Category: DynoTech

Sunday, May 10, 2015

DynoTech : Fuel Volatility--how it affects performance

FUEL VOLATILITY Jim Czekala, DynoTech Research

 

“Gasoline doesn’t burn. The vapor of the liquid gasoline burns, and that’s extremely important to remember when you are thinking about controlling combustion in a gasoline engine”. – Steve Burns, CEO of VP Racing Fuels.

 

I am by no means an expert on fuel. I have been dyno tuning/ testing motorcycles, snowmobiles and quads with a fully instrumented SuperFlow engine dyno for 28 years. And I am confident that I have seized more pistons in those 28 years than any other human on any continent. Gallon jugs of industrial strength muriatic acid, (used to dissolve aluminum smeared onto cylinder walls by pistons trying to grow larger than the bore size), are cheaper when you buy cases of four! So I am surely an expert on lean seizures, detonation and preignition—something I’m not particularly proud of, but is a fact—the result of trying to find maximum horsepower for so many years. But I like to think that I learned a little something from each seizure. Dyno seizures are caused by 1) dyno operator error, 2) engine owner greed, or 3) inadequate octane and/ or volatility. We’ll never totally eliminate 1) or 2), but today anyone can test and be sure of the fuel’s volatility, or its ability to vaporize properly. And we now listen to knock while testing so damage from deto is now rare.

 

We’ve all seen snowmobile racers “cleaning out” their engines on jackstands on the line—gurgling and popping for many rips of the throttle, heating their engines and pipes until smooth running is achieved—ostensibly "cleaning out", getting rid of liquid fuel laying in the crankcase, left over from an earlier run. But others come to the line with icewater in their engines—one quick clean blip and they’re ready to go!

 

What gives?

 

The guys needing to “clean out” their gurgling engines are not really sucking up liquid fuel from the crankcases creating rich misfire—instead, they are suffering from lean misfire! A combination of low velocity airflow from huge carbs and low volatility fuel requires lots of engine heat to create adequate vaporization. Remember—vaporized A/F mixtures richer than 10/1 (10 lb of air per pound of fuel) and leaner than 17/1 can misfire. Even though measured air and fuel flow might be 13/1, actual vaporized A/F in the combustion chamber might only be 18/1 and misfiring—and that other unvaporized fuel is flying around iin the combustion chamber as large globs and droplets, sticking to cylinder walls, and occasionally splashing against the plug electrode causing more misfire. Then, those unburned globs and droplets finally vaporize and burn out in the hot exhaust pipe, and the wideband O2 sensor downstream registers a happy 13/1! But then, as the engine heat climbs, enough of the stale fuel becomes vaporized earlier and as actual A/F in the combustion chamber becomes richer than 17/1, clean (but very lean) firing commences. But, the engine is hot, and the actual A/F in the combustion chamber is still leaner-than-optimal, and HP is reduced and sometimes detonation occurs until several seconds at WOT when the combustion chambers finally get the 13/1 true mixture that the engine is happiest with—but now power is low due to the hot engine and its reduced volumetric efficiency.

 

But with highly volatile, high actual Reid Vapor Pressure fuel, adequate vaporization can occur with cool—even cold engines. So the guy with the high RVP race gas is ready to go quickly after one, or even no “blips”, and benefits from having max HP from takeoff to the finish line. And the guy with the cool engine has also, very likely optimized pipe length and stinger size for best warm-pipe backpressure and HP. But that’s another topic! We’re here to talk about fuel volatility.    

 

“Light ends” or “front ends” are the parts of the fuel that are first to evaporate and mix with air to create a burnable mixture in the combustion chamber. It’s said that once most of the “front ends”, and enough of the “heavier” ends evaporate in the intake tract, burning can begin. Studies have shown that if the fuel is divided, simply, into light, medium and heavy components, by the time the mixture reaches the combustion chamber, 70% of the light ends have evaporated, and only 30% of the heavier components have evaporated (thanks to Kevin Cameron who found that study last Sunday). Then, if that mixture of vaporized fuel in the combustion chamber is between 10/1 and 17/1, clean burning can begin, creating heat, and the eventual vaporization and burning of most of the rest of the fuel. And probably those “tail ends” help cool the piston, as they are the last to evaporate when all of the oxygen has been consumed in 13/1 mixtures. If you’ve seen the Youtube videos of combustion taking place in an engine, you can see that it’s not an explosion—it’s more like a controlled bonfire—ignition of mostly front end vapors takes place while droplets of heavier ends are still flying about, then the droplets seem to disappear as they finally become vaporized and burn as the piston continues to move through TDC and downward, and if tuning and fuel is optimal the highest pressure should occur at about 18 degrees ATC.

 

The actual Reid Vapor Pressure of the fuel is an indication of the presence of the front ends. Simply put, RVP is the pressure exerted by front ends that have evaporated from fuel in a sealed vessel, agitated by shaking at 100F. HEAT AND AGITATION CAUSE THE FRONT ENDS TO EVAPORATE FROM THE FUEL! But lots of what evaporates at up to 100F will evaporate at room temperature, so it’s critical to 1) buy truly fresh high RVP race gas and, 2) keep it stored in a sealed container in a refrigerator or pressurized with nitrogen gas at about half of RVP (called True Vapor Pressure). DrumPreserve.com manufactures N2 pressurization and dispensing equipment for drummed liquids, and something like that must be used. DrumPreserve also is planning to sell portable RVP test equipment to enable racers to test their own fuel, or test fuel before purchasing it.

 

I found and purchased a Koehler RVP test system several years ago on Ebay, to be able to test dyno customers’ fuel for “freshness” and the presence of adequate front ends, before dyno testing/ tuning. Stale fuel, and its accompanying lean net mixtures can stick pistons without audible detonation (that we hear on the dyno through the copper tube deto-meter), just by overgrowing the piston, or by heating plug ground-strap to sparkling red-hot—causing quiet preignition that quickly wrecks parts. What I began finding with the RVP test system was that too-often, sealed pails and drums of race gas were substandard or even dead with low, or even zero psi RVP! How can that be? Surely, the refineries/ blenders should be selling what they advertise. Yes? No? But what happens when the fuel leaves the refineries? One major race fuel refinery only ships bulk—rail cars and tractor-trailer tanker loads to wholesalers. Then it’s stored in outside unsealed bulk tanks, to be resold in bulk form to retailers. In some cases, fuel is transferred into small tank trucks and delivered on a route to retailers in some geographical area. Heat and agitation cause the loss of the easiest-to-evaporate front ends, and you can be sure that the last retailer on a delivery route in summertime gets the lowest actual RVP fuel! And every time fuel gets handled—splashed violently from bulk tanks to delivery trucks, and then sloshed around in the delivery trucks going down the road, and splashed again into a retailers’ empty 55 gallon drums—more front ends are lost! We’ve all seen shimmering vapors coming out of our cars’ fuel tanks during fillups—those are the fuel’s front ends escaping (in those states that don’t have vacuum devices on the nozzles to capture them) into the atmosphere as fuel splashes into the tank. Finally, the retailer splashes his already half-dead race gas into new 5 gallon pails, losing even more of what’s left of the front ends. Finally, a nice “factory” seal is affixed to the cap, and all may not be well!

 

It is smart to test any fuel’s RVP with a home-made or commercially available HVP (Home Vapor Pressure) testing unit. Instructions for testing accurately are on the DynoTech Research.com blog. And I have Youtube videos showing RVP testing, and the proper handling/ storage of fuel (Jim Czekala, DynoTechResearch, RVP testing).

 

Race gas RVP is usually spec’d at 1-7 psi. Pump gas is 6 psi summer, 12 psi winter (to ensure startup in sub zero F temps). Low RVP fuel can work in race engines, but it needs lots of heat to ensure adequate vaporization. Hot-running pressure-charged four-strokes have high intake temperatures and intake velocity sometimes reaching the speed of sound, both of which help vaporize even the heaviest fuel components. But two-stroke race engines—especially those with huge carbs or throttle bodies—deserve the highest possible RVP to ensure adequate vaporization with low intake temps (even in summertime) and relatively sluggish intake air velocity.

 

What can we do with our stale race gas? Commercially available (from companies like Interstate Chemical) isopentane has a RVP of 22 psi, and can be added in the necessary % to bring the fuel’s RVP to the desired level. Isopentane is a common front end component in race fuel, and is the first to boil off and escape if the the fuel is stored without pressure. So we’re often just replacing what’s been lost. But the rejuvenated fuel must be then stored in FULL containers with minimal headspace for the front ends to escape to! Partial containers are awful, and the more headspace there is above the fuel, the more that will be lost each time the cap is opened. It's very much like a partially-full two-liter bottle of soda in the fridge—what’s left after repeated openings is not very fizzy! One of the features of the DrumPreserve system is, fuel is dispensed beer-tap style from the bottom of the drum from a siphon hose inside—N2 pressure pushes the fuel out and that pressure is never released from the drum, and front ends will remain in the fuel for years. It’s also important to fill the portable container, or tank on the vehicle, gently from the bottom of the tank with a long hose. Then, no agitation will occur. Tests here indicate that agitation from splash-filling five gallons of fuel will result in the loss of one psi of RVP! Pour the fuel gently, like you fill a glass of beer from a bottle.

 

And don’t leave fuel it the unvented tank of any race vehicle on the way to an event in a black trailer in August! It’s guaranteed to be less volatile, or even dead by the time you arrive. The truly fanatical racers can transport their high RVP fuel in drums with DrumPreserve systems to dispense only what’s needed. Basco sells 5 gallon pails with VGII drum bungs, and those are useful. But at the very minimum, multiple small full jugs are a good way to transport without losing the good stuff.

 

Those invisible fuel “front ends” are crucial for maximum performance in both winter and summer weather. And it’s smart to test the fuel to be sure that you get what you pay for, then store it, transport it, and handle it with care. No splashing allowed! Volatility is everyone’s friend, and high volatility fuel with the highest octane must be used if maximum engine performance is to be achieved. And now that we can hear clicks of deto, and be sure that the fuel’s RVP is proper, piston seizures are almost a thing of the past. And I’m sure that my Guiness-worthy record 1000(s of) stuck pistons will remain intact for years to come.

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, March 13, 2015

DynoTech : Axys 800HO troubleshooting....

Homing in on a few issues--primarily lack of HP on some engines. My cousin-in-law Bill Rogers had that first 85 mph Axys that his excellent dealer traded even-up for their 100+ mph demo sled. The dealer had used the demo sled as a donor--swapping every component possible from one to another--including a new wiring harness and still Bill's original sled runs 85 mph.

This week the dealer removed the exhaust valve operating cable from the motor and tie wrapped the valves open. Now it struggles to get going, but runs 100 mph+ on top end. So that one dyno test line in the graph (Todd's 1200 miler) on this website showing HP flatlining at about 120 HP is probably what was happening with Bill Rogers' machine all the time! Putting 120 HP worth of airflow to a set of clutches calibrated for 155 HP will surely result in underrevving, low MPH operation.

Another clue I picked up talking to some very smart dealer technicians is that some of the slow Axys' pick up speed as throttle opening is reduced! Perhaps if the ECU thinks valves are wide open and are delivering 85 lb/hr fuel flow, and the valves are partly closed the A/F ratio might be 11/1 instead of the optimal 13/1. Then, if exhaust valves are partially open, and throttle is closed slightly, fuel flow might drop some % causing A/F ratio to lean out and make more HP. Testing at part throttle shows identical peak RPM HP at 90% and 100% throttle!

Does that suggest that Todd's low HP Axys is due to exhaust valves not being fully open, or is it poor ring seal from lack of breakin? And does that explain why it took 75 full throttle dyno tests to bring Heath's Axys up 10 HP?

Some of the smart tech people who communicate with DTR suggest their may be an electrical system design issue that causes exhaust valves to fail to fully open initially (like Bill Rogers'), or to gradually close after extended operation at WOT. Could this explain the revs dropping after extended operation at WOT? 

There's more to figure out, more to learn. But as always, this is just a machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, January 03, 2015

DynoTech : Home RVP tester (HVP) for $30

Here's a prototype home RVP test "bomb" (that's what RVP test vessels are referred to!) that I created. It's a 24 oz resealable Monster Energy Drink aluminum can with a small aluminum plate JB Welded to the cap. Two holes are drilled in the plate into the cap--one for a 1/8" hose barb and the onther for a long probe Amazon.com $15 digital food thermometer [that is as accurate as the digital temp gauge on our $6000 Koehler RVP test bath/ bomb system]. Both are epoxied into place (you can see the nice bead of JB Weld around the base of the thermometer).

To test the portable Home Vapor Test bomb, I chilled the whole unit to close to 32F and poured in 1/5th the volume of my C16/ isopentane test mixture that had tested at 8.75psi (HVP) in our Kohler test unit. I put the HVP bomb in the sink, and with hot water/ hot air brought the fuel temp up to 100.0F, agitated it, and got 9.75psi on the 0-15psi boost gauge! The insignificant difference is likely the result in cheap gauge calibration vs. $300 lab certified pressure gauge. I plan to compare the two. But this is totally acceptable for HVP testing.

With a unit like this everyone should test their expensive race gas to see how fresh or stale it is. Last Sunday I had a hilldrag racer come to tune a 180hp Speedwerx 800 Cat ex-SnowCross race engine. His sealed pail of C16 (a poor choice for winter dragracing since as-refined RVP is 1.5psi--VP has a new high RVP 116 octane fuel which is a much better choice) turened out to be devoid of what few front ends it was created with--0psi as tested on our Kohler RVP test unit. D.O.A.. We dyno tuned it cautiously, and as we approached 12.5/1 A/F (max HP is typically obtained at 13/1 with truly fresh fuel) it becan to detonate, implying that the 12.5/1 A/F was probably more like 13.5/1 net vaporizing in the combustion chambers, due to the lack of front end fuel molecules. So we were unable to achieve max HP because of the stale fuel--remember, those unburned globules of unvaporized fuel take up space in the combustion chamber, displacing O2! But I was pleased that the owner of the sled could hear the clicks of deto on our copper tube, which at 12.5/1 tied in with the absence of front ends in the high buck sealed pail of fuel. And we need to remember that each of those loud snaps we hear on the copper tube is = to Mighty Mouse whacking the piston with a sledge hammer, scouring away the boundary layer of air that insulates aluminum parts (that melt at 1200f) from 5000f fire!

What every racer should do is build their own HVP tester out of some aluminum or stainless steel container that's more substantial than a soft drink can. Then ask the fuel reseller to gaurantee some % of listed RVP. I'm personally good with, say, 75%, especially in summertime when refineries often scrimp on front end additives (ie winter pump gas is typically 10-12psi, summer 5-6psi). Show them a link to the DTR blog.

Before sweet corn was genetically reengineered to have enough sugar in it to last a month before consumption, I used to go to the farm corn stand and buy one ear for 50 cents. I'd take a bite out of it and if tasted like "cow corn" I'd pitch the ear out into the field and go somewhere else. If it was truly fresh and sweet, I'd buy the other 11 ears, confident that the family would be pleased with my purchase!

When you go to buy race gas from a bulk reseller, bring your HVP tester in a cooler of ice. Buy 5 oz of what you need, pour into your HVP bomb and warm it up in the warm air blowing from your vehicle's heater watching carefully until you get to 100.0f which will indicate with reasonably accuracy the true RVP by doing the math as shown in a previous blog. Then you can make an educated decision on wether to buy, or not to buy the fuel. If the RVP is low, maybe the reseller can go back to the wholesaler and try to figure out where the fuel's front ends have gone.

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, December 25, 2014

DynoTech : RVP and vibrating carb fuel flow issues!

Trying to understand how vibrating engines can “shut off” fuel flow..

 

This has bugged me for years. Why would fuel, turning partially to foam in a vibrating carburetor float bowl, shut off the pressurized flow of fuel through the needle and seat?  The carbs’ floats are buoyed by the weight of the liquid that they displace—so it seems natural that lightweight foam bubbles should allow the floats to drop—allowing pressurized fuel to enter the carbs easily.

 

Sled racers come to DynoTech Research sometimes to diagnose and try to correct erratic high speed engine operation often caused by fuel turning into foam in vibrating carb float bowls. Foaming carbs—especially on stiff mounted, high revving, slightly imbalanced engines—has been the bane of racers since I built this dyno testing facility 28 years ago.

 

The SuperFlow engine dyno measures fuel flowing from the tank to the pump, and if that flow is erratic it’s impossible to tune to max HP. Erratic fuel flow can result in diminishing top end HP and seizures. Racers look at dry pistons and white plugs and try to fix that with bigger jets and instead make things worse by running bowls dry even more quickly! But we often fix the erratic fuel flow by 1) softer motor mounts, 2) softer carb boots and weighted carbs, 3) larger needle and seats, 4) rebalancing the rotating assembly, and 5) higher fuel pressure—sometimes as much as 15psi is required to overcome the foam that seems to create an invisible barrier, preventing the stock fuel pumps’ 2-5psi of pressure from refilling the bowls.

 

Back in 1988 Tim Bender switched to solid motor mounts in his mod Yamaha Exciter 570 FIII oval racer a few days before leaving for Eagle River to keep the vibrating twin’s clutches perfectly aligned. But subsequent testing on Silver Lake (the ice fishermen hated seeing the Bender Racing trailer arrive) revealed erratic, surging top end power and dry pistons that couldn’t be cured by rejetting. So back to the dyno, and sure enough, the fuel flow was erratic or worse due to foaming fuel. Stock motor mounts cured the problem and the Exciter went on to win Eagle River three years in a row with stock motor mounts.

 

Lectron carbs are used by lots of racers, but seem very susceptible to foaming due to their light weight. An the clear plastic float bowls often allow us to see foam appear—coming and going at different revs on vibrating engines. Several years ago I watched then-Pro Stock Bike dragracer Antron Brown being interviewed on TV after losing a round at the Brainard MN NHRA race. He complained bitterly about his Suzuki (they all ran Lectrons) “surging” and “laying down” in high gear, causing the race loss. Vibes!

 

The next day I called Fast By Gast (supplier of Lectrons to all of the bike racers) owner Paul Gast and explained to him on a three-way conference call with his right hand man Kevin Gilham about vibration-induced foaming and the issues it causes the sled racers, and what we’ve done to try to rectify that. It had been hot in Brainard—close to 100F and several of the bike dragracers had the same problem in high gear.That discussion led to the design of the excellent high volume, high mass billet aluminum floatbowls for the Lectron carbs.Kevin Gilham, who’s a great guy, would eventually go on to become the owner of Lectron in Texas.

 

RVP testing and trying to relate to what’s happening in the vibrating float bowls…

 

Now we know that the hotter the fuel, the more front ends boil out of the fuel. But the RVP test is done with 20% fuel and 80% headspace—volume that must be filled to create pressure by the heated, agitated fuel. But a carburetor has a much different fuel/ headspace ratio—more fuel % and less headspace %. That ratio surely varies a bit from manufacturer to manufacturer. To examine the effect of reduced headspace on heated, agitated fuel, I “Carb Vapor Pressure” tested some Sunoco Maximal that was purchased from a bulk tank that was actually 2psi RVP tested properly. I retested it this time with 80% fuel and 20% headspace—maybe more like a carburetor might have. The result was 4psi—two psi higher than RVP or perhaps double the RVP. So that means that maybe real fresh 5 psi RVP fuel might test at 7 to 10 psi “CVP”! But the carbs have vents that should allow the boiling off front ends to escape—but are those vents adequate? And could the agitation from testicle-numbing vibes at 9000 RPM be more severe than the mild agitation of a RVP test? And could the violent high frequency vibrations be boiling off even more than just the front ends creating a rush of expanding gases that the vents can’t keep up with? If a sled’s fuel pump puts out, say, 3psi all it would take is a pressure rise of a couple of psi to slow down the fuel flow into the carbs. Then if it goes to 4 psi then voila fuel flow = zero lb/hr momentarily until the float bowls begin to run dry of front ends and base fuel, float bowl pressure drops and fuel flow commences once more (hopefully before seizure occurs!).

 

To examine that possibility, the next time we get a sled with erratic fuel flow and foaming float bowls I’ll connect one vent hose to a pressure transducer to see what might be happening there. If that’s the issue, a band-aid fix might be, simply, opening the vent passages or increasing their numbers. Then, all of those boiled-off molecules can be quickly replaced by the fuel pump, and the engine should be happy even if it’s ingesting primarily heavy-end fuel molecules.

 

There seems to be a difference in sensitivity to fuel delivery problems from manufacturer to manufacturer regardless of mass. Even some heavy weight aftermarket carbs that make good top end HP are plagued with vibe-sensitivity, even though they use standard Mikuni or Keihin floats and needles and seats. Perhaps insufficient venting?

 

More testing must be done. Next I’ll try the 80/20 CVP test with my 6psi combo of VPC16 and isopentane to see how high that pressure goes.  This may be an incorrect theory, and maybe some engineer can tell me how bubbles can keep the floats floating, and needles and seats pinched shut. But for now anyone who’s plagued by inconsistent fuel delivery might just try adding a few morecarb vent fittings, or enlarge the existing fittings. And, if it cures/ helps the problem make sure you put a DynoTech Research decal on the hood!
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, December 04, 2014

DynoTech : RVP test vs. HVP test--the results

Today I think I got it figured out so we can fairly accurately determine RVP at home (HVP) as suggested in yesterday's entry.

Test 1--First, I refrigerated the complete test bomb for an hour, bringing its surface temperature down to 34 degrees F (measured with my $29 Harbor Freight infrared gun). Then I took the fuel sample chamber and filled it with cold water and immediately connected it to the cold air chamber. Then I submerged it in the circulating 100 F water bath and left it until the air pressure in the bomb quit rising. Result: expanding air pressure in the upper chamber EA 2.25 psi

Test 2--Next I removed the water-filled sample chamber, emptied and dried it, then put it back in the refigerator to chill it down to 34 F (this is to ensure that front ends are not lost from the fuel sample prior to testing) while the warm air chamber was left in the 100 F bath. Once it was chilled I filled I filled the sample chamber with a mixture of stale race gas and isopentane then immediately attached it to the 100 F and conducted an actual RVP test. Result: actual RVP 7.0 psi

Test 3--Finally, I removed the bomb from the bath, removed and emptied and dried the fuel sample chamber and once again chilled it and the upper air chamber down to 34 F, and did a test. A fresh sample of my volatile mixture was poured into that sample chamber and I immediately attached it to the air chamber. Then it was immersed in the 100 F bath and was agitated and heated to 100 F. So this time we had a combination of boiling off front ends and expanding air in the upper chamber. Result:  test pressure 8.75 psi

I initially expected the HVP to be RVP + EA, but it was .50 psi lower. Mmm. We can surmise that the expanding air in the top air chamber was acting like nitrogen pressure on the sample--perhaps prevent some loss of front ends compared to an actual RVP test which has zero Expanding Air!

So it looks like the math for HVP testing is starting with a refrigerated homemade bomb 80% cold air and 20% fuel sample is as follows: fuel at as close to 100 F as possible and shaken to agitate = test pressure 8.75 psi - AE (air expansion pressure) of 1.75 psi = HVP 7.0 psi.

Now this is not perfect--for example if your fuel is completely dead, you should come up with a test pressure of 2.25psi so the AE will diminish some as actual RVP increases. But surely close enough to know whether your fuel is volatile or dead. And, if you build your own HVP test bomb, you should do the test once with 20% water to see what your AE pressure is on your gauge which is what counts. Then you can do the math based on your own instrument.

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, December 03, 2014

DynoTech : Do It Yourself RVP test?

Today I had a sled racer from Utica with a sealed pail of C12 and it tested dandily--6-7psi. But last month Tripod Dan's sealed pail of Q16 was nearly dead at 2psi. Then Jesse Helwig bought 5 gallons of Sunoco Maximal from a bulk tank at a retailer--0 psi, totally dead.

It's great that we lucked into this RVP testing equipment so we can test fuel for our dyno tuners and local racers who bring their fuel samples to be tested ($40 charge). But what about the rest of the country? Is your race gas dead, or half dead, or dandily fresh and volatile? Mailing fuel samples here seems expensive and in some cases like USPS illegal. So why can't a person do their own RVP test in the kitchen sink?

OFFICIAL RVP TEST PROCEDURE:

The RVP test "bomb" (yes, that's what they call them!) is a two piece stainless steel chamber with an accurate bourdon tube 0-15psi pressure gauge at the top. The bottom chamber is where the fuel sample goes--then its attached to the top air chamber by a threaded Oring sealed connection. The top air chamber is 4x the volume of the fuel sample chamber.

The water bath that heats the bomb and the air and fuel inside to 100.0 F constantly circulates to provide turbulence that helps heat the bomb chambers and their contents quickly. The procedure is to immerse the top chamber--open at the bottom--and bring that up to 100.0 F. That expands the air inside, causing the excess air to bubble out the open bottom. Meanwhile, the fuel chamber is in the refrigerator being cooled to 32 F before the gas sample is poured into it. This prevents the loss of front ends that would occur if poured into a warm chamber. So with the top chamber at 100.0 F, the fuel sample is poured into the chilled fuel chamber and immediately attached and sealed to the top air chamber. Then the assembled bomb in inverted--allowing the chilled fuel to drizzle into the preheated air chamber, and front ends begin to boil off and pressure rises (as seen in the Jim Czekala DrumPreserve.com RVP YouTube video) some. Then the bomb is immersed in the water bath to bring the whole bomb and sample up to 100.0 F. While it's warming up, the bomb is removed and agitated and immersed again every five minutes or so until the pressure in the bomb quits rising.

If we didn't preheat the top air chamber, and assembled it with a filled fuel sample chamber, the cool air in the top chamber will expand and add to the pressure exerted by the boiling off of the front ends!

RVP TESTING AT HOME:

My idea is if we understand what the RVP test is all about, why cant we take a sealable aluminum bottle of some sort and make a homemade bomb and test your fuel in your kitchen sink? If we have, say, a 16 oz beer or Monster Energy drink can we can punch two holes into the cap (or even the body of the can) and JB weld (1) a 0-200 F meat thermometer with a probe long enough to reach within 1/2" or so of the bottom of the can and (2) a 1/8" hose barb. Then a short piece of 1/8" ID hose can be attached to a 0-15psi boost gauge. 

UNOFFICIAL APPROXIMATE RVP TEST:

Let's call this a HVP test (home vapor pressure). Chill the aluminum home-made bomb in the refrigerator until the thermometer says 35 or 40F. Then to determine the effect of expanding air, remove the bomb and immediately pour in 3.2 oz of tap water and seal the bomb (or 20% or 1/5th of the volume). Now hold it totally submerged in a sink full of running hot water until the thermometer registers 100 F, and note the pressure buildup on the gauge. Empty and dry the bomb, and chill it in the refrigerator again. Now, pour in 3.2 oz of your fuel, reseal the bomb and bring it up to 100 F in your sink of hot water, and then shake it to agitate the fuel. I surmise (I'll need to do this same test for real, to be sure) that you should subtract the WVP from the unofficial RVP that you just got.

It might not be a perfect test--the grade 3A precision gauge on our bomb is accurate to .25% or with fuel that tests at 5 psi, it would be + or - .0125 psi. A boost gauge is surely more than that, but close enough to get and idea of the relative volatility of your fuel. And a thermometer for checking roast beef is probably not spot-on, but once again close enough!

And what if your $100 pail of 6psi fuel is really low on HVP? We are experimenting with Isopentane that is available from chemical supply companies. It has a RVP of 20.5psi and you can do the math to figure out how much isopentane is required to bring your dead fuel up to a reasonable level. Some people are currently running isopentane in their fuel and it is working as expected.

I plan to do a HVP test here, and then a real RVP test on the same fuel to see if my math is correct.    

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, November 03, 2014

DynoTech : More on RVP/ fuel volatility

I've done a couple more YouTube videos talking about what I feel is proper mixing of oil/ fuel, and transfilling from drum to jug, and jug to sled. They should be up by this coming weekend. And please forgive the Star-Wars-like intro and credits--that's the work of my 16 yr old son Marty's "Beast Productions" who helps me with video/ computer stuff, and he just can't help himself!

Our Koehler RVP test unit is helping educate us about fuel quality and the proper handling of race gas from refinery to end user. There are three major factors that contribute to the loss of fuel's front end components and reduction of RVP creating poor volatility:

*HEAT (refrigeration prevents the loss of front ends)

*AGITATION (it's just like shaking a can of beer)

*HEADSPACE (a place for evaporating front ends to escape to)

The RVP test is just like hauling a couple of gallons of fuel in a sealed five gallon jug in a black trailer 500 miles on a 100f degree day. If you start the trip with actual 5psi RVP, by the time you get to your destination there will be 5psi of pressure inside the jug. That 5 psi of pressure was created by the evaporation of about 1/2 of the fuel's front ends! So, when we open the jug, the sweet smelling whoosh means those important front ends are lost to the atmosphere. But what's left would still have an RVP of @2 1/2 psi. But any of the same fresh fuel that was in the tank of the bike or sled in the trailer would have an RVP of zero by the time you get to your destination--meaning it will be "dead" requiring lots of engine heat to vaporize and be able to burn. Remember--liquid gasoline doesn't burn--only gasoline vapor burns!

The educated racer goes to the track with no gasoline in the tank, and hauls his fuel in FULL jugs. With no headspace like we have in a partially full jug, only a small quantity of the front ends will be lost.

Last summer a pro race team came here for testing with a 5 gallon jug containing 3 gallons of 5 psi race gas (55 gallons kept under N2 pressure at their shop an hour away). By the time they got here, the actual RVP was down to 2 psi! Head Space! The next day, they came with a full jug of the same and it tested at 4 psi. And probably 1 psi was lost when they poured it from their DrumPreserve hose into the jug. Splashing is agitation! Watch that YouTube vid.

In the winter, natural refrigeration is your friend, because without heat of some sort it's difficult to get any front ends to escape. But summer is brutal on high RVP fuel--especially when there's agitation and, in the case of race vehicles, unlimited headspace with tanks and carbs vented to atmosphere!

Dyno testing solid mounted drag sled engines, we sometimes encounter foaming of fuel in the float bowls which for some reason makes fuel flow inconsistent. Heat and vibration causes the fuel's front ends to boil and turn the contents of the float bowls into something like a frothy milkshake. We often can cure that by racking and adding weight to the carbs, installing larger needles and seats, adding lots of fuel pressure (sometimes up to 15 psi will help), or perfectly balancing the crankshafts so they're smooth at the engine's operating RPM. But why does foaming fuel drastically reduce, or shut off the flow of fuel from a mechanical pump delivering 4-5 psi? One would think that lightweight foam would allow the floats to sink, thereby increasing flow. But today I was texting back and forth with Peter Duncanson about that (Peter sometimes runs low RVP C16 in his PS1000 asphalt sled) and I got thinking--are the vaporizing front ends creating enough pressure in the bowls to slow down or even stop the flow of fuel into the needle and seats? Could larger vent fittings/ hoses help? Or, could low RVP fuel help? I plan to keep some dead high octane fuel at the dyno to see if that helps the next foaming race engine.

A few years ago I watched then-NHRA Pro Stock bike racer Antron Brown complaining to a TV interviewer that his bike was surging, and laying down in high gear, causing him to lose a race in Brainard MN on a 95 degree day. Back then all the Pro Stock Suzukis ran Fast By Gast Lectron (Megatron) carbs, and I suspected that his solid mount 13,000 RPM Suzuki was buzzing the lightweight carbs, and turning his fuel into a milkshake. And, with the carbs being gravity fed, that could aggravate the problem. The next day I called Paul Gast and found out that many of the Lectron carbed Suzukis were suffering the same way at that hot Brainard race. I described what we do to overcome foaming on drag sleds here. So Paul had Kevin Gilham (who now owns Lectron in TX) get on a conference call with us, and the oversize, weight-adding billet Lectron floatbowls were born. I'm assuming that helped the ProStock bikes because I never heard any more complaining, and the Suzukis continued to run Lectron carbs for years until EFI was made legal.

