So Cal Dyno

[PLRX]

I read day after day about few Corvette owners that have take their trophies to a dyno , well I'd like to know how many horses my Vette has to offer. A question to all So Cal residents, where can I find a dyno nearby?

 

[siller]

I read day after day about few Corvette owners that have take their trophies to a dyno , well I'd like to know how many horses my Vette has to offer. A question to all So Cal residents, where can I find a dyno nearby?

Hi PLRX787,
I went to JBA Racing (http://www.jbaracing.com/) in Kearny Mesa last Thursday - 2 pulls for $90. Made my appt about five days after I called, so it was very convenient. They are primarily a Ford shop, but will take anyone's money for a couple of runs. They have a Dyno Dynamics Dynamometer.
My best pull was 394 RWT and 341 RWHP, after they let it cool a bit after the first run.

I later heard of the Dyno Shop (http://www.thedynoshop.com) in Santee. Not sure what their prices are.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[PLRX]

Cool, Thanks!!

 

[NC2Stay]

Siller, having never "dyno'd", what does one do? Put the vehicle on some kind of tester and do what? Gears, acceleration, etc.?

Thanks, Bob

 

[siller]

Siller, having never "dyno'd", what does one do? Put the vehicle on some kind of tester and do what? Gears, acceleration, etc.?

Thanks, Bob

Bob,
I have only been to two different dyno shops and both had different types of machines. But for both, the car was placed so that the rear (drive) wheels were atop either one large rolling drum or two smaller rolling drums that cradled the tires. They also hooked up something to the engine and one exhaust pipe. Then someone gets in, starts the car, shifts normally from first to fourth, and then the test begins and they just floor it until the RPMs approach the Redline. And then they slow down to look at the readout.

I got to drive the first time, and the noise was so loud that I chickened out after about 5000 RPMs, so I did not get a max HP reading. It was several years ago and I don't remember if I got a second pull.

The second time, which was last week, the mechanic did it and he went until 5800 RPMs. I wanted to take digital movies of the runs, but it was raining, and I had to stand outside the garage bay, so I could not get a good shot. It was still fun to watch and even more fun to listen too. I have never been outside of my car when it has been floored, so it was neat to hear. The Corsas sounded awesome.

I think next time, I will shell out some extra money and take it to a place that will do a dyno tune. I think that costs a bit more $500-$800, but it is supposed to fine tune the car. Something I think might be worth it - that is when I can work it into the budget.

My only regret... is not doing a dyno run when I got the car, so I could use it as a baseline starting point against which I could compare the performance results of future mods. I would highly recommend having your vette dyno'd - it is a kick to watch or better yet drive, and it is neat looking over the resulting graph and chart.

 

[NC2Stay]

Thank you - great explanation!

Bob

 

[Ken]

Ya wanna read all about Dynamometers?

Check out this site, it's pretty good: Dynamometers

I’ve typed this document to share some information about dynamometers. There probably aren’t many people who know me that are unaware that I have developed and built my own dyno for measuring the rear wheel horsepower of motorbikes. I will try and explain the basics as simply as possible, and I’ll also throw in some theory and maths for those that are interested. I'm not a writer, I'm not a programmer, I'm not an engineer either, I'm just a hack that wanted to build a dyno and managed to pull it off. A lot of the information I learned about dyno's and rotational physics I learnt from searching the Internet. The steepest learning curve was teaching myself how to program in Visual Basic, grab the data from my data acquisition module and graph it.

I've taken mine to R&D Dyno in Gardena, and I've got to go back for more tuning soon. :cool

​

By the way, all pulls should be made in the gear that provides a drive ratio of one-to-one. In the case of my ROD 6-speed, fifth gear is always one-to-one. ​