How useful is a manual engine dyno?

[Garwood]

Oh, the horror! People still do this? Just joking, and my machinist will agree with you. He likes the antiques.

jack vines, who drives a 6.0 and wouldn't take a 12-valve as a gift.

Thanks for your support! If your 6.0's still running you probably have my parts inside it!

"I took my 6.0/6.4 Powerstroke on a long trip towing my heavy trailer and everything went great!"

-Said nobody ever

 

[thermite]

Thanks for your support! If your 6.0's still running you probably have my parts inside it!

"I took my 6.0/6.4 Powerstroke on a long trip towing my heavy trailer and everything went great!"

-Said nobody ever

Ford as-in Fix Or Replace Daily, AKA Found On Roadside Dead? products?

How COULD they?

You picked a good "cash cow" to sustain a long-running bizness, though!

If it ain't broke already, nor designed to break SOON?.. No money in a fix or a prevention for it!



4.2 NA Fordjagwire is only "OK" if I keep AHEAD of its design flaws.

Same-year MOPAR 3.8 rockerbox may as well be a Hay-Budden anvil for all the attention that one ever asks for.

 

[Garwood]

Ford as-in Fix Or Replace Daily, AKA Found On Roadside Dead? products?

How COULD they?

You picked a good "cash cow" to sustain a long-running bizness, though!

If it ain't broke already, nor designed to break SOON?.. No money in a fix or a prevention for it!



4.2 NA Fordjagwire is only "OK" if I keep AHEAD of its design flaws.

Same-year MOPAR 3.8 rockerbox may as well be a Hay-Budden anvil for all the attention that one ever asks for.

They all cut corners somewhere. Anyone who believes one brand is superior to another is kidding themselves.

They all build vehicles for one purpose: To sell them (for biggest profit).

 

[thermite]

They all cut corners somewhere. Anyone who believes one brand is superior to another is kidding themselves.

They all build vehicles for one purpose: To sell them (for biggest profit).

Aye. Incestuous bizness.

Any time one of the bastid's come up with a new way to fail the goods faster so they can sell more new ones? They cross-license the technology to each other!

Ford once went thirteen years in a row at a loss before the "whiz kids" turned it profitable again. Paid their bills off the royalties they were charging GM and MOPAR for the use of Ford's faster-moving version of common rust.

ISTR it ws 1957 before MOPAR gave it up and switched to negative ground rather than positive to spread it out better?

 

[David_M]

Apparently someone took Bobby's idea on the road to show to the public:

https://youtu.be/nleqzvIBqjU?t=78

 

[thermite]

Apparently someone took Bobby's idea on the road to show to the public:

https://youtu.be/nleqzvIBqjU?t=78

ROFL!

OSHA must be choking on their sanitary pad luncheon sammiches over that!

 

[EmGo]

I feel if I have a dyno stand in my shop and include a graph of engine power it gives an added level of credibility to a build I do. Many guys say they want a 750HP electronic engine. I try to explain a 400HP 12 valve is a pretty wicked amount of power. More than most people would want and way more than you need. I take them for a drive in a 300-350HP 12 valve powered vehicle, they shit their pants and forget all about those big stupid numbers and I get paid.

That's why I brought up the bullshit numbers many aftermarket dyno builders produce. As you say, "take them for a ride and ..." but that's another wasted layer of explanation

The other purpose is I'm involved in an opensource CanBus development project. We're not far enough along yet to know what we need exactly, but there's a good chance solving a few mysteries is going to involve forcing conditions on a vehicle drivetrain while sniffing things out.

This is why I think you'll eventually want better control ... continued below

I don't follow the accuracy part. Dyno is just a load. You can't fake that.

Yes you can, and they do. Not that it matters for you too much, you'll be using the same dyno for everything you do, so its comparative and you probably don't care too much if Customer B badmouths you because your "dyno" numbers are lower than Shop C in Omaha that produces 2000 hp duramaxes ... just something to be aware of.

I guess the part where things are fuzzy for me is how you would best utilize a manual dyno- You have one hand on the throttle and one hand on the valve control- To get real numbers. My friend that ran old Stuska's says they just did it incrementally every 500 RPM on gas engines to plot points and connect the dots. I see that being iffy to do with a turbodiesel, but I have no real world experience.

What people did in the old days with manuals was what you describe - make a change to the motor, stick it on the dyno, run it at various rpm and record the results. Compare charts. Even then, this wasn't the complete answer. During weeks of testing on Ax'es Big Red, Mert and Parra would take a pair of XR's out on the (public) road and do roll-on tests. Manual dynos don't do acceleration testing. Marc, where I sent you, ran a manual dyno for several years, modified it in an attempt to get more data, and finally built and sells his own eddy current dyno now. You can get so much more useful info out of a testing device with more advanced controls.

Sure, you can gopower as a simple test stand and that's probably a good start, but the more you know, the better you can do, yes ? If you are going to start putting money into it, then having an idea of where you ultimately want to be could mean less time and money wasted up blind alleys.

 

[Turbowerks]

Call Kevin at performance trends he has software and hardware to capture data , even has load controls for conversion of old dynos. Reasonable cost and very intelligent. I believe he wrote the software for superflow back in the day. I use his flowbench and other software, built a computerized spring tester using his stuff.


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