Vibration is a great way to agitate anything. My Kubota lawn tractor (bought from Billy Howard) has a cup holder in the fender next to the seat. If I try to mow with any carbonated beverage in the holder, the CO2 is vibrated away in minutes! There's nothing worse than flat Molson Canadian!

Jimmy Cooper finally cured the Lectron fuel flow problems with his solid mounted PS1000 SkiDoo by having his crank rebalanced by an outfit in Canada. Now you can put a teacup on the head at 9200, and fuel flow is smooth and perfect. 

ARE SEALED 5 GAL PAILS TO BE TRUSTED?

It depends on the source of the fuel, and where/ who/ how the pails are filled and sealed! Sealed 5 gallon pails are often coming with way lower-than expected RVP.

I dyno test and tune lots of flat track race bikes for RLJ race engines and his customers like AMA expert Kenny Coolbeth and other expert, pro and amateur racers. Recently AMA began requiring Sunoco Supreme as a spec fuel for the racers, and 5 gallon sealed pails of Supreme sold by a nearby retailer pal of mine seemed to change our tuning--requiring richer mixtures for max HP. I tested one of the pails of high RVP Supreme (said by Sunoco to be blended to 5ish psi in summertime), and it measured 2 psi! Not good, so I called my pal who buys bulk fuel shipped in small tank trucks from Insinger in Dushore, PA and repackages it into pails and seals them to explain the low volatility of the Supreme he was selling. So he ordered a pallet of sealed pails of Supreme from Insinger's and it tested excellent--4 to 4 1/2 psi.

What we now figure happens is Insinger gets bulk shipments of Supreme by either truck or rail from the Sunoco refinery in PA. It's stored in their bulk tanks. Then they fill smaller bulk tanks on their delivery trucks and deliver it to their retail dealers all over the northeast. The delivery guy goes city to city, retailer to retailer and in the case of my pal, he fills a bunch of empty 55 gallon drums for him. So if my pal is last on the delivery list, that part full tank on the delivery truck may have sloshed around for 100s of miles, leaving a trail of front end vapors from the tank's vents that have been agitated out of the Supreme. Then the delivery guy splashes it into my pals empty drums. Then my pal seals the drums with DrumPreserve nitrogen bungs, to fill and seal the 5 gallon pails later. But by then it's too late.

So now my pal insists on being on the first part of the delivery route, and has the delivery guy pour (not splash) the fuel carefully into his drums, and all is good. And, my pal now fills the pails from the bottom up with a long hose (see how we do that in the YouTube vid).

Insinger also supplies sealed pails of all grades of Sunoco to our local dragstrip in Leicester, NY and it always has tested good RVP.

So we have to figure that knowing the history of the fuel of any brand, in any pail is good. The same is true when buying bulk fuel, filling your own containers. A few months ago, dyno customer Jesse Hellwig filled and sealed his own 5 gal jug with Sunoco Maximal from Fat Nancy's in Pulaski NY. The next day we tested it, and it was 0 psi, so it was obviously old and stale. Fat Nancy's has since been acquired by Insinger and it is said that they disposed of all that fuel, and have refilled the bulk tanks with newly refined fuel. 

  

  

 

 

    

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, November 22, 2013

DynoTech : slight goof on my last newsletter

The Cat 800 that Johnny Caputo and Jeff Sherlock are bringing to tune on 11/24 is his normally aspirated lakeracer! Johnny's supercharged Cat 800 is being brought East by the Speedwerx crew (along with a second supercharged Cat 800 and a stage 2 single pipe 800) who are coming to participate in the AmSnow/DTR NY Shootout in Woodgate on 12/13. 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

DynoTech : A technical description of Fuel Atomization by Kevin Cameron

 

 Descriptions of how carburetors work tell us that fuel spraying from the needle jet is atomized by the airflow and…

 

Wait. Stop right there. How is it atomized, and why? What makes the atomizing finer or coarser? Let’s look into it. Long ago, a fellow named Hochschwender photographed droplets suspended in a rising stream of air. They weren’t “teardrops” at all, but were squashed spheres, flattened by air pressure of the air streaming against them. Then they popped, reformed into a ring, then burst into a necklace of much smaller droplets.

 

Why should this be? The grand old man of fluid mechanics, Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953) outlined the matter. Liquids are held together by molecular forces of attraction. Inside the liquid, these forces are largely “invisible” because they act in all directions, but at the surface, they act like a skin under some slight but measurable tension-the so-called surface tension. In the absence of other forces, surface tension pulls the droplet into spherical shape. Just like the rubber skin on a water balloon, surface tension produces pressure inside the droplet. This is proportional to surface tension, and inversely proportional to droplet size. Opposed to this is the pressure of the air hitting the drop, which tends to flatten it. This is called the dynamic pressure, and is proportional to the density of the air and the square of its velocity. As the flow slows in hitting the droplet, its kinetic energy is converted into pressure energy.

 

Fuel shoots from a carburetor’s needle jet, straight out into the intake stream, which is speeding past a hundreds of feet per second. The fuel droplets are heavier than the air, so they can’t instantly accelerate to airflow speed, but lag behind. This difference in speed subjects them to dynamic pressure, which flattens them in good old Hochschwender style, bursts their centers, and explodes them into halos of tiny droplets. If the airflow velocity is high enough, and these smaller droplets have not yet accelerated up to speed, they too, may in turn be flattened and burst into yet-tinier droplets. In short, Hochschwender and Prandtl proposed that for a given air velocity, there was a corresponding droplet size to which fluid would inevitably be broken down by this process. To estimate what this size might be, Prandtl suggested that a droplet would break when the dynamic pressure of the air equaled the droplet’s internal pressure, created by its surface tension.

 

This gives us part of the reason why smaller carburetors are easier to tune than bigger ones; they produce higher venturi velocity, which physically beats the fuel droplets down to smaller sizes. These smaller droplets evaporate promptly to make an easily ignitable mixture that engines thrive on. Engines are often designed to give mean intake-duct velocities near 350 feet per second. Using this velocity, Prandtl’s formula gives a droplet size of about 100 microns, or .004 inch. This is not bad for a rough calculation, for in fact droplet sizes from carburetors range between 50 and 200 microns. Why so big? Remember that this calculation is for the case in which the droplet is hit with full stream velocity. In reality, by the time mid-sized droplets have been formed from the break-up of big ones, the air will have accelerated them quite a bit, so the relative droplet-to-air velocity will have fallen. The droplets are coming up to speed in the airflow. That permits some bigger ones to escape unbroken.

 

Now consider a limiting case. The air-blast fuel-injection system used on Orbital Engine Company’s automotive two-stroke engines works as follows: There is a pre-chamber, connected to the engine’s combustion chamber by a small orifice. Fuel is injected into the pre-chamber, forming large-ish droplets in the 50-100 micron size range. Next, a tiny valve opens, admitting a burst of air to the pre-chamber at 60 psi. This drives the coarse fuel/air mixture out through the orifice, where the flow reaches the speed of sound, and into the main combustion chamber. Naturally, the air, being lighter than fuel, accelerates quickly through the orifice, leaving the fuel lagging. This produces a very great speed difference between the droplets and the air accelerating past them, and the result is extremely fine atomization—down to a mean droplet size of 10 microns, or ,0004 inch. When we try this number in Prandtl’s formula, we get a corresponding velocity of 980 feet per second—satisfyingly close to the speed of sound.

 

There are endless racing and hot-rodding epics in which the hero struggles to get big, hi-po carburetors to work on his modified engine, but just cannot combine all necessary aspects or performance—acceleration, top speed, throttle response, freedom from detonation.

 

Yet it all makes sense. Tiny fuel droplets from small, high-velocity carbs evaporate fast and ride happily with the air to their hot destiny in the cylinders. Big droplets from monster mixers prefer to resist and misbehave every way they can: wetting the walls, refusing to turn corners, failing to evaporate fully, even splattering against sparkplug insulators where heat bakes them to conductive carbon film that shorts out the spark. The engine misfire-“shoots ducks,” in the old hot-rod lingo-and doesn’t clear until high rpm brings the intake airspeed up enough for good mixture to resume. Sudden throttle movements leave these liquid sluggos loitering in the intake pipes while the now-lean air/fuel charge hastens to the cylinders.

 

The unhappy result is a “momentary interruption of service,” with detonation—the spice of the tuner’s life—a likely possibility.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, September 16, 2013

DynoTech : What we're learning by testing RVP

Now that we have testing equipment I like to test racers' fuel's RVP while we're hooking up the sled/ engine to the dyno. I've caught several samples with no or low RVP, meaning we must have the engine very hot while tuning on the dyno to ensure adequate vaporization. No cool engine tuning can be done with stale fuel, even with excellent vaporizing carbs like properly sized Lectrons. Those "light" or "front" ends of the fuel are critical in ensuring good fuel volatitlity.

Heat and agitation cause the light ends to "boil off", or escape and build pressure in a sealed vessel. During the heating only phase of the RVP test, fresh Sunoco Maximal will build about 3psi in the "bomb". Then, the agitation phase of the RVP tests is removing the bomb from the water bath, inverting it which allows the heated gasoline to gurgle into the vapor chamber. Then, the bomb is inverted again so the fuel gurgles back into the small fuel sample container. This agitation causes more light ends to boil off, and raises the pressure by another 2psi (total 5 psi). If we unscrew the sample chamber from the bomb (it's sealed with an Oring) we get a nice whoosh and about half of the light ends are lost to the atmosphere. Then if we take that same sample, reconnect it to the bomb and test it again the RVP will only register about half--2.5psi or therabouts! Let that 2.5psi escape and reheat and agitate the sample again, and now we're down to 1 to 1.5 psi. I consider that dead, lawnmower gas (dead race gas becomes excellent octane booster for hot trail sleds when mixed with pump gas) It's just like shaking up a part full bottle of Pepsi Cola and releasing the CO2 by cracking the bottle cap. You can only do that a few times before it's flat and undrinkable. 

A RVP test is very much like trailering a partially full sealed can of formerly fresh race gas to a grass race in August in a black trailer. You get to the track, open the can and kawoosh goes most of the good smelling light ends and your fuel is half dead. Because of the buildup of pressure some of the light ends remain dissolved in the fuel. But if you reseal the can and drive home again, if you open the cap you don't get much of a woosh. But what about the fuel that's in the sled's fuel tank? There's no pressure seal there, and I would submit that whatever fuel is in the tank is DOA (dead on arrival).

Typical testing results from sealed 5 gallon "pails" of race gas show RVP about 1psi lower than published by the refiner. I suspect that the lower pressure is the result of the severe agitation of the fuel when the pail is transfilled from a larger container by the dealer. Sunoco tells me that they only sell race fuel to distributors in bulk--railcars and trailers only. They fill no drums or small containers themselves!

What's a racer to do to keep fuel fresh while transporting? First, have no fuel in the sled's tank (or carbs for that matter). And only transport FULL cans or jugs of fuel to minimize headspace that allows the escaping of the light ends. Small drums of race fuel (ie: 30 gallon size) can be used for transportation even for small quantities of fuel as long as 6 psi of nitrogen head pressure (with one of Carl McQuillen's N2 bung systems) is used to prevent loss of light ends and to prevent moisture contamination from humid air and to dispense the fuel while still under pressure. Also, military-style 5 gallon "jerry cans" appear to have the same bung threads as race fuel drums, and could be fitted with a nitrogen system for storage and transporting using a small 20 or 40 cu. ft. N2 cylinder.

When it comes to gassing up your high dollar race sled, those light ends are your friend. The refiners spend huge bucks putting those light ends in the fuel to make it volatile. Handling/ transporting/ storing the fuel in a cavalier manner can cost you horsepower and engines.

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, September 16, 2013

DynoTech : Spring/Summer/ Fall dyno schedule

Every year the sled dyno seems to get slower, and here it is (along with MC SuperFlow CycleDyn eddy current roller dyno schedule) for Spring-Fall 2013:

3/16 Jeremy Higgens (MC) Yam YZ450F flattracker (RLJ-Ron Jewell engine)

4/7 Sean Ray (MC) H-D FLH

4/16 David Wells (MC) Suzuki RMZ450 flattracker (RLJ)

4/18 Cory Van Ameron (MC) Honda CR85 flatracker

4/18 Jeremy Van Ameron (MC) Kaw KLX125 flattracker

4/22 David Wells (MC) Suz RMZ450 flattracker back for more HP

4/23 Sean Ray (MC) H-D FXS EFI turbo (he custom builds those)

4/28 Scott Barrett (MC) Honda CRF450 flattracker another high HP RLJ engine, tuning for max HP

4/29 Sean Ray (MC) anther H-D turbo for boost/ fuel/ timing tuning

5/1 Kenny Coolbeth (CT MC Nat'l number 2) Kaw KX450 flattracker RLJ looking for still more HP

5/4 Sean Ray (MC) H-D turbo FLH testing different exhaust config

5/5 Jerry Wells (MC) Honda CRF 450 flattracker RLJ engine

5/5 Dave Waters (MC) KTM 950 flattracker tuning

5/14 Al Rowcliffe (MC) Honda CRF250

5/22 Tristen Avery (VA, MC) Honda CRF450 RLJ engine

5/23 Cody Johncox (MC) H-D 750 flattracker tuning carbs for restrictors

5/23 Jim Davis (MC) Yam YZ125 flatteracker

5/23 Mike Luczak (MC) Honda CRF250 flattracker

5/24 "Angus" (MC) Honda CRF450 flattracker trying to find missing HP 

5/25 Tim Nurton, Hentges mod 600 Polaris twin

5/25 Sean Ray (MC) H-D FLH turbo trying one more exhaust system

5/25 Unknown (MC) Kaw Z1000 street bike PCV tuning

5/27 Hank Holden (MC) Kaw ZX10R streetbike, header, no EXUP, PCV tune

5/29 Sean Ray (MC) that same FLH turbo, one more exhaust mod (trying to find elusive boosted HP on the bagger)

5/30 Me (MC) tuning my turbo Victory V92C (serial number 0038) with PC3

6/8 Derek Dicastro (MC) H-D FatBob 96" PCV tune

6/9 Tristen Avery (VA MC) Honda CRF450 flattracker back for more RLJ HP

6/9 Brian Neuman (MC) Honda CRF450 flattracker RLJ engine, carbureted

6/12 Mike Luczak (MC) Honda CRF250 flattracker once more

6/12 Mike Luczak (MC) Yam YZ125 flattracker

6/17 Angus (MC) Honda CRF450 flattracker, 20 HP is still missing!

6/19 Clark Angarano (MC) ZX10R stocker with Guhl Motors reflashed ECU that holds the throttle blades open to the rev limiter 180+ HP!

6/19 Danny Angarano (MC) stock Triumph 675 speed triple

6/20 Greedy Kenny Coolbeth (MC CT) back with another Kaw KX450 RLJ engine

6/20 Gene Hurin, HTG Polaris 1000 triple Imp Stock pipe testing

6/21 Frankie Amalphie, Yam SX700 asphalt racer with Race Logic template porting (worked great)

6/27 Cody Johncox (MC) H-D 750 flattracker, RLJ engine mods

6/28 Mike Zacher (MC) Honda CRF450 RLJ flattracker

6/30 Sean Ray (MC) testing the same FLH this time with no turbo to make sure engine was fine, and it was almost a powerful as it was with 10psi boost???

6/30 Tim & Brian Tyler, Pol 800 twin PS

6/30 Jason Owen, Arctic Cat 800 twin carbureted PS (over 200 HP)

7/4 Dave Waters (MC) KTM 990 flattracker

7/14 Mike Luczak (MC) Honda CRF450 flattracker

7/14 Mike Luczak (MC) Yam YZ125 flattracker

7/27-29 Pro private engine testing DynoCams off

7/29 Justin FPP Fuller, SkiDoo 4tek turbo with H2O/ methanol injection and pump gas

8/1 Chris Wells (MC) RD400 Cafe Racer for carb/ timing tuning (doubled his HP)--Chris also has a TZ750 in parts in his garage...I made him promise to bring it here for tuning!

8/1 Joe Iannello (MC) Suzuki 1400 Intruder for carb tuning--some dealer had butchered the carburetion and I spent 5 hours changing pilot and main jets (stock it has one Mikuni and one Keihin carb!). Now it's perfect. I gotta quit bragging--I dislike working on carbs.

8/2 power hungry Gene Hurin back again with HTG Pol 1000 Imp Stock

8/7 Tim & Brian Tyler, Hentges mod 600 for PS grass drags

8/8 Paul Moore, Quad dragster with 1200 PWC mod engine/ methanol fuel for carb/ timing tuning

8/10 Can't remember his name, (MC) H-D 117" twin cam PCV tune

8/22 Justin Jones (MC) Honda CRF450 flattracker engine newly modded by RLJ,

8/23 Andy Stiles, Hentges 600 mod IQR sled for improved stock grass drags

8/25 Chris Metz (MC) Aprillia 1000 streetbike, mod exhaust, PCV tune

8/26 Cody Johncox (MC) H-D XR750 flattracker one more time

8/28 Tripod Dan Cross, HTG 1130 outlaw drag sled, maxing out HP with timing/ fuel tweaking

9/7 Jess Hellwig, Cat 800 stroker PS from Pro Stock, Inc

9/13 Jeff Stinson, Cat 700 Imp/ PS with Jaws High RPM pipes, water in one hole

9/13 Ken Aldrich, Cat 800 stock drag sled

9/19 Jason Owen, PS800 Cat twin

9/20 Tripod Dan, XCR800 improved stock

9/24 John DeAngelo Cat XF1200 Boondocker turbo

9/24 Dave Wells MC, Ron Jewell modded Honda CRF450 flattracker

9/25 FullPowerPerf Justin, VMax4 800 prostock

9/28 Bill Tranter RKTek SkiDoo 827 tune deto-free on 87octane

9/29 Jim Sigg (pal of Jay Owen) MC--HD 103 bagger

10/10 Pete Beasely MC--Victory 106ci bagger

10/16 Don Zuzze 03 F7 stocker, fuel pressure tune for grass drags

10/17 Paul "sponge" Spry, F8 improver Boondocker tune for grass drags

10/17 James Chittenden ZRT600 hotrod

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, April 21, 2013

DynoTech : Listening to detonation during field testing! How it can be done

On Apr 20, 2013, at 5:56 PM, Baldur Gislason <baldur@foo.is> wrote:

On the latest post about listening for deto, I figured I'd chime in.

10 years ago I started listening for detonation on car engines using a pair of Peltor ear muffs that I drilled and epoxied hose
barbs into. Both sides are teed together and connected to a piece of copper pipe at the engine by an 8mm rubber fuel hose.

 Later, when presented with the necessity of listening for detonation on both my turbocharged snowmobile and a turbocharged
single seater formula off road buggy we built, both applications that require a helmet, a modified approach was required.

 For field testing with a helmet on I use the setup pictured here: http://www.foo.is/gallery/misc/IMG_7000
 It is a pair of ham radio ear pieces that have a tube connection between the earpiece and the speaker. I picked those up on ebay for about $10 each.
 In my application, they're clipped onto a piece of plastic (POM) shaft that I center drilled and machined the ends on the lathe
 to let the earpieces clip on. The plastic shaft attaches to the helmet by electrical tape and is connected to a copper pipe
 at the engine by a length of rubber fuel hose. It works if anything, better than the ear muffs.

 Baldur Gislason

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, April 20, 2013

DynoTech : Listening to engines detonate on the dyno

Our copper tube detonation sensor—which functions much like a stethoscope—has been  the subject of much discussion with DTR members who operate their own engine and track dynos. This will provide clarity and understanding about how we use it. Sean Ray installed the copper tube here several years ago. He’s a calibration engineer at Delphi in Rochester, NY, and learned of this from Korean Hyundi engineers who came to work with him on one of their engines. They didn’t have total faith in their electronic knock sensors, and they brought a roll of ¼” copper tubing so they could listen to the engine. After Sean heard the audible clicking sound of the Hyundi engine detonating, he knew that was what we needed at DynoTech Research. Today, every million dollar dyno cel at Delphi is fitted with a $25 roll of copper tubing with a megaphone-like funnel soldered to the end in the control room for amplification.

 

The copper tube must be solidly attached to the top end of the engine to transfer the sound of deto. There is a ¼” electrical lug soldered onto the end for bolting to the engines. On sled engines the head is good, and on engines with thermostat housing, the 6 mm bolts attaching bolts there are ideal. Arctic Cat twins have no thermostat housings on the heads, but have a larger metric tapped hole near the center of the head, said to be used at the factory for a lifting lug. For that, I’ve made a steel adaptor that’s shown attached to the copper lug. For Cats we can also hear deto clearly if we bolt the ¼” copper lug to any one of the 6mm exhaust valve bolts, too. The steel adaptor also can be used on head bolts/ studs if length is adequate. That works well on SkiDoo Etec engines. Sleds with individual heads and more than two cylinders should have the lug attached to the coolant outlet manifold on the center cylinder. The sound of deto carries well through the coolant manifold, from one cylinder to another.

 

The copper tube is routed into the control room through the wall separating it from the engine dyno room. Sean uses a 2’ long piece of 1” ID clear plastic hose to keep the copper from resting against the drywall (and possibly dampening out some of the clicks). And of course care must be exercised when routing the copper tube through the engine compartment to keep the copper from rubbing against anything.

 

 

Four-stroke engines’ detonation causes loud audible clicks in the control room when the lug or adaptor is bolted to any exhaust manifold stud.

 

The following photo shows how Sean took the foam insulation out of the left side of a set of cheap Harbor Freight ear protectors. Then he drilled and tapped the plastic to 1/8th  NPT  and inserted a ¼” hose barb. Then Tygon fuel line connects the copper tube hanging in the control room and does a nice job transferring clicks to our left ear.

 

The headphones are only necessary on loud race engines. The control room is pretty well insulated so on most trail engines the headphones are unnecessary. On quiet engines, detonation clicks are very audible coming off the outside surface of the copper tube itself, and can be heard by everyone in the control room.

 

OBSERVATIONS AFTER SEVERAL YEARS OF LISTENING TO DETONATION:

 

This setup has saved many hundreds of pistons by allowing us to abort a test before damage occurs from detonation. Stock hilldraggers must run pump gas, and tuning for max HP with pump gas with lean A/F (max power is usually 13/1 but sometimes an engine will detonate with mixtures even richer than that.) and lots of timing can take engines into knock before HP peaks.

 

What’s deto sound like? It’s very much like the sound of a high voltage spark you get if you pull a plug wire off of a running engine and hold it close to the plug—sort of a loud “snap” that is unmistakable. When we monitor engine knock with Arctic Cat or Polaris EFI software if we hear two loud clicks during a dyno test, both will usually pull a couple of degrees of timing and the dyno test is usually aborted since we know HP will be down.

 

On sleds with no knock protection a click or two at torque peak is acceptable since the deto will usually subside at high RPM. From experience on two-strokes two or three random midrange clicks may be OK but 8 clicks is not—you probably won’t hear the ninth click because the engine will be “tightening up” by then!  And it's a combination of rapid clicks over an extended period of time that wrecks parts. The highest BMEP mod two-stroke engines are usually octane-limited. Any engine that is going to make close to 200 psi BMEP usually must have 116 motor octane high RVP fuel to do that. Our ears tell us that!

 

Four-strokes are more forgiving than two-strokes when it comes to tolerating detonation. But it’s still wise to abort any test where clicks are heard and reduce timing, or add fuel to cool combustion chambers. Big loads of  fogger-nozzle N2O often detonate severely for a fraction of a second, when activated, because with most systems the N2O gets into the engine a fraction of a second before the fuel does. Once the proper amount of fuel joins the N2O in the intake, the deto subsides! It sounds awful, and probably doesn't help longevity of parts, but we have learned to accept that. We don't hear that with Boondocker EFI N2O systems, because with those the fuel gets there immediately.

 

FOOLPROOF TESTING? Not really. We still benefit from watching the real time graph on the dyno while testing. When tuning for max HP, it’s wise to abort a test that is lower in midrange HP than the prior test—even with no knock. We still can seize engines from too-lean mixtures caused by the wrong jet selection (or partially plugged main jet) or EFI tune, and too-often by stale, low RVP race gas that wont vaporize adequately in the combustion chambers. Severely lean engines might not detonate. And my own theory is that I don’t think we can hear preignition which can be more harmful that deto, with some hot spot like an overheated plug ground strap igniting the mixture WAY too early. Prignition is often preceeded by detonation which scours away the cooling boundary layer of air insulating parts from 5000 degree F combustion gases. Once a hot spot occurs from, say, six clicks of deto, then quiet preignition can begin and really make a mess of things. But something like stale race gas can create extremely lean mixtures in the combustion chambers even when our meters are showing safe numbers. If to much of the stale gas doesn’t vaporize and burn until it gets out into the exhaust, then what measures as 12/1 A/F ratio might net out to be 15/1 in the combustion chamber—within the “explosive limit” (no misfire) of 10/1-17/1 but lean enough to lose power and perhaps stick a piston without detonating. 

 

So it pays to watch the numbers and the HP curve during testing. But if we had this great listening device 26 years ago,  perhaps 1000 pistons could have been saved!

 

How about field testing with a short copper tube bolted to the engine? I don’t know why it wouldn’t work, but I don’t know anyone who has tried it. My neighbors JD Powersports amplify the sound of deto while creating Cat turbo tunes on their SuperFlow dyno by using electronic “Chassis Ears” that clips onto their copper tube then sends a signal to a set of Bose earphones. Maybe some sort of BlueTooth deal could be used with Chassis Ears inside a helmet. Or, maybe a custom fitted ear protector insert (like those used by pro racers) could be fitted with a ¼” hose barb. Then the flexible Tygon hose could be used to allow listening while riding.

 

If someone comes up with a functioning copper tube deal for field testing, please send a picture that I can post here!

 

  

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, March 09, 2013

DynoTech : Octane Testing

Here's a Zeltex 101C octane test meter that I acquired on Racejunk.com for much less than the current new price of $11,000. It had been used for a few years by a dirt track owner for testing gas in some class of racers who were limited to using pump gas. He recently sold his race track in the Albany NY area, and had no more use for this equipment. But we surely can make good use of this for tuning trail machines on the dyno. And once again, who but me would be interested in buying a used octane tester? We often encounter what we think is substandard gas, and now we can be sure. The Zeltex octane tester uses near-infrared spectroscopy to measure both motor and research octane and prints out both along with R+M/2 and ethanol %.  These Zeltex testers are used by most states' Bureaus of Weights and Measures to test octane at gas stations. This one is calibrated to test unleaded gas with or without ethanol, and if I can obtain lab certified samples of commonly used race gas, it can be calibrated to do those, too.

This will be especially useful for companies that demonstrate pump gas safe engine modifications and tuning at this facility. Is the 93 octane gas really 93 or is it 102 or 86? This will take the guesswork out!

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, March 07, 2013

DynoTech : Reid Vapor Pressure Testing

Reid Vapor Pressure TESTING!

For race engine tuning, our biggest problem is stale race gas that racers buy unwittingly. Stale race gas can have excellent octane, but volatility can be poor due to the absence of important “light ends” of the fuel. Light ends are the first to escape into the atmosphere—creating that satisfying “whoosh” when sealed drums of race gas are first opened. But after gas is drawn and drum resealed, more light ends will escape into the air pocket above the fuel in the resealed drum. Then when the drum is opened again to draw more fuel, there is another, but less satisfying “whoosh” and more light ends escape into the atmosphere. By the time that large drum is consumed a few gallons at a time, no more “whoosh” is heard. Then the fuel is, for our purposes, “dead”. With the light ends that help initiate vaporization gone—escaped into the atmosphere—the fuel then needs excessive amounts of heat to get it to vaporize. Its volatility is now poor, and trouble is lurking for those who don’t understand what’s happening. I like to compare race gas’ “light ends” to the CO2 carbonation in 2 liter bottles of Coke. When first opened, the Coke is fizzy and good. But every time the plastic bottle is resealed then reopened later, more CO2 escapes into the atmosphere. And each time that happens, the fizz is diminished. After being opened and resealed a dozen times, that last swig of Coke you take from the bottom of the large bottle is awful—flat and fizzless, just like stale race gas.

What about those "sealed" 5 gallon “pails” of race gas? Are they filled and sealed at the refinery, or are they transfilled from open drums at a wholesaler’s facility and then “sealed”?? How long has that drum remained open? It pays to be leery!

Carl McQuillen Racing Engines in LeRoy, NY continues to manufacture and sell nitrogen pressurizing systems for drummed race gas. Those are a great tool for dispensing and storing race gas in 30-50 gallon drums, very much like draft beer systems do with CO2.

Poor volatility from escaped “light ends” can result in fuel failing to vaporize as it travels from the carbs/ throttle bodies into the intake ports/ crankcases (two-stroke)/ combustion chambers. We accurately measure our engines’ fuel flow as it travels from the fuel pumps into the engines, and we expect to see close to .60 lb/ hr of fuel for every HP the engine is generating. When practical, we measure airflow into the engines’ airboxes and .60 lb/hphr is typically 12/1 A/F ratio (12 pounds of air per pound of fuel). As a secondary source if information, we use an Innovate wide band A/F ratio meter that measures the exhaust gases coming out the pipes and gives us a chemical A/F reading that often is identical to the mechanical readings. As we approach maximum HP at 13/1 A/F, if octane is insufficient, we sometimes hear loud “clicks” of detonation on our copper tube sensor, and can abort testing before damage occurs. But stale gas measures pound for pound exactly like fresh gas, and what if only ¾ of the fuel is vaporizing in the combustion chamber? That means our indicated .60 lb/hphr is actually, net in the combustion chamber, .45 lb/hphr and that dandy 12/1 indicated A/F is, net, 16/1. In that situation, there might be zero clicks of deto, just wickedly net lean mixtures that cause pistons to grow quickly and stick in the cylinder bores! Our dyno flowmeters are indicating that all is perfect, but what it doesn’t tell us is the % of fuel vaporizing and burning in the combustion chamber vs. the % that finally manages to vaporize and burn in the hot pipes. If the gas is stale, all of our dyno meters can be telling us all is well, zero clicks of deto means octane is sufficient, and piston(s) can stick and spoil our tuning session. There’s nothing worse than a guy with a “stuck” engine having to have to pay for dyno time, take it home to fix it, then come back to retune with fresh gas and pay again.

My most recent obvious stale gas experience was my pal Gene Hurin (who’s been tuning here with his jet-changing wife Cathy for 25 years) coming here with a new HTG Polaris 1000 improver. He had bought 5 gallons of VP C16 gas from a local vendor, and Gene knew it came from an unsealed 55 gallon drum in the corner of the warehouse. Gene and I talked about the issues of stale gas before we began tweaking the Lectron carbs, but when we got down to ¾ turn on the power jets the engine seized with no warning at .60 BSFC and160 lb/hr of fuel flowing into the engine with 100 degree F coolant! Cringe. So Gene went home, fixed the engine, then came back again with Sunoco Maximal he bought from the infamous “Fat Nancy’s” in Pulaski NY who sells a zillion gallons of Sunoco race gas, and fresh is what Gene bought. This time with Gene’s orifice puckered severely, we leaned it down to 160 lb/hr, then continued leaning down all the way to 140 lb/hr and the engine was happy and powerful! It was much more pleasant charging Gene for the second tuning session.

