Engine dynos

[Mike Laws]

Mike,

What dyno do you have at BLP?

Ron

Ron:

An old Stuska/Depac with controls that we built in the '70's. We have two engines (540 BB and 358 SB-2) that we use for carb-testing. There may be an inertia dyno in our future though!

[promachine]

A couple years ago DTS came out with a optional control panel for the control room that you can run both water pumps for the dyno itself and a reostate for the feed pump speed and you can also get a relay box that you can run just about everything from aux. fuel pumps to electric water pumps for the engine. I can run my ex. fan and just about everything in the cell from the comfort of my lazzy boy chair. the only thing I have to get up for is to turn the water gate at the water tank on or off when I start or finish. But being the lazy bastard that I am I am looking into a auto va lve shut off that I can use. Oh yea, I might have to get up to do a little tunning once in a while.

[Ron Golden]

promachine,

We have everything at the console except a speed controller for the high pressure water to the dyno. We have the relay box also. Now I just need someone to hook the engine to the dyno so I don't have to get my hands dirty. And someone to make all the unusual parts needed whenever the standard fixturing won't work. (Did I say Fords)

Ron

[RC Performance Engines]

Im looking at buying an engine dyno, I want to know what you guys think is the best bang for buck & why. Im in favor of the DTS at the moment.
Thanks

What is your primary purpose for the dyno? (R&D, durability, run-in, etc...)

Mike, R&D of my own engine & run in & tune of customers engines. I need to be able to pick up changes of 1 or 2 HP when doing R&D also changes in acc rate with pipe & carb changes etc. I think controlled engine intake air is a must for this type of R&D even with the C/F . what do you guys have for this do you run a fan with a duct sealed to the carbs??

[Doug Schriefer]

Most of the machines mentioned here will do what you want. Everyone will have their own preferences between Superflow, DTS, & Stuska, and they each have their own Pros & Cons.

Software wise Superflows are probably the easiest to use. Stuska with a Depac are probably the easiest to adapt new software into. DTS has really good customer service. Superflows have had issues with computer boards in the past, but have gotten much better. Everyone will tell you how much FUN it is to deal with Depac Dave. DTS can be a pain with radio noise, and trying to hook up other branded items (WBO2, Blow by meters, etc.)

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1) Most people have problems with repeatability due to the way they run the dyno, or the way they have their room setup. Take your time with your setup, and visit other dyno shops and see what you like and don't like about their setups.

2) If you trade work, or share information with other shops that have a dyno having the same type of equipment can help comparing easier.

3) Whatever you do get a docking station cart system, and spend time in advance on the design and setup of your connections. This will make change over much simplier... If you have an R&D engine, you can keep it on a cart, but change over to install a customers engine and be running in 30 minutes or so...

Best of luck...

[Mike Laws]

Mike, R&D of my own engine & run in & tune of customers engines. I need to be able to pick up changes of 1 or 2 HP when doing R&D also changes in acc rate with pipe & carb changes etc. I think controlled engine intake air is a must for this type of R&D even with the C/F . what do you guys have for this do you run a fan with a duct sealed to the carbs??

RC:

You are correct when speaking of controlling intake air quality. On the inertia dyno in Charlotte - a change of 1 degree F intake air will alter the accel rate, so it is critical.

Ideally; you would be able to control intake air to the degree that a CF would not be needed. To do this effectively is very costly though.

When considering a dyno - strive for the best repeatability with the least amount of filtering/averaging/etc to the raw data. Too often there is important performance data that gets lost due to the objective of obtaining a pretty curve on the graph.

We currently seal the carb(s) with a dedicated duct, primarily because it's easier to control the intake air w/o cell air intrusion.

Mike

[RC Performance Engines]

Mike,
Is the engine intake air duct @ a specific pressure?? what size duct and if a fan is used what CFM

[RC Performance Engines]

Most of the machines mentioned here will do what you want. Everyone will have their own preferences between Superflow, DTS, & Stuska, and they each have their own Pros & Cons.

