We ran my new small block 434 on the dyno today. It's 11.2-1, Indy heads, comp solid roller and T&D 1.7 rockers. According to the instructions included with the rockers they are pre lubed and not recommended cleaning them, so I didn't.

The engine fired right up but within a few seconds started making a squealing sound so the operator immediately shut it off. The oil pressure was good and we didn't see anything amiss so we started it again. This time it ran for several seconds before starting squealing again so it was shut down. I was in the cell with it and the sound was coming from the top on the passengers side. I pulled the valve cover and found that there was a ton of oil but none on the push rods so I pulled the rocker arms to inspect the push rods, no bluing or signs of galling. My first thought was that the push rods were to long and had the adjusters out their oiling range. I had blown through one the other side when I installed them to make sure they were ok and it was. I wiped one of the adjusters off and blew through it with my mouth, at first nothing then it blew a slug of grease out. So the dyno operator took it and blew all of the adjusters out while I pulled the other side off. After blowing all of the adjusters out with compressed are we fired it up and the noise was gone. So if I ever buy new T&D's again I will take them off the shafts and wash the grease out and lube the with assembly lube.

This engine was built to run on pump 93, 11.2-1. I took five gallons of Renegade Crate 98 and five gallons of 93 from a little store down the road from me. We started it on the 98, it was a little rich after setting the timing I installed bigger high speed bleeds, still rich so I pulled two jet sizes out of the secondary's. With the jetting good we started on the timing, after making a couple adjustments and a few pulls it made it's best pull for HP and torque. I asked the operator what he thought the 93 would do, let's find out was his reply. While I was draining the bowls he removed the line from the carb and pumped the 98 back into my gas can. He poured the 93 in the cell and fired it back up and ran it for a minute or so before the pull. It made 31 more HP and almost 25 pounds of torque on the 93. I thought it was a fluke so he cooled it down a little and pulled it down again, same results! It was tuned for the most HP and torque for the 98 and with no other changes made more HP and torque on the pump 93. I could see a big difference in 112 to 93 but would have never thought it with 98 and 93.

For whatever reason the dyno operator didn't want to run the engine with the PVC valve hooked up so we didn't until the last pull. With no changes except pulling the cap off the nipple on the carb and hooking the PVC valve up it made 3 more HP using the PVC valve.

Sorry for the long post but it was a very interesting day.