How can we prevent future issues like this?

Kevin Cameron suggested that the important “light ends” of the fuel contribute substantially to Reid Vapor Pressure. Every name brand race gas has an RVP rating. That being the case, why not test dyno customers’ race gas for RVP before we wreck parts? What is RVP? How is an RVP test performed?

Thank you KC and Google! RVP is determined by precisely heating a quantity of gasoline to 100.0 degrees F + or - .2 degrees F. Then after agitating the 100.0F fuel, the pressure in a closed air chamber above the gasoline (4x the volume of the gasoline) is measured with an accurate bourdon tube test gauge and that is the exact RVP. The higher the RVP, the easier it is to vaporize, especially in cold winter air. Winter blended pump gas RVP is close to 15psi. Amond the lowest RVP even when fresh is C16 with less than 2psi! Trying to start a C16-fueled engine in February is impossible! Sunoco Maximal which has octane similar to C16 has 6psi RVP--a much better high octane fuel for cool engine performance in winter air.

If you watch dragracers "clean out" their engines on jackstands prior to the start of a race, you often hear them gurgle and pop for the first few quick blasts from clutch engagement to peak RPM. That gurgling you hear is lean misfire from cold low RVP gas going through cold carbs and into cold combustion chambers. Once the combustion chambers are heated, more of the lava-lamp-like globs of fuel will finally vaporize, and the engine will run cleanly. The higher the fuel's RVP, the better!

So let's just measure our fuel's RVP. Sounds simple enough, but when I found that the equipment needed to do this cost $7000—a $6000 precision water heater and a $1000 vessel for containing and measuring the fuel head pressure, I went to Ebay. There, I found an engine manufacturer’s surplus Koehler water bath used to precisely heat the fuel samples to 100.0F. Who in the world, but me, would want to buy a used RVP test bath? So it had languished on Ebay with zero bids since August, and I came along and “bought it now” for 20% of new cost. But it came with no fuel testing vessel—called a RVP “bomb” made of stainless steel, hydro-tested to 1000psi and a lab certified pressure gauge. I had to bite the bullet and buy a new fuel test “bomb” (yes, that’s what they call them!) from Koehler for $700, and a new $400 15psi .25% accuracy pressure gauge was Ebayed for $30. So now we can test for stale gas—hopefully before we wreck parts!

I hated high school chemistry. The only enjoyment I got from those awful lab sessions was making hydrogen bombs from dissociating hydrogen and oxygen from water then igniting those with a match.. Acetylene bombs were also great fun, especially when several of my equally deviant pals and I pooled our precisely rationed grams of calcium carbide to mix with water! But here I am, trying to figure out the Reid Vapor (Vapour) Pressure of racing gasoline! My annoyed chemistry teacher would be proud, if he were still alive.

An RVP test takes about an hour—about as much time as it takes to set up a sled or bare engine onto the dyno. So from here on, RVP testing can be done prior to race gas dyno testing/ tuning, so the one final mysterious variable might be eliminated.

Koehler RVP “Bomb”. The gasoline to be tested is poured into the shorter lower portion of the stainless steel cylinder, which unscrews from the hollow upped air chamber. After the lower chamber is filled with gasoline to be tested, it is attached to the upper chamber.

Here’s the RVP bomb sitting in the Koehler circulating water bath at 100.0F. It holds about 20 gallons of 100.0F water agitated by a propeller driven by the motor on the upper right.

The yellow temperature numbers are thermostat setting, and the red temperature numbers are the exact temperature of the water circulating around the “bomb”. Precision is required!

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, February 15, 2013

DynoTech : Boost, fuel flow, & ignition timing relationship

BOOST, TIMING, & FUEL

 

On the dyno, we often jockey ignition timing and boost pressure levels, to enable us achieve maximum reliable power on a given octane.  Do we go with more timing and lower boost, or less timing and more boost?  Less timing advance and higher boost mean higher exhaust temperature (and hotter pipes) helping drive the turbo’s exhaust turbine harder and more quickly and higher intake charge temperature (less dense and more prone to deto) especially on two-strokes that have some of the intake charge spend time inside the hotter exhaust header pipe on the bottom half of each piston stroke, before the returning sound wave shoves it back into the exhaust port. More timing and less boost can have the opposite effect along with the increase in transfer of combustion heat into the heads while the expanding burning mixture spending more time there driving the pistons down instead of burning in the pipe(s), making them hotter! But what about fuel flow? We can make max HP at about 13/1 A/F, but we get the greatest combustion chamber cooling effect (and least power output) at 10/1. What shall we do? Jockeying all three about, and watching for/ listening to detonation is what we must do while we observe torque and horsepower on the dyno (or observe clutch RPM during field testing—was that 50 more RPM, or 50 less RPM?).

 

Some years ago DynoTech was contracted to create an optimal pump gas tune (ignition timing curve, fuel flow, and boost level) for a turbocharged Buell motorcycle that was being considered for production (details of the turbo Buell “Diablo” were made public in Cycle World, May 2010, page 44). We built five Buell X1 engines/ bikes for H-D to test with custom dished low compression pistons with tight squish band clearance to obtain the combustion chamber turbulence necessary for rapid flame speed (which results in less ignition timing required to achieve best torque). We also designed and fitted each bike with efficient side-mounted intercoolers with plastic pro-stock style air scoops (there’s a photo of one of the turbo Buell X1 test bikes on our motorcycle dyno on this website when you click on “About DynoTech”). H-D had loaned us engineering software to enable us to tune the front and rear (hotter running) cylinders individually. Their target was 125+ rear wheel HP (about 50% increase over naturally aspirated X1s). After trying 100’s of combinations of boost/ ignition timing/ A/F ratio we wound up with front/ rear ignition timing nearly identical to the stock factory curves with boost pressure and fuel flow that made over 130 RWHP! Part of the H-D endurance testing that these bikes ultimately passed included filling the bikes’ fuel tanks with pump gas and [underpaid] test riders would run in high gear, WOT (at a high speed test track in Alabama) non stop until the tanks were empty—with no electronic deto protection! According to the CW article, the turbocharged Buell X1 test bikes exhibited greater reliability than the normally aspirated high compression X1s.

 

The point is, people too often assume that we MUST retard ignition timing when we pressurecharge any engine. But if our goal is to achieve max safe HP on a given octane fuel, we should not be afraid to experiment with ignition timing
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, January 01, 2013

DynoTech : Winter testing schedule

12/14 Petschke Motorsports dyno testing the ETEC 800 with their new flowbench tested Y pipe results posted on this website members' pages

12/15 Keith Monroe, F7 w/ D&D trailport dissapointing performance last season was traced to a counterfeit BMP pipe modded stock pipe that Keith had bought on EBay. I was leery since the counterfeit pipe had poor welds, and my suspicions were confirmed when we installed the BMP modded stock pipe I have here for test purposes and picked up 13hp.

12/17 John Joyce,Wayne Yeardon, Rob Schooping testing Merc 440 freeair oval racer- Rob is back at his home shop now, back to his roots modifying/ porting engines. Since the Merc 440 piston port engines are similar to the powerful 650 Polaris triple engines Rob created back in the 1990s, these are a natural...

12/21 the worst day of testing ever--two sleds with freshly rebuilt engines, freshly installed back in the sleds with what appear to be air locked oil pumps...no premix in the gas, sled 1 (a big bore twin) locked up just before we began the test, at 12/1 A/F...a disappointing mystery but that can happen...then sled 2 made one pass loaded with fuel, then locked up like sled 1...autopsied that sled on the dyno, the bottom end was bone dry totally devoid of any sign of oil! Sled 1 was autopsied back home, bone dry like sled 2. Moral of this unhappy story is, whenever an engine is removed, then reinstalled, the first one or two tanks of gas should be premixed. They will be back, with slippery fuel in the tanks next time!

12/27-12/29 Pro race team testing, dynocams off 

1/2 Todd Dewind PCV tuning a 2012 ProR 800 w/ DynoPort pipe.

1/3 Josh Bender Boondocker tuning a trail mod Cat 800

1/6 Jesse Bradley, (Bradley Performance) PCV tuning a trail mod Cat 1200 (cancelled, waiting for parts)

1/7 Gus Bohne dyno tuning Art Bash's turbo Polaris 1000 triple, and another turbo MachZ twin (cancelled)

1/11 Cat F7 for Boondocker tuning

1/12 Dave Behuniak, Vmax 4 FPP lakeracer mod, turning new MSD

1/14 Gus Bohne dyno tuning Art Bash's turbo Polaris 1000 triple, and another turbo MachZ twin (results posted soon)

1/15 Wayne Tessier boondocker tuning early (moderate port timing) 800/901 Cat

1/16 Jake Lehnen making even more HP on his FPP SkiDoo RS600 hilldrag mod engine

1/17 Tony Koz tuning his XF800 single pipe improver Hilldrag sled

1/17 Mike Koz tuning his XF800 stocker Hilldrag sled

1/22  Jesse Bradley, (Bradley Performance) PCV tuning Jeff Sills' trail mod Cat 1200 (215hp 147 lb/ft on pump gas)

1/24 Crossfire 1000 boondocker tune

1/25 RJ Quell mystery tune

1/30 Pat Kitchen/ Cat 1500 triple w/ Boyd McGarry tig welding pipes

1/31 Kelly & Sandy O'Dell dyno tweaking SkiDoo 800 (one twin, one triple) promod hilldrag sleds

2/1 Adam Glick two big twin Cats for carb/ EFI tuning 

2/1 & 2/2 Kevin Freeman (Sled Shop SkiDoo in Presque Isle, ME) dyno verifying the tune on his FPP turbo Etec 800 (190+ click-free on ME 93 octane, will post the numbers)

2/5 Brian MacLaren PCV tuning a strangely deto-prone 2010 F8

2/8 Marty Rainville from Quebec, PCV tuning a stock F1000 for dragracing/ trail riding

2/11 Dynamo Jim testing stock turbo Cat w/  TD stage 5 w/ larger injectors cancelled, engine issues to address, will come another day

2/14 Jeremy Wilder, two SkiDoo 800s (one R, one HO) for hilldragging

2/19 Jake Lehnen- one more time with his FPP ported SkiDoo 600R hilldragger, this time with a late model "stuffed" crankcase--trying to match the Hentges Polaris 600 HP. Started months ago with 137 HP, last time here we were close to 160hp. Will post our step by step improvents, and how each improvement was accomplished on this website.

2/20 James Moore, tuning NA and N2O F7

2/21 Dan Brownell Crankshop 1500 triple

2/22 David Kirchhoff, FINALLY a Dragon 800 with FIX cylinders and pistons to create a proper PCV/ PC3 map! cancelled due to scuffed piston, will try again...

2/23 Brian MacFarlane F8 PCV tuning w/ BMP exhaust

3/2 Mark Fisher dyno tuning 800 triple and 600 twin improved stock engines

3/3 Jake Lehnen SkiDoo 600RS Full Power mod, one more time!

3/13 Renegade Rich Myers SkiDoo 800R mod hilldragger

3/15 Larry Audette ported Etec 800 looking for 170+ on pump gas

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, October 05, 2012

DynoTech : 2012 info & updates

GEORGE TAYLOR--74 year old George Taylor has died of heart failure. He had been a partner with DynoTech and American Snowmobiler Magazine for 22 years helping organize and orchestrate the annual stock sled Shootout in the Adirondack Mountains. George owned Van Aukens Inne near Old Forge, NY which was Shootout Headquarters for many years until it was sold. But in his retirement George stayed on with me to help organize the dealers, shootout facility, promotion etc each year. This year, Tom Smith is helping out in George's absence. Long time Shootout attendies will surely remember Tom, former owner of Smith Marine SkiDoo. About 20 years ago at the Shootout (then at the Old Barn Restaurant in Eagle Bay) Tom goofed on his "dealer prep" setup and both his SkiDoo stockers (a 580 and a 670) seized at 1000ft. Annoyed by a large group of jeering hecklers in the crowd, Tom retaliated by dropping his pants and flashing a horrible-looking moon (complete with awful Brahma bull-like swinging testicles) to the 1000 or so grossed-out but pleased spectators. To those of you who are coming to the Shootout this December, please do not annoy Tom!   

NEW NEIGHBORS--Jeff and Dave from JD Powersports have moved their facility from Rochester, NY to the west end of my commercial building in Batavia. They've set up a showroom/ office and their production welding equipment (for tig welding Arctic Cat stainless steel turbo pipes and mufflers etc) and their own SuperFlow 902 dyno right next door to me. Now my one neighbor who sometimes expresses his displeasure over the noise coming from my dyno room can enjoy the sound of howling engines in stereo! JD has just finshed dyno testing their "anti-lag" mode that they program into the stock Cat ECU, and plan to bring a machine fitted with that to our "Turbo Time" shootout in December. 

GOOD NEWS FOR ETEC OWNERS--next week DynoJet is sending me a preproduction Power Commander V for the SkiDoo ETEC system. Finally, we should be able to properly add the fuel necessary to support added airflow from Boyesen Rad Valves, Ypipes, pipes, porting, big bores etc. I need someone with a stock Etec 800 to come for a free tuning session, to assess how much fuel we can really add in high density (high baro, low temp refrigerated air) with the new PCV. NEWS FLASH 1/28/13 JUST GOT THE FIRST SHIPMENT OF PRODUCTION ETEC PCV's $499 PREMAPPED FOR YOUR COMBINATION, INCL FREE SHIPPING/ INS + 3 YRS FREE ADDED MEMBERSHIP TO DTR.

NEW SNOCROSS STOCKERS NEEDED! Free dyno tunes are offered for new Polaris, Arctic Cat, and SkiDoo 600 sleds. Also if there is a hotrodded Yamaha Nytro SnoX machine that could qualify for a free tune. We need to know how the new stock 600 class engines compare. Remember this year the mod 600cc SnoX sleds must retain stock engines (?!) except for pipes, compression, and ignition timing curves, and we need to see how the factories have reacted to this seemingly strange new rulebook. Call Jim 585-993-2777

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

DynoTech : Fall dyno schedule etc.

9/6 Charlie Bush, Polaris 700 triple HTG mod maxing out HP with fuel and timing tweaks

9/8 Adam Schmitt, Polaris 1000 triple HTG mod, maxing out HP with fuel and timing tweaks

9/9 Pete Nixon, AC800 twin, tuning for max winter HP in 28 degree F refrigerated air.

9/15 Nick Sampo, SkiDoo 800 triple grass drag sled, fuel and timing, pipe center section temp vs. max HP RPM.

9/22 Tim & Brian Tyler, Polaris PS800 twin

9/23 Dead One Dave, F7 stock hilldragger (new style Boondocker with % adjustments instead of milliseconds) winter air tune (28 degrees F)

9/23 Michael Koz, F6 stock hilldragger winter air tune (28F)

9/26 Wayne Yeardon XCR800 (shimmed w/ HTG pipes) asphalt drag ET sled

10/3-4 FPP Justin tuning a new Improved Stock SkiDoo 1000 triple

10/16-17-18 Etec800 stocker testing new production Boyesen Rad Valves and adding fuel with prototype Power Commander ..test results are posted

 10/19 FPP Justin back again with the Imp Stock SkiDoo 1000 triple

10/24 Jack Lloyd (Fourth Lake Performance) from Eagle Bay tuning Polaris 500 twin stock oval racer

10/27 Brent Brickler Boondocker tuning a Cat F1000 D&D ported and twin pipes, pump gas

10/28 Peter Nixon, private test session

11/1 Tripod Dan Cross testing & tuning John T Cowie's HTG1080 Polaris triple, now stroked to 1180 or something like that, just to run at Jiacobbe's Outlaw Shootout

11/2 Phil Perry, tuning a Polaris 700 twin hilldrag sled, full SLP mod engine with SLP twin pipes

11/2 Barry Taggart and Justin Fuller re-dyno testing a formerly fast Yam 700 drag engine but troublesome for the past two years--bad fuel flow once again rears its' ugly head. Solid mount engines must be balanced lke sewing machines if we expect high RVP race gas to stay liquid in the float bowls--this one was smooth and dandy first time at the dyno but something has changed the crank balance, and now the fuel turns to foam and engine runs lean...

11/7 Jack Lloyd with another Polaris 500 circle tracker owned by Dom Antonucci one of the Jack Lloyd built 500s won Eagle River last year..

 11/7 Jim Bristol boondocker tuning an Engine Tech F7/900 big bore...had trouble with Boodocker, left the sled on the dyno came back 11/8 with a good boondocker and got a good tune, albeit with a little less HP than hoped for--these big bore engine come in varying compression ratio and this one was surely on the low side but probably good for the notoriously poor gas we get on the trails in NY

11/10 Randy Calus, tuning an 09 Crossfire 800 with D&D shim kit

11/19 ProR 800 brought to the dyno by Casey Mulkins for Boyesen Rad Valve airflow and HP assessment, along with a coolant flow test comparing stock water pump impeller to a tall Boyesen billet aluminum impeller interesting results to be posted soon

11/21 Kyle Howard, SkiDoo 600 hilldrag sled, tuning for max power

11/24 Carl Theriault two Cat Turbos--one hot trail sled and one large turbo lakeracer cancelled due to coolant bubbles in the lakeracers--will be coming later

11/25 Jeff Sherlock tuning on a ProCross800 trail mod

11/26 Greg "Jaws"  Balchin coming back after his last dyno session here 22 years ago, demonstrating his new single pipe on a stock ProCross 800

11/30 Heath Link dialing in a little N2O on his polaris 800 triple, along with his pal Randy who'll be dialing in a LOT of N2O on his 1200 twin last time Heath was here with his Polaris 1000 triple trail sled, he was delighted with the work Californian Nate McCoy (racemotors@juno.com) did for him, including a custom timing map for his Polaris ECU that complimented the Jaws triple quiet pipes creating a flat easy to clutch HP curve...

12/3 HELL WEEK..Tom Smith is bringing a huge trailer-full of stockers to dyno certify for the AmSnow DTR Adirondack Shootout. Tom is going gung-ho to keep the stockers stock, maintaining possession of all the stock sleds from setup at the dealers until they're unloaded at White Otter Fish and Game club in Woodgate,NY on Friday 12/7...

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, September 06, 2012

DynoTech : AmSnow/DTR Shootout at Woodgate NY

TURBO TIME AT THE ADIRONDACK SHOOTOUT

 

This is an invitation for all Arctic Cat Turbo commercial tuners/ modifiers/ manufacturers of mufflers, intercoolers, etc to bring a true trailable turbo Cat to this year’s AmSnow/DynoTech Research Shootout at Woodgate. AmSnow editors Mark Boncher and Mark Savage are working with us to make this possibly the most entertaining Shootout in 22 years. Or is it 23 years? I’ve lost track!

 

The plan is to offer FREE ENTRY to any company that wants to show off the performance capability of their Cat Turbo tuning and parts. For the “TURBO TIME SHOOTOUT”, the participating company is only required to be a minor advertiser in AmSnow (such as a website banner advertiser) instead of the display ad requirement! Thanks to AmSnow for cutting some slack this year to make this a no-brainer for any company that deals with Cat turbo stuff!

 

The concept is to have equal weight stock chassis sleds with STOCK TURBO, stock OEM track with trail carbide studs, some acceptable minimum weight, a real muffler of some sort, and anything else should be OK. No other power adders, lowered 2” maximum from stock at each end.  Anything else?

 

We’re looking for feedback from interested aftermarket companies. So far I’ve communicated with D&D, JD Powersports, and Arctic Adventures (new U.S. distributors for Canada’s Turbo Dynamics) and all are committing to participate.

 

There will be LARGE separate trophies for FASTEST M.P.H. and for QUICKEST E.T. in 660 FT.

 

Also, any aftermarket company wanting to showcase higher power (ie: large turbo) sleds can run them in the lakeracer class, where anything goes.  And, we’ll still be running true pump gas trail mod sleds as we’ve done for many years. Those sleds cost $500 each to demonstrate, with awards for many "classes" given out at the Shootout banquet.

Interested companies can call me at 585-993-2777 or email me at info@dynotechresearch.com

On a sad note, our Shootout partner (since Shootout #1) and good pal George Taylor died of heart failure last week. George's long time friend Tom Smith is going to handle George's Shootout work this year.  

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, July 30, 2012

DynoTech : spring/ summer dyno schedule

4/2 Pat Kitchen, Joe DiSpirito Cat 1500 triple asphalt sled

4/6 Jim Sigg 103ci H-D PCV tune (CycleDyn)

4/7 Don Puleo 107ci H-D PCV tune (CycleDyn)

4/12 Randy Crouse, Cat 1200 twin, tuning N2O

4/13 Heath Lynk Pol 1080 triple trail sled

4/13 Harry Jones Honda CRF450 flattrack bike (CycleDyn)

4/22 Ron Jewell Kenny Coolbeth KX450 (CycleDyn)

4/25-5/6 Todd Hogan testing Boyesen Rad Valves on Etec 800, compare early ecu flash to 2013 flash-- results posted

5/6 Troy Butts Yam YZ450 (CycleDyn)

5/6 Mike Luczak Honda CRF450 flattracker (CycleDyn)

5/11 Ron Jewell/ Kenny Coolbeth Kaw KX450 one more time (CycleDyn)

5/12 Cody Fowler Hayabusa PCV tune (CycleDyn)

5/20 Dave Wells Honda CRF450 flattracker (CycleDyn)

5/23 Don Ohlson Hayabusa PCV tune (CycleDyn) we tuned this bike a year ago, ran perfectly until this spring then began losing power and finally broke a connecting rod. New engine was installed and it ran perfectly while cruising but at high revs WOT would lose HP. So back to the dyno A/F was perfect until WOT high RPM then it would go lean (instead of the proper 12/1 it would show 16 or 17/1!). PCV adjustment made no difference. So we checked fuel pressure and as expected the fuel pressure dropped as revs climbed meaning plugged fuel filter/ defective fuel pump. Don tried a new filter and fuel pressure still dropped at high revs, then he sprung for a new in-tank fuel pump and all is perfect now. So that tired $350 fuel pump cost him a $5000 engine repair. Moral of this story--if your EFI engine begins to lose power at high revs CHECK THE FUEL PRESSURE.

5/24 Mike Zacher CRF450 and CRF100 Flattrackers (CycleDyn)

5/24 Brian Neuman CRF450 Flattracker (CycleDyn)

5/24 Wade Blood Kawasaki Vulcan PCV tune (CycleDyn)

5/27 Neil Jacobs tuning 107 cubic inch 280hp Kaw Pro Stock dragbike on the 902 shaft dyno

5/28 Frank Burns H-D VRod big bore PCV tune (CycleDyn)

6/1 Dave Wells tuning CRF450 with Ron Jewell mod (CycleDyn)

6/9 Al Rowcliff CRF450 with Ron Jewell head (CycleDyn)

6/9 Frankie Amalfi and Yammigod Tony Yam SRX700 asphalt racer

6/13 Bill Woodley TC88 PCIII tune (CycleDyn)

6/23 AJ Frank using 902 shaft dyno to tune his trail mod Banshee 350 quad

6/24 Aaron Mucher Yamaha FZ1 PCV tune (CycleDyn)

6/25 Jerry Jankowski Honda Blackbird Turbo carb tune (CycleDyn)

7/1 Brad Crocker setting up his Bender Pol 600 mod engine for H2Ocross racing

7/21 Keith Crowell Yamaha R6S streetbike PCV tune (CycleDyn) 

7/28 Jake Lehnen searching for power with his SkiDoo RS600 hilldrag sled

8/2 Pat Kitchen again with 1500 triple Joe D engine

8/3-8/30 intermittent private testing cameras off

8/31 Tim Tyler Polaris 800 twin drag engine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

DynoTech : Kevin Cameron-the history of combustion chamber design, and applying that info to help engine performance

From Jim to Kevin Cameron:

 

If it's not too late, could "goin with the flow" [the name of the next tech article KC is writing for us explaining how fuel vaporization happens] also address sleds with EFI with injectors fitted to the throttle bodies, and maybe compare how fuel is vaporized coming out of an injector into the airstream compared to carbs like your original goin with the flow addressed? I think that perhaps half of the hotrod sleds we tune here are EFI and we need to understand the difference, if any. I cringe when guys come here to tune sleds with bored out EFI throttle bodies. We can spend hours power commander tuning part throttle fuel because the big throttle bodies add lots of air at 1/8th to 1/2 throttle compared to stock size, then often add zero air and zero HP at 100% throttle (maybe even less?). And probably those big throttle bodies with lower velocity at the same CFM do a worse job of vaporization. So we waste many hours of machining/ dyno time for zero power increase which is no fun, but helps pay the mortgage.

 

I can't recall if I told you about AMA #2 Kenny Coolbeth coming here from CT to have a local engine guy Ron Jewell (RLJ Race engines) modify his Kaw 450 flattrack bikes (Kenny had seen some good running RLJ bikes). His previous dyno guy was making him "happy" dyno sheets but Kenny was trying to race with unhappy engines. Kenny came here with I think a 57 DJHP dyno sheet from the engine guy from NH, and the 49ish DJHP we made here with that same bike matched the way the bike was going down the straightaways. Ron Jewell has modified Kenny's new bikes, making 57ish DJHP here, but with similar porting/ cam timing/ compression ratio can't quite match the power Ron gets from the Hondas and Yamahas (low-mid 60's), even though his flowbench tells him the Kaw CFM is nearly identical to his mod yamahas and Hondas. The Hondas and Yamahas have flat HP curves from 9000-11000 and the Kaw peaks at 9000ish then drops significantly as revs climb. Ron says the Kaws have higher piston domes than the others, w/ similar comp ratio. Early on with Kenny's 450 Ron dropped from 13.8/1 to 13.2/1 with less dome intrusion into the combustion chambers and picked up 4hp so he plans to go even lower. It reminds me of the time I bored my stock GS1100 out to 1150 with 11/1 domed pistons instead of flat 10/1 pistons and slowed the bike down. Bigger bore and domes pistons = less HP! I'll let you know Ron Jewell’s KX450 project works out. Regards, Jim C

 

From Kevin to Jim:

 

British racing singles of the 1930s started life with flat-topped pistons and compression in the 4.5 - 6-to-one range. This allowed them to pretty much copy the hemi 2V chamber pioneered by Fiat in their 1922 GP car engine, setting the two valves at a 90-100 degree included angle. But fuel octane number rose through the 1930s as Britain legalized use of the violent poison/antiknock tetraethyl lead and combined best available leaded gasoline with 50% "benzole", which was a by-product of coke production. Benzole was a catch-as-catch-can mixture of benzene, toluene, and xylene - all highly anti-knock aromatic compounds. With all that new ON, compression ratios could go up. It was a lot cheaper to make a new piston than a new head, so up, up went piston domes. Combustion had never been all that fast in OHV engines - there was no way to have squish as in flatheads/sidevalves. Along came Harry Weslake with a little help from the tangential intake port, which converted high intake velocity into rotary swirl around the cylinder axis. THis "stored" intake energy for later use as turbulence to accelerate combustion. Now a little math - making a true hemi chamber exactly doubles the surface area of the combustion bowl, as compared with the area of a disc whose diameter is the cylinder bore. And adding the matching piston dome did something similar to piston crown area - increased it a lot. This put piston temperature up, discouraging people from increasing bores and decreasing strokes for a long time. In 1950, here came Pole Leo Kuzmicki, working for Norton. If you imagine the tall piston dome as being made of fudge, he essentially pushed it down, forcing it outward, closer to the head surface everywhere except where valve clearance was needed. In those regions he brought the piston as close to the head as mechanically possible, creating OHV squish for the first time. As he pushed the top of the piston dome down, he created room above the now-flat piston top in which intake motion could persist all the way to TDC without being damped out by friction between moving gas and close-by metal surfaces. He transformed the old, slow "half an orange peel" combustion chamber into a faster-burning, much more compact chamber that was basically just the valve cutouts plus spark-plug area. The greatly improved Norton would have defeated the new Gilera-4s in GP racing that year, but Dunlop tires came apart on a couple of fast tracks and prevented what would otherwise have been runaway wins. Norton came back in 1951 and did the job - beating a potentially much more powerful Gilera. People today, in the 4-valve era, forget this great lesson - that just cramming a bunch of mixture up into a tight, badly-shaped combustion chamber and setting it off does not equal power. Or, as the late Keith Duckworth put it, "People are mesmerized by airflow, never reflecting that they must burn all that air and fuel they are getting into their engines." When Duckworth applied the 4V version of Kuzmicki's concept, the result was a flat-topped piston, a narrow valve angle, and a strict separation between as-close-as-possible squish and the most open, roomy combustion space. When Duckworth applied this concept to his DFV V8 GP car engine of 1967, it was able to defeat higher-revving V-12s. In place of Weslake's tangential intake, he biased his intakes to produce downdraft so that air flowed from the intake valves, across to the far cylinder wall, then down to the pison, across its crown, and back up the near cylinder wall. This, which he called "barrel motion",, is now called "tumble". The problem today is that too few builders realize there must be room in the combustion chamber for the turbulence needed for fast combustion. They just add material to the piston wherever it is easiest until they get the 13.8-to-one or whatever ratio their buddies told them they had to have. The piston now comes so close to the head that there really is NO combustion space. Any tumble-generated turbulence is damped out as the piston rises close to TDC, so they are having to use very long ignition timings for best torque. To a certain extent, this compromise must be tolerated, but the Kuzmicki/Duckworth idea has to be kept in mind at all times; make room for combustion turbulence. In some cases, like the truly terrible 5V Yamahas, the compromise really bites, so you can have either acceleration (from high compression that kills flame speed on top, causing weak peak power) or top-end (by lowering the compression enough to get back some top-end flame speed), but not both. When I asked Claudio Domenicali at Ducati how they have been able to shorten stroke again and again and still have competitive engines, while both Suzuki and Kawasaki have made new, shorter-stroke models that were slower than previous longer-stroke versions, he replied, "I cannot speak for other manufacturers, but in our case, we use a device like a small anemometer, placed in the cylinder. Then we vary the intake downdraft angle and port sizes until we get the tumble motion that our experience shows to be necessary." Sure, nothin' to it! Anyway, that is the modern combustion chamber conundrum in a nutshell. It really hurts in F1, where bore/stroke is 2.5, and they end up with ignition timings up in the 60s. Another problem is a social one. Racers don't mind being considered "advanced", but no one like to be thought "retarded". But where combustion is concerned, the more ignition timing your engine needs, the worse its combustion is revealed to be. Some people just can't get past the old idea that needing a lot of ignition advance is good. The reverse is true. A classic example of a bad engine is the old Honda 450 twin of the 1960s. Its tall piston dome and 78-degree valve angle made it into a heat-gatherer, and air just hates to go into a burning hot cylinder. It is delightful to be rid of air cooling at last! I have to go on another trip weekend after this, but am resolved to write the vaporization article you have asked for thereafter. I've just finished writing a "50-engines book", so there is more time available for other things. KC

 

 

 

Update from Jim to Kevin

 

I forwarded your info to Ron Jewel who has accepted that lower compression might be better if it rids the combustion chamber of much of that annoying dome. As the following graph shows, very little low end torque as lost, but torque and power from HP peak to rev limit was greatly improved (that's where Kenny needs the extra power on mile flat tracks!). This is a great improvement, but the Honda and Yamaha 450s that RLJ mods (both with smaller combustion chambers and flatter pistons at 13.8/1) make about the same HP at 9000, but then continue to climb and flatten out with 63-65 HP right to the rev limiters. And Ron notes that his Superflow Flowbench indicates all three brand ports being nearly identical after porting is completed. So work remains to be done (perhaps in the combustion chamber to copy the shape and dimensions of the others) to make the Kawasakis match the performance of the Hondas and Yamahas. Then Sunday (yes I work on weekends/holidays--mortgages and taxes must be paid!) I had a fellow dyno tune (on my 902 shaft dyno of course) a Kawasaki KZ1000 turned into a 1750cc NHRA pro stock dragbike that seems to have a similar dilemma. The owner expected peak HP to occur at 13-14000 RPM, but after 10,500 RPM, HP disappointingly began to tail off--not unlike the drop we see in the KX450 with domed piston. This drag engine has a huge cast MTC head with hemi combustion chambers that are each surely chock full of dome at TDC to obtain the diesel-like compression ratio these guys run. Perhaps what we have learned from your history lesson, and from RLJ's and my own actual experience can help the ProStock bike owner find the 50 extra HP he needs to be competitive! Thanks much for the great help, as always. Regards, Jim C

=================================================================

 

KC reply:The drag race guys historically want a lot of compression to snatch the tire loose and get that 60-foot time.