Software wise Superflows are probably the easiest to use. Stuska with a Depac are probably the easiest to adapt new software into. DTS has really good customer service. Superflows have had issues with computer boards in the past, but have gotten much better. Everyone will tell you how much FUN it is to deal with Depac Dave. DTS can be a pain with radio noise, and trying to hook up other branded items (WBO2, Blow by meters, etc.)

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1) Most people have problems with repeatability due to the way they run the dyno, or the way they have their room setup. Take your time with your setup, and visit other dyno shops and see what you like and don't like about their setups.

2) If you trade work, or share information with other shops that have a dyno having the same type of equipment can help comparing easier.

3) Whatever you do get a docking station cart system, and spend time in advance on the design and setup of your connections. This will make change over much simplier... If you have an R&D engine, you can keep it on a cart, but change over to install a customers engine and be running in 30 minutes or so...

Best of luck...

Doug,
What can be done to reduce radio noise with the DTS room set up etc

[Doug Schriefer]

Doug,
What can be done to reduce radio noise with the DTS room set up etc

The places I've been paying attention to your grounding seems to work best. Make sure you have really good grounding rods going deep into the ground. After that it wasn't too bad.

[Mike Laws]

Mike,
Is the engine intake air duct @ a specific pressure?? what size duct and if a fan is used what CFM

RC:

The intake air system is not (directly) pressurizing the carb. There is a supply room (air conditioned room approximately 8000 CF) with a fan that circulates the air through a 16" duct that loops over the cell and dumps back into the supply room. Directly over the carb is a 12" drop down duct that connects the 16" main loop to the carb. This provides an adequate volume of air w/o appreciable pressure to the carb. (Technically there is a slight amount of positive pressure in the entire system, but as long as the A/C system keeps the supply room filled, this pressure remains stable enough for consistent testing.)

[Kevin Hamilton]

I realize we are deep into this post , but in regards to your inertial compensation question. Land & Sea's Windows based DYNO-MAX 2000 software does have an inertial compensation field that is used to enter the total Polar Moment of Inertia value for components rotating at Engine RPM. This typically includes the internal engine components, flywheel/pressure-plate, input shaft, etc

It's standard 28 channel data acquistion computer samples at 1000 hertz and does have adjustable filtering and averaging and open architecture on every channel for easy intergration of other manufacturers sensors etc.

Best Of Luck!

Kevin

[RW TECH]

Stuska Changes there pump motor speed and uses no valves in there load controller.

This is something that also helps DTS dynos, especially if you're trying to run over 8500 RPM with engines that produce less than about 550 ft. lbs. torque.

[RC Performance Engines]

Mike,
Is the engine intake air duct @ a specific pressure?? what size duct and if a fan is used what CFM

RC:

The intake air system is not (directly) pressurizing the carb. There is a supply room (air conditioned room approximately 8000 CF) with a fan that circulates the air through a 16" duct that loops over the cell and dumps back into the supply room. Directly over the carb is a 12" drop down duct that connects the 16" main loop to the carb. This provides an adequate volume of air w/o appreciable pressure to the carb. (Technically there is a slight amount of positive pressure in the entire system, but as long as the A/C system keeps the supply room filled, this pressure remains stable enough for consistent testing.)

Thanks Mike,
could you post some pics of your cell??

[RC Performance Engines]

Stuska Changes there pump motor speed and uses no valves in there load controller.

This is something that also helps DTS dynos, especially if you're trying to run over 8500 RPM with engines that produce less than about 550 ft. lbs. torque.

These are the engines I will be doing R&D on how do you know how much to adjust the speed of the pump for hi speed sweeps?

[RW TECH]

Stuska Changes there pump motor speed and uses no valves in there load controller.

This is something that also helps DTS dynos, especially if you're trying to run over 8500 RPM with engines that produce less than about 550 ft. lbs. torque.

These are the engines I will be doing R&D on how do you know how much to adjust the speed of the pump for hi speed sweeps?

The shop I dyno my work in added a rheostat controller to the pump. It's mounted above the console for easy access and it seems to work well.