308/328 factory engine test procedures

False. Engines were tested ready to install. After dyno run sent straight to assembly line in the same building.
Engine built Monday, tested Tuesday, installed Wednesday.

 

So what is the back story on the "old" method to rate them on the dyno? I have been told that Ferrari was using an industry wide method (for lack of a better word) back in the day that would give a sort of inflated output rating that didn't actually translate to real a world environment. Everyone had to stop doing it, not just Ferrari.
For example, the 2vi engines are really more on the 180+ hp side rather than the published 205.

 

Ferrari probably used "gross" vs "net". SAE changed that for American manufacturers in 1972.
Horsepower - Wikipedia

 

Oh, so it wasn't that they were doing anything different, just publishing the higher of two ratings.

 

Prior to 1972 in the USA, manufacturers gave gross HP ratings - engine on the dyno with open headers and not running any accessories - water pump, alternator, etc.

Since then manufacturers publish net HP ratings - engine on dyno operating as it would in the car.

Of course there is also the difference between flywheel HP and rear wheel HP. So if you take a 300 HP car to a dyno it's probably going to show around 260 HP at the rear wheels. Engines are never rated according to rear wheel HP.

 

Now I know

 

Actually pretty easy to date here in Europe: the last carbed cars, starting at the beginning of 1980, had inside their Owner's Manual a small adhesive sticker glued above the "255hp" power figure, saying "230".
The German TÜV, when it tested the car in the seventies, found figures of 226 to 229 DIN.
The original test for the "Vetroresina" by the french magazine Sport-Auto used only once "255", then always "230".

I have an interview in a 1985 special issue of the french magazine "Auto-Hebdo" of Ferrari's engine department's head at the time, in which he says that the accepted tolerance after the bench test is 3%: any engine that does not come within 3% of the rated power output is sent back to the workshops; engines that give more than the rated power output are accepted "as is".

Rgds

 

So I guess we are back to a 2Vi at about 180 net hp

 

Will check; pretty sure Dirk-Michael Konradt's book has some figures for the U.S 2 valve injected cars....

Rgds

 

In most cases the Ferrari claimed HP for production cars has always been a work of fiction. I have the original copy of a factory dyno sheet of a 360. It is supposed to be a confidential factory internal document. It made 360 hp. Factory claim was 400.
The same was not true when it came to comp cars or the Supercars. Those are true.
The claimed weight was also often laughable as well. They actually said the 365BB was 2700 lbs.

 

That's what Dirk-Michael Konradt's book says, just checked this morning.
After 1980, when Ferrari started to state power in DIN figures, the actual power was closer to advertised rating
As for the two-valve injected car, advertised rating for the "euro" car was 214, and the german TÜV actually found 209.
As for the US variant, the book simply says: "actual power was close to 200".

Rgds

 

Thats how they tested silicone brake fluid. In a BMW in the mountains. They disallowed its use by the way. Too compressible when hot.