 

This may be the place where a person has to decide whether a really big project is warranted- i.e., reducing the vlave included angle and moving the valves apart to create a flatter chamber with adequate valve area.

 

That graph is eloquent! It says what I have tried to explain to myslef and others in the past- that torque gains from compression at low revs can esily turn into slow combustion, heat loss, and fading torque at higher revs. I was at the World Superbike event in Utah at the weekend and hd the opportunity to talk to Herr Gobmeier, who directs the BMW 1000 Superbike program. For this year (when they are finally successful) they reduced intake port sizes to shift breathing down-scale to increase acceleration and result in a less harsh torque curve that tires can tolerate. They have also reshaped their combustion chamber while slightly reducing compression ratio.

KC

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

DynoTech : Bad octane, Gus Bohne 1080 turbo, etc

BAD OCTANE

 

Octane cheating either intentional or otherwise seems worse this season than ever before! Why do we suspect that? We can hear pump gas detonation on the dyno more this year than in years past! It appears that more than ever before, people come here to tune their trail sleds with their own “fresh high test” and discover here that it’s really “low test”. Often, when we experience unusual detonation we can buy 93 octane from another gas station, and the knock goes away.  I often talk about the NYS Bureau of Weights and Measures who reports that roughly 10% of gasoline they test in this state is substandard. Dateline NBC took it upon themselves to test octane at California Exxon stations, and out of 85 samples of high test gas one in eight was substandard—the worst of which tested at 75 octane! Car and Driver wrote that the state of Michigan’s Bureau of Weights and Measures found that out of 2,816 samples of high octane pump gas, 217 were low octane. Is your state or province any different? 

 

How can we hear detonation occurring on the dyno? Sean Ray learned about listening to engine knock several years ago at Delphi where he is employed as a calibration engineer. Hyundai engineers came from Korea to Sean’s Delphi dyno cel with a roll of ¼” ID copper tubing that they attached to the engine Sean was calibrating for them. They drilled a hole in the control room wall, bolted the copper tube to the Hyundai engine and inserted the other end into the control room, just dangling in the air. Delphi engineers could now hear every click of detonation—which makes a loud snapping noise that emanates from the copper tube in the control room—sometimes even before the engines knock sensors could notice it! Sean brought the copper-tube deto sensor concept from his Delphi engine dyno cel to DTR several years ago. It’s an incredible tuning aid, and has saved many hundreds of pistons to date! We now listen for detonation here and usually can abort any test before engine damage occurs. Three or four audible clicks and we quit the test. On two-strokes we will never hear more than about twelve clicks of detonation—the engine will have seized by then!  Last season Sean and Tim Bender ran over 700 max power dyno tests on one mule 600 race engine for Hentges Racing, and lost zero pistons because Sean could hear clicks and abort. During similar max power testing in years prior to the copper tube, Tim used to bring a box of pistons and a jug of muriatic acid to clean the bores after seizing. Back then it was more wrenching and less testing. But today it’s much more efficient thanks to Sean’s Korean engineer pals!

 

Four-strokes can be more forgiving—each detonating compression stroke is followed by a piston-cooling intake stroke. This means that a few more intermittent clicks of deto can be heard and tolerated by the engine before really bad things happen. Four-stroke piston seizures from deto are rare. Instead, when continual deto makes spark plug ground straps red hot, preignition can occur which can create the worst damage! Then, peak pressure will climb to the moon, which can crack ring lands, stretch the head bolts/ studs and either blow the headgasket(s) or just lift the heads enough to allow combustion pressure into the coolant passages, spewing coolant out the reservoir overflow. Too often people try to rectify detonation problems not by increasing octane or more conservative tuning, but instead by using stronger head bolts/ studs, O-ringing combustion chambers, copper headgaskets, etc. Then, instead of blowing headgaskets we might see studs being pulled out of the crankcase threads, conrods bend or break and cylinder and head gasket sealing surfaces fried into junk as though attacked by a plasma torch!  Tune those high boost engines! Don’t scrimp on octane!

 

With proper tuning for the available octane, stock fasteners and headgaskets will survive incredible power increases! Justin Fuller of Full Power Performance prefers stock head fasteners in his 200-400+ HP turbocharged Yamaha four strokes—noting that stock fasteners are designed to stretch and continue clamping properly as the aluminum heads grow with normal heat expansion. Heavier larger diameter high tensile strength fasteners may not stretch enough as the aluminum heads expand and can instead create severe cylinder head distortion that can cause compression/ coolant leaks even where no severe detonation occurs.

 

So, back to the issue at hand—what do we do about this awful situation regarding cheating on octane? To be safe and conservative, ALL HOTROD TRAIL SLEDS SHOULD BE TUNED TO BE DETONATION-FREE ON 87 OCTANE! A conservative tune for 87 octane might result in only 3-4% reduction in peak HP so it’s not a great penalty to pay. Then, leaner jetting or a second more powerful Boondocker or PCV map can be used for lake racing etc when a few gallons of race gas/ av gas can be added to the tank for safety.

 

It’s quite possible that when we tested Gary Berwind’s Z1 turbo with the Turbo Dynamics’ 4 stage tune, he may have had less than 93 octane in his tank even though he paid for 93 octane that day. Severe detonation made it impossible to run the high power settings without water/ methanol and lots of it!  But now, after this dyno tuning session Gary can probably run his sled anywhere with any octane gas. He just needs to have his water/ methanol reservoir topped off, typically with windshield washer fluid. My opinion is that anyone with an overboosted Z1/ F1100T should run race gas, and/ or invest in a water/ methanol injection system. So WHEN (not IF) you buy 85-87 octane even though the pump sign indicates 91-93 octane you won’t need to depend upon factory knock protection to save your engine. And remember, the factory Z1/ F1100T ECU will not look for deto above 8300 RPM!

 

My own experience with boost and water/ methanol is with the used Whipple supercharger I bought from my pal Rusty in Rapid City SD for my 2002 Chevy Avalanche 5.3 liter V8. Based upon Sean Ray’s calibration work at Delphi we understand that the 5.3 is tuned to the edge of deto NA. So adding boost, especially with no intercooler, is almost guaranteed to create knock. With 6-7 psi boost, my Whipplecharged 5.3 would just pull lots of timing in reaction to light deto even with Sean’s reprogrammed EFI Live tune that gave us 11.0/1 A/F ratio on boost. The knock-induced retarded timing severely limited the power increase.  But by adding a water/ methanol injection system the compressed charge temp is drastically cooled to about ambient temperature, and I can run knock-free now with 6psi boost on 87 octane gas. The water/ methanol condenses the compressed intake air thus dropping observed boost pressure a bit with the fixed speed supercharger.

It seems that a compact water/ methanol injection system would be a huge benefit to NA trail riders with heavily modified engines who buy gas on the trail and want max HP. I haven’t seen anyone here with that sort of system, but isn’t it about time?

 

 

 

 

ANOTHER EXCELLENT AFTERMARKET ARCTIC CAT 1000 Y-PIPE

 

Ted from Terra Alps Racing in British Columbia, Canada (www.terraaplpsracing.com)  sent us a stamped Y pipe he makes and sells for Cat 1000 twins. Local Cat wrench Don Zuzze brought this 2007 F1000 bone stocker for a PCV tune, and we tested the Terra Alps Y-pipe compared to the stock Y-pipe as shown here. Adding 5% fuel at 100 and 80% throttle positions with a PCV, the A/F ratio was held constant. As shown in the following graph, HP is improved from midrange to top end. And note the precision of the control of fuel flow by the Power Commander.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHRINK WRAPPED vs BATHTUB HEADS and BLOCKS

 

A few weeks ago I got my first close look at the Ford FR9 NASCAR race engine designed by RoushYates on an episode of “How It’s Made”. In this program, we can see how both the heads and block have that “shrinkwrapped” appearance—the external surfaces closely match the perceived shapes on the internal structures of the heads and block!

 

Here’s a good side view photo of the engine:

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://image.hotrod.com/f/30726978%2Bw750%2Bst0/hrdp_0911_01_z%2BNASCAR_race_engines%2B.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.toonutsracing.com/smf/index.php%3Ftopic%3D928.0&h=480&w=640&sz=50&tbnid=45Tpd7WlDiKwZM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=134&zoom=1&docid=QxBrKk8UckgUZM&sa=X&ei=aHw5T5KzOZK_0QGd76iwAg&ved=0CDoQ9QEwAg&dur=2099

 

Kevin Cameron helps describe the advantages of small volume high velocity cooling passages in my blogs of Feb 5, 2009 and January 6, 2011, as well as KC’s excellent “Turbulence Needed” tech article in the subscribers’ pages.  It’s obvious that the RoushYates engineers “shrinkwrapped” the external surfaces of the exhaust sides of the heads and sides of the blocks to minimize coolant volume, and maximize coolant velocity which increases the transfer of heat from hot engine parts to the radiator/ heat exchanger.

 

  

HTG POLARIS 1080 TRIPLE w/ GUS BOHNE TURBO SYSTEM

 

Gus has the carb issues on Art Bass’ turbo 1080 resolved, and now we were able to tune it on the dyno. But it didn’t take long to see that the triple pipes on this sled were too short, causing HP to climb with revs until I let off the throttle at 9800! Note that torque has not yet peaked at 9800. But if I stayed into the throttle the torque and HP peaks would surely have gone beyond 10,000, totally unnecessary with a big boosted engine like his. So Gus is going to lengthen the pipes enough to bring peak power down into the 8500-9000 RPM range. Then he and Art can come back to DTR and turn up the boost!

 

EngSpd

STPPwr

STPTrq

LamAF1

ExhPrs

BoostP

Baro_P

AirInT

Vap_P

RPM  

CHp  

Clb-ft

Ratio

psig 

psig 

InHga

degF 

InHg 

7600

246.1

170.1

12.84

16.2

12.7

28.97

37.1

0.16

7700

249.0

169.8

12.88

16.5

12.8

28.97

37.1

0.16

7800

253.3

170.6

12.92

16.5

12.9

28.97

37.1

0.16

7900

258.3

171.7

12.98

16.6

13.0

28.97

37.1

0.16

8000

264.1

173.4

12.88

16.7

13.1

28.97

37.1

0.16

8100

267.1

173.2

12.74

16.6

13.2

28.97

37.1

0.16

8200

271.3

173.8

12.54

16.8

13.3

28.98

37.1

0.16

8300

275.3

174.2

12.36

17.2

13.4

28.98

37.1

0.16

8400

278.7

174.3

12.25

17.5

13.5

28.98

37.1

0.16

8500

281.7

174.1

12.17

18.1

13.7

28.98

37.1

0.16

8600

287.3

175.5

12.08

18.4

13.7

28.98

37.1

0.16

8700

297.6

179.7

11.93

18.4

13.8

28.98

37.1

0.16

8800

305.2

182.1

11.88

18.6

13.8

28.98

37.1

0.16

8900

315.6

186.3

11.81

18.7

13.9

28.98

37.1

0.16

9000

327.6

191.2

11.73

18.7

14.0

28.98

37.1

0.16

9100

350.0

202.0

11.66

19.0

14.2

28.98

37.1

0.16

9200

361.0

206.1

11.64

19.2

14.2

28.98

37.1

0.16

9300

368.1

207.9

11.62

19.3

14.3

28.98

37.1

0.16

9400

379.0

211.8

11.65

19.6

14.4

28.98

37.1

0.16

9500

394.6

218.2

11.69

19.7

14.4

28.98

37.1

0.16

9600

404.7

221.4

11.70

19.8

14.4

28.98

37.1

0.16

9700

413.4

223.8

11.77

20.6

14.5

28.98

37.1

0.16

9800

418.9

224.5

11.87

20.7

14.6

28.98

37.1

0.16

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 04, 2011

DynoTech : Winter dyno schedule

11/4 Dead one Dave tuning his new stock engine 2012 Procross 800 for max power for hilldrags.

11/7 WakPak Joe tuning a 1000 twin for hilldrags.

11/11 Sean Weir with a SnowCross 600 mod SkiDoo. Also Tom Bachly with a new 2012 bone stock SkiDoo 600RS, tuned for max HP dyno test and tuning info posted on members' section now.

11/12 Bill Gregory, SkiDoo 800 triple mod, dialed in a dandy timing curve on his MSD.

11/19 Don Zuzze PCV tuning two seemingly identical F6's (required totally different maps) and one F1000.

11/20 Rob Lathrop fine tuning for max HP on a full mod SkiDoo Trigstad 600 twin. Also Dave Lathrop with an improved stock SkiDoo 800 twin also getting ready for hilldrags. our new data acquisition system gives us a "Density Altitude" reading while we test. DA is a combination of baro pressure, temperature, and humidity (water grains per pound of air). With max power carb dyno jetting created here at a given DA, we can then use a Kestrel 4500 Racing Weather Station wherever you're racing to get accurate DA. Then using just the altitude half of a Mikuni Pocket Tune sliderule, perfect jetting can be maintained. Pro racers tune at DTR then with this system perfect max HP jetting can be maintained froom sea level subzero to mountain racing out west.

11/21 D&D Dale & Glenn tuning for high safe pump gas HP with production F1100T. Muffler testing, HiJacker testing, all with stock turbo outlet pipe.

11/26 anonymous tuner, top secret today.

11/27 Mark Fisher getting ready to hilldrag with a Sherlock Crossfire 800/ Jaws race pipes.

11/28 TurboDynamics Ben with his production F1100T, testing his various ECU tunes all with high flow turbine outlet pipe and stainless steel fairly quiet muffler. to be posted soon

11/29 greedy Bill Swoyer looking for even more HP out of his CrankShop 1500 hilldragsled. Larry-this sled needs to run in the AmSnow Adirondack Shootout on 12/9! We have an all-motor class in the Lakeracer division!

11/29 WakPak Joe with his 1000 twin again, looking for more HP.

11/30 Vintage oval racers Brandon Hadley and Al Young tuning two race sleds--a SkiDoo 340RV and a Polaris TX440 for Eagle River.

12/1 Mad Canadian Gerry Prosser (Bender Canada) PCV tuning an EXUP Apex with Yamacharger, and trying out stock vs MBRP vs Bender vs D&D mufflers. this data may be posted on members' pages in later December. 

12/1 D&D Dale testing stock 2012 Apex then upgrading HP with PCV, D&D Stainless muffler, and high flow airbox cover and high RPM carb inlet boots. will post this after the 12/9 Adirondack Shootout  

12/1 PM Dale demonstrating big HP on their trail ported/ single pipe 2012 ProCross 800. will post this after the 12/9 Adirondack Shootout

12/4 Gary Foster tuning his 07 crossfire 800 with D&D shim kit and porting by Dale Fredericks. the dyno cold intake air refrigeration was necessary to get accurate winter tune today. outside air was 55 deg F, so intake air was chilled to 25 degrees.

12/4 through 12/7 certification dyno testing all of the Adirondack Shootout stockers--new Polaris dealer this year Bill Lutz of Fun Unlimited in Gouvernor NY. Also Tuesday we're doing all the Cats, plus hilldrag sleds the Michael Koz and Jeff Cerio need to sneak in for a quick tune.

12/11 Gary Berwind testing his Z1 w/ large intercooler, water methanol inj, Turbo Dynamics 4 stage tune on real pump gas. results posted on members' pages

12/13 Michael Kozlowski getting ready for hilldrag season

12/16 Allen Young, tuning Polaris TX440 freeair vintage oval racer

12/18 FPP Justin testing a Yamaha RX1 with 44 Megatron carbs replacing the stock CV carbs. significant gains in airflow and HP

12/19 Tim Huber getting it spot-on with his Crossfire 1200, Boondocker N2O

12/19 Jake Lehnen using his gift certificate to test and tune his Crankshop 600 hilldrag mod sled

12/22 Dave Patrick dials in his BMP piped Crossfire 1000--one tune for Oneida lakeracing at .55 and another tune for trail riding with Tug Hill mystery gas at .60

12/26 Zach Brown getting the most tunable HP out of his Merc 440 SnoTwister vintage racer.

12/26 Steve Stasko with another vintage racer--Polaris TX440

12/27 Gus Bohne/ Steve Duetti/ DNE gonzo turbo tuning session with mega-boosted HTG 1080 triple, MachZ1000 twin, DNE1700 quad-- HP records are smashed today, then posted on the members' section of this website

12/31 AMA racer Kenny Coolbeth's 2012 Kaw 450 flatrack race bike, Ron Jewel (RLJ Racing) modified engine tuning for every tenth of a HP on our CycleDyn. Also Ron's brother Randy tuning his HO800 for max power on pump gas. "who'd a thunk" we would need to refrigerate outside air to properly tune a sled on 12/31! But decent air for tuning a race bike!

 1/2 Trevor Chadwick's SnoPro600/ SS900 big bore doesn't anyone make a 12 degree offset timing key? Carl McQuillen Race engines, LeRoy NY EDM's offset keyways in Cat flywheels, Trevor needed lots more timing to make max HP on the big bore--first 10 degree keyway they've done.

1/3 Jason Yandricha--SkiDoo 800 triple shoehorned into a rev 440 chassis with a dandy motor mount kit from Bondi. hit the rev limiter way before the HP peak was reached, needs to get ECU reprogrammed to take care of that.

1/3 Jeremy Rataczyk--another F9ss engine--this one in a 440 SnoPro chassis, complete with EFI.

1/5 JD Powersports, getting independent test results of their new F1100T with their 4 stage ECU tune. results will be posted 1/26

1/6 Justin Hulsizer PCV tuning his F6/ 800 Jeff Stinson Big Bore with D&D Monster Twin pipes.

1/11 JJ Elmer getting his stock Mach Z twin w/ CS quiet twin pipes ready for Onieda Lake (if it ever freezes!). needed to refrigerate and dry the dyno intake air on January 11 to get a good 20 degree F boondocker tune!

1/15 Jeff Sills 2009 Crossfire 1000 w/ D&D Ypipe and pipe, creating one good trail map and one lakerace map. finally--we have cold outside air for tuning.

1/18 Andy Stiles testing pipes, and fine tuning his Polaris 600 ex-Hentges Racing hilldrag mod

1/19 George Brown and Wayne Yeardon, back for even more HP with Zach's 440 SnoTwister

1/24 Jason Owens, trying for more HP with HJ Schroeder's Cat PS1000 twin.

1/25 518er Todd Hogan with some sort of HillDrag SkiDoo

1/27 Craig Gabel Cat 500/ 720 Big Bore

2/1 or therabouts turbo maven Gus Bohne with the boosted HTG 1080 triple, looking for lots of HP. 

2/4 Hank Yeomans, F7 HillDragger

2/14 Jake Lehnen SkiDoo 600rs improved stock Hilldrag sled

2/19 Dave Behuniak and Al Miller tuning Yamaha lakeracers with Justin Fuller

3/1 Jake Lehnen one more time

3/2 Todd Hogan SkiDoo 800 hilldrag sled

3/8 Matt Boardway Polaris ProR 800 hilldrag stocker

3/10 Tim Wood AC F7 hilldrag stocker

3/17 Heath Lynk HTG 1000 asphalt racer

3/17 Randy Crounse AC F12 with n2o

3/21 Jim Stanley/ Glenn Hall AC Z1 D&D big turbo lakeracer

3/24 Justin Fuller Yam SRX700 prostocker

3/30 Paul Cross Wildcat 700 mod

 

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, November 12, 2011

DynoTech : SuperFlow 902 dyno terminology explained

Dyno Terminology—Fresh and Refresh

 

The new SuperFlow 902 software has some subtle differences in channel headings in our test data compared to our original 25 year old  SuperFlow 901 software. For long term DTR members I need to clarify the difference, and for new DTR members I need to explain the channel information in our dyno printouts, and what each channel means to us.

 

EngSpd RPM self-explanatory—this is RPM, and on engines with digital tachs, the readings have proven to be identical from dyno to sled. But analog sled tachometers are another story—vast differences can be seen from digital dyno RPM to analog sled tachometer readings. So it pays to have analog sled tachometers calibrated electronically (Aaen does this for a small fee) or with a digital tach like those sold by Stihl (less than $100) for tuning chainsaws. Those are perfectly accurate. But keep in mind that the peak HP RPM on our dyno tests is with pipe(s) extremely hot. And since the speed of sound increases with temperature, the HP peak in the field may be at lower RPM (trail riders on-off-on throttle) or at higher RPM (lake runners or mountain climbers who might spend minutes at WOT). Sled dragracers used to think that they achieved best acceleration by clutching to the “peak torque RPM” which often occurs 2-400 rpm lower than dyno test HP peak. But now we know that we clutch to a shifting HP peak—cool pipes on takeoff will make peak HP several hundred RPM lower than hot dyno test pipes, and finding that constantly changing peak HP RPM is critical in creating best acceleration.

 

STPPwr CHp horsepower, corrected to 60 degrees sea level baro 29.92 in hg.
This is derived by taking RPM x torque lb/ft divided by 5252. Complicated initially but it takes into consideration the twisting force and how quickly it can be done (RPM). HP is what we need to create acceleration and maintain top speed. Read on:

 

STPTrq Clb-ft this is the twisting force, or torque that the crankshaft is exerting at any given RPM, corrected to 60 degrees sea level barometer 29.92 in hg. But by itself, torque does no work—it takes speed—lots of speed—to do meaningful “work” (HP). To emphasize that, I sometimes talk about me (200 lb Jim) riding my Schwinn bicycle with 12” long pedal cranks. With my 300 lb girlfriend riding on my shoulders (facing forward of course), by grunting and lifting my butt off the bike seat I can make 500 lb/ft of torque at the pedal crank! That kind of torque should create wicked acceleration, shouldn’t it? But my spindly legs can only muster 3 RPM! So based upon the math RPM x torque lb/ft/ 5252 = HP that means that I can make about ¼ HP. Not bad for a 62 year old. But if I were instead twisting the throttle on a Honda 90cc scooter with 8 lb/ft at 5000 rpm I would be making 7.5HP—accelerating much harder—even with my 300 lb honey riding with me! No contest. It takes HP to create acceleration. We need a combo of torque and lots revs to do work—to make HP. 

 

FuelAB- fuel flow into the engine in pounds per hour. This is a combination of the two dyno fuel flowmeters (flowmeter A and flowmeter B), measuring fuel flow from the sleds’ EFI pump to the rail, or from the mechanical pump to the carbs. Flowmeters can be used individually to measure N2O flow separately from carbs/ EFI. But combining the two flow readings is necessary for computing BSFC.

 

FulA_B- fuel flow from EFI pump to rail (A) minus fuel flow from bypass regulator back to the tank (B). Can’t use a so we must use a _ instead. Polaris uses this type of system.

 

BSFCAB and BSFA_B- pounds of fuel per HP per hour. 25 years ago when I bought this dyno system there was no manual to explain the significance of this number. Early adventuresome guinea pigs (including all of the current eastern US aftermarket sled modifiers) and I proceeded to just tune engines blindly to max HP and beyond until engines seized. But after our 100th piston or so, we realized that there was a pattern to this destruction if we went too far beyond max HP.  Fuel flow is meaningful information and we finally understood that our race engines would make best power at @.55 lb/hphr and pump gas engines needed @.70 lb/hphr to be reliable. Don’t go lower than that! But today, with modern race engine configuration two stroke race engines can make best power closer to .50 lb/hphr and new stock engines can be completely reliable at .60 lb/hphr and even lower! SkiDoo ETEC EFI systems allow way less short-circuiting, and a greater percentage of fuel flow contributes to HP, and not blowing out the exhaust thus reducing BSFC to bizarrely low numbers.  New cooling system designs like those used by Arctic Cat employ modern “reverse” cooling systems like all modern automotive race engines, deliver the lowest temp coolant to the combustion chambers where it’s needed most allowing way more deto-free power! High volume “bathtub” coolant passages are passé, and smaller volume but higher velocity “shrinkwrapped” head coolant passages scour heat from combustion chambers way more efficiently! They use high velocity, turbulent coolant flow to maximize heat transfer from hot engine parts to cold heat exchangers. “Low and slow” is for smoking barbecue meat, and for smoking pistons!

 

Air_1s scfm- This is the airflow through the engine in Standard Cubic Ft per Minute. The dyno flowmeter is affixed to the airbox, or inserted in the insulated duct from the DTR refrigerated air system to the sleds’ air intake.

 

AFRAB and AFRA_B ratio- this is the mathematical ratio of air pounds per hour/ fuel based upon the weight of the air (converted from CFM based upon air density) to pounds of fuel per hour. 10/1 is rich (richer than 10/1 can result in misfire), and 17/1 is lean (leaner than 17/1 can result in misfire).

 

LamAF1- the SF902 uses an Innovate wide band A/F ratio meter to measure exhaust gas, and give us A/F ratio readings. The O2 sensor can be plumbed into the exhaust via a bung welded into the pipe, or with a dyno probe—with a long ¼ ID steel tube inserted colonoscopy-like into the stinger/ muffler. This reading can show leaner than the mechanical reading if oxygenated fuel is used.

 

LM1air- if there is no airbox and no possibility of accurate airflow readings, then approximate airflow SCFM can be determined by comparing mechanical fuel flow and the wideband A/F ratio. The math is done by the 902 computer and SCFM is shown.

 

ExhPrs psig- this is the average gauge pressure inside the tuned pipe(s) measured with a combination pressure transducer/ open element temperature probe in the fat part of a pipe center section. To generalize, 4.0 psi seems to be optimal in creating max HP in two stroke engines. If backpressure is lower, then power might be sacrificed. But then there is less possibility of detonation-producing active radicals being packed back into the combustion chamber by the pipe(s) return sound wave(s).

 

Exh_1 deg F- this measurement tells us that a pipe is at optimal temperature for best HP. Also it’s critical in telling us where peak HP occurs. The most savvy clutch tuners/ dataloggers can use this particular dyno test data to ensure that their engines run at max HP RPM from clutch engagement to the end of the track, or to the first turn.

 

DenAlt- “Density Altitude” in feet. This is a computed combination of barometric pressure, temperature and humidity averaged out into “feet”. This is particularly useful for tuners of carbureted sleds. With dyno power related to a particular jet size and density altitude, a Mikuni sled rule can be used with a $200 Kestrel 4500 hand held race computer to optimize jetting regardless of altitude or temp! And yes it works for racers and trail riders that run from well below sea level DA to over 7000 ft.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

DynoTech : Fall testing schedule

9/8 unnamed Cat F6 stock dragracer, PCV tuning for max HP

9/11 Frankie Amalphie Yam SX700 triple asphalt racer, PSI Modblasters

9/11 New Superflow coolant flowmeter arrived today!

9/12 Kevin and Nick Albright nostalgia sled tuning- two Merc 340 (one snowttwister, one trailtwister) needed the dyno booster starter moter to drive these hotrod piston port racers up to 7000 RPM on the dyno, where they could finally go to WOT, hold their own and be tested! Also a 20 year old Black Magic 800 triple (made out of three 500 twin cylinders on an old triple crankcase). Great fun for me since we haven't tuned any of these for many years!

9/19 H.Kirsch and T.Koz here w/ Glenn Hall tuning two D&D Cat 1200 twostroke Boondocker turbo systems. The smell of VP import 120 octane gas still permeates the dyno room 10 days later...

9/21 Full Power Justin dialing in a PS800 SkiDoo triple.

9/23 Great grampa 70+ Paul Cross (father of Tripod Dan) tuning his rat-rod Cat 6000/ Wildcat 700 mod. I first met Paul about 40 yrs ago when he came into my welding supply to see if he could borrow a small cylinder of oxygen. He wanted something small enough to hide beneath his snowmobile jacket, unzipped just enough to try to squirt some O2 into the single carb of his sled just to try to beat up on a snowmobiler pal of his. I can't recall the outcome of that adventure. But getting off the subject of dyno schedule, the first time I met Terry Paine (who would eventually marry DynoTech Debbie and later take over Bender Racing when Tim Bender decided to go NASCAR racing) maybe 30 years ago he, too, came to my welding supply to borrow a small 20 cu ft O2 cylinder and 10' of hose. His cousin had just bought a Dodge Superbee 383 magnum and Terry convinced him that they could really make tire smoke if they ducted O2 into the air cleaner! I fixed Terry up with a loaner bottle and hose--they ducted to hose into the air cleaner snorkel and drove off to enjoy the extra HP with Terry riding shotgun, grinning, with the O2 bottle in his lap. Five minutes later, the Superbee was back in my parking lot--idling on maybe seven cylinders and with the hood buckled from the exploded air cleaner. True story, with no embelishment needed!

9/24 Brad Linsey trying to figure out why his Hooper 1108 triple asphalt sled would lay down after half track. Once again, vibrating carbs were the culprit, causing foaming race gas and float bowls going dry. We fixed this today by strapping 5 lb of weight to the carbs.

9/27 Tim Huber, Cat 1200 twin trying to tune for max power for outlaw drags. So electronic gremlin is haunting this machine, and as happens occasionally the gremlin could not be found. 

9/29 Canadian Dave Hutchinson coming to see why he keeps detonating pistons on his HTG 1000 triple. once again, vibration was the culprit...causing poor fuel delivery into the carbs...we tied my 6lb pinch bar to the carbs, and fuel flow returned to normal. Beware stiff motor mounts, and imbalanced or out of true crankshafts!

10/3 Bob Brown trying to eliminate deto on a custom SkiDoo trail hotrod. jetting was the culprit on this one--.52 won't cut it on pump gas on these engines

10/10 Greg Van Heulen CFR1000 tune

10/19 D&D Dale & Glenn dialing in Kevin Hunter's Crossfire 1200 turbo--over 415hp with no clicks of deto. Also doing their own muffler testing on a prepro XF1100 turbo...

10/22 Dave Peterson's FPP Nytro turbo bone stock engine with boost = 325hp, also Jack Lloyd tuning a Yamaha FPP modified GPX433 free air vintage racer 

10/24 Boondocker tuning a Cat 2012 procross 800 w/ RKTek 925 big bore. Hope the DynoCams will be running! good power, dyno/tuning data is posted on members' section.

11/4 Dead one Dave tuning his new stock engine 2012 Procross 800 for max power for hilldrags.

11/7 WakPak Joe tuning a 1000 twin for hilldrags.

11/11 Sean Weir with a SnowCross 600 mod SkiDoo. Also Tom Bachly with a new 2012 bone stock SkiDoo 600RS, tuned for max HP dyno test and tuning info posted on members' section now.

11/12 Bill Gregory, SkiDoo 800 triple mod, dialed in a dandy timing curve on his MSD.

11/19 Don Zuzze PCV tuning two seemingly identical F6's (required totally different maps) and one F1000.

