[topfuel67]

I took my car to an exhaust shop today to have the center mufflers removed. Only other thing I have is a mopar CAI. I've read that removing that muffler alone gives a nice boost. Next door to the muffler shop is an OLD school dyno shop. The guy had never dyno'd a srt8 before. His dyno had no electornic read out. Just the old needle guage on the wall. Anyways I went to him and had him dyno my car before the exhaust removal and then afterwards to see the gain. Now this guys dyno needed to be "loaded up" (whatever that means) before it got an accurate reading. The rpms needed to be held for about 10-15sec and then he'd hit a button to get the reading. With the new trans tcb on my car it did not cooperate. It would shift every gear at 6100 or so and he couldn't get a good read since the rpms needed to stay constant for about 15 seconds. When the car got to 5th the governor would cut it at 160MPH. So the best run we were able to get was my car made 340 hp at 5000 and 380 hp at 5500 rpm (he could not get it to hold 6000 long enough to get a reading without the rpm spiking-or shutting down). After the mufflers were removed I went back. This time the car seemed to be grumpier. Everytime he held the rpms to get a reading he'd hit the dyno button (I guess after the dyno was "loaded up") and then the rpms would spike causing it to hit the rev limiter. So the after results were 320 hp at 5000 rpm and 360 hp at 5500. We even took the car for a cool down drive, let it sit and tried again. Still the 360 hp peak (peak before it spiked and shut down).

So my question is to anyone who is experienced with these cars on a dyno: Does this old school dyno seem totally off and my car could not have possibly lost 20hp from removing that center muffler? It was 60 degrees for all dyno runs, cloudy and slight drizzle. I still have the stock resonators on. Anyone hear of a dyno that has to be "loaded up" and hold the rpms for a good 15 sec or so and then once he hits the button for the guage to work it allows the rpms to spike like that? It just all seems backwards to me. Part of me wants to put a stock exhaust back on and the other just wants assurance that his dyno was a joke. Anyone know a good dyno shop?
Thanks!