That’s right, it’s finally dyno time! Last episode you saw Scotty bolt together the final bits of the VE Valiant to make it a car again, so now it’s time to see if all that effort was worth it.

The 318 Chrysler small-block V8 that Scotty built for the ute isn’t typically the first choice for Mopar punters searching for big power, but he scored a short block cheap several years ago and was always tempted to see what they’re capable of.

He refreshed the whole engine with some help from Top Torque and Edelbrock, giving it a hot camshaft and Edelbrock heads, intake manifold and carby, along with a whole host of other performance goodies.

The goal was a 400hp engine, so this episode was about dialling in the tune and seeing how close Scotty could get to that goal.

As per usual, we headed down to the dyno at Maxx Performance. The key difference is that this time Scotty was handling the old-school tuning with the carby and distributor, while head tuner Zane from Maxx operated the dyno.

At this point, things came over all Carnage when the rear uni in the tailshaft spat all its internals over the dyno room floor before the boys could even get a proper run in. Thankfully, the uni was the only damage, with the floor of the Valiant left intact.

It was a surprising failure given Scotty had just reco’d the tailshaft with a brand-new set of unis, but, as he suspected, the standard hardware wasn’t up to the job and a heavy-duty unit is in order.

So that’s exactly the plan! Our good mates at GJ Drivelines are sorting out a tailshaft for the ute, and then we can get back onto the dyno and see what this little Mopar is really made of in a future episode of Carnage