Final Day of Dyno Testing Underway for Sterling 1700

The second 1,700-hp turbocharged engine from Sterling Performance currently is being tested on the Milford, Mich., high-performance engine company’s dynamometer today. When testing is finished, the pair of 1700s will be shipped to TNT Custom Marine in Miami for rigging and installation in Sterling principal Mike D’Anniballe’s 36-foot Skater catamaran.

The first Sterling 1700 engine is ready to ship—the second is on the dyno today. Both should go out to TNT Custom Marine for installation in a 36-foot Skater cat tomorrow.

By the time todays runs are complete, the second Sterling 1700 will have been tested on the dyno, as was the first engine, for 40 hours, according to D’Anniballe. The engines are being run on 116-octance Synoco racing fuel.

“It’s gone really well,” said D’Anniballe in a telephone interview this morning. “We’re just finishing up the second engine today. The first one made 1,690 and 1,460 foot-pounds of torque between 6,600 and 6,700 rpm—we take them all the way to 7,000 rpm. The first engine is being boxed for shipping, and if all continues to go well today we’ll ship them both to TNT tomorrow.”

D’Anniballe said that during the dyno testing process he made several computer-mapping changes to the 1700s, though he declined to be specific about those changes.

“Let’s just say we learned that boost versus back-pressure is really sensitive, and in certain instances you can use less boost to make more power,” he said.

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