11/20 Rob Lathrop fine tuning for max HP on a full mod SkiDoo Trigstad 600 twin. Also Dave Lathrop with an improved stock SkiDoo 800 twin also getting ready for hilldrags. our new data acquisition system gives us a "Density Altitude" reading while we test. DA is a combination of baro pressure, temperature, and humidity (water grains per pound of air). With max power carb dyno jetting created here at a given DA, we can then use a Kestrel 4500 Racing Weather Station wherever you're racing to get accurate DA. Then using just the altitude half of a Mikuni Pocket Tune sliderule, perfect jetting can be maintained. Pro racers tune at DTR then with this system perfect max HP jetting can be maintained froom sea level subzero to mountain racing out west.

11/21 D&D Dale & Glenn tuning for high safe pump gas HP with production F1100T. Muffler testing, HiJacker testing, all with stock turbo outlet pipe.

11/26 anonymous tuner, top secret today.

11/27 Mark Fisher getting ready to hilldrag with a Sherlock Crossfire 800/ Jaws race pipes.

11/28 TurboDynamics Ben with his production F1100T, testing his various ECU tunes all with high flow turbine outlet pipe and stainless steel fairly quiet muffler. to be posted soon

11/29 greedy Bill Swoyer looking for even more HP out of his CrankShop 1500 hilldragsled. Larry-this sled needs to run in the AmSnow Adirondack Shootout on 12/9! We have an all-motor class in the Lakeracer division!

11/29 WakPak Joe with his 1000 twin again, looking for more HP.

11/30 Vintage oval racers Brandon Hadley and Al Young tuning two race sleds--a SkiDoo 340RV and a Polaris TX440 for Eagle River.

12/1 Mad Canadian Gerry Prosser (Bender Canada) PCV tuning an EXUP Apex with Yamacharger, and trying out stock vs MBRP vs Bender vs D&D mufflers. this data may be posted on members' pages in later December. 

12/1 D&D Dale testing stock 2012 Apex then upgrading HP with PCV, D&D Stainless muffler, and high flow airbox cover and high RPM carb inlet boots. will post this after the 12/9 Adirondack Shootout  

12/1 PM Dale demonstrating big HP on their trail ported/ single pipe 2012 ProCross 800. will post this after the 12/9 Adirondack Shootout

12/4 Gary Foster tuning his 07 crossfire 800 with D&D shim kit and porting by Dale Fredericks. the dyno cold intake air refrigeration was necessary to get accurate winter tune today. outside air was 55 deg F, so intake air was chilled to 25 degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

DynoTech : New equipment thanks to Kevin Cameron

Coming next: a $2200 coolant flowmeter to integrate into our SuperFlow 902 data acquisition system...

I subscribe to Cycle World magazine primarily to read CW Technical Editor Kevin Cameron’s (KC’s) monthly TDC (Top Dead Center) column. Recently he did one on turbulence, which relates in part to the "Bathtub vs Shrinkwrapped heads" info he provided us (scroll down in the blog section to read that). So I asked KC to provide us an update article to explain turbulence and its benefits, both in snowmobile combustion chambers and cooling systems. That five page article is now posted on our subscribers' pages.

There are times when we question a stock sled's ability to properly cool itself, much less one modified with higher than stock power levels. Last year, Boyesen sent me a billet water pump impeller for a Polaris twin that I would like to test. Joe Dispirito has made some billet thermostat housings that he says reduce Polaris engine temperatures in the field. This new coolant flowmeter will enable us to assess both, and estimate the velocity of the coolant flow, in ft/second, through the heat exchangers. The flowmeter is a short 1” diameter turbine with a long cable which will enable us to test coolant flow on the sleds, with coolant flowing through the sleds' heat exchangers.

And how about Kevin Cameron's opinion of the most ideal, highest power, highest turbulence producing squish clearance at .027" even on two-stroke roadrace bikes that endure minutes at WOT? Certainly controversial for those of us who are used to seeing .050-.060" squish clearance in sled engines modified for maximum power. Sure, there are lots of powerful engines winning races with .055” squish. But couldn't all of those engines make even more power with pistons .005" from kissing the heads, and squish band width and timing optimized on the dyno? From what I've seen here, yes!

==============================================================

There are some 30-odd articles by Kevin Cameron in our archives. When you scroll down the subscribers pages to the 37 scanned copies of the early printed DynoTechs, you will find in most of them a technical article (TCD-The Cellar Dwellar) by KC on all things two-stroke and snowmobile engine performance related. Many young sled hotrodders who are DTR members make a mistake by ignoring the "old stuff". But in those old scanned issues in the archives is a treasure trove of meaningful information. It may not be too exciting reading about obsolete 650 piston port triples, 110 HP Wildcats, 75 HP Phazers, etc but most of what we have an understanding of today was learned back then, and documented in those scanned printed issues.

We've all been fortunate to have Kevin Cameron to help explain things that have baffled and bewildered us ever since we began testing and printing results back around 1988. Even today, just when we think we "know it all" (tongue-in-cheek), something will come along that needs explanation by KC and he still takes the time to help us to figure out what's going on. Turbulent flow of air and coolant is a great example of that.

I became acquainted with Kevin Cameron about 24 years ago. Kevin had built a Honda Hawk roadrace engine for a New Englander named Ed Abdo. The mods included a set of Keihin flatslides Kevin had converted to downdraft operation with stock floatbowls machined off, and remote floatbowls added. Ed had been unable to get the engine to run cleanly--too rich or too lean everywhere. In 1987 (before the invention of the DynoJet inertia bike dyno) C&H Dyno Service (that's what we called it before it became DynoTech Research) was one of the few dyno testing facilities that could accommodate a motorcycle engine in the bike’s frame using splined trans output shaft (never call them countershafts!) adaptors to connect engine to the dyno absorber. So Ed Abdo came here out of desperation. He showed up here with a shoebox full of every tuning component Keihin made for those carbs, and Ed and I dyno tuned this gurgley thing--madly swapping pilots, air jets, needles, tubes, mains etc on those custom carbs until they worked perfectly, and made lots more HP. At the time, I think Kevin was most impressed because the changes we made to correct the mixture on those carbs in some cases contradicted the Keihin carb manual! Two monkeys with an instrumented dyno, and lots of tuning parts can create excellence!  But we kept at it until we had relative perfection. And the actual airflow/ fuel flow data was as intriguing to KC as well as the output shaft torque and HP.

Kevin Cameron subsequently agreed to become “Technical Editor” of my DynoTech newsletter, providing engine-related technical info that helped educate us then-novice sled tuners. About the same time, he became a consulting engineer for Texas high schooler Colin Edwards' (who grew up to be two time world Superbike champion and now races for Yamaha in GP-1) motorcycle roadracing team, which was financed by actor Woody Harrelson. The race team and Kevin came here several times to test and tune incredible Yamaha TZ250 (90ish HP at the output shaft) bikes. Those were enjoyable, educational (as much for me as for them!) times.

Over the years, Kevin would occasionally even consult with me on particular issues about what I might have experienced on my dyno. He appreciated my opinion on things, since he suggested that I had a unique perspective--virtually everything I knew and at least partially understood came from actual dyno testing--not clouded by preconceived notions and opinions. I was honored to receive an acknowledgement in KC’s 176 page “Sportbike Performance Handbook” (MBI Publishing) in 1998.  

Read Kevin’s piece on Turbulence, and engine builders please experiment with those squish bands! It should be done methodically on a repeatable dyno with copper tube connected to the engine to listen for knock. There’s surely hidden HP there! It’s great fun when a racer comes to test with a box full of chambers and a means to quickly change timing. Stay tuned this season forward as we examine and document the advantages of high velocity in allowing/ creating higher power levels in both trail and race engines.

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, June 05, 2011

DynoTech : Spring- summer 2011 schedule etc

4/20 Chukaroo Hamrah/ Steve Petshke very powerful PS1000 asphalt drag engine.

4/21 PAer Marty Walborn, full mod Banshee drag quad w/ billet 850cc engine.

4/21 pm Dave Weisner/ Steve Mazolla 936cc Storm asphalt drag engine

4/22 Ron Cooper SkiDoo 600 mod water racer

4/22pm Ryan Muehlig Polaris 600 mod water racer

5/7 TR McGinnis Yamaha YFZ450 making more power with Wood drag exhaust. Photo shows how we dyno tune quads, with measured fuel flow gravity fed from a Holley float bowl to the carbs.

 

5/16 anonymous racer tuning a crankshop SkiDoo 800 twin full mod

5/25 Gene Hurin w/ HTG 1000 triple improver, testing the new Lectron 50 mm carbs. Gene was the victim of stale C14--the worst of the worst when it comes to losing it's light ends--he bought it from a supplier in Albany NY out of a re-sealed 50 gallon drum, came here and on the first pass four-corner seized it at a "safe" 12/1 and 80 degree F coolant. So now we know that it was net lean-to-death 16/1 in the combustion chamber, then the globules of unvaporized fuel were vaporized by heat and burned in the pipes, fooling the wideband measuring A/F ratio at the pipe outlet. So piston was fixed, and Sunoco Maximal from a full new drum was used, no change in carb settings, ran 20 passes with even leaner power jet settings down to 13/1 and no problem. I like those new 50mm carbs too!

5/27 Chad Andolina w/ SkiDoo 800 triple asphalt sled

6/3 Mark Cross Banshee 350 mod field drag quad, added 12 hp with maxed out jetting/ timing!

6/3pm Tripod Dan Cross dyno tuning his HTG1250 triple--added 20 hp by removing bad race pipes and installing pipes from his PS1000 engine.

6/4 Dave Waters, KTM950 flat tracker w/ intake restrictors, featured in last month's Cycle World

6/6 Matt Wise, Yamaha SRX600 imp stock

6/7 Kevin Hazel Harley XR750 flat tracker w/ intake restrictors

6/12 Ken Coolbeth (AMA #2) from CT, 2011 Kaw KXF450 flat track modified engine--were slower on the track than the 57hp dyno sheet the engine builder gave him, made 50 HP here, local bike engine modifier is redoing the engine, expect 60 real HP next time.

6/13-16 Glenn Hall w/ D&D Z1 Magic Turbo system, turbo engine testing different tubochargers and throttle bodies. 506 HP at 41-42psi boost--will post the actual dyno test results...

6/17 Frankie Amalfie Vmax SX 700 stock engine w/ Hauck Husher pipes

6/17 Jim Chittenden ZRT600 light mod asphalt racer w/ Aaen pipes

6/18 Chad Andolina back again with new Jaws race pipes for his SkiDoo 800 triple mod asphalt racer

6/24 anonymous racer with Crankshop 800 twin race engine

6/25 John Dandrea w/ D&D SS 900 Firecat, winter tune with cold dry air system 80 degrees and humid today, used cold air system to feed 30 degree dry air to the intake, Boondocker "internet map" was too safe 171hp at .75 lb/hphr, we tuned John's F9 EFI to pump gas safe 174hp at .70 and also a lakerace map 179hp at .60

6/26 Alex Izzo with Triumph Daytona 675 w/ home-built Rotrex supercharger system--tuned PCV to 155 RWHP at 11.8/1 (took about three hours to create a boost-friendly map).

6/27 Jesse Calvert F7 stock dragracer

7/5-8 gone fishing with my 12 yr old son Marty.

7/10-7/13 AMA #2 Ken Coolbeth Kawasaki 450 flattrack racer Ken had this engine modified, got a 57hp dyno sheet from the builder, bike was slow at the track, brought it here with local bike engine modifier Ron Jewell (RLJ Racing), dyno tested here at 49hp (less hp than stock)...Ron tweaked the ports, lowered compression, modified the exhaust and on 7/13 made 59hp. Now the bike is fast.

7/16 Sean Ray new FatBoy 96" getting normally aspirated baseline fuel numbers on his new stock H-D Fatboy 96 cu in engine with much larger Delphi injectors. This was to prepare for installing one of his Garrett ball bearing turbo systems with new Power Commander V with new boost/ intake temp sensor. Planning to display the bike at Sturgis w/ DynoJet. Expecting 200 RWHP with 96 cubic inches, hence the need for larger injectors.

7/16 Make Hatcher RLJ Honda CRF250

7/19 James Ristoli/ engine builder/ tuner Floridian Ryan Kelly two Suzuki 600 roadrace bikes, tuning for max power with Yoshimura EFI ECU/ software.

7/30 Tripod Dan testing an unhappy PS1000 engine

8/5 Sean Ray using CycleDyn to Power Commander/ power Vison tune his new all black FatBoy stock 96" engine (turbo cams and heads) with an all-black turbosystem he manufactures (SeanRayTurbosystems). He was planning to display/ demo the bike with the DynoJet guys at Sturgis, took him 30 minutes to create a perfect tune, made well over 200hp here, then 214hp out at Sturgis without breaking a sweat. fatboy ran 10.4 and 132mph at NYIRP

8/9 Brad Crocker tuning Pol 600 twin Flannery mod, DynoPort pipes

8/10 Justin FPP tuning on an Etec 800 turbo

8/18 Sean Ray tweaking on a PS800 polaris twin, cams off.

8/25 Billy Howard's bad-ass 2012 Cat ProCross 800 (incredible results posted now)

8/28 Sean Ray tweaking more on the PS800 polaris

8/29 John Diangelo dialing in a new MSD/ new bigger FPP turbo on his SkiDoo 1000 triple

8/31 Barry Taggart, PS1000 Yamaha triple FPP

8/31 Barry Taggart IS700 Yamaha triple FPP

8/31 Jim Chittenden Cat ZRT600 mod

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, June 03, 2011

DynoTech : Equipment upgrades!

Here's the aforementioned dyno starter drive sysem! Now we can remotely start engines from either driveshaft. That's a Polaris sled ring gear bolted to a custom fabbed aluminum flywheel. Gone is the $550 German overrunning sprag clutch (that needed relacing every few year$) that used to belt-drive the right hand shaft from the original Cummins diesel starter seen mounted below.

Now I've converted the original big starter motor to being a "booster" to help small, or poorly carbureted race engines spin the shafts/ dyno absorber up to whatever RPM they begin making power at! Those who have tuned small engines on big dynamometers know how critical part throttle tuning is to get the engines to spin themselves along with the drag/ weight of a big absorber. And some 340/440 race engines might not even "come on the pipe" until 7-8000 RPM. Sometimes, out of desperation, we would squirt N2O into small race engines to get them to rev up from idle on the dyno. But now, I have mounted a small 5-rib Whipple supercharger pulley onto the main dyno driveshaft (seen close to the guard near the absorber). That pulley is driven by a serpentine belt/ belt tensioner and larger 6" diameter ribbed pulley mounted on ball bearings below. That large ribbed pulley is driven by the big original starter vis a small driveshaft, and is engaged with a magnetic clutch. Now, when the big starter button is pushed, it will overdrive the dyno absorber and shafts up to 9500RPM. Bring on those little vintage race engines!

Also note the slick machine-lettered aluminum plate fitted with Jiffy-Tite fuel quick-couplers, showing fuel in and out of each flowmeter (meters won't read if plumbed backwards!), organizing that awful rats-nest of hoses, making EFI hookup to sleds with bypass (requiring subtracting bypassed fuel from gross flow) easier than ever.

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Here are the three walkin freezer compressor units that are thermostatically operated from the dyno control room. Below is a photo from inside the cold room, showing the three condenser units--each connected to one of the compressors outside the left wall. Just visible behind the condenser stack is a 10" diameter air intake pipe that draws "makeup" air from the roof of the building. As the engines consume air (via an insulated duct from the opposite wall to the engine's airbox inlet), replacement air is drawn in to the area directly behind the condensors. Note the PVC pipes from each condenser which carry away the water that condenses as humid air is cooled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, February 27, 2011

DynoTech : March schedule, update

2/25-3/2 reengineering, updating dyno drive system. The big dyno starter drive is mounted to the high speed dyno drive shaft used by 99.99% of the engines we tune. From experience I know that the "blower" (Gates PowerGrip toothed) belt drive we to reduce absorber speed 33% is on the edge at 500+ HP (remember how we noticed it literally smoking hot after each of Justin Durand's Vmax 4 turbo dyno runs). So, we must on occasion remove the belt reduction and drive the dyno absorber at engine output shaft speed. But in doing so we lose the function of our electric starter.

Don Emery and Tommy McConkey are planning to come back with Tommy's big four cylinder radar run sled (they made the first 500+ HP dyno run here with n2o and have run 192mph with n2o). This time, they have made the engine bigger and stronger, and engaged turbo madman Gus Bohne to create a turbo system for this engine with hopes of even more power.

Since this huge engine has only pull-start, and will have to be run with the absorber at crank speed, I'm creating a high speed electric starter drive for the main drive shaft. This requires making some custom parts, and chasing around for a high speed automotive starter with the largest possible drive gear, hence the extended down time.

 

3/4 Andy Caffaro PS1000 Polaris

3/7 Ken Pielechowski PS800 SkiDoo

3/10 DNE, Tommy McConkey and Gus Bohne tuning Tommy's monster two stoke quad with huge turbo sysem, hoping for enough HP to add 10 mph to his 190mph radar run sled

3/11 Barry Britton & son, tuning two hilldrag sleds

3/13 (rescheduled) Polaris ProR 800 tested with Aaen, BMP, DynoPort, and SLP pipes (and PCV maps created where necessary). Then if we find good power improvement, Casey Mulkins will install the cylinder shim/ revised head again. finally great success with pipes/ shim kit! results posted!

3/15 Sean Dingman/ Todd Hogan SkiDoo 800 twin hilldragger

3/24 Dan Cerio tuning a Cat 1000 hilldragger

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, February 03, 2011

DynoTech : current events with 800 stockers &tc

DTR members have the greatest interest in HP upgrades for the ProR800 and Etec800! Where is the long awaited data?

 We're still waiting for pipes to test on the ProR800--SLP is doing their flatland field testing this week before shipping, and BMP and DynoPort should be shipping their production stuff soon. As soon as we can get pipes from them, Casey Mulkis is ready to test a stocker, and one more time with the shim kit.

Billy Howard was scheduled to test stuff he's acquired for the Etec800 but his field testing on his long plowed snow strip has shown strange issues--one 1/4 mile blast with good acceleration, followed by another short blast with poor acceleration, underrevving. So we've put that session on hold until we figure out what is causing the grief.  My pal Rusty from Rapid City SD is experiencing the same problem with his bone stock Etec800 at 6000 ft altitude. We're thinking now that it is exhaust temp creating this strange loss in power after some reasonable time at WOT. The probe in the muffler may be getting up to some temperature, and then the ECU drops the power level and causes underrevving. What causes the drop the power? Retarding the timing would only increase the ex temp, making the pipe even hotter. Adding fuel would even help Billy's sled, which is boarderline lean with the exhausts he's testing. So could they be lowering the exhaust valves slightly to choke off airflow? At any rate, Billy has eliminated the power dropoff by advancing his ignition timing with his buds computer. Rusty is planning to do the same with his stocker, and test it this weekend. Now, advancing the timing reduces exhaust temp (the fire stays inside the combustion chamber instead of blowing out the exhaust ports, hopefully making more cylinder pressure and torque), and maybe Billy advanced his enough to heep the muffler temp below the threshold temp. We'll know more about this phenomenon next week, and hope we can reschedule the Etec800 test session. 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, January 06, 2011

DynoTech : cool engines = hot performance

When it comes to making best HP without detonation, cool engines rule. We need just enough heat in the engine components--crankcase, crankshaft, cylinders, cylinder heads and pistons to allow the fuel to vaporize. Infamous "cold seizures" are the result of imperfect fuel vaporization while running under power with too-cold engines, which creates excessively lean mixtures that cause the pistons to grow too big and stick. Unvaporized fuel in too-cold engines can go through the engine without burning in the combustion chambers, which means that a nice mechanical 11/1 pounds of Air/Fuel ratio can become, net, 11/.6 or  18/1 (that portion of the fuel which manages to vaporize and burn in the chambers) which can detonate and/ or cause seizures. And those big lava lap-like globules of fuel, most of which eventually vaporizes and burns inside the exhaust (resulting in safe-appearing wideband A/F readings)  can splatter against sparkplug insulators, shorting out the spark, causing misfire.

Some engines need lots of heat to run cleanly. Among worst were the Vmax 4s with those awful racked Mikuni carbs. Those who tried running with the 120F thermostat removed were rewarded with 100F coolant temp and continual gurgling from poor vaporization. That engine/ carb combination really needed 120F coolant temp to run cleanly.

But most engines will run cleanly and happily with 80-100F coolant temperature, and will make way more power than they will at 150F. And cool (not cold) engines are much less likely to detonate with max power A/F ratio.

Some Dragon 800 owners complain, bitterly, about excessive (150F +) coolant temperature while riding. If we can get that engine to run at 100F or even cooler, it will be a better machine. One Polaris tuner has ordered aluminum extrusions with which to make auxilliary tunnel heat exchangers. Joe from Boyesen Engineering sent me a billet prototype high-flow water pump impeller to test. If we can increase coolant velocity and turbulence through the engine, and supplement heat exchanger capacity, 100F or cooler is surely within reach!

reprinted from a past blog entry "Bathtub heads vs Shrinkwrapped heads":

I subscribe to Cycle World magazine primarily to read Kevin Cameron's monthly one page TDC column, and to try to absorb detailed technical articles he writes that appear in about every other issue.

In a past CW issue, Kevin addresses coolant velocity in cylinder heads. According to KC, turbulent high velocity coolant is vastly more effective in removing heat from combustion chamber "domes" than lazy slow moving coolant. Worse yet, is any area of stagnant coolant that rests against the domes' coolant side surfaces with slow or no movement which can create dangerous detonation causing hot-spots. 

Kevin describes large coolant volume cylinder heads as antique "bathtub" design. Conversely, he describes modern sled cylinder heads (like some SkiDoo models) as having a "shrink wrapped" appearance where the diecast cylinder heads' outer covers closely mirror the shape of the combustion  chambers. Shrink-wrapped covers create small but ample passages for high velocity coolant flow over the combustion chambers.

Some of the aftermarket snowmobile cylinder heads I see on the dyno look like bathtubs to me.  Most "billet"  head covers are large rectangular structures that appear to hold lots of coolant, exactly the opposite of what would create high velocity turbulent coolant flow over the internal surfaces of the combustion chambers.

On typical dyno tuneups especially this time of year it's more time (and cost) effective to dyno sled engines with their own coolant, letting the 7.5hp roof mounted dyno room blower cool the engine between dyno runs. To maintain consistancy, I like to measure head surface temp with an infrared gun before each dyno run. On most sleds, head surface temp runs about 20 degrees F lower than coolant temp, but this is not as important as doing each dyno run with similar engine and pipe temperature.

What I notice on some aftermarket cylinder heads is that ending surface temp (after 10-15 second dyno runs) is sometimes much higher than what we usually see with stock heads. In the past I have dismissed this difference in being caused by different material finish (shiny machined and anodized or powder coated billet instead of die or sand cast surfaces) causing different infrared gun readings. But after digesting Kevin's  info I'm thinking that we may be  experiencing the bathtub syndrome.

How bad is this?

My favorite example of stagnant coolant was Tim Bender's experience with an Exciter FIII oval racing engine over 20 years ago. Kevin Cameron had suggested to Tim that the golf-cart-like transfer ports on the Exciter engine limited its potential. So Tim decided to widen the engine to allow room for larger transfer ports that he would create out of material welded on to the sides cylinders. This meant having the Crankshop build him a wider crankshaft, then saw a crankcase and cylinder head in half, then weld in an inch or so of material to allow bore spacing to be wider, accomodating normal-size transfer ports.

Tim's problems began when the one-piece cylinder head was widened and welded back together. The Exciter 570's coolant normally enters the front of the head in the center, then is forced around each combustion chamber surface, then rejoins as it exits the rear center of the head at the thermostat housing. However the widened and rewelded head provided  an unintended short-circuit for the coolant straight through the center of the head from front to back without being forced around the combustion chambers. Unbeknownst to Tim and me, this allowed stagnant water to lay on the combustion chambers instead of flowing over them. Trouble was lurking.

On the dyno, even with lots of water flowing to cool the engine, we never could create low BSFC without detonation. But the engine made more HP than before and Tim was anxious to test the engine in his race sled before going to the annual big oval race at Eagle River.

I went with Tim to a nearby frozen lake where the night before he had snowblown an oval track on the shallow end. When he began doing laps with his dyno-tuned engine Tim encountered detonation with the same jets, same gas as we had dyno'd with the day before. Jets that were dandy for 15 seconds on the dyno were causing deto on the track after 20 seconds. The 48mm carbs required about 15 sizes larger jets to be deto-free, and that extra fuel drowned the HP added by the larger transfers. This was perplexing to both of us. At the end of the day, Tim's high HP wide engine was no faster than the narrow golf-cart Exciter race engine he had run previously. Why the deto? With his other race engines, winter dyno jets were within a few sizes of what he needed for 20 laps.

That evening, one of us remembered the widened cylinder head. I like to think that I came up with the solution to the problem, but it probably was Tim. One of us called the other, and we discussed the possibility of a problem with combustion chamber coolant flow. Tim went to the shop at 10pm, and upon inspection found that there was an open passage in the widened area for coolant to flow directly from the front center head inlet to the rear center outlet! He mixed up some Devcon epoxy filler and goobered that unintended passage closed. As intended, coolant would once again be forced to the outsides of the head, pass over the chambers then rejoin at the rear before exiting the engine.

The next day back at the lake, Tim was able to jet down all of the 15 sizes (and then some) and the HP was back, deto was gone. More races would be won.

Bottom line--stagnant coolant was surely the culprit. According to KC, when coolant boils and creates a steam pocket anywhere around a combustion chamber, detonation is sure to follow quickly even with the safest A/F ratio.

I'm not suggesting that all billet replacement heads are low velocity bathtub design--in each case I don't know what sort of internal passages were created by the person who programmed the milling machine to carve out the "tub". But my opinion is that before an aftermarket head is installed in might be good to compare coolant volume between the stock head and the replacement head. If the replacement head has larger capacity than the shrink-wrapped stocker I would question the design and ask why the volume is greater. If the answer is "to help cool the engine".....

The factories' sled engine designers surely use dyno software that measures coolant flow in GPH, and that figure along with temperature rise in the coolant around each combustion chamber is necessary to correctly design the cooling passages in any cylinder head, either OEM or replacement.

When it comes to snowmobile cylinder heads, cool-looking and big is not necessarily better.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

DynoTech : January/ Feb schedule &tc

12/30 Ross Reynolds from NH, two mountain motor Cats

1/3 Richie Meyers 518er looking for more HillDrag HP

1/4 Joe Shear XF1000

1/5 Tom Anthony IQR tuning 

1/6 Jake Jenkins/ Dave Dillenbeck F7 big bore ]cancelled]

1/7 Kevin Atkins XF1000

1/8 Pat Paradiso trail mod Dragon 800 w/ various pipes

1/10 Jake Jenkins/ Dave Dillenbeck F7 big bore

1/11 Joe Shear F1200 lakeracer w/ boondocker n2o

updates coming  1/23

1/12 Rob Schooping/ John Clarey HTG1200 triple

1/14 Tim Winslow & Todd Hogan 800 promod hill drag sled cancelled

1/20 Dave Patrick F7 pm Steve Falmond F7/ Black Magic 800 for boondocker tuning

1/21 Koz Bros XF800 improver tuning 

1/22 Jeff/ Vinny/ Danny Cerio Hooper TCat 1400 tune

1/22 PM Bill Swoyer cameras off

1/23 Casey Mulkins Dragon 800 tuning, trying new Aaen single pipe

1/24 Mach Z nano N2O tune, cameras off

1/25 Koz Bros tuning Sherlock Improved Crossfire 800

1/26 Tim Winslow and Todd Hogan  promod hilldraggers

1/27 Carl Theriault Crossfire 1000 pipe shootout, Z1 tune delayed by new england snowstorm 

1/28 Casey Mulkins back again with ProR 800, pipes, shim kit once more delayed by lack of pipes 

1/29 HillBilly Howard, Etec 800 stage tuning with Bobby Donnatelle cams on delayed by possible lack of fuel to make extra hp at low temp high baro 

2/2 Full Power RX1 extra large turbo tune  cancelled due to Justin having the flu

2/3 Todd Hogan, more hilldrag sleds to tune cancelled due to weather

 2/4-5 Carl Theriault Crossfire 1000 pipe shootout, Z1 tune cancelled

2/6 three flattrack bikes, tuning for Daytona

2/7 Ryan Kehl, Crossfire 1000 pipe shootout

 2/8 AM Heath tuning a Jaws pipes 1080 triple,  Nate McCoy, going for big HP on a XF800 mod

2/16 Boyesen Reed evaluation on stock XF800 w/ Todd Hogan, cams off

2/21 Turbo Dragon 800, attitude controller tune

2/23 ProR800 pipe test, cylinder shim test w/ Casey Mulkins

  

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, December 13, 2010

DynoTech : broken dyno drive components...

For the next few weeks or so, all 400 plus HP tuneups are on hold. The following photos show what is left of my $1000 big driveshaft.

In my blog schedule I facetiously suggested that last weekend after the Shootout, "OSP Jim and crew [were coming here] trying to break my dyno....". I won't be making jokes like that anymore!

Saturday afternoon, OSP Jim and madman driver R. Dustin came to demo the power of Shawn Burke's Adirondack Shootout record setting turbo Nytro (anyone who was at the Shootout knows it really didn't need much dyno tuning), but we never got to make any big power with the Nytro before the steel molecules in my big driveshaft got tired of holding hands. While loading the engine at 8500 RPM in preparation for our first dyno test, we felt a 1/2 second shudder followed by a loud pop and the engine was against the rev limiter for a fraction of a second before being shut down. The driveshat had separated at both ends--from the rubber vibration dampener at the engine, and the automotive ujoint coupler at the absorber end.

Fortunately, the orange colored driveshaft loop did it's job, and the roof of my building is dented by small parts but unpunctured. But there was a violent 360 degree spray of bolts, u-joint bearing caps and bearing needles that created many new holes in the ceiling tiles, walls, and light fixtures. And there are surely some IED-like steel shrapnel that I will find, rusted, in the parking lot next spring. 

The taper end on Shawn's nytro is bent, but that working end, splined to the end of the three cylinder crank is replaceable from the side of the engine.

But most importantly no one got hurt. I will keep what's left of the driveshaft to explain to people that come come here why we never enter the dyno room with the engine under power. 

Do I need a stronger driveshaft? Nope--it wasn't fatigue from too many high power sled engines (the shaft is designed for 500 lb/ft continuously), but operator error that created this havoc. Trying to assess this mess, like a forensic detective, I think this is what happened...

Torsional vibrations--impact gun-like forces that create havoc with crankshafts/ crank tapers/ clutches appear to be extremely violent on three cylinder four-strokes when boosted to many times their designed torque levels. Monsterous torque levels can cause those engines' cranks to wind up and unwind, creating torque spikes up to 10x higher than the engines' average torque. This can cause premature wear on clutch parts, and slippage of crank tapers creating wedging of clutch tapers or even worse fretting enough to melt and weld the steel on the crank tapers! Recently FPP Justin was here with a high-boost 4tec that after maybe five 400+ HP tuning runs, and spot welded it's crank to my SkiDoo dyno adaptor. I was able to remove the adaptor from Justin's crank, but there were some small chunks of his crank taper melted and welded into the female taper on my steel dyno adaptor. But I have had very little trouble like that with the many high boost four cylinder Yamahas and two cylinder Z1s tested with big torque. There just seems to be more torsional vibes with the big triples.

