I've been gone for a wile, but i've gotten most of my issues worked out. Car is at shop getting exhaust as I type

After the exhaust is done, i'll need to tune this thing. I dont have money to buy an LM-1 setup (i can get one for $300-$350 from a friend apparently). Is there anyway I can tune my setup cheaper? It's an edelbrock 1406 600cfm 4bbl. I have not yet gotten the idlemixture tuned yet, I have a guide on how to do that. what i'm looking for is WOT tuning. any ideas?

 

Take it to the drag strip, get an accelerometer, or find out how much an hour of dyno time costs.

 

looks like that is what i'll have to do. I can take it to one of the dyno's here and they have a wideband they can put on for a liitle extra $$. Thanks

 

Expect to pay about $100/hr that your car is strapped to the dyno.

In other words, come prepared. Have as much of the initial stuff you can do, already done; have your tuning parts (that means, BUY YOUR JETS BEFOREHAND!!!!) on hand; make sure your car will behave itself, like full of oil, no oil leaks, no dead batteries, no spewing coolant, etc. (otherwise you'll be paying $100/hr to mop the floor or charge the battery which is not usually considered a good deal on floor mopping or batt charging).

You'll be looking for max power across the entire RPM range of interest, which will oridnarily result from a mixture of around 12.8:1, give or take a few tenths. If you put it on and it's very far from that range, re-jet the carb, using the percentage A/F ratio change and using a jet of that same prercentage larger or smaller in cross-sectional area, NOT diameter. That'll get you close, fast, in as few steps as possible. To make it quick, bring a calculator, and know and practice BEFORE YOU GET THERE on how to calculate jet area from diameter so you're not spending $100/hr on dinking around with your calculator. Bring some tools; stuff to get into the carb with, a plug wrench, a distributor wrench, screwdriver for idle speed and mixture, and so on. Again, watching the meter run at $100/hr while somebody runs around a busy speed shop hunting down a screwdriver, is not a good feeling.

Be prepared for whatever numbers you get, to be lower than you expect. They ALWAYS are, especially if you have Desktop Dyno on the brain. BELIEVE THEM, no matter how much they hurt or disappoint you, because THEY ARE REALITY and all the rest of that is just bulls***. On the other hand, it's cool as hell to stand next to your car while it does pull after pull from 2000 to 6000 RPM. All the local steet-stroke kids with 4-cyl grocery carts and fart boxes will be IN AWE, even if all you get is 225 HP when you "thought" you were going to get 400.

 

The best part is when the spokes in the rear wheels "disappear" and the car hovers in mid air.

 

Yup, I'm interested in doing some WB02 tuning with the new project and I was also planning to use a dyno with the WB02 hookup. I'm so new to messing with carb's, I can't read plugs very good so I decided to go straight to WB02 to try and tune. Over here its $80/hr with the WB02 and I think you can make a max of 5 pulls or something (not quite sure). But me I'm such a NOOB with the carb I think I'm gonna go the first time and split it with a friend so its only $40 and just take a baseline reading of the A/F ratio and stuff. So I have something to work off of before trying to research to be prepared. I agree with what has been said already, want to be prepared to make changes at the dyno so you can maximize your time.