In the May 1955 Hot rod magazine,a performance shop dyno tested a 261 engine from stock to a complete full race engine in 9 stages. The stock HP was 114 at 3500 rpm,torque was 200 at 2500 rpm,serious road rocket power.A hot cam,split exhaust, 2 properly set up carbs and more compression gave 157 HP at 4500 rpm and 237 lbs-ft of torque.The maximum out put engine which was considered the limit streetable performance( ported head,bigger valves, big cam ,more compression. was 197 hp and 268 lbs-ft of torque at a low 2000rpm and slowly tapered off to 245 at 4500 rpm.So lets figue the guys dyno was accurate back then and that present Stove engine devolopment isn't exactly state of the art, so you can get around 170 hp on a moderate on a 261 ,the 235 would be 155 or so in the same state of tune I guess.Other than some old 216 dyno tests, I' ve never seen any other published dyno work on a 235/261.I think a custom truck mag did a 235 build a few years ago, maybe that has something more.
