Heading to the dyno - tips??

[RSTPerformance]

Originally posted by MK:
Jarrod,

Thanks for the info. You can pick up some more power if you can "somehow" get the a/f a little leaner up top.

Payson's car was around 88 that day at LR. The best SM pulling over 96. Ken won, so what's that tell you?

The dyno at LR was a Dyna-Pak. It holds a load on the hubs as an engine dyno loads the crank. IMO it is a better way to go and gives more realistic ENGINE output numbers. The inertia dynos are just that, any change in the intertia of the drivetrain will show as more horsepower. This is useful also, but adds variables when comparing engine hp numbers.

I believe the Mustang does also load the wheels, but I'm not sure.

Matt Kessler

[This message has been edited by MK (edited August 27, 2003).]

Matt,

Are you able to say who had 96 or is that a big secret? I heard the highest was 88.6 and ken was 88.4. I'm not really into the SM thing and all the politics. But I was wondering how all the SM people that spent 14,000 to have them professionaly built only had 88 HP but then Jarod was saying he had over 100 HP.

Again I think it all depends on the machine but at the same time I didn't think you could get + or - 15%. If that's the case I would say that Dyno time isn't all that usefull as comparisons unless your all doing it the same day on the same machine.

Thanks
Stephen

[MK]

Stephen,

I don't remember who had the most on that day, but it was around 95-96hp. I don't think anyone with an engine from the "well,well,well known" engine builder wanted to get on the dyno that day. The top three qualifying cars volunteered to have their cars dynoed and none of them had the "magic" engine. I've dynoed two crate engines and one high miler I've built low budget and they ranged from 89 to 95 depending on the day(same kind of dyno). I believe the Dyno-Jet inertia dyno numbers floating around at 110-117 are high. That indicates 140 crank hp from an engine with 117 crank stock. I've been building engines for 11 years and there is *no way* to get 140 at the crank from this engine within the SS rules. A well known SM personality claims you'll only get 4 more hp from the magic engine over a good crate engine, which gives us the 100 that Jarrod got. I also believe there are different stages to the magic engines and what a Pro SM driver gets(and probably pays more for) is different than the base engine for $6000.

There's more power to be gained from a properly tuned engine(which is also difficult and expensive to do within the rules) and there is more time to be lost on the track from driving a Miata well. I'd have to recommend time on the track and data aquisition over the $6000 you'd have to spend on the magic engine.

My opinion.

Matt Kessler