I was hoping not to do unintended taper welding with the OSP Nytro. So when R. Dustin showed me a light coating of moly lube on the crank taper (they do that to prevent stuck clutches), I decided to not clean it off, and see how that might help prevent taper galling during dyno testing. I installed the grade 8 dyno adaptor bolt with all the torque my IR 1/2" drive impact would put out, and attached the drive shaft. But when we began testing--loading the engine at 8500 there was some unhappiness with the dyno trying to control things. The SuperFlow dyno is completely automated--if you set the control to hold the engine at 8500 before beginning at test, it will try to do that regardless of whether it' 50 or 500 HP there. In this case, the dyno seemed to obtain the desired 8500, but then it would misfire like tuning was poor but Jim saw on his laptop monitoring the stand alone that it was against the rev limiter. But the dyno measures dyno speed, and Jim was measuring engine speed so that difference was probably my coupler slipping on the crankshaft taper! But that didn't register with me (never had that happen before), and it should have. Brain failure one is I should have removed my adaptor, cleaned the tapers and started over. But we tried again several more times befor the catostrophic failure, and this time I believe the torsional vibes/ slippage caused my tight crank bolt to begin backing out creating even worse slippage, and severe out of balance condition at the engine. And that perhaps created more strange, almost indescernable vibrations that were causing the four bolts on the dyno end to become loose, and eventually completely remove themselves from the adaptor and fly away. So my second brain failure was not going to check the condition of the driveshaft fasteners prior to each attempt to test. All four nuts flew, as did the lockwashers and bolts. Nothing broke, the fasters just loosened up and removed themselves in just a few seconds of operation, then flew in all directions like the square pieces of a pineapple hand grenade. I've done this so many 1000s of times without fastener issues, I ignored them at the worst possible time.

So OSP Jim will need to replace the Nytro crank end (hopefully only a few hundred bucks) and I will replace my big driveshaft. No need to redesign it, just build it again. But my cavalier assumption that what I tightened during setup will remain tight during the session is changed. And maybe now blue locktight on dyno shaft fasteners on these big engines will be part of the program for gonzo HP things.

And I must compliment the OSP guys on having the demeanor necessary for anyone who regularly races/ tests/ sells engines approaching 10hp/ cubic inch. Not everyone has that. Gaskets can squirm out, pistons can sieze, blocks can crack, rods can snap, and dyno drives can fail.  I don't know who coined the calmly spoken southern drawl phrase "parts is parts", but it's appropriate.

 

 

This innocent looking small engine coupler is about $600 worth of stuff- the eight hole Lord torsional vibration damper is a key component necessary to protect the engines from their own harmonics. And that center self aligning bearing (what's left of it) is designed for the linkage of helicoptor rotor assemblies. The aluminum part is custom made on CNC machinery. New parts are on the way here.

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

DynoTech : The first official DynoTech “BlowUp”

 Queenan Racing's turbocharged Hayabusa asphalt drag sled on the dyno table





“Blow Up” is a commonly used euphemism among performance sledders to describe a seized piston—stuck in the bore because it temporarily grew bigger than the hole due to lean operation or deto. That euphemism annoys me because a stuck piston is not a “blowup”—it’s very non-destructive, non terrifying like a “blowup” would imply. I have always thought that the term “blow up” should be reserved for something more serious than a crankshaft that no longer turns, with something awry, but easily fixable inside the engine that is preventing normal rotation.

When funnycar racer John Force says he “blew up”, you know something way more violent than a stuck piston occurred.

In November I had my first real, true sled “BlowUp” on the dyno.

Terry and Mike Queenan had the Queenan Brothers Racing Hayabusa powered asphalt sled here to tune. This was to be a fun session—the fellow who provides parts and tuning for the Motec EFI system for Queenans (as well as the Al Anabi drag cars and bikes) was remotely monitoring the DTR tuning session from his home office in California, making fuel/ timing tweaks after each run via internet and observing the dynocams.

Creeping up on revs and boost (I think we were only running 11 psi boost and 410 HP) this fellow noted, watching data during each dyno test, that oil pressure had dropped a bit—perhaps due to rising oil temp? We cooled the crankcase for a few minutes before the next run. But what we did not realize was that a rod bearing on the big end of one of the engine’s aftermarket connecting rods was beginning to seize on the crank journal—perhaps smearing rod bearing material into the crank oil journals preventing total loss of oil pressure. This friction would eventually create heat that would in the next six seconds of boosted operation cause the rod to try to friction- weld itself to the crankshaft, then turn blue and eventually grab and snap sending parts flying.

On dyno test 10, we ran the engine up to 11,500 RPM and a sudden, loud snap accompanied a 7’ diameter ball of fire that enveloped the expensive area of the sled all the way to the ceiling tiles in the equally expensive dyno room!

This fire was accelerated by the 80mph air from the dyno air supply ducts—making it look exactly like one of John Force’s Funny Car “blowups” where headgaskets squeeze out and spew oil onto the headers creating one of those nasty, terrifying oil fires and an out of control funnycar. But in this case it was the rod cap blowing out the front of the Hayabusa crankcase, showering the cherry red header/ turbo with engine oil and creating the first DTR fireball.

I bolted from the control console, grabbing one of the 25 year old, but previously unused Halon fire extinguishers, and ran into the dyno room and with two pounds of Halon completely extinguished the fire. Terry and Mike Queenan were duly impressed with the speed at which Jr. Fire Marshal Jim was able to run from the control console, grab the the extinguisher and reach and address their burning sled. Halon is great stuff—today banned by the greenies but still said to be available, at a premium, from suppliers who have a stash of this stuff.

But with the fire extinguished, there was still a substantial amount of oil left on the dyno table beneath the sled….what if this sled was running down the dragstrip at 180mph instead of sitting on my diamond plate steel table?

 That unburned oil, instead would surely have been spewed and drizzled in front of the smooth rubber track with instant loss of traction and directional control! It’s one thing to have an engine explode (truly “blow up”) and shut a sled down, but the prospect of dumping oil directly in front of the smooth rubber track is terrifying considering what we all know might happen should a high speed sled/ rider encounter a guardrail or concrete barrier at 180 mph plus!

Fortunately, Queenan’s sled features a high tech multi-stage dry sump oiling system which minimizes unnecessary oil volume within the crank case and the sled also has a solid pan beneath the motor which trapped some of the oil from spilling out under the chassis. Without these features, the fire on the dyno table and the potential real-world scenario could have been much, much worse.

Why not add some sort of diaper-like oil catcher like the top fuel racers use? For them,  dropping oil mostly between the two rear tires is not a huge control issue, but NHRA is mostly concerned with downtime necessitated by cleaning up the mess. But sled racers with boosted four stroke engines approaching 10 HP per cubic inch will surely occasionally “blow up” engines, inevitably dropping oil directly in front of the tracks. It would be wise to deal with the inevitable spewing oil ahead of time.

From now on, people bringing heavily boosted engines to DTR must endure a pre-test fire drill.





Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, November 27, 2010

DynoTech : December Schedule, Shootout XXI &tc

12/1 518er Craig Horn, F12 trail mod for PCV tuning

12/2 Tom Anthony tuning an IQ600 mod from HTG

12/3 Koz bros PCV tuning two Cat 800 hilldraggers--one stocker on imp stock? cancelled

12/4 three new stock 800s Etec, ProR, and F8 for comparison w/ zero miles

12/5 Koz bros again with the two 800 cats, plus Glenn Hall tuning on Koz' new Xfire901 turbo

12/6-7-8 Dyno certification of the AmSnow DTR Adirondack Shootout sleds 12/7 tested SkiDoos and Polaris' then 12/9 will test Yamaha and Cats...12/8 doing minor dyno maintenance

12/9-10 off to the shootout

12/11 PM OSP Jim and crew dyno testing their turbo Nytro Lakeracer Shootout sled

12/12 AM OSP Jim and crew trying to break my dyno with their Apex drag sled

12/14 Bob Quigley dyno tuning a Z1 Lakeracer

12/15 jeff griswold htg d8 trailmod, PCV tune 

12/16 Chicken DT Jim back up to Hamilton Ontario Canada for a followup visit. anyone who hates dentist's needles, scalpels, scrapers, and sadistic dental hygenists as much as I do needs to visit Dr. Gabor Filo in Hamilton who (1) specializes in dealing with paranoia like mine (2) has the most pleasant and compassionate dental hygenist Jill and (3) has a $150,000 laser system that can painlessly remove not only cavities but also subgingival calculus! In the U.S. the FDA has not yet approved this dandy equipment which is also used in Europe and Asia, so if you must get your teeth cleaned beneath your gums in th U.S. you must put up with torture--or just drive to Canada and get it done properly and [nearly] painlessly.

12/17 Tom Anthony trying for big power on IQR600 mod, engine plate

12/18 Long Islander tommy santorufo tuning an F7 trail mod 

12/20 SLED Shop Inc, Presque Isle ME turbo SkiDoo 4tek tuning w/ FPP Justin Fuller

12/21 Nathan Ackland, Ontario Engine Tech 900 for Boondocker tune

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, November 01, 2010

DynoTech : November schedule &tc

Cold dry air is here, no matter what the outside temp is-- so we can tune EFI for winter use!

11/6 & 7 Jim Burlow & Torrey from Salt Lake City with their own EFI controller, testing on boosted and NA M1000 sleds.

11/8 Casey Mulkins w/ new ProRide 800 production sled

11/9 Tim Bounds Dragon 800 Boondocker N2O tune

11/10 Bill Capizzi two hill drag sleds

11/11 going to Hamilton Ontario to get my teeth cleaned of subgingival calculus with Lazer technology not approved in U.S. thanks to DDS lobby money. Thanks to Yamaha radar run madman Dan Jalbert for turning me on to this [supposedly] painless dentistry (Dan sells this equipment).

11/14 Dead 1 Dave Craiglow, new Stock Arctic Cat Crossfire/ M800 Single  PIPE SHOOTOUT

stock vs D&D, SLP, BMP, Speedwerx

11/16 Dick Ritter, Kennedy RV Powersports XF1000 BMP trail mod for Adirondack Shootout 

11/17 Don Pitoniak trying big throttle bodies on a XF800 trail mod

11/18 John Swan F7 big bore for Boondocker tuning

11/19 Gino 09 F8 Power Commander tune

11/20 tentative Casey Mulkins with the 2011 ProRide 800, custom cylinder shim kit/ custom Sean Ray stock head to match, expecting big HP to match the other 800s rescheduled to 11/29pm or 11/30pm

 11/23 Jamie Loson from Don's Polaris in Old Forge, testing the newest D8 flash with stock and with CPR twin pipes. wot fuel flow and ignition timing was no different than the earlier flashes, and could not see much midrange difference...so those who have the april flash should just stay with the PCV map you are using...and if Polaris has indeed added sorely needed midrange fuel you might note some midrange rich burble or laziness--then you can just reduce the midrange adder by 2-3% at a time until it's riding crisply. And as I predicted, those CPI twin pipes need CPR...results posted next... 

11/26 Rob Weiss RK Tech F8 for boondocker tuning, PM Justin Megliore D&D ported F7, single pipe and PCV tuning

11/28 Dead 1 Dave back again to test a new BMP Ypipe and SLP ex system on his XF800 stocker, plus some center section exhaust temp experimentation for stock dragracing. 

11/29 Bill Swoyer more hilldrag tuning

11/30 Joe McCarrow XP800 tune--PM Casey Mulkins with shimmed cylinders on the ProR800

 

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, October 21, 2010

DynoTech : Finally, cold air being pumped into the dyno room

The 1000 cubic ft cold room is insulated and the exterior drywall is finished. The first of the three compressor/ evaporator units is fired up, and for the first time I could feel cold air coming through the 8" diameter duct into the dyno room! Todd the HVAC guy is tweaking the first evaporator for max output (changing restrictors--tuning the evaporator like we used to do with EFI Firecats pre-Boondocker). Once that one is tuned for max temp drop, then Todd will use the same restrictor size in the other two units, perhaps finishing this weekend.

So by next week we should have the ability to have nearly 1000 cubic ft of cold dry winter air to feed the sleds' intakes.

First on the cold air list is Casey Mulkins with a new production 800 Rush, which we must test with 20 degree F dry air. Other are waiting patiently, hoping to beat the typical December/ January dyno madhouse. Also we have D8 twin pipes to test, along with the latest reflash that is being loaded into ECU's along with warranty repairs. Those with power Commanders need to see what the new flash means in terms of top end fuel flow/ HP. We will probably have to create revised PCV/ PC3 maps to accommodate those who have been forced to take the newest flash.

Also on Monday, Queenan Bros Racing is bringing their mad Huyabusa turbo powered asphalt racer to fine tune the EFI system. I'm hoping that the DynoCams will be operating with full sound, since the shriek of a Huyabusa turbo at 13000 rpm with 30 psi boost is wonderful thing to share!




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, September 03, 2010

DynoTech : new dyno, cold air system, schedule update

The new 902 system is up and running perfectly. All new electronics, computer circuitry, and control console that took a couple of weeks to install properly. The operating system is quite different from the old 901 (24 years old), and has taken some getting used to. It's sort of like when my second wife moved in to my house 20 years ago, the first thing she did was move the silverware drawer from the kitchen cabinet next to the fridge to a different cabinet six feet away. 20 years later, I still open the drawer next to the fridge when I need a spoon.

SuprFlow tech Brett Williamson spent two days here showing me and Sean Ray the new system. I used my HTG Edge 1000 triple to verify the new system. Tuned to max power on pump gas on the 901 system, it made 225 HP. As Brett gauranteed, the engine made 225 HP on the 902. It's just math--torque and RPM, but it made me feel real good to see it myself on my own sled that has 100 dyno runs on the 901, and now 90 on the new system during training. And now instead of manually adding torque to make up for the 6.8% power loss created by the dyno absorber speed  reduction drive at 8000rpm (and then increasing exponentially) it's done automatically by the 902 computer!

Plus, the real time graph we watch on the computer screen is instantaneous, without the 1/2 second delay of the old system. Remember--the computer system in the 901console was designed 30 years ago, and times (and speeds) have changed. The 901 recorded data 10x per second and the new stuff records 100x per second. More measurements can be made simultaneously--two LM1 widebands, two fuel pressures (one EFI and one for carbureted engines), exhaust backpressure for two-stroke pipes or turbos, N2O bottle pressure, boost up to 100 psi, and there are 8 extra 0-5v channels that can be used as needed.

Sean and I are experimenting with dragrace acceleration tests that now can be viewed on the "real time" graph. Once we determine where the HP peak is on an engine when it takes off from a dead stop, we can program the test to mimic that--blast from low revs to peak HP RPM in a second, then gradually slide to higher revs, up chasing the climbing HP peak (as pipe center section temp climbs) for whatever number of seconds the race is expected to last.

All cold air equipment is here (four walk-in freezer condensors and evaporators) but more carpentry work/ insulation needs to be done. Typical contractor delays are forcing me to try to operate the evil and terrifying Harbor Freight $59 Chinese air nailer (trying not to crucify myself) on Labor Day weekend to ensure that we can have lots of dry winter air for EFI tuning this month. I have two EFI sleds from Utah in the bay next door waiting for cold air, and others close by, but just as anxious to miss the typical December madhouse for EFI tuning. 

2011 Apex preproduction engine data will be posted here on Sept 10, per Yamaha's request (that's when they are doing their scheduled info release). 

  

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

DynoTech : Summer Schedule, DYNO UPDATE

still working on the air refridge system, est fireup for cold intake air is 7/15.

6/30-7/6 pro snoX race engine development, cams off

7/8 Glenn Hall Z1 finalizing cam timing/ tuning early AM to beat the heat.

7/9 Jess Pych Cat grassdragracer tuning for Syracuse.

7/10 YammieGod Tony tuning a Yammie triple for Outlaw drags

7/11 Tony Buczack Imp Stock carbureted F7 built by Jason Owens, Jaws high rpm pipes

7/24 Tony Buczak back again, discovered he had his flywheel keyed to stock keyway instead of the 5 degree offset keyway, now 186hp with stock airbox and airhorn, Cowie modded boots.

7/25 Tripod Dan dialing in a PS1000 for Sysracuse. 178hp

7/29 Quad dirt dragracer w/ Mach Z twin and Boondocker N2O, tuned both to perfection.

7/29 Full Power Justin trying Tripod Dan's CS PS1000 pipes on a Yamaha PS1000 (made out of a SRX700) picked up 25 HP, is now welding/ hacking to get the pipes fit before Syracuse drags....

7/29 long day, tweaked on a Yamaha Nytro stocker and a 700 improver--the 700 IS is just matching the 700 Cat improved stock good HP and spotting them 70 lb....

RIPPED DOWN THE SF901 WIRING AND CONTROL CONSOLE, INSTALLING NEW 902 STUFF TO MODERNIZE, SUPERFLOW TECH GUY IS COMING NEXT TUESDAY TO TRAIN THIS OLD DOG ON THE NEW TECHNOLOGY. ALSO WAITING FOR THREE HUGE OVERSIZE CONDENSERS TO COOL MY WINTER AIR SYSTEM--THE ONES I HAD WERE REQUIRING LONG RECOVERY TIME. HOPING TO BE UP AND OPERATING WITH 902 AND DRY WINTER AIR ON 8/19.



 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, June 21, 2010

DynoTech : new dyno stuff is here, and 2011 Apex test data

My $20,000 crate of new SuperFlow 902 electronics is here now, ready to be installed on my dyno system.

Then last Friday I picked up the engine intake air cooling system from our pal Wayne Stoutner, and that will be my first project. Some of that cooling system is sitting on the dyno table visible on the engine room webcam. The cooling tunnel on the table contains four walk-in freezer evaporators that act like intercoolers, fed cold refrigerant by four 150 lb compressors. Outside air is fed through the evaporators by fans, hopefully dropping temp by 60 or more degrees F into a plenum in the dyno room. Also water vapor in the outside air will be removed by the evaporators. The idea is to feed EFI engines with controlled, dry and cold winter-like air in summer to enable us to properly tune the engines for winter operation. Tuning EFI sleds for winter operation in 75 degree F air is useless. Because of that I've recommended all EFI sled owners wait for cold air before dyno tuning--so that meant a logjam of sleds to tune as soon as winter arrived. So having winter air for tuning regardless of the weather forecast will be a dandy thing, as we should see shortly. Expect this system to be installed and operating this month.

I've got several EFI/ turbo tuners waiting for 20 degree F air, and after I accomodate them I'll proceed with the SuperFlow 901/ 902 dyno conversion which will take several weeks. I wil have a mule engine on the dyno to baseline perfectly with the current system, and then make sure we get the same accuracy with the new equipment and electronics. 

 

2001 Yamaha Apex

Two weeks ago Woody's Performance Center from Maine (Woody's photo appears on the homepage with his mad Methanol Supercharged Apex) brought a perproduction 2011 Apex for assessment. This session was done on Yamaha's behalf, and as such they have requested the results be posted mid August. I can say that the variable EXUP exhaust creates a huge increase in midrange torque and HP compared to running the 2011 engine without EXUP (Woody figured a way to run it both ways!).

Nearly 20 years ago General Motors Powertrain rented my dyno to assess the then-new Yamaha EXUP system on a Japanese-only 400cc four cylinder sportbike. Steve Boehm was the GM engineer who brought the bike along with high velocity strip-chart recorders to measure and record intake and exhaust pressure, and his testing with EXUP operating vs fixed open showed how valuable this then-new technolgy was for increasing midrange in the high-revving 400. Now US Yamaha sportbikes have had EXUP for years, and it's surprising that it's taken this long to apply it to the four-stroke sleds.  You Yamaha guys are going to enjoy this data.  

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, May 09, 2010

DynoTech : New dyno equipment/ facility upgrades coming soon

The SF901 engine dyno that we've been using for 22 years is a great system, but needs to be updated with the newer SF902 electronics. The computer boards inside the control console are from a 30 year old design, and there are chips on the boards that can't be obtained if (when) they expire. And you may recall my nightmarish downtime last winter when I had to send boards off to SuperFlow praying that the problem was not with one of those unobtainium chips! All was well, replaceable chips were replaced, but it is a matter of time when I may be down for good.

Since this is the slow time, and my post-Aerocharger credit rating has now been rebuilt to a level above that of the average tenement-dweller, I have qualified for, and signed a five year lease for $20,000 worth of new stuff to convert our 901 to the newer (and more serviceable) 902 system. Fortunately, since my current 901 boards have been recently gone over by SuperFlow, my 901 boards are worth $5000 trade in. There are many SF901 dyno users, like Byron Hines, who are so accustomed to the 901 equipment that they refuse to consider newer and way different 902 stuff. So, if Byron's main SF901 board goes down, my perfectly working one is surely worth big bucks!

New stuff should be here in late May, and it will result in a two-three week downtime so grass/ asphalt racers please schedule accordingly!



 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, May 09, 2010

DynoTech : May-June schedule

5/2 Finish up YZ450 testing including one with modified head and bigger cams, stock vs GYTR vs Jardine header, big difference.

5/7 three full mod WaterX sleds tuned to max HP--ProX800 built by Tripod Sr., ProX600 built by Flannery, Rev600 built by Bill Cudney.

5/12 Heath and Mark coming with two HTG 4 bangers to set up for asphalt. Rob S will be here to tune ignition.

5/13 Jim Cooper coming for the last time, back with his original short but high HP pistons.

5/14 YammieGod Tony and a pal with a mod Yammie triple, tuning for asphalt.

5/15 Tripod's brother Minipod Mark Cross tuning mod Banshee on the shaft dyno.

5/17 Woody coming from ME with an 010 Apex Exup stocker and a big inch Nytro NA stroker/ cam/ exhaust, PCV tuning

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

DynoTech : Low HP = Successful Class Action lawsuit

Sorry guys, I'm talking lawnmowers here!

I bought a 6.5 HP Toro 22" walk-behind rotary mower several years ago. While I enjoyed the variable speed rear wheel drive, the engine pissed me off. I've been mowing lawns for over 50 years. I know what a 5 HP rotary mower engine acts like because I've used a Murray 5 HP mower for about 20 years. Since I'm getting too lazy to push a mower on my hilly one acre lawn, it was time to upgrade to a self propelled, more powerful unit. But this new 6.5 HP Tecumseh engine was all BS--bogging down where my old 5 HP Murray would have happily chawed away. It just annoyed me. And since there's no way I can dyno test a vertical output shaft engine, I couldn't verify my suspicions. I even talked to my pal Dan from Lennco in Hilton, NY about having him test my engine with his hydraulic go kart dyno which works in all positions, but never got around to doing it.

Recently I ran accross this website https://lawnmowerclass.com which proves that my assessment of the "6.5 HP" Tecumseh engine was correct. Not only was Toro BS'ing the consumer, but so were many of the other mower/ engine manufacturers. In the complaint, Tecumseh reported to CARB that this particular engine is actually less than 4 HP!

So because this one guy was even more pissed off than me and had big $ to spend on lawyers, all of us comsumers are getting refunds from the manufacturers thanks to the successful class action lawsuit! In my case, it looks like I am entitled to a refund of $35 which equals about 10% of the cost of the machine. I will apply for my $35 and report back. 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, March 01, 2010

DynoTech : March/ April schedule &tc

3/3/2010 518ers Todd and Mark troubleshooting a troublesome XP800R stock hilldragger

3/4 518ers Richie and Tom tuning on their Crankshop twin piped XP800R mod racer

3/5 315er Pat Herbert dialing carbs/ timing on Crankshop Polaris 990 mod hilldrag sled

3/9 Full Power Justin dyno testing his Nytro trail mod on pump gas, plus dialing in his gonzo-injector gonzo boosted Stage 4 4tek.

3/11 greedy 518ers Todd and Tommy back again w/ CS piped XP800R testing engine changes hoping for more HP.

3/12 Dead one Dave boondocker tuning his D&D XF901 twin pipe trail mod for this weekend's HillDrags

3/12 PAer Bill Swoyer back again to fine tune Cutler carbs on his Crankshop 990 ProMod Hilldragger

3/19 Jesse Meuller, Crankshop XP800 mod HillDragger

3/23 Mike Koz, XF800 twin pipe HillDrag imp stocker, Boondocker tune to perfection (as always).

3/26 Billy Howard & Bobby Donnatelle testing the new Hindle header on the 4tek (results on DTR members pages)

3/30 home made turbo system for D&D F9 SS engine w/ boondocker turbo controller

4/8 Jim Cooper testing new longer pistons for his PS1000 SkiDoo triple asphalt sled

4/15 Casel Mulkins testing preproduction Rush 800 (results on DTR members pages)

4/17 4 Tek w/ Bondi porting and Hindle exhaust, RB3 tuning

4/21-4/23 Testing military spy drone engine, cams off

4/24 Adam Schmitt tuning revised XCR800 asphalt racer, reduced compression and lowered ports

4/27-5/2 new Yamaha 450 4stroke motocross bike, testing all available GYTR parts including CNC ported head/ cams. Testing is being done on the SF901 sled driveshaft dyno connected to the output shaft of the YZ450 trans.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, January 17, 2010

DynoTech : Jan/ Feb schedule


Up and running dandily now, tuned a couple of sleds perfectly over the 1/16 and 1/17 weekend. All is good now...

1/18 NY Speed Paul Mouyos with a couple of big Cats including one XFire 10000 that has been driving us nuts like Rich Hoag's F1000 Firecat. Intermittent cylinder dropping from one side to the other, Ex valves failing to open etc. We'll try again.

1/19 Mike Lochiavo Polaris 800/ Rush chassis tuning.

1/20 Sled Shop Mike Polaris 800/ Rush chassis tuning.


1/25 Don Plowman Monster Cat twin with even more monster NANO nitrous

 
1/26 Al Miller Yammi triple with Nitrous oxide, no constant pressure, hope for the best

1/27 Todd Parsons from Newfoundland, FPP Apex trail turbo

1/28 NY Speed Paul one more time with a troublesome cat

1/29 Scotty Williams F7 trail tuning

1/30 Scott and Darrin from Pickwicks motorsports Pol triple

1/31

2/1 Bil Swoyer hill drag sled tuning 800 Crankshop twin

2/4 Jason Owens 600 cat and 600 skidoo twin trail mod sleds

2/5 Paul Mouyos back again with the F7/F1200, solid mounted but smooth all things considered. Still dropping a cylinder, injector failure from one side to the other just Like Rich Hoag's sled.

2/8 Don Prince ZR880 Boondocker tune

2/9 Jeff Stinson, ISF7cat, Ken Aldrith PS600 SkiDoo triple, Full Power Apex turbo

2/12 Hindle exhaust, private test of headers/ mufflers on Yam Nytro

2/13 XF1200, Power Commander 5 fuel tuning

2/14 Koz Bros tuning a hillcross mod
 
2/15 Hill Billy Howard, Etec800 and Hindle header test on 4Tek

2/17 /kevin Barnes HTG F7/800 boondocker tune

2/17 Trucks-R-Us John Wilbur HTG F1000 firecat boondocker tune

2/20 Ed & Hunter Nelson, Cat SnoPro600 w/ throttle stop carb tuning

2/24 518ers Todd and Tommy tweaking XP800R lakeracer w/ Crankshop twins

2/24 518er Bill L tuning SS500 stocker















 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, January 14, 2010

DynoTech : Dyno Running!!??

It often pays to be cordial with the people one does business with. I have a 22 year old SuperFlow dyno that occasionally has understandable issues both mechanical and computer related that causes testing/ tuning to cease.

So last week, when my dyno had issues that prevented it's use as a tuning tool, I sent every circuit board and the torque strain gauge back to SuperFlow to fix. This is critical now, to let me get back on track with the stream of sled guys that, for three winter months, allow me to make 12 mortgage payments on this facility.

SuperFlow has only one poor bastard that has to fix everyone's temporary dyno issues, including mine. Right now they are backed up rectifying issues with SF dyno testers way more important than sled tuner DT Jim (ie Hendricks Racing and Jack Roush Racing who each has 20 SuperFlow dynos) who need maintenance on their equipment.

So because I'm an old pal of the SF people and deal with them in a friendly, not screaming and hollering way, and the fact that they know how seasonal our testing is, they slid my ECU boards in ahead of the big buck people and fixed my problems, red labled back for tomorrow AM.

It will take me until late PM friday to make sure the dyno appears working again. Then I have a local sled guy who needs to tune--will use his engine to ensure proper operation.

So everyone who is backed up now will know by Sat PM if we are back on schedule.

And Rick Hendricks and Jack Roush may be miffed if they don't have their latest restrictor plate engine projects done before Daytona just so my snowmobile pals can get their sleds tuned on time.

Thank you SF tech people. Maybe I'm back on schedule. Everyone please call after Sat PM after I know all is well with the equipment. It pays to be liked by the people you do business with.

And Ross who drove 500 miles on Sunday to find out that my dyno was "broke" because I forgot to call him, $500 credit for the next time to, at least, cover his cost of traveling for naught.

 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, January 10, 2010

DynoTech : Dyno Down!

This is the worst time of year for this to happen--cold air is here now, and this is when EFI tuners need to tune, and when lake racers with carbs like to tune!

Apparently a short in the airflow meter extension cord fried a small $1200 circuit board last week and lost my RPM and turbine signals. I bought a new $1200 board, installed that and got my tach and fuel and air meter readings back but now the torque zero'd out at 60 lb/ft and EGTs read 2050 degrees. So it appears that the fried $1200 board in turn fried something in a larger $4000 main control circuit board. So on Friday 1/8 I shipped three circuit boards from the dyno control console back to SuperFlow for repair, red label. I can't afford to be down, but I can't afford to just buy new circuit boards, either! Dyno testing with a modern instrumented facility is expensive, per hour of billed testing time. Dynamometer and driveshaft maintenance, continual software upgrades, snowplowing, energy expenses (heat, water and the cost of running our 7.5 HP air blower), and the brutal New York State school and property taxes equate to $65 per hour of billed testing time!

Enough whining--I tell everyone who listens that when I win the megamillions lottery I will begin doing this for everyone, for free! I feel just a touch of guilt charging people for doing something that is so enjoyable for me--helping people make their sleds run faster with more power! The bad news is statistics was my favorite subject at RIT business school 42 years ago, and subsequently I buy maybe three megamillions lotto tickets each year just for fun.  

With some luck, we will be running again late this week, so everyone who was scheduled this weekend and next week will be shoved back a week. I will use this downtime to catch up on DTR stuff to post on the subscribers' pages.



 






Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, November 30, 2009

DynoTech : December doings

12/1 Casey Mulkins new Rush 600, then his own ported D8 with pipes and stuff:

12/2 Boyd with a Mach Z mod

12/3 Sled Shop Joe Parfitt, cams maybe off

12/4 Canadian madman James with his new F8 tuning with PCV


12/7 Shootout sleds today the Polaris Rush and D8, SkiDoo Etec and XP800, maybe a 4tek
12/8 Shootout sleds from cat- F6, F8, XFire 1000, Z1
12/9 Shootout sleds from Yamaha,

12/11 Amsnow/ DTR Adirondack Shootout in Woodgate, NY

12/13 Joe WhackPack Racing Hilldrag 800 twin mod, microphones off
12/14 Al Sled Polaris 800 twin trail mod

12/15 Rich Hoag/ John Wilbur Firecat w/ F1000 mod engine for NANO N2O tuning cancelled

12/16 Brian Babineau F7 ET900 boondocker tune

12/17 Don Pitoniak F1000 w/ pipe PCV tuning

12/18 Frank Kronkite F7 D&D900 boondocker tune

12/19 AM Nelson is bringing in big radar run cat to tune, cams off.  PM John Schwartz

12/20 AM Rich Hoag & John Wilbur rescheduled from 12/15---PM Pat Murray Sled Head 860 SkiDoo 

12/21 Polaris 4 stroke turbo tuning, big intercooler, high flow muffler

12/22 Joe Shear NY Speed lakeracer tune

12/23 Chad Bowerson PCV tune on XF1000 with D&D exhaust

12/26 Rich Hoag one more time with fixed wiring issues

12/27 NH Ross three Cats on Sunday

12/28 AM Neil Casa Dragon 800 in IQ race sled, PM Travis Beverlin

12/29 Boyesen renting the facility for private test session stock Dragon 800 and IQ600 racer

12/30 Chris Preston and pals, two Cats for tuning.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

DynoTech : '10 sled testing, and Power Commander V

Scheduled this week--Thursday AM Casey Mulkins is bringing a new 2010 Polaris Rush 600 for stock evaluation with temps in the 30's F. If it's rich as we expect we will lean out mixture with a new power Commander V Autotune. Then we'll have Casey's own D8, upgraded with lots of stuff.

