2020 Ford 7.3L Dyno Results – Stage 1
This development is for those wanting relatively minor upgrades. We will provide results for a CNC porting of the cylinder heads for both intake and exhaust ports which also qualifies the combustion chamber and allows for use of the standard .75 reach gasketed seat spark plugs. We will also evaluate camshafts we will offer, one intended for use with the stock intake and a second that will is intended for a boosted application. Both of these camshafts are intended to be used with our travel limiting VCT and a revised VCT calibration.
Before we start we want to talk about our baseline of a stock engine that's only modifications are:
Our baseline was 507 HP for the Ford 7.3L, this is how we get to the Advertised Ford Number:
For this set of tests we evaluated the addition for the WPE (Willis Performance Enterprises) / VED (Visner Engine Development) Stage 1 CNC ported heads and the WPE / Callies Stage 1A and 1B camshaft. Results are provided for the Stock intake and Throttle Body as well as a VED Billet Intake with a VED 105 mm Throttle Body. This intake has way more capability than the Stage 1 heads and camshafts will support, but as there is no aftermarket cast intake available as of November 2020 we are using this to show how the Stage 1 heads and cams would work with a shorter runner Intake.
Results with Stage 1 CNC heads and Stage 1A & 1B Camshafts:
The Stage 1A camshaft has a larger lobe separation which would work better with a boosted engine and the Stage 1B camshaft has smaller lobe separation which is more common in Naturally Aspirated Engines.
We were impressed with the results with the Stage 1 camshafts, so we decided to run the Stage 2 camshafts with the Stage 1 heads and VED Intake, wow, we were not expecting results so strong.
Results Summary:
Before we start we want to talk about our baseline of a stock engine that's only modifications are:
- Use of Dynamometer headers as opposed to the stock exhaust manifolds.
- Use of electric water pump.
- Performance is corrected to STP (Standard Temperature and Pressure) which the common correction factor for engine builders as opposed to SAE J1349 Correction Factor. SAE J1349 which is the Procedure Manufacture's use to rate their engines. This procedure has a full air induction system and exhaust backpressure representing the full vehicle exhaust or uses the vehicle exhaust system in the test, along with the factory FEAD (Front End Accessory Drive). We have non of these losses, and have also used the OBR control system to optimize the calibration with pump premium fuel. Why these may seem like fairly small changes, they do add up.
Our baseline was 507 HP for the Ford 7.3L, this is how we get to the Advertised Ford Number:
- 507 HP WPE Baseline
- 20 HP Impact of Air Density difference between SAE J1349 and STP (4%)
- 10 HP Impact of no FEAD nor water pump (estimate)
- 38 HP Impact of no induction (everything upstream of throttle body) and exhaust system (estimated 7.5%)
- 8 HP Impact of 93 Octane fuel (Estimated 1.5%)
For this set of tests we evaluated the addition for the WPE (Willis Performance Enterprises) / VED (Visner Engine Development) Stage 1 CNC ported heads and the WPE / Callies Stage 1A and 1B camshaft. Results are provided for the Stock intake and Throttle Body as well as a VED Billet Intake with a VED 105 mm Throttle Body. This intake has way more capability than the Stage 1 heads and camshafts will support, but as there is no aftermarket cast intake available as of November 2020 we are using this to show how the Stage 1 heads and cams would work with a shorter runner Intake.
Results with Stage 1 CNC heads and Stage 1A & 1B Camshafts:
The Stage 1A camshaft has a larger lobe separation which would work better with a boosted engine and the Stage 1B camshaft has smaller lobe separation which is more common in Naturally Aspirated Engines.
We were impressed with the results with the Stage 1 camshafts, so we decided to run the Stage 2 camshafts with the Stage 1 heads and VED Intake, wow, we were not expecting results so strong.
Results Summary:
