Test 1-Baseline:
Max 395 tq, 308 hp
Avg 376 tq, 266 hp
9.4:1 cr, No. 461 "Camel Hump" heads, COMP Cams 246PE cam (246/263 adv duration, 203/212 duration @ .050, .429/.438 valve lift, 110 Lobe separation), GM iron intake, Carb Shop Q-Jet, Proform HEI, Champion No.14 plugs, 91 octane, 37 degrees advance, 1 5/8-inch headers, 3-inch mufflers. This represents what a typical 355 cid small-block would make if it had just been blueprinted, but still used most of its stock components.

Test 2-New intake manifold:
Max 394 tq, 325 hp
Avg 380 tq, 270 hp
Installed a Weiand dual-plane intake manifold (PN 8004) and leaned out the Q-jet a bit. This netted us a 17hp gain.

Test 3-Roller-tip rockers:
Max 404 tq, 342 hp
Avg 390 tq, 278 hp
Replaced the stock stamped-steel rocker arms with COMP Cams Magnum 1.5:1 roller tip rockers, which gave us another substantial increase in power, raising peak hp by 17 and peak torque by 10. This pushed max tq over the 400 mark for the first time. Average hp and tq also improved over the stock baseline by a factor of 12 and 14 respectively.

Test 4-Retard cam:
Max 405 tq, 349 hp
Avg 390 tq, 278 hp
Retarded the cam 2 degrees, which added a little more peak power while averages stayed equal.

	Test 1 Stock Baseline		Test 2 Weiand 8004		Test 3 COMP 1.5 rockers		Test 4 Retard cam -2 degrees
RPM	TQ	HP	TQ	HP	TQ	HP	TQ	HP
2600	389	193	384	190	385	190	379	188
2800	385	205	381	203	382	203	377	201
3000	388	222	384	219	389	222	384	219
3200	395	241	391	238	396	241	395	241
3400	393	255	391	253	399	258	398	257
3600	393	270	394	270	402	276	401	275
3800	389	282	394	285	404	292	405	293
4000	383	292	390	297	404	307	403	307
4200	374	299	384	307	398	318	398	319
4400	363	304	375	314	391	327	395	331
4600	351	307	367	322	384	336	388	340
4800	337	308	354	324	374	342	380	347
5000	322	306	339	323	356	339	366	349
Max	395	308	394	325	404	342	405	349
Avg	376	266	380	270	390	278	390	278

The next series of tests went a little deeper into the bolt-on field, but still kept swaps fairly simple. We made some improvements in torque this time, but horsepower gains were not that impressive.

Test 5-1 ?-inch headers:
Max 407 tq, 351 hp
Avg 388 tq, 287 hp
We installed larger 1-? Hooker headers. Compare tests 4 and 5 and you'll see that average torque was down by 2 lb-ft, but peak toque & horsepower were up slightly and average horsepower increased by 9. That's a fair trade to us.

Test 6-Full-roller rockers:
Max 407 tq, 351 hp
Avg 389 tq, 288 hp
Swapped COMP Cams 1.5:1 full roller aluminum rocker arms. Peak and average power increased by 1 each and we got 5 more lb-ft of torque at 3,200 rpm.

Test 7-XE256H cam:
Max 413 tq, 357 hp
Avg 396 tq, 293 hp
Swapped COMP Cams XE256H cam (256/268 adv duration, 212/218 duration @ .050, .447/.454 valve lift, 110 lobe separation) 2-degrees advanced and were rewarded with lots more grunt.

 

	Test 5 ? Headers		Test 6 Full roller 1.5 rockers		Test 7 COMP XE256H
RPM	TQ	HP	TQ	HP	TQ	HP
2600	377	187	380	188	387	191
2800	381	203	382	204	394	210
3000	390	222	391	223	401	229
3200	396	241	401	244	411	250
3400	400	260	403	261	413	267
3600	403	276	405	277	413	283
3800	407	294	406	294	413	298
4000	405	308	407	310	412	314
4200	401	321	402	322	406	325
4400	395	331	367	332	402	337
4600	387	339	388	340	394	345
4800	380	347	380	347	385	352
5000	368	350	368	350	375	357
5200	354	350	353	349	348	354
5400	N/A	N/A	339	349	348	357
5600	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	334	356
Max	407	351	407	351	413	357
Avg	388	287	389	288	396	293

With Danger Mouse, we've tested everything we could think of, from easy to bolt-on headers to EFI and complete superchargers too.