Friday AM, our first production 2010 Arctic Cat F8. Let's see how the production sled compares with the preproduction 800 we tested last February. 160? If not, we have our new PCVs for the Cats to get the fuel flow back where it was with the prepro 800.

We've got Power Commander Vs for all makes now--Yamaha, Skidoo 4 tek, Dragon 6,7,8 and just received the first Cat 800/1000 boxes that can be Autotuned. $369 free shipping. Autotune unit for self tuning $249 free shipping. PCV maps will be posted on this website as acquired. Canadian sledders contact Sledwerx in Ontario because I just shipped him a batch of PCVs to have in stock. So get it quickly from Spenc and save the weeks of customs delays.



 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, October 04, 2009

DynoTech : October/ November dyno schedule &tc

10/2 Justin Full Power pump gas testing 4tec st1 & 2 turbo w/ low compression forged pistons. Finishing session from 9/30.

10/2-10/31 Pro snoX engine testing, cams off. Yes one month except for the day we had to test Casey's 2010 spec Dragon 800 (see subscriber pages for those 15 pages of tech assessment/ dyno tests)

11/1 PM 11/2 AM Bill Swoyer,  two HillDrag sleds

11/4 5 PM Jim Cooper tuning MSD for cat triple dragracer.

11/5 Casey Mulkins 2010 rush, more D8 testing cancelled, Vforce reeds did not come in.

11/6 Dale Roes, 2010 production F8 stock, leaned out, Ypipe, tuned pipe

11/11 Crankshop bringing a trail mod pump gas XP800, with single pipe/ twin pipes

11/13 Josh Shalone, Engine tech F9 tuneup

11/14 10AM Brett Smith CS1140 twin, with NANO nitrous oxide for hilldrags.

11/19 9am Dale Roes dyno testing a 2010 Xfire 800 stock and w/ Ypipe and pipe.

11/24 Annual physical exam for JC, including the dreaded prostate check.

11/25 billy howard, 4tech header/ muffler shootout. I need to replace my broken db meter before then.

11/27 Justin Durand big Vmax 4 turbo coming back for 550+ HP...

11/28 dave McNeely tuning Speedwerx 600 Cat snoX mod.

11/30 Bill Swoyer more hilldrag engine testing
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, August 03, 2009

DynoTech : August, September dyno schedule &tc

wide open now.

8/7 Justin Full Power tuning on an Apex of some sort. 9am.

8/10 taking advantage of the Dyno Dog Days heading out with family to one of my favorite places Tobermory Ontario for a few days then taking the ferry north to drive west around to Michigan. Will try to see the Nationwide race on Sat if we can find a hotel around there for Friday night

8/18 Yamaha 450 flattrack bike

8/25-31 pro snoX engine testing cams off.

9/1 another Yam 450 flatrack bike

9/2 HTG Robbie Schooping w/ quad wheeler dragracer fitted with HTG XCR1200 triple dial in timing/ carbs

9/3 Dan Schuler PS800

9/11 Tripod Dan IS1000 still trying to make the big carbs he got from Rich Daly work.
9/11 pm Greg Y D&D mod Rev 800 dragracer

9/12 & 13 violent Stage II Velocity Racing Turbo Huyabusa, on Cycledyn eddy current roller dyno trying to tune out a lean bog.

Sept 17, 8 AM Glenn Hall back again w/ large turbo Z1Race this time with higher capacity fuel pump

Sept 18, 8am Justin Durand VMax 4 monster turbo, maybe a new overall HP record based upon track dyno results at Glenn Hall's

Sept 23 asphalt racer private test, cams off

Sept 24 Glenn Hall F1200 turbo tuning for Goldenchild Nats

Sept 30 Mark/ CJ Motorsports testing reeds/ pipes on XP800, PM Justin Fuller testing 4tek turbo on pummp gas w/ lower compression forged pistons...
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, June 20, 2009

DynoTech : "Turbo" Crankshafts, once more

Email from Jim C to Kevin Cameron:

http://parrisracingconcepts.com/Home_Page.php

This is the latest "turbo crank" deal, being aggressively marketed to snowmobile people now. Turbo crank mods are cicada-like, coming around, being promoted and talked about every few years, then going away.

Is this like the deal that [then TX highschool roadracer Colin Edwards' race team manager] David Herold tested here at DynoTech with you [as team performance consultant] 20 years ago on the [90 HP Yamaha roadrace bike] TZ250? I recall you saying at some point [prior to the dyno test] it couldn't possibly provide meaningful power or airflow boost because the  crank wheels were traveling well below the speed of sound [even at 12,000 RPM]. [The stock crank and "turbo" crank as you predicted delivered identical airflow CFM and HP]. 

Jim C
========================================================================

KC's response:

The important variable in the design of a centrifugal compressor is its tip speed - the velocity of the impeller tips. The impeller accelerates the air molecules to tip speed, and compression takes place as this energy of motion is converted in the diffuser into the energy of pressure. There is a strict elationship between the two.
 
Compute the "tip speed" of the crank-become-a-crude-centrifugal impeller as circumference in feet times revolutions per second. If the flywheels are 5" diameter the circumference is about 16 inches, or 1 1/3 feet. If crank rpm is 8500 then revolutions per second are 142. Multiplying the two together gives us a "tip speed" of under 190 feet per second.
 
Referring to my handy little table "Pressure of Air on Coming to Rest from Various Speeds" I find that an adiabatic pressure rise (adiabatic means with no exchange of heat) of 2% results from 100% efficient operation. Since the crank flywheels are not equipped with a diffuser as centrifugal compressors are, it is unlikely that much of this 2% would appear at the bottoms of the transfer ducts.
 
To get one atmosphere of compression requires 100% efficient recovery from a wheel with a tip speed of 1200 fps.
 
If these things have any effect at all, it's most likely on fuel vaporization.
 
KC
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, June 11, 2009

DynoTech : June, July dyno schedule &tc

6/6 Sat Dave Waters/ RJ Overholt KTM 950 Vtwin flattrack bike w/ required inlet restrictors, Ron Jewell ported heads those nascar-like inlet restrictors hurt airflow and HP, and require vastly different jetting to achieve max HP--we got that perfect, but we can't tweak timing since the ECU is fixed, and the flywheel/ pickup are buried inside several layers of engine case castings...working on timing access

6/13 private grass dragracer tuning session, Cams off

6/15 Maynard Priestly Honda 450 flattrack racer tuned to max HP, wish we had a Keihin slide rule like Mikuni so he can be at max HP jetting regardless of weather

6/15 late am neighbor Todd w/ VRod for PCIII tuning for max HP cancelled

6/18 Justin Gee Polaris PS800 pipe testing took a few hours to cure erratic fuel flow, create max HP jetting and timing, then selected the best overall set of pipes...

6/22 Bill Capizzi two Cat grass race sleds results here are private

6/23 Bill Capizzi two more Cat grass race sleds results here are private

 PM Rob Schooping HTG PS1000 SkiDoo on motor plate after optimizing timing and jetting 275 Hp with a moderate 14-1 compression ratio

6/24 AM DynoPort Rich Daly converting his 180hp single pipe XP800 to big power with Nitrogen
 assisted N2O, NANO plus Nitrous Express kit the NANO add-on gave us constant 900 psi regardless of bottle temp or amount of liquid left--tuned first to 184 HP max high compression (yes 800cc single pipe, I measured the bore and stroke myself), then detuned compression and timing to 170 HP then added over 100 HP with no clicks of deto using 120 octane gas. The NANO makes n2o tuning consistent and easy. 

6/25 Jim Cooper one more time trying to resolve cantancerous fuel flow issues so he can run 1/4 mile without leaning out on top new rebalnced crankwheels by some outfit in Canada, smooth now excellent smooth fuel delivery to CS56 carbs even with solid mounts, mysteriously a bit less HP than his old buzzy crank but having 270hp for a full 8 seconds is better than having 285hp for 4 seconds then tailing off to 250 or worse because float bowls are running dry!

6/25 pm Tripod Dan and Danno PS800 trying for a reasonable HP curve with compression dropped to 18/1 (was 20/1 last time with awful spikey detonating results). came with less compression and new MSD set way too far advanced, preignited and frosted a plug with no clicks of deto, will come back after repairs are made.
6/26-28 gone

6/29 competitive Cat grass dragracer w/ two sleds, cams off

6/30 Jason Owen two mod cats Jay and his pal Trevor had cams off, struggled with a bad EFI controller, will tune another day

7/1-7/2 pro snoX mod engine testing cams off

7/3 Friday Dean Sutter dragbike w/ Polaris mod sled engine installed cams off profession tin-knocker Dean had a slick set of hand rolled and welded pipes w/ sliding center sections and sliding stingers, optimized carburetion then while rolling timing back and forth with an external adjuster, tweaked CS length to max HP then got best HP with stingers slid inside the rear cones to create internal stingers...

7/6 Monday Jim Cooper hoping to find lost HP Jim found awful leakdown, .018" piston to wall clearance so to see if that was cause of low HP, back to DTR. Picked up another 10 hp to 280 plus with fresh topend, still a tad lower than best HP with old buzzy crank but surely good enough to be competitive on asphalt. Next is a trip to Chukaroo for a day on his eddy current track dyno for clutch tuning.
PM Dad & tripod Dan, PS800 one more time w/ less compression and MSD. Starting today with well-retarded timing, worked our way up to 229hp with a broad plateau of HP on this HTG stroker 800. It's always good to start with retarded timing and work our way up. 18/1 compression is still wickedly high but here it seems like it will be good for 5 second drag runs.

7/7- 7/14  more pro SnoX engine testing cams off

7/15-16 gone fishing, Sean Ray dyno tuned Shane Tottens PS1000 while I was gone. Bigger carbs, bigger HP.

716 pm open mod grass dragracer on the way to Syracuse dyno at 8pm (time and a half?) cams off

7/17 AM Glenn Hall D&D open mod Z1 as(H)phalt racer tuning
 Late AM Stan PTM dialing in big twin Cat with massive N2O.
since PTM Stan had D&D power on his F1200 in F7 chassis asphalt sled, Glenn wanted to lend a hand to help optimize--so Stan went first, tested higher rpm pipes which werent optimal for n2o, then before we could get perfectly dialed in with low RPM pipes and boondocker n2o we lost cylinder fire on #1 with perfect piston, spark, reeds OK. Stan;s engine vibrated badly from the start, I attributed that to solid mounts but it turns out the crank was out many hundredths--enough to shake the back of the sled several inches to the right each dyno test. I goofed because I should have looked at crank runout after the first test but did not. so it was bad to start and maybe got worse as the day went on. The good news is stan has a way better Boondocker tune than he started with but the bad news is he needs a crank job.
Glenn's D&D rear drive Z1Race asphalt sled was comparably smooth as silk with the same 1.75" dyno drive shaft. Tested turbos/ Ypipes, timing and fuel tuning. With the big turbo and icewater/ air intercooler we tweaked boondocker to 429 HP when it was apparent that the fuel pump was maxed out (zero return fuel from bypass regulator). Bone stock bottom end.


7/18 Custom handgun builder Dan Bedell, Honda VTX1800/1938 big bore street/ ET drag bike w/ N2O

7/20 Yamaha flatrack racer on bike dyno

7/21 Yamaha Banshee dragracer w/ custom billet 835cc engine, on 901 shaft dyno Greedy Marty is back again from Eastern PA with all new quad-long chromoly tube chassis and even bigger engine. Last year I made a custom long 1.25' tubular driveshaft to get from typical quad's output shaft spline to the dyno to allow the quads to be strapped onto the dyno table without removing left side wheels/ tires. I didn't think about my skinny driveshaft as we tweaked timing/ fuel all the way to 175hp and 100 lb/ft. But the custom billet Banshee monster engine is geared 3/1 from primary to countershaft to output shaft in high gear which means we were twisting that skinny shaft with 300 lb/ft of torque. Smooth as silk.

7/22-7/30 Pro SnoX race engine testing



 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, May 04, 2009

DynoTech : Dyno Calibration

DYNOTECH SF901 TORQUE CALIBRATION PROCEDURE

 

  Our SuperFlow 901 engine dyno absorption unit has a capacity of 1,000 HP at up to 10,000 RPM. To enable us to properly test relatively small engines it’s been helpful for engine control, ease of operation, and minimizing losses from inertia of the heavy bronze absorber rotor, to reduce absorber speed by 33.33% compared to engine speed. At DTR we use a 50mm wide Gates GT2 toothed belt drive with 1.5/1 reduction. The toothed belt sprockets are mounted on 1.5” diameter steel shafts, which are supported by four synthetic greased Sealmaster NP24 1.5” pillowblock bearings.

  Like any gear reduction, this drive system converts a certain percentage of the engine power into heat from friction. This loss has been accurately measured, and compensated for in our dyno calibration process. 

  Since HP loss from friction increases exponentially as the square of engine speed, the following percentages must be added to raw calibration torque numbers to be correct at the RPM where peak horsepower occurs. These percentages were determined by dyno testing a snowmobile engine—first, direct drive to the dyno absorber (1/1) then within 30 minutes installing the (1.5/1 or 33.33% speed reduction) toothed belt drive. Engine torque/ horsepower losses at every RPM were noted. Also figured into the friction loss is a GMN470 overrunning sprag clutch that is used in the electric start system on the engine drive shaft. The following percentages must be added to the raw calibration torque to be correct at the engine’s peak HP RPM:

 

7500 = 7.2% added (to compensate for 6.8% HP friction loss @7500 RPM)

8000 = 7.8% added (to compensate for 7.3% HP friction loss @8000 RPM)

8500 = 8.7% added (to compensate for 8.1% HP friction loss @8500 RPM)

9000 = 9.9% added (to compensate for 9.0% HP friction loss @9000 RPM)

9500 = 11.0% added (to compensate for 10.0% HP friction loss @9500 RPM)

 

The SF901 torque calibration arm is 3’ from absorber shaft center to the hang point of the calibration weight. The net weight value of the arm itself is 17.5 lb. The blue steel 72 cu ft full scuba tank we’ve used for calibration since 1987 weighs exactly 40.3 lb. The raw torque value of the hanging scuba tank is 40.3 x 3’ + 17.5 = 138.4 lb/ft. That is reduced by the 33.33% belt drive speed reduction to 92.3 lb/ft. The blue 40.3 lb scuba tank should have a hanging torque value as follows to be correct at these engine speeds:

          

7500 = 99.0 lb/ft   

8000 = 99.5 lb/ft

8500 = 100.4 lb/ft

9000 = 101.4 lb/ft

9500 = 102.5 lb/ft

 

We have 10 lb. weights which can be added to the hanging scuba tank to ensure proper calibration for higher torque engines. Each 10 lb added weight has a value of 20 lb/ft-- (10 lb. x 3’ = 30 lb/ft then reduced 33.33% for drive reduction). Add desired number of weights to the 92.3 lb/ft scuba tank. Then increase by the percentage necessary to correct for peak HP RPM.

With the mechanical drive issues addressed, what remains for accurate corrected horsepower measurement is:
1) proper observed barometric pressure measurement--not "corrected" baro used by weather stations and airports.
2) lots of clean, exhaust-free air to engine air intake. Inadvertent EGR costs lots of HP.
3) engine coolant temp typical of expected operating temperature.
4) adequate compliant media in engine to dyno connection to prevent engine damage from impact-gun-like torque spikes by absorbing and releasing those torque spikes. Those torque spikes that contribute to HP might be ignored by computer data acquisition so it's best to smooth them out so the computer will measure properly, while protecting the engines.

It's just math--accurate torque x accurate RPM/ 5252 = HP
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, April 24, 2009

DynoTech : April, May 09 dyno schedule

4/6 Adam Schmitt XCR800 asphalt racer, new DynoPort mod pipes new 44 megatrons bought off the internet were totally goofed up--Tripod Dad loaned us a set of good ones, tuned to 217 but fuel flow was jumpy due to stiff mounts--will fix carbs and return..
4/18 Andy Caffaro XC 800 stocker with SLP twin pipes,s, tuned to 155hp with safe fuel flow on pump gas, then Andy removed a set of VIP wings from his carbs and picked up enough added airflow to make 158hp--you will see a set of VIPs on Ebay please don't bid on themthose wings also leaned out fuel flow so when Andy removed them he had to drop mains dramatically.
4/18 PM Andy's Dad Bruce Caffaro early HTG Storm 1000 lakeracer  still competitive on the lakes with 255 na then a very small squirt of n2o = 295hp at nearly .70 lb/hphr...330 should be no problem if needed with a few sizes larger n2o funnel nozzles...
4/22 Tim and Brian Tyler trying for more HP with their PS1000 twin
4/23 Tripod Dan and Dan Forte, bone stock XCR800 engine with 15/1 compression ratio and 9200 RPM HTG mod pipesmakes 192hp on race gas with timing cranked to the stops and 44 megatrons
4/25 7am Adam Schmitt XCR800 mod one more time with his own carbs fixed, hoping to smooth out that fuel flow a bit. fuel flow was still unstable, dropping to near near zero at HP peak from foaming fuel...Adam is installing semi-hard rubber mounts this week, will try again sat AM...
9am Jack G Elite Motorsports 800 triple 225hp last time w/ DynoPort mod pipes, looking to find a reason for occasional seizures just too lean--90 lb/hr will never support 225hp so raised needles, and opened power jets and fuel flow increased to 115 lb/hr so this should be fine, wound up with 228

4/29 WEDNESDAY D&D/ Glenn Hall Z1 turbo w/ bigger turbo and intercooler etc, let's see what she will do! Also a new 2010 F8 with a D&D 901 big bore kit. 901 made 190plus on pump gas stock muffler, then the Z1 on pump gas w/ windshield washer fluid injection maxed out at 350hp--full dyno results on this website by 5/3

5/1 Jim Cooper PS1000 asphalt sled trying different carbs--CS56mm carbs helped create our first 290chp ps1000--solid mount SkiDoo stroker struggled with fuel flow until we hit the right combo of needle and seats and electric fuel pump pressure, one click of deto at 290 and no clicks at 286-288 so that's how it should run for 1/4 mile on asphalt.

5/2 After going to dragstrip after last dyno session and feeling the engine lay down before 1/8th mile, Adam Schmitt will try one more time, this time with semi-hard rubber mounts replacing the solid mounts,  hoping to cure unusable fuel flow on his pol800 triple asphalt mod. Adam's new rubber mounts cured the foaming floatbowls--today the fuel flow was still not exactly perfect, but looks smooth enough and good for 1/4 mile blasts--then Adam went to the track and ran the best ET/MPH so far, no top end laziness.

5/6-10 gone pretend fishing in Alexandria Bay, NY

5/13 Brad Crocker ProX800 mod watercrosser, Stock bore, engine ported by Pausl Cross (Tripod Sr) and setup by Tripod Dan and Dan Forte, DynoPort twin pipes made 172 CHP needed exhaust valve springs removed to pick up 20 hp--stock valve springs were keeping valves closed with high flowing DP/HTG twin pipes, removing the springs ensured complete opening
pm Paul Cross F7 trailsled setup for backyard grassdrags. bone stock 03 F7 w/ 06 ECU flash, only mods are D&D Y pipe, BMP pipe mod, -20 slice off the head, 2 deg key...freshly installed hi comp head created heavy rattle of deto that we heard on detophones, aborted run at 7400 before damage. Turns out that the engine was airlocked--air trapped in the head allowed overheat of combustion chambers and instant detonation--saved by the copper tube! Air bleed hose from top of the head to coolant bottle was routed below the steering arm preventing air from escaping which is a common goof. That hose MUST be routed above the arm to ensure that trapped air can escape to the bottle. After we fixed the hose routing we were fat this time of year, and fixed the fatness with a D&D pac valve, dropped fuel pressure to 38 psi and made 163hp god for 500 ft in the grass.

5/14 two 607 asphalt sleds, just one today--Boyd McGarry's Dragon 800 stocker w/ SLP exhaust for PCIII tuning...very interesting that this one only needed a fraction of the leanout that we normally require for max HP with this setup. -5% at peak revs got us 13/1 A/F ratio! We tried another D8 ECU and tuning was the same! Today it was 70 degrees F, which is reportedly the exact temp that EPA tests are conducted at........could that explain the crisp fuel flow on this sled??

5/15 Kurt Walburn, pal of Billy Howard with one or two mod Yamaha Banshees, tune on the 901 shaft dyno. Kurts's Billet Trinity 610 came off the trailer at 138hp, went back on the trailer with 150plus with perfect timing and fuel flow. Brother Marty's Banshee w/ billet KT 775 twin was next, had new 48 Lectrons w/ way too lean needles--listening closely for deto on the phones, I missed the A/F gauge on the computer screen glowing red at 17/1 just as it seized. No deto to alarm me but wicked lean and hot enough to stick the piston. Will  be back again w/ new piston and way richer needles

5/20 TR McGinnis tuning a YFZ450 on the 901 shaft dyno, connected to trans output shaft spline (don't call it a countershaft--that shat holds the clutch basket and rotates backwards, gear-driving the output shaft forward). ported head, aftermarket exhaust, no airbox, over 50 HP at the output shaft which is about the same as we get rear wheels with the DynoJet corrction

5/21 Dan Forte stock bore Banshee quad, tuning large Kehein carbs. Dynoport pipes, lots of compression, now 39 Keihins mad the clutch slip on the shaft dyno, but we got it tuned for max power at 13/1

5/29 Marty Walburn, violent drag banshee w/ 775 cc billet KT engine. that last session was only a piston replacement, no nickasil damage! Got a batch of richer needles from FBG and we'll try to get it tuned perfect on 5/29 got it perfect this time--perfect max HP fuel flow now w/ no clicks, max HP timing with no clicks



Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, March 02, 2009

DynoTech : March 09 Dyno Schedule &tc

3/3 Tuesday Tripod Dan testing once more w/ HTG Storm 1000 Imp some new clicks of deto were cured by backed off timing--the tighter squish required retarded timing to be optimum,  Late AM Renegade Rich with MZ1000 N2O w/ better fuel pump now 518er Rich was able to create 185 lb/hr fuel flow so he could pump enough n2o into the engine to create well over 300 actual not corrected HP (but still corrected down to 306 or so)

3/4 Tony Koz trying to figure our carburetion on Hooper 1200 twin the big twin had a K&N filter resting on the frame that seemed to create buzzing and foaming in one carb causing fuel flow into the carbs to be disrupted that might explain why this sled was laying down after 300ft--eliminating that vibe source and reconfiguring needles/ power jets created fuel flow safe for 1000 ft...
3/5 Casey Mulkins Dragon 800 session #4 or 5, original flash vs reflash, new pipes, lower compression heads, added timing, remap PCIII for all this stuff, maybe BMP ported cylinder and billett head and Boondocker mapping. 55 degrees F, cancellend until weather cooperates
3/6 SkiDoo 440 racer w/ 800 twin,  Bill Swoyer hillclimber CS1000 twin mod carb tuning...only ran the CS990 today, still struggling a bit to get adequate fuel to flow through the needle and seats on the Cutler carbs. Tieing the carbs together helped a bit, but each needle and seat seems to keep up with 100 hp but not more, so making over 100 observed hp per carb means gradually running the float bowls low.
pm Dan Ansell, SkiDoo Rev 440 w/ tweaked 800 Dan's 800 w/ billet head and DP pipe was easy mid 150s after tweaking carbs
5:30 pm going to Utah pistol permit course at Gander Mountain. No phone calls answered from 5pm and later. to go with NYS concealed carry permit, the Utah permit is recognized by, and allows you to carry concealed legally in half of the states. Everyone should have one of those.

3/10 another Engine Tech F7 900 single pipe Matt Rabb tuned the single pipe/ stock muffler to 160 plus on pump gas, then added some n2o with boondocker to 200hp plus on pump gas.
3/11 John T Cowie tuning polaris 600 IQshift carbed trail mod. stock except for a head nip and BMP pipe mod, 131hp on pump gas

3/12 Casey Mulkins more Dragon 800 updates--new flash and new pipes &tc reflash delivered midrange fuel very similar to original flash/ with DTR ccw midrange PCIII map, with about 2 degrees more WOT timing, but still horribly fat on top... so we created all new PCIII maps for reflash, made 155 all stock with PCIII (full 20 page reflash article is posted on subscriber pages) and 170 hp with BMP ported cylinders on pump gas
3/13 Sean Ray dyno tuning carbureted D8 engine in 600 race chassis w/ cut stock head (tight squish but larger chambers) lower compression for pump gas, DynoPort single made 157hp with no deto at 12.5/1 but wants to shorten the custom Dynoport single to pull revs higher (higher revs may allow higher HP without deto).
3/16 Heath and Buffalo Bob from Bender Racing tuning on a Boondocker turbo Apex for pump gas. eliminated some rich burbles by tweaking the boondocker, click free at 214hp on low octane pump gas perfect for owner Larry Konipinski
3/18 F1000 stocker boondocker tuning D&D twin pipes another pa cat, tweaked boondocker to nearly 190hp on pump gas, dialing in for hillclimb racing plus a 183hp map for trail riding on 87 octane.
3/19 Cat 09 600 SnoPro stocker snowcross racer Larry Wierzba and tuner Jeff Kirschmeyer maxed out timing and jetting, results on DTR subscriber pages by 4/27
3/20 CR450 honda flat track bike racer on Cycledyne the bike racing season is here, the flattrackers are becoming spoiled being able to tune carbs/ timing/ parts to absolutely the max HP curve with no guessing.
3/23 Full Power trying to max out stock injectors on 4tek1200 stocker with big turbo stage III Justin needed to find the fuel flow limit of stock injectors/ fuel pump and he found it today
3/24 M Koz retuning F12 with gonzo N2O, getting ready for hillclimbs Mike's F12 was down 50 HP on the motor (compared to his fall tuneup) with perfect A/F ratio and no misfire and no leakdown issues, crank indexing looks fine so it's time to tear it down..no need to blow any more n2o until problem is found...
3/26 Polaris watercraft triple w/ stock 800 twin cylinders--1200cc Jim Forna bought this one cheap on Ebay, 245 hp on pump gas!
3/30 Sean Ray one more time with D8 carbed engine in IQ race chassis..Sean has 10 of these pipes coming for IQ race chassis, now 163 HP w/ DP Ypipe, 120 degree coolant, pump gas








Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, February 01, 2009

DynoTech : February 09 dyno schedule


2/3 HTG 4cyl Scott Turner tuning for 400 tweaked fuel/ timing to 376 HP then twin MSD ignitions (necessary to fire quad at 90 degrees) pickup failed causing misfire then we had to stop because no spare pickups were available..
2/4 private test 9-12 Intimidator Jim Gonyea has upgraded his bone stock 155hp F7 to Jason Owens' modified engine, F8 w/ D&D Monster twins Boondocker tuned to 187 HP  PM Jeff Weigand tuning D&D F8 single pipe Trooper Jeff had been struggling with his Boondockered F8/ monster single but I immediately discovered the boondocker was all zero's, not loaded with any sort of enrichment! So after six dyno runs we tweaked mid/ top end fuel to perfection 165 HP at .65 perfect for his riding style of short blasts just to get ahead of his wife.
2/5 Ryan Valin and Dan Jalbert, two Yam triple mods, Ryan's 700/780 SRX trail engine w/ Bender triples tuned to 178hp at .64, Dan's 600 SRX mod mystery motor maxed out at 155 and hit a wall at 9500rpm (turned out to excessive 18/1 comp ratio) so Dan is dropping compression ratio on this radar runner to 14/1 an will try again! PM H Kirsch Cat F12 with a huge pile of N2O looking for 300 hp---bring an electric hot air gun, no 3000 degree F torches allowed in the dyno room. confidential 
2/6 Justin Fuller two Yam turbo lakeracers getting ready for the Old Forge trail ride/ race cancelled
2/9 Justin Bass w/ Polaris watercraft bottom end w/ three XC800 cylinders. Also an edge HTG 1000 for tuning. Justin's 1200 custom mystery triple was bought on EBay, made dandy pump gas safe 225 HP with stock cylinders (several hundred revs lower than prdicted by engine builder), Then brother Art's HTG XCR 1080 high compression engine made 248 even though the guy he bought it from said it made 277 here (never happen w/ stock stroke 1080) proving that people will sometimes fib for a sale...but still 248 all motor is dandy for a lakeracer (wait till he comes back to hit it with N2O)...fellow lakeracer Rick Rachon had a HTG 1000 trail engine just like mine that we tuned to 220 HP easily on pump gas with less timing/ compression than mide has..
2/10 F7/Engine tech 900 boondocker tune
2/11-2/12 NY Speed F12 firecat, private test
2/13 One Stop Performance Jim big dyno driveshaft Yamaha turbo tuneup off the trailer w/ boost reduced to 30 psi 500 plus HP, then tweaked up gradually to 527 HP before headgasket began weeping coolant before race boost level were achieved...the result of deto from less than optimal octane?


2/14-15 closed for the Farmington NY Pro snoX races
2/16 AM Jim Arzie F7 with 2 deg key and BMP pipe mod that is strangely lacking the HP to run with bone stockers. Jim has the world's fattest F7 ECU--even with lower than normal fuel pressure we needed to go negative 25 at 7800 on his boondocker to create 154hp at .65 lb/hphr! PM Tom Anthony PCIII tuning HTG 600EFI big bore stroker with HTG twin pipes (ran at the 08 Adirondack Shootout) three hours to PCIII tune from scratch, added 20 HP at peak revs since the standard reprogrammed ECU was over fat...
2/17 closed
2/18 closed
2/20 HTG Rob tuning 4cyl for Oneida KOT race added nearly 100 HP with fuel/ timing bumps, maxed out at 390 with moderate 14/1 compression ratio...
pm Tripod Dan tuning XCR800 trail sled bone stock with cut heads and HTG/ DynoPort triple pipes 183 HP not bad for a $1400 sled...those old obsolete triples still make easy HP..
2/21-2/25 HTG Rob's monster quad began to slip the GMN $500 dyno starter sprag clutch, Tripod finished it off in the PM. So parts are on order, new pieces being machined to allow us to continue to start dyno tune engines remotely from the control room.
2/26 if weather cooperates we'll test D8 reflash and other stuff. 45 degrees F we must wait for cold weather to be sure our PCIII tuning is a perfect as it is for the original flash...also have a bunch of BMP hotrod stuff to test, maybe next thursday?
2/27 315er madman Rich Meyer coming to tune again. Renegade Racing Rich was insulted that I mistakenly referred to him as a 315er instead of the 518er that he really is (area code of some of the most mentally ill lakeracer madmen). We isolated an issue that was creating deto on his N2O Mach Z will be back with more fuel flow capacity and one new injector to replace one that was randomly misfiring but even with pump-limited 154 lb/hr it still made 294 CHP with a nasty cackle of deto on top end (heard coming off the copper tubing by everyone in the control room) that will surely go away with a larger capacity fuel pump...then his XP800 lakeracer buzzed well over 170hp with good tuning and timing tweaks from our local DTR Skidoo Buds tuner Jimmy Cooper...ask Rich, Tom and Jason about the value of the copper tube deto sensor in the DTR dyno room!
2/28 Fusion 975 Boondocker tuning Kelly Curran has one of those good deal low buck cheap to buy 05 fusions w/ HTG big bore/  HTG/ DynoPort single pipe...a stock ECU with Boondocker enabled us to tune this one to nearly 170 CHP on 91 octane with legal quiet stock muffler---30 HP more than a bone stock Dragon 800 for half the price!
2/29 F7 trail mod Boondocker tuning Brad Linsay w/ JanCen ported F7, porting and a tick more compression added 7 HP from last dyno session as a stocker (now 161 HP)...


