Jeff, we have some serious engine guys here. Other than a tiny number of Reno racers, most are interested in making their installations more efficient, not more powerful.
Hang around long enough and you'll note an interesting detail. The builders with the most EAB flight hours and/or the most build experience are the ones least likely to make power mods. There are exceptions to every rule, but the guys bragging about their dyno figures tend to be first-timers with checkbooks.
Speaking for myself, I've built and flown some serious experiments. One of them sucked up something like a hundred design, fabrication, and maintenance hours for every flight hour. Two of them never flew. And believe me, your feelings about reliability change after deadsticking one.
Someone mentioned cubic inches as the best path to reliable power. See the "RV-8 SS" in my signature? You're a car guy. It comes from the Chevy "SS" cars of the 60's...a big block in an otherwise ordinary production car. They were fun on Saturday night, and drove to work on Monday.
In this case the big block is an early Lycoming kit 390 from the days when Barrett still had an exclusive. When Monty asked how I wanted it, I told him blueprinted dead stock. We were good friends, and I could have had that 390 with everything in his personal bag of tricks. However, the key mission for this airplane was reliable fast transport with a good climb rate at high gross weight. Nine hundred hours now, and no regrets. That said, if I were building for Reno, well, that's a different mission.
Mission, i.e. deciding what you are willing to compromise in order to optimize something else, is a big deal.
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Dan Horton
RV-8 SS
Barrett IO-390
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