Ferrari Mailing List: Dyno horsepower

[dale sailors (sailorsdaleedward]

Hello,

         I agree for accuracy the same dyno should be used for each comparison test and corrected for temperature and if possible humidity. I used to dyno a club racing BMW R-90S M/C with lots of mods and the rear wheel HP readings showed lots of drivetrain losses. A techno geek back in that era super lubricated everything with high tech synthetics from wheel bearings up and got more straight line performance out of a stock R-90S than most engine tuned ones. Lingenfelter used to (1990s) use RED LINE synthetics in engine, trans, and rear end as well as using a slightly looser ring and pinion gear setup to cut drivetrain losses. LPE only advertised rear wheel HP and torque.

           Changing dynos can be embarassing. A well known Houston shop rebuilt a 383 GM V8 stroker a few years ago and it made less HP/torque than its original build sheet showed! Of course different dynos and operators. That magazine article hurt the shop and Royal Purple Oil in the F-body community for a while.

            Nowdays with electronic ignition and carburation controls, properly designing hopup parts is very challenging. Even if gains showup it often is at the expense of driveability. One of my misadventures was a VW Safari offroad vehicle

with pipe and carb and cam and porting that ran like back the bear over 2,000RPM but had nothing under that. It was fun for aggressive back country play but almost impossible to drive at street speeds in town. I could have installed a TYPE II VW transmission and higher numerically gears to get around that but would have lost mileage and top end in the country.

              Just my thoughts

               Dale

PS Happy Thanksgiving!