This engine is a 540-inch blown methanol big-block built for monster truck work, and the real question is simple: how much air does it need to make the power? That starts with air density in the room, not guesswork. Temperature, pressure, and humidity determine how many pounds of air are available per thousand cubic feet, and that tells you what the engine can make naturally aspirated before the blower adds anything. From there, the blower’s job is to raise manifold air density enough to reach the horsepower target. At 7,200 rpm, this combination needs roughly 1,400-horsepower capability, so we log the room air, track the density increase through the supercharger, and compare the measured result to the predicted power. That is the fingerprint. The useful part is the method. With Banks iDash and the AirMouse sensor, we can measure real atmospheric conditions, log what the engine is actually inhaling, and see whether the power adder is delivering the air mass the engine needs. If you want to understand throttle response, power potential, or what it will take to make a diesel survive in the same job, this is where the math starts.
Gale Banks introduces the test from Banks Dyno Cell Number One in Azusa, California, using a blown alcohol big-block Chevrolet as the subject. Although he is widely associated with diesel performance, he frames the project as part of a broader forced-induction background. He notes that he built his first blown Chevy engine in 1960 and his first turbocharged gasoline engine in 1968, years before beginning diesel work in 1978. In that context, the engine is not a departure from his expertise but a continuation of it.
The engine under test is a 540 cubic-inch big-block Chevy fitted with Brodix heads and an 8-71 blower. It runs on alcohol and uses electronic fuel injection controlled by a Holley Dominator ECM. The system batch-fires four nozzles every 90 degrees, alternating side to side, through a sandwich plate located between the injector hat and the blower.
Banks highlights several mechanical details that matter to durability and airflow. The blower uses Teflon strips, and the methanol contains an additive to help lubricate them so they survive longer in service. The blower is being driven at about 10 percent overdrive.
The purpose of the session is to fingerprint the engine, meaning to characterize its airflow and power behavior in a measured, repeatable way. That effort connects directly to a separate monster-truck program. Banks says they previously instrumented one of the team's trucks, Monster Mutt Dalmatian, with Banks iDash DataMonster gauges, then took it to San Jose to gather performance data during freestyle operation, including spinning donuts and the other aggressive maneuvers typical of that environment. What he wanted to understand from that work was throttle reaction time and density response.
Banks explains the test through the lens of air density rather than simply boost pressure. His point is that engines inhale air density from the atmosphere, and that density determines how much oxygen mass is available for combustion. He expresses density as pounds of air per 1,000 cubic feet, which is the basis for the calculations shown during the dyno session.
He begins with engine displacement rate. At 6,400 RPM, this 540 cubic-inch engine has pistons displacing about 1,000 cubic feet per minute. The target is to place peak horsepower around 7,200 RPM, where the engine displacement rate rises to 1,125 cubic feet per minute. That establishes the airflow demand of the engine itself before accounting for the blower's contribution. The stated goal is 1,400 horsepower at 7,200 RPM, and the test is intended to show what intake-air density is required to reach that number.
Banks also makes clear why this matters beyond the gasoline alcohol engine on the dyno. The broader objective is to make a diesel engine behave in a monster truck the way this blown alcohol engine does, particularly in terms of response and power delivery. The same production iDash DataMonster hardware used in the truck is being used here, both for display and for data logging.
The dyno setup includes Banks' air sensor, which he calls the AirMouse, mounted externally to measure ambient conditions in the room. The iDash DataMonster system can display and log up to eight channels, and multiple units are mounted on the dyno console to capture what happens during the run.
Banks starts with the room's actual air density because that is the baseline from which the blower must add density. He compares the measured conditions to a standard sea-level correction day. In his definition of that standard day, air pressure is 29.23 inches of mercury, air temperature is 77 degrees Fahrenheit, and relative humidity is zero. Under those conditions, air density is about 72.4 pounds of air per 1,000 cubic feet.
At the time of the test, the AirMouse reports 14.5 psi of air pressure, or 29.6 inches of mercury, with an air temperature of 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Relative humidity is about 38.6 to 38.7 percent. For racers who track moisture content more closely, he also gives grains of water per pound of dry air as 62.7. The density altitude in the room is approximately 1,890 feet. From those measured conditions, the room air density works out to 71.1 pounds of air per 1,000 cubic feet.
With the ambient density established, Banks uses it to estimate what the engine would produce without the blower. He asks the viewer to imagine the same engine equipped as a mechanically injected methanol combination, such as one using Hilborn-style straight-stack injection, and operating at 100 percent volumetric efficiency.
At 6,400 RPM and 1,000 cubic feet per minute of piston displacement, he calculates that the engine would make about 725 horsepower on methanol if it were unblown. That figure appears on the screen during the explanation. If engine speed increases to 7,200 RPM, airflow demand rises to 1,125 cubic feet per minute, so the estimate scales by a factor of 1.125. That would place naturally aspirated power in the 800-horsepower range. This baseline is important because it shows how much of the final 1,400-horsepower target must come from increased intake-charge density rather than displacement alone.
The central engineering question is how much additional density the blower must create in the intake manifold to move from that naturally aspirated baseline to 1,400 horsepower. Banks states that the engine would need to inhale, compress, and cool about 140 pounds of air per 1,000 cubic feet to reach the target.
He also gives a rule-of-thumb relationship between airflow and power: it takes about 9.8 pounds per minute per 100 horsepower. In other words, the dyno session is not just about observing boost or blower speed; it is about measuring whether the complete power-adder system can raise the intake charge from the room's 71.1 pounds per 1,000 cubic feet to roughly 140 pounds per 1,000 cubic feet in the manifold. If the instrumented density measurement reaches that level, his prediction is that the engine will be at approximately 1,400 horsepower.
Banks ties the dyno exercise back to vehicle performance by emphasizing response rather than peak output alone. In a monster truck application, especially during freestyle driving, the engine must react instantly to throttle changes while maintaining strong torque and power. That is why he is interested in throttle reaction time and density response: how quickly the system can build and deliver the required air mass to the engine.
Seen this way, the blown alcohol Chevy is a development tool. It provides a known, highly responsive forced-induction platform that can be instrumented in detail. By measuring the transition from ambient room conditions to manifold charge density, Banks can correlate airflow behavior with power production and use those lessons in the effort to make a diesel engine perform similarly in a monster-truck environment.
The session concludes with the engine ready to run and the instrumentation prepared to log the event. Banks says the team has multiple gauges mounted on the dyno console to record what happens in the room and through the engine during the pull. His interest is not only in the final horsepower number but in the full chain of cause and effect: ambient conditions, blower contribution, manifold density, and the resulting power.
The stated expectation is straightforward. If the measured intake density reaches about 140 pounds per 1,000 cubic feet, the engine should produce roughly 1,400 horsepower at the intended operating point near 7,200 RPM. The upcoming dyno run is therefore positioned as a validation of the density-based prediction model as much as a conventional power test.