Lugging isn't necessarily a bad thing, unless it produces preignition- - - -which produces detonation- - - -which destroys pistons, valves, etc. If the engine happens to be running at or near its torque peak while it's being lugged, that produces the best acceleration. A pretty good way to create a "field expedient dyno" is to find a long hill where the vehicle can make stopwatch timed runs at full throttle at various engine speeds and timing settings, without over-revving. Somewhere along the way, a minimum time will be achieved, indicating the best HP/torque compromise has been found.
Jerry
I’ve been wanting to do the “hill dyno” for some time now. I have my hill picked out and everything, just have to find the right day.
In addition to the timing adjustments and timed runs, I’d like to do some fuel tinkering as well. CarbKing talks about making float level tweaks to simulate jetting/metering changes. That wouldn’t be terribly hard to do in a similar test.
For a 235 engine, is there an absolute numerical timing figure one should not exceed? Obviously, spark knock is too far.
