Dyno time, what to expect.

[9d2TSi]

This may seem like a dumb question, but here goes. For those of you that have dyno'ed your cars, what should I expect to do? Do I do anything or do they (Buschur Racing) do it all for you? I don't really want to go there and look like a total tool. Thanks for any help.

 

[kpt4321]

Are they tuning it, or just making some power pulls?

If they are just making power pulls, make sure to show up with it tuned well. You don't want to waste their money and your time.

If they are tuning it, just go and try to learn what you can! Most shops will do 99% of the work for you, just asking you for what you are ok with and such.

 

[Matt D.]

Just show up and tell them what you want to do like what was already mentioned. The local dyno here gets so many different cars in there it's like clockwork from the moment the car rolls in until it leaves. Don't be afraid to ask questions, it's your car.

 

[Blk_99gst]

If they are tuning it, just go and try to learn what you can! Most shops will do 99% of the work for you, just asking you for what you are ok with and such.

It depends. I personally won't pay the outragous 150 and hour or whatever dyno shops charge to tune your car themselves. And even at that, unless they've done a ton of eclipses before, I don't know how compendent they would be. It also depends on what your fuel tuning devices is. I'm sure they've seen and understand safcI and safcII. But say a gm maf translator with its dials; that might confuse them.

When I did my dyno runs (3 of them), the guy would make the run, I would look at the wideband results, and then adjust my translator accordingly. I also adjusted my friend's safc's after their runs.

 

[9d2TSi]

Are they tuning it, or just making some power pulls?

If they are just making power pulls, make sure to show up with it tuned well. You don't want to waste their money and your time.

If they are tuning it, just go and try to learn what you can! Most shops will do 99% of the work for you, just asking you for what you are ok with and such.

Yes, they are going to be tuning it for me. I just can't get it right. :thumbdown

I really wouldn't trust anyone else, as they are pretty much the best DSM shop around.

 

[1fast97gsx]

It depends. I personally won't pay the outragous 150 and hour or whatever dyno shops charge to tune your car themselves. And even at that, unless they've done a ton of eclipses before, I don't know how compendent they would be. It also depends on what your fuel tuning devices is. I'm sure they've seen and understand safcI and safcII. But say a gm maf translator with its dials; that might confuse them.

When I did my dyno runs (3 of them), the guy would make the run, I would look at the wideband results, and then adjust my translator accordingly. I also adjusted my friend's safc's after their runs.

So were you just paying them to do say 3 pulls then or where you paying the "tuning cost" ... if you were doing it yourself anyways. It seems any shop though that does imports is familiar with an safc and if you tell them what a/f ratio you want all they have to do is adjust it. I'd rather have them do it and just watch them. If there's any questions or confusion then just ask them. Generally they can do it all for you and you can just sit back and watch ... especially places like buschur.

 

[9d2TSi]

Thanks for the help guys, I really am getting kind of frustrated with the tuning aspect. I am not good at it. I have gotten pretty good at installing the parts, just not perfecting my set up. Thanks again.

 

[Blk_99gst]

So were you just paying them to do say 3 pulls then or where you paying the "tuning cost" ... if you were doing it yourself anyways. It seems any shop though that does imports is familiar with an safc and if you tell them what a/f ratio you want all they have to do is adjust it. I'd rather have them do it and just watch them. If there's any questions or confusion then just ask them. Generally they can do it all for you and you can just sit back and watch ... especially places like buschur.

We just went there for 3 pulls with a wideband, no tuning by them. Wasn't worth it for them to tune it; it's just like you said, you look at the a/f ratio, see what you want, then adjust the safc a little bit yourself before they run it again.

It's one thing to pay 50 bucks like we did for a couple of pulls to see how much whp we were putting down. But I think it's pointless to pay say $100 bucks an hour to have them "tune" it on the dyno. Because how long will that "tune" last; you could upgrade a part, weather change, or something else and then you'd need to tune again. I would instead put that $100 bucks you were going to pay them and put it towards a wideband. I just picked up the LM-1 for under $500, and I love it. Best investment yet, almost better than the pocketlogger because 2g tuning on the pocketlogger without knock count is a lot harder...

 

[Mike 99GSX]

Do you have a welded center diff or a VCE? Buschur's dyno is a 2wd Dynojet.

 

[9d2TSi]

Do you have a welded center diff or a VCE? Buschur's dyno is a 2wd Dynojet.

They are going to convert it over to 2wd for me to run it.

 

[1fast97gsx]

Would most shops let you pay for 3 runs ( say $60 ) , and then let you do 1 run and look at everything and adjust then safc yourself, then run again, adjust again, and then run again, or is it just 3 back to back runs and that's it .. you can't even adjust stuff on your own without paying more? If a shop were willing to let you pay for just 3 runs and adjust / "tune" your car yourself then yes, paying a shop to "tune" for you is stupid ... but if a shop won't let you do any adjustments then I'd rather just pay the money and gain the power.

 

[Blk_99gst]

Would most shops let you pay for 3 runs ( say $60 ) , and then let you do 1 run and look at everything and adjust then safc yourself, then run again, adjust again, and then run again, or is it just 3 back to back runs and that's it .. you

From the eclipse dyno day that I set up, you have a few different options. We got a group deal, 10 cars, 2 runs each with wideband, 50 dollars a car. Not bad of a deal, most of us just wanted to see what whp we were putting down. When the dyno shop does this, they are looking to get throughput, ie, work through the 10 cars pretty fast. But they were cool and let us look at the a/f ratio after each run and gave us a minute to adjust the safc. But I could tell that they were in a rush and didn't want to give us a ton of time.

They do have an hourly rate. You can get an hour of time, do as many pulls as you want, tune in-between. I think it's you tune, not them. Forget what an hour costs, I think it's like $100 bucks.

I still stand behind getting a wideband yourself. I just got the LM-1 for under 500. If you and a friend or two went in on one, then it brings the cost down. Just my sugguestion.

 

[Merciless]

How long does it take for a competent tuner to tune a car?
(VPC, S-AFC)

Is one hour enough to get the car tuned properly?

 

[kpt4321]

It depends on how much tuning needs to be done, where you are doing the tuning, what condition the car is in, etc.

Street tuning takes a little bit longer because you have to drive to somewhere you can make a pull, and wait to make sure no traffic is around, etc.

Tuning on a dyno that allows you to lock the engine speed down is really easy.

Tuning a car with a SAFC, VPC, MAFT, DSMLink, is a lot faster than tuning a car with a standalone because you have less cells to deal with.

I can definaely do the average piggyback car in under an hour.

 

[9d2TSi]

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate the help. I can't even get any time anyways. Tym at Buschur has like 5 EMS's to do and I don't see it happening for me until too close to the shootout to even bother. I am really kind of dissapointed. :thumbdown It's not their fault though, I just wish I knew about these cars sooner.... I might have to go to AMS in Illinois for their dyno. they are the closest DSM shop that I know of. Oh, I would buy a WB for myself but, I can't even get my AFC right. But I'm still trying.... And I still have a running car.

 

[Blk_99gst]

Oh, I would buy a WB for myself but, I can't even get my AFC right. But I'm still trying.... And I still have a running car.

But that's the whole point of a wideband or a logger; it lets you tune the safc correctly just like it would be done on a dyno. I would still say get a tuning tool and tune your car up yourself. It's really not that hard. You have a big16g, 660cc, and a safc? That's very common here on the board. You could get a 1g pocketlogger for less than 200, and tune by knock count. Very easy to do.