While the Q-jet carb had been working ok until now, we wanted to test a Speed Demon carb on a new Edelbrock Performer RPM "Air Gap" manifold. We also bumped up to the next size larger COMP Cams Xtreme Energy camshaft. The final reward was a new max 386 hp and 438 lb-ft of torque with new averages at 316hp/416tq. So now, we had this stock iron-headed 355 Mouse making almost 390hp and 440 lb-ft of torque! This was definitely the best power formula with the stock heads, particularly since the motor didn't respond very well to the bigger XE262H cam in Test 12. We took that as a sign that we had just about maxed out the stock cylinder head's flow potential and would either have to go in to start porting and polishing, or install a new set of performance cylinder heads for more power.

Test 9- Speed Demon 750 carb:
Max 418 tq, 356 hp
Avg 398 tq, 294 hp
Installed Speed Demon 750 and picked up torque and horsepower all around.

Test 10-"Air gap" manifold:
Max 438 tq, 380 hp
Avg 416 tq, 315 hp
Installed Edelbrock Performer RPM "Air Gap" intake manifold, which was the best single-gain swap yet and the first test to average well over 400 lb-ft of torque.

Test 12-XE262H cam:
Max 438 tq, 386 hp
Avg 416 tq, 316 hp
Swapped in larger COMP Cams XE262H cam (262/270 adv duration, 218/224 duration @ .050, .462/.469 valve lift, 110 lobe separation) straight up and low-end power began to fall.

EFI was found to be a very tunable way to make awesome power and we've had a lot of fun testing several systems.

THE GENERAL'S PARTS
Dm needed some new heads and for our next set, we went to GM Performance Parts (GMPP) and got a set of iron Vortec castings. When compared to the stock "Camel hump" heads, the Vortec's actually dropped DM's compression by about ?-point to 9.25:1, but that didn't stop them from making 23 more horsepower. After that, we swapped also on our first set of 1.6:1 ratio rockers and were again rewarded with more power

Test 14-GMPP Vortec heads:
Max 435 tq, 409 hp
Avg 413 tq, 330 hp
Installed GMPP Vortec iron heads (Scoggin-Dickey Performance Center PN SD8060A: 64cc chambers, 170cc intake runner volume, 1.94/1.50 valves), COMP 1.5:1 Magnum roller tip rockers, and Edelbrock Performer RPM "Air Gap" manifold and made lots of extra power.

Test 15-COMP 1.6:1 rockers:
Max 440 tq, 416 hp
Avg 417 tq, 333 hp
Installed COMP 1.6:1 Magnum roller tip rockers, which further pushed the power curve up.

ROCKERS AND BIGGER CAMS
There's a lot of power to be found in rocker arms and camshafts and in that pursuit, we forged onward, testing yet another bigger cam and we swapped rocker arms until we were blue in the face.

Test 17-COMP 1.6/1.5 rockers:
Max 442 tq, 414 hp
Avg 419 tq, 335 hp
We wrestled rocker arm ratios around for quite a while and found that 1.6:1 ratio intake and 1.5:1 ratio exhaust were the best combination of all rockers tested until that point. They gave a torque improvement with no hp loss. Looking back now, Test 17 may have been the best overall combination of power and torque. Especially considering that these parts are all still low on the cost scale.

Test 18-XE268H cam:
Max 439 tq, 427 hp
Avg 418 tq, 335 hp
Next in went the next bigger COMP cam and we changed all rockers back to 1.6:1. We got the results we were expecting, more horsepower upstairs and less torque downstairs. We also tried this cam with the 1.6/1.5 rocker swap and got less power. (XE268H = 268/280 adv, 224/230 @ .050, .477/.480 lift, 110 LS)