts.

So with an interesting set of rules in place, we chose eight competitors for this year's contest. Seven of the eight made our deadline, delivering their engines to the Mopar Nationals where they were displayed for the weekend. We were pleasantly surprised at the diversity we saw in these engines, with displacements from just over 400 cubic inches to slightly less than 500 cubic inches. Additionally, some competitors utilized factory cast-iron cylinder heads while others chose aftermarket heads from Indy, Edelbrock, and 440Source. With the engines at Comp's Memphis, Tennessee, research facility, we filled each of them to the pan's capacity with AMSOIL's Z-Rod 10W30 synthetic motor oil, and ran them one at a time in random order to see just how much power they would make.

During the test session, each engine builder had to qualify their engine by making a minimum of three dyno pulls from 3,000 to a minimum of 7,000 rpm in a 45 minute time period. Tuning was allowed during this session, and all of the engine builders took advantage of their time to make carburetion, ignition timing, and valve lash adjustments. After the qualifying session, each engine had to make a minimum of three dyno pulls during a 45 minute judged session, again from 3,000 to a minimum of 7,000 rpm. Noting that there was no upper limit to the rpm scale, a couple of the engine builders made pulls well above the 7,000 rpm minimum in order to make their peak numbers. This month we'll show you how the first four engines performed in our contest, and give you a rundown of the parts used in each of the engines. Be sure to follow future issues of Mopar Muscle as we show you the results of the three remaining engines as well as publish a parts list and dyno sheet for each of the engines in 2011 AMSOIL/Mopar Muscle Engine Challenge.

T & B’z Race Engines entered... 

   

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T & B’z Race Engines entered our competition for the first time this year, bringing a 426 cubic inch low-deck wedge to the contest. This engine performed very well, making some 675 horsepower at 7,000 rpm.

T & B'z Race Engines

Monroe, Wisconsin

Bill’s Speed and Machine built... 

   

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Bill’s Speed and Machine built a 451 cubic inch low-deck big-block for the 2011 Engine Challenge, which is a popular and powerful combination. Using a top end from Indy Cylinder Head, this engine made over 623 horsepower and 557 lb/ft of torque.

Bill's Speed and Machine

Bargersville, Indiana

Tuning his engine on Comp's dyno, Bill Hess made several carburetor jet changes to richen the fuel mixture of his engine during the 45-minute qualifying session. After his third qualifying pull, Bill removed the one-inch aluminum carburetor spacer and added a three inch open spacer and then moved directly to his judged dyno pulls. Reading his spark plugs, ignition timing was backed down 38 degrees total advance, then again to 36 degrees where the engine made its best power. By jetting even richer, the Bill's Speed and Machine entry made its best horsepower number of 623.2 at 6,500 rpm for a 1.38 horsepower per cubic inch factor. With over 557 lb/ft of torque, this is a real-world street engine that would perform great in any Mopar.

Mid America Racing Engines

Washington, Iowa

As usual, the Mid America entry had been previously dyno tuned and needed very little work to optimize performance. While in Comp's dyno cell, Dave Bruns made minor carburetor jetting adjustments, and set the ignition timing at 38 degrees total advance for his big-block to make its best power. At 450-inches we expected this engine to make great torque and it did, peaking at 554 lb/ft at 5,300 rpm. Peak horsepower came on the fifth scored dyno pull, with the engine making 622.2 horsepower at 6,700 rpm. We're confident that this engine remained under our budget of $5,500, and at 1.38 horsepower per cubic inch the Mid America Racing Engines entry is a budget big-block that really performs.

Hinkle Performance

London, Kentucky

Once in Comp's dyno cell, the Hinkle Performance big-block had a little trouble firing up initially, and once running one of the crew commented that the big-block didn't sound quite like it did on their shop dyno, but attributed the difference to dyno cell configuration. After a brief warm-up, the Hinkle crew began their qualifying pulls, tuning their engine and making additional power by swapping the one-inch open spacer for a one-inch four-hole spacer, then removing their 950cfm carburetor and replacing it with a Holley 1000 cfm unit. Before their forth qualifying pull, ignition timing was moved to 38 degrees and the engine made its best pull of 595 horsepower. Unfortunately, during the next pull the engine experienced a catastrophic failure as the head of an exhaust valve broke from the stem at 6,800 rpm, destroying the number two piston and the block. Was it not for the failure, this engine was on its way to being very competitive, making 1.47 horsepower per cubic inch.

Summary