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

DynoTech : Dragon 800 midrange PCIII mapping II

Here's Casey Mulkins' PCIII midrange tuning. These numbers have seemed to eliminate the part throttle surging he's had riding his sled with stock pipe and the 154hp WOT map.

He tried the big numbers I punched in intuitively, and they were way too fat. He gradually brought those numbers down and here's where he improved the drivability of his sled. His High RPM map is still the way we programmed it, with negative numbers.

5000 0 0 2 2 2 2 2 2 0
5250 0 0 5 5 5 5 5 5 0
5500 0 0 5 7 7 7 7 7 0
5750 0 0 5 9 9 9 9 9 0
6000 0 0 5 5 7 7 7 5 0
6250 0 0 5 4 4 4 4 4 0
6500 0 0 4 4 3 3 4 4 0
6750 0 0 3 3 3 3 3 4 0

Next Dragon 800 on the dyno will get this map installed, and we'll see what it does for midrange A/F ratio and BSFC. We're planning to create new maps for the production DynoPort and Bikeman single pipes when we get them.

This midrange D8 PCIII map came from Chad Okeson, of Okeson Off trail Sales in Detroit Lakes MN, who tweaked one of his customers' PCIII to improve Casey's first map even further. As you can see he has added fuel at lower RPM than Casey's first midrange map. If you're using Casey's midrange numbers on your PCIII and still have light hesitation or surginess at the lower RPM try punching these numbers into your PCIII.

1/2/09 Here's another map with more fuel added at lower revs. This one is from Chad okeson of Okenson's Off Trail Sales in Detroit Lakes MN. Try this if you still feel lower RPM leanness of hesitation. Thanks Casey and Chad. 

 
2    5   10  20  40  60  80 100

0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   500
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   750
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  1000
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   etc
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0
3    7    5    5    5    5    5    0  5000
3    6    9    9    9    9    9    0  5250
0    5    9    9    9    9    9    0  5500
0    5    9    9    9    9    9    0  etc
0    5    5    7    7    7    5    0
0    5    4    4    4    4    4    0
0    4    4    3    3    3    4    0
0    4    4    3    3    3    4    0



 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 21, 2008

DynoTech : January 2009 dyno schedule


1/1 Bill Rogers stock Dragon 700 with reflash stock testing plus SLP and Dynoport pipes for PCIII mapping top end fuel is very safely overrich, see full report
1/2 private session, cams off
1/4 518ers Alan w/ Yamaha 700 Viper triple N2O made 159 na with Bender triple pipes, amazingly added 50 with a battery powered n2o box that feeds fuel from the stock mechanical fuel pump, looking for even more in a week or so,  Dave w/Vmax4 bigbore, ...the 945cc Justin Fuller ported big bore with 4 44 Megatron carbs, Power Inc pipes made 250 which is the highest power na Vmax 4 tested here, was going for more with offset key but a loose flywheel cover dowel ate the stator before more HP could be created...Justin Full Power 4Tek header testing..another 3-1 stainless header, this one easier to make than the previous prototype header that made significant HP, but this one disappointed us with HP about equal to stock. All 3-1 SS headers are not creating equal HP...
1/5 Joe Martin Firecat Boondocker tune bone stock 04 with 2 deg key, VForce, D&D Ypipe, BMP stealth pipe fitted with stock pipe heat shield, stock muffler of course, Boondocker tuned perfectly to 153 HP at .60plus 11.5/1
1/6 Bill Swoyer, CS HO800 hillclimber, CS twins on CS mod makes very big but private HP  late PM Jeff Sherlock, F1000 with new whisper-quiet Jaws twin pipes new Jaws twins with incredible whisper-quiet muffler can easily pass for stock dB but also make big tq and HP...155 lb/ft 220 HP on this one...   and a F7/860 Lakeracer stroker Rich and RJ's na Oneida Lakracer cranks out 194 HP after tweaking fuel and D&D Monster twin pipe header length to optimum...
1/7
1/8
1/9 kyle cook, HTG 1200 triple, 990 twin Kyle's 1200 lakeracer made 278hp, lower than most HTG big 1200 race gas triples--Rob thinks it needs timing and compression to bring it up another 20hp. Kyle's 990 twin ProX lakeracer has been giving him fits of hard to understand deto. Turns out the lectron carbs are buzzing and foaming the fuel, causing fuel flow to surge wildly and leaning the engine out...this can be cured with a combo of softer engine mounts and carb boots, larger needle and seats, higher fuel pressure, and added carb weight to dampen the vibration. Remember Jim Cooper cured his foaming megatron carbs with about 7 lb of steel that served as a rack to tie the carbs together.  Will hopefully Kyle be back with both sleds.
1/10 or 11 SledWerx Spenc stock Dragon 800 w/ DynoPort single, BMP single and other stuff for PCIII mapping Spenc couldn't get his clutch off so Wayne Stoutner subbed with his D8--created great maps for DynoPort and BMP pipes, and also found a pile of nasty richness at 3/4 throttle in the midrange that had been causing annoying bog letting off the throttle from 90mph. It took a large block of negatives, removing nearly 20% of the fuel flow there and the misfire is gone. Many PCIII users have adopted this version of the CC (Casey Chad) midrange map that we call CCW (Casey Chad Wayne). 
1/12 Mark Burns Xfire1000 Boondocker tune, TCat Hooper big bore 1230 triple Mark's XFire with 2.5 deg key, BMP Ypipe and single pipe/ stock muffler tuned safely to 183chp. The big triple is a dandy, with a broad HP plateau that even I could clutch to, but I think Mark doesn't want his pals to know his HP.
1/13 going to JD Powersports in Rochester NY for SuperFlow 902 training. JD has new 902 and are having SF Brett Williamson coming to fine tune/ train them at their Cat turbo tuning facility. SF is warming me up to upgrade my 22 year old but dandy 901 console to 902 for $18,000 and I need to see how it works before I go into debt again.
1/14 Chuckaroo noonish trying to up his PS1000 DTR highest HP record some more. Chuck's latest iteration has buzzing carbs similar to Kyle Cook's, often plaguing solid mount strokers, just as it was leaning out at 9200 from foaming fuel it made 280 plus observed before tightening up. I should have had the copper tube bolted to this one, although it may have just lean-squeeked which we couldn't hear on the detophones.
1/15 BMP race ported F6 with stock pipe modded and fitted with stock heat shields, and stock muffler this made a dandy 146hp with Boondocker tuning.
1/16 All cancelled
1/17 Justin Full Power w/ three hopefully 400 HP Yamahas (cancelled)
1/18 Carl Therieult, Cat M8 w/ D&D shim kit, then Ypipe, then single pipe. This was dandy enough to post on DTR as a tech article. Great bang-for-the-buck at $250 for the shim kit and head mod (drops the combustion chambers into each hole to maintain squish/ compression with raised cylinders).
1/21 Jeff Palermo SkiDoo "500" 120 safe hp w/ modded muffler
1/22 Justin Fuller three or four more Yamaha turbos Todd's RX1 hillclimber made 466, Johnny's Apex lakeracer ran out of fuel pump capacity at 322 and Joes Apex trail sled made 300 plus.
1/23 Rick Kubecka, dragon 800 with twin pipes for PCIII tuning IQ race chassis w/ bone stock Dragon 800 EFI engine set up for hill drags, a set of custom twin pipes, tuned PCIII on race gas touched 170chp with a flat plateau. A bump in timing/ compression should add lots to this one...

1/24 HTG session Cams off, 11AM Mike Brisbane F7/8 twin pipe Mike had a hand-modified stock muffler silencing the D&D monster twins last time, but that stock muffler was way to tight for the high flowing F8, creating deto causing our copper tube to crackle and snap...went home, bought a D&D can that is made for the twins. Loud but free-breathing, made 170 at nearly .70 lb/hphr on his tug hill map with no hint of click.
1/25 Ed Derby's repair four sled marathon..Carl's 660 Pol twin, Blade 91 HTG twin, F1000 trail sled w/ n2o, Edge RMK 860 Engine Tech...Ed came solo with a trailerload of sleds to tune for himself and his customers. Started Sunday, finished Monday. One highlight was tuning a Boondocker carb N2O system. Ed was here a few years ago with one of those and we had an awful time trying to create proper and quick additional fuel flow to match the N2O delivery. This time we got it right, and I need to post some details on the tech pages.
1//26 Private test, cams off.
1/27 open
1/28 Private test, cams off
1/30 H Kirsch and MKoz Big Cat Lakeracers cancelled due to snow and lack of parts
1/31 Scott Brownlee and his pal Nelson Cadieux of Carlson Sports RV center in North Bay Ont, 4 big Cats to tune make that 5 big cats to tune! Scott and Nelson made their fourth trip to DTR to tune. This time five Carlson's and customers' sleds prepped for dyno tuning (clutches, hoods off, etc). Got them all tuned on Sunday, including the shop's Z1 with HiJacker and several higher flowing aftermarket mufflers maxed out on 91 octane and on straight fresh C12. This one deserves a tech article. Stay tuned. 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, December 15, 2008

DynoTech : One Cheater caught after the Shootout

 I have a difficult situation with the Arctic Cat Crossfire 1000 "stocker" brought in by Big Moose Arctic Cat at the 19th annual Adirondack Shootout. After reviewing the Shootout acceleration ET MPH data, I have to conclude that it was way too fast. It had to be a cheater. I am suggesting to AmSnow Sr Editor Mark Boncher who was at the Shootout, that he eliminate the results of the Crossfire 1000 from the Shootout, and leave the Z1 results as the Unlimited Class sole participant.

During the Shootout we make on-site real-time comparison of stock vs trail mod difficult since we public address and listen to 1320' results of stockers and 1000' results of aftermarket trail mod sleds. But after getting back home and assessing 1000' results of stockers I can see clearly the supposedly stock 166hp Xfire1000 was much more powerful than that. In 1000' it was as fast as D&D's 195hp 901cc piped Xfire800 clutched and driven by Scooter, and faster than Bikeman's stock Xfire 1000 with BM pipe, reeds, and dyno tuned at my place at 193hp.

I should have been diligent enough to realize that when the stock Crossfire 1000 was much faster than the Z1 in 1/4 mile something must have been amiss, and we should have teched the Crossfire 1000 immediately on-site.

Once again, mia f'ing culpa.

But even though the Unlimited Class results are tainted by this, the 600 class and 800 class results are as they should be. 

When we decided at the last minute to have an unlimited stock class to differentiate from the 800's we included the two big Arctic Cats-- Z1 turbo and the Crossfire 1000. And because it was an all-Cat class, George Taylor and I unwisely assumed that the dealer Big Moose Yam/ Arctic Cat would leave things alone and let the sleds run stock. They were already bringing a trailer-full of Cats and Yamahas to dyno certify, and a second trailer was a lot to ask. There should be no incentive for them to cheat one over one another since they were the same brand. So we allowed Big Moose to keep the sleds, no dyno certification and lock-up, let them run in the Unlimited Stock class amongst themselves. AC lobbied for some miles on the Z1 for breakin and we concurred that that was acceptable, and Big Moose was allowed to run the sled on the trail for the breakin miles AC requested with no supervision.

The Z1 was surely left stock--the timed performance was commensurate with power to weight ratio. It's reasonable to let those Z1 results be included in the Shootout.

But for now, in the interest of fairness to everyone including the very important aftermarket participants, the Crossfire 1000 results should be deleted.

After The Shootout banquet at the Trail's End Restaurant in Old Forge, Big Moose Cat tech Vince was overheard bragging that he had fooled us by cheating with modifications that I won't disclose here. That explains the too-fast performance of the Big Moose Crossfire 1000 that closely matched the 190 plus HP Crossfires brought by D&D and Bikeman.

Today I called Big Moose co-owner Phil Martin to explain this discovery. He indicated no knowledge of this cheating by Vince. I can accept that, because I'm sure that Phil and Jon Martin both have IQ's high enough to realize the negative results of this buffoonery--make the Z1 look slow so no one will want to buy them? Make the aftermarket trail mod Crossfires from D&D and Bikeman look like a poor investment? Make their Crossfire 800 sleds look slow?

I'm awaiting a response from Mark Boncher, Sr Editor of Am Snow who covered the Shootout. George Taylor and I had stressed to all dealers the need for a flawless Shootout and this is what we got. It was Mark who sold the AmSnow owners on partnering once more with us for Shootout 19, and I'm hoping this doesn't create a problem for Shootout XX.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, December 06, 2008

DynoTech : Amsnow Shootout mod sleds 12/12


As has been their requirement since including aftermarket demos years ago, AmSnow requires aftermarket participants to be display advertisers. The minimum is 1/6th page in the February issue, on the stands in January. Closing for add space commitment is 11/25. Plus $500 per sled to Shootout Committee.
 
In solid:
D&D Z1turbo pump gas, one with race gas, Xfire 800 with mods maybe 901 big bore, Lakeracer Tony Koz' Big Cat turbo

Boondocker: Crossfire turbo 

CJ Motorsports/ Full Power [stage 1 turbo 4Tek, stage 2 turbo 4Tek], lake racer Full Power apex turbo Mark Tangas

DynoPort Dragon 800 w/ DP single pipe, XP800 with DP single pipe, BJ XP860 with DP single pipe, lakeracers: HTG 4 cylinder 400hp al motor, Rich's 1000 triple very lightweight lakeracer  

Bikeman Xfire 1000 with bolt-ons, Dragon 800 with BMP single pipe, SkiDoo800R/880, SkiDooTNT posible


Boyesen Reeds: RK Tek XP860 with Jaws twin pipes

Tentative:
SLP cancelled
Ulmer Racing havent heard anything
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, November 23, 2008

DynoTech : December dyno schedule & other stuff

12/1 Rob Schooping dyno tuning Skidoo triple 1200 stroker lakeracer this one was a hermaphrodite, but not as powerful as the typical HTG1200 triple
12/2 private session all day, cameras off

12/4 Mike Martin MPI SC Nytro one more time with bigger fuel pump. Mike did a complete custom fuel system on his own to get fuel flow to match the big air flow
12/5 AM open    PM Deeder better have his parts now. Deeder got his stuff, still making 300 plus, but a small piece of cylinder casting popped loose between bore and oring. Back to the plater.

12/8-12/14 Dyno Nightmare Week--a dozen AmSnow Shootout sleds to certify monday-wednesday, live on DynoCams, please let me catch at least one cheater (!?)... then I pick up stock and mod trophies, head for Old Forge on Thursday but must stop at Syracuse airport to pick up AmSnow Ed Mark Boncher who will be expected to chip in for gas and road beer, Shootout #19 (don't know roman numerals)  on Friday at Woodgate.

12/15 Bill Swartz several CS mod engines, live on DynoCams

12/18 Anthony F F7/8 twin pipe Boondocker tune create two perfect maps one for 87 octane 10.5/1 163hp, 93ish octane 12/168hp
12/19 Mike Scarcella cancelled
12/21 Allen Miller Bender Viper cancelled
12/22 Kyle Cook, Rob Schooping two mods cancelled due to weather
12/26 Jeff Sherlock w/ mod F1000 and new Jaws pipes, Top Gun Dave Dillenbeck trying new high rpm pipes on his Cutler F7/10  Jeff's dyno session was shortened by a combo of a failed Boondocker box and/ or an air lock in his cooling system (air pocket above comb chamber = detonation with safe A/F ratio). He had just come off Jaws' SuperFlow dyno just like mine, with new Jaws F1000 twins, perfect  Boondocker tune and HP he wanted to share with DTR. His plan was to make some good HP then pop the head off to let me measure bore and stroke like Rich Daly did with his XP800. But before the good HP could be made, initial dyno midrange fuel flow was horribly lean, down to 17/1 and we kept stopping the dyno tests midstream to have Jeff add Boondocker fuel numbers. Adding 20 to all WOT rpm settings did almost nothing to increase fuel flow, and eventually a plug got speckled. There were also issues with trying to get dyno cooling water through the chassis and into the reverse cooled engine, possibly contributing to the detonation. The lack of fuel due to the boondocker reverting to stock fuel flow, combined with air trapped in the head = short dyno session. Jeff will fix whatever the problem is and come back again next week. But for now I can offer that the Jaws F1000 twin pipes are incredibly, very nearly as quiet as a stock exhaust. The ultimate HP delivery will be demonstrated when parts are fixed, Boondocker replaced and coolant bled perfectly, and head is removed for bore/stroke measurement by yours truly.
Dave D's day was better, but the high revving twins didn't make his F10 happy, so he went back to his original 8000rpm pipes and made more power. Tweaking on his wet N2O system (Dave had to buy a $100 hot air gun to heat his n2o bottles because he knew I wouldn't let him use a 3000 degree torch to overheat the aluminum bottles that lose much of their tensile strength at 600 degrees F) made him over 260hp with .65 lb/hphr. Will Dave's 260 HP n2o Firecat run w/ Mike Koz' 300 HP n2o F1x00?

 12/27 Mike Marpoux, SkiDoo Big John Big bore, and 09 800XP stocker
 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, November 09, 2008

DynoTech : Kevin Cameron on breakin friction




   






Kawasaki's KR250 road race two-stroke most certainly developed more power after some break-in time, but the energy argument disposes of the idea that it could be a large amount. If much power was going into making metal particles you'd see the metal - lots of it.
 
In four-strokes, the largest component of friction comes from the ring stack and secondarily, from the piston, the reason being that ring-to-wall oil films are very thin so the rate of shear is large. Because engines don't fill their oil with wear particles we can see that metal-to-metal friction is very small. This is especially so  in late-model stuff, which has all lapped rings. I rented a Mitsubishi something-or-other at the Atlanta airport once with 7 miles on it, and was interested to pull the dipstick after 200 additional miles of rush-hour 85-mph driving - the oil was still clear amber. Back in the old days of cross-hatch honed cylinder walls that acted as mill bastard files to shave rings into shape, the first oil change was dark with wear particles.
 
At lower throttle angles a four-stroke also has a lot of pumping loss, usually lumped in with friction. This is the energy used to pull a partial vacuum in the cylinder on the intake stroke. Diesels, being unthrottled, have little pumping loss, as do crankcase-scavenged two-strokes.
 
At idle or similarly low rpm there is an increase of friction loss from the valve train as the heavy pressure between tappet and cam lobe increasingly crushes through the dynamic oil film, leaving an increasing share of the load to be carried by the oil additive layers on the parts. As this additive-carried friction is typically 10-100X the friction of the oil film (usually of the order of .001) this can be a fair amount, and is responsible for much of the rise in friction at very low revs. During break-in this is probably a source of some excess friction. Some anti-friction agents such as tricresyl phosphate (the TCP of story & song) act as polishing compounds. As they react with the metal surface they form friable phosphides, and concentrated friction may rub some of this off, taking some metal with it. I have often seen power gears that were fairly rough-looking when new assume a much more polished, finished appearance after some hours of operation.
 
OIl film friction rises steeply with rpm, so the friction loss curve is a "bucket" - high at the extremes and low in the middle.
 
KC
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, October 19, 2008

DynoTech : Dragon cooling improvements revised

Xtreme Performance Dyno has been simply removing the Tstats from last year's RMK800 and this years Dragon 800s. This allows unrestricted coolant flow in parallel through front and rear heat exchangers. Bill Davis reports that this drops coolant temp to max of 100-110 deg F on hard running, albeit with way less HP (high altitude) creating engine heat.  It's been suggested by Polaris techs that plumbing the heat exchangers in series like the SnowX racers (as the following link shows) might cause coolant flow to be restictive, lower than the 22 gal/ minute flow they say is necessary to do the job. The easiest thing to do is pop the Tstat out, just run the oring gasket. Check coolant temp and we're hoping that in reasonable snow it will run 100ish. But if on hard pack, high speeds if it climbs to 125+ you will just lose HP from the hotter coolant/ lower airflow and the increased liklihood of knock that will result in less timing/ richer fuel flow. Surely some are doing the series plumbing like the similarly powerful 600 SnowX mods, that run on-off-on throttle but never see much over 80 degrees F. We can report how this does work out.

Dragon owner Doug Meyers (thanks Doug) sent us this link to show how to put D8 heat exchangers into series.This is how the new IQ race sleds are plumbed:

http://parts.polarisind.com/PrintAssembly.asp?assemblyID=38095&AssemblyName=ENGINE, COOLING SYSTEM - S09MX6JS/JE &ModelYear=2009&LineName=SNO&Print=Yes&ModelName=600 IQ RACER/EURO - S09MX6JS/JE


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

DynoTech : Selling PCIIIs for Dragon 800 EFIs

I have a batch of Power Commander PCIIIs w/ factory-style plug-in ECU connectors for Dragon 800s coming in on 10/17.

Currently I have maps that we created here for max pump gas HP for stock pipe (drops fuel flow from 110 to 95 lb/hr and adds 10 HP), BMP stock pipe mod, SLP pipe, and SLP pipe w/ Xtreme pipe mod (if that becomes available).

After this initial testing/ tuning with the PCIII I believe this is as precise as a factory remap, so I believe a max HP map we created to achieve close to 154 HP with the stock pipe is applicable to all Dragon 800s operated below 3000 ft altitude (testing will be done soon to see if this identical mapping is ideal at 6500' at Xtreme dyno).

The PCIIIs we ship to DTR subscribers will be pre-loaded with the map of their choice (and that can be altered or changed to a different DTR map by the user with supplied software and PC cable), so it will be a plug-in and go deal.

I have sold Boondocker boxes for years to people who come here to dyno tune, and will continue to do so. Boondocker surely deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for developing this great EFI tuning device that not only adds fuel, but can also reduce fuel! This has enabled EFI sledders to do whatever they like to hotrod their machines, including pressurecharging, and tune as nicely as carbureted engines. This is great for individual dyno tuning here. I've done many hundreds of Boondocker tunes. But I have seen in most instances that each sled, seemingly identical requires a different Boondocker tune to be precisely spot on.  Perhaps this has been in some instances due to vast difference is base tune of F7 ECUs. But it's been varying enough that I wouldn't sell a Boondocker over the mail with a preloaded map, and expect the buyer to be pleased.

But the PCIII is different in that it uses very precise steps in RPM and throttle position to add or subtract fuel. So I'm as comfortable sending out a preprogrammed PCIII to a Dragon 800 owner as Polaris might be doing a remap of fuel flow.

I plan to maintain an email database of people using these preprogrammed PCIIIs, and as subtle tweaks/ improvements etc are developed those will be shared instantly.  

The current user price is $350, and when I receive the boxed PCIIIs on 10/17 I will take one to the PO to  find out the cost of shipping/ insuring. Preloading the PCIII is fairly straightfoward, done with a cable from the dyno computer to the PCIII (either on the sled, or off). Map upgrades can be done by the user, and new maps are e-mailable. Lots of PCIII info is on their website.

Twenty years ago, for $5.00 I  used to put two 320 main jets in an envelope and send them to Arctic Cat Wildcat owners to replace the 400s they came with. Times have changed, but the HP % increase available  from proper performance tuning is still the same.


Also for those interested in the SLP single pipe mod, Xtreme Polaris will do those for $220, or sell a new SLP pipe kit w/ mod for $850 (normal unmodded price is $630) 303-654-0867





 


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, October 12, 2008

DynoTech : Dyno Over-Correction factors and agendas

There's a good post on HCS Polaris IQ forums by an educated guy requesting correction factors used by OEM and aftermarket companies, and independent dyno testers like me regarding HP results on the new 09 Dragon 800.

When I borrowed $50,000 22 years ago to acquire this SuperFlow 901C (and C was a huge option because it came with a computer to remember things). That computer was a $5000 option. Very cool. How about printing plots of the computer generated graphs? Another $2000 got me an incredible plotting machine that grabbed tiny felt tipped pens out of a six-gun-like cartridge, held the pens and slid each pen side to side, and the machine slid sheets of shiny paper up and down to create very cool looking cartoons of the HP graphs.

I threw that stuff in the trash years ago, replaced it with a $500 computer that is 100x faster than that old pre-288 $5000 slug. New software has come along from SuperFlow (another $5000) to enable us to utilize the more powerful $500 computers, now we have real-time graphs (show up on the monitor as they happen live) and instant readouts of the Corrected data.

The Corrected data from the dyno is the same today as it was 22 years ago.

We have always had two Correction factors to select from--Standard and SAE.


The actual dyno test on any given day is listed as "observed" data. That is the actual torque and HP made on that day. If we test in August with high humidity, we get low observed HP, and correction factor will increase that number. Conversely, if we test in Feruary, -10 F in the dyno room, high baro, the correction factor will reduce the observed  HP to a lower, more realistic number..The corrected data should be the same whether the engine was tested in Aug or Feb.

Standard (STD).  is the expected HP the engine should make at 60 deg F dry air, sea level 29.92 in hg (inches on mercury baro pressure).

SAE is more conservative, some engineers say more realistic as a continent-wide average. That correction factor uses a higher altitude, 29.38 in hg, and 77 degrees F.

When I figured out how to run the dyno in my shop, on a brand new 87 Yamaha Exciter I saw quickly that SAE HP was no good, because it was lower than STD. We wanted big HP, and if it took the most optimistic correction factor to get that, why, that's what we'll use! STD was the official DynoTech (C&H Dyno then) correction factor.

This goof-ball decision would have enduring impact upon aftermarket and OEM data that would be released to the public for the next 30 years. Back then we got zero HP data from snowmobile manufacturers, and very crude, vague info from the few aftermarket suppliers that had dynos. Some aftermarket suppliers' catalogs had awful, hand drawn graphs of before and after HP. Lots of it was complete bull. That's why I built my dyno (another story).

Knowing that I had impartial dyno infomation that the public really needed, I began publishing stock and modified dyno test results, all in the most optimistic STD, in my DT newsletter. Once I began to publish  STD HP of all the stockers, and all the mod stuff, the bar was set. Ten years later, when manufacturers began publishing their own HP numbers they wisely used STD instead of SAE, so as I like to think, their numbers would match mine in the early 90's, and they continue to do so today. So probably because of me, the snowmobile industry has adopted STD as the standard instead of SAE that's used by the automotive, boat, and motorcycle industries. Surely that's a feather of dubious value in my hat.

Over the years, as the most notorious Dyno Detective, I have discovered new correction factors. To name a few:

KJ Correction: Knob Job correction factor. My dyno has a torque correctoion knob under the console, ostensibly to zero the torque of the dyno each run. Problem is, that knob can add or subtract up to 12 lb/ft of torque for a full dyno test! I discovered that 15 years ago, when Pro Stock bike dragracer Paul Gast sent his Kaw drag engine to a big name engine builder in Florida. Paul used my dyno, with dyno driven from trans output shaft to dyno with a splined custom driveshaft. 200 HP leaned to the bone. Sent the engine to FL, the engine builder with an identical SF901 dyno baselined 200 HP. Then he did some stuff to Paul's engine, got a 218 HP dyno sheet and the engine back in a crate for something like $5,000. Dandy. 

Paul bolted his engine in the bike, drove to NYIRP drag strip and ran identical ET/ MPH as before. WTF. So Paul called me  from a pay phone (no Cel Phones back then) while I was eating dinner, to tell me of this strangeness. So I met him at 8:00 PM at the dyno (to my neighbors' chagrin), hooked the bike up an voila 200 CHP. So I looked at Paul's "after" SF901 dyno sheet from this infamous engine builder, and I noticed that there was 10 lb/ft of torque extra from low RPM to HP peak. So on a hunch, I cranked the torque zero knob to 10 lb/ft at rest, and showed Paul what I did. Next dyno run, 218 CHP. Complete B.S., the original KNOB JOB. Paul Gast is a great guy, the marketer of Lectron carbs for sleds and bikes (all PS Japanese bikes run Lectron carbs except one that's trying EFI). I'm sure his attorneys got his $5000 back.

Next correction factor is the BEB Correction factor. This is the Boat Engine Builder's Correction factor. .Sonny Hawkins is an old friend, sled hottrodder, and offshore boat racer on some national cicuit with a 30' catamaran. He told me about new engines he had built in Erie County, 500 CID 750 Holley NA 800 HP (that made my eyes roll back). But his boat was slow, maybe 110 mph instead of the 120 the Chris Cat hull should run with a true 800 HP per side. After fighting with the hull designer and prop guy, he pulled an engine out to have it "re-dyno'd" at the engine builder's shop just to make sure all was well. Sonny bugged me to go along, and being friends I reluctantly came to observe. Being savvy on electronics, BSFC etc I caught this engine builder cheating 250 HP! That 800 HP engine was really putting out 650, which is what it takes to make a 30' Chris Cat run 110.  I think the attorneys settled that issue, too. The Boat engine builder's answer was, "all the boat engine builders have their dyno's cranked up, if i don't do the same, no one will buy my engines"....

One more important one and please this is about a now-defunct company:
Unscrupulous Sled Aftermarket Company Correction: Local sledder Al S. came to DTR after a season of fighting to make reasonable performance with a huge buck PSI 1140 twin in a ProX chassis. Al paid an extra $300 to get his engine dyno tuned by the builder before he got the engine. In the crate with the engine was a dyno sheet 225 HP or therabouts. After struggling to run by stockers, Al finally brought his sled to DTR.  I think it was 157 HP. We cranked the timing to the max and it made 172 but that's all it had. So in this case the USAC correction was to add 43% to STD correction. That dyno sheet looks real. But it pays to be leery.

Bottom line is. all these modern dynamometers are computerized things, all can be tweaked at the will of the dyno operator to say what they want. I can make a weedeater on the dyno show a 987 HP dyno sheet. I have many friends in the aftermarket with instrumented dynamometers. I doubt that if they build really good stuff (which ultimately keeps them in business) they need to crank the knobs on their dynos. And also all major aftermarket players know their work will eventually show up on my dyno, and the real numbers are made here. Besides being ethical builders, knowing that their customers can make the same HP at my dyno is a feather in their hat.

Thousands of people enjoy seeing real numbers on DTR website, and the modest subscription fee pays for a lot of the high overhead and work involved compiling the data, and ensuring its' accuracy. I have no agenda other than to provide the most accurate data possible for people who follow my stuff, and for people who come here from many 1000's of miles away to test and tune, and see the real, not pretend HP numbers..

Sometimes I feel bad if we can't find the HP a dyno user is expecting, and a twist of the dyno knob can achieve temporary happiness for the sled owner. But a knobbed dyno sheet doesn't help the sled run faster. Even a modest knob twist might seem harmless to please a paying customer who, say, is hoping for 300 HP on a HTG XCR1200 triple (often achieved by those if everything is dialed in perfectly), and is tapped out at 296. But you can't do that! Case in point, my old dyno pal Gene Hurin came last year to dial in his HTG1200 lakeracer along with Rob Schooping. We tweaked timing and jetting for an hour, 296 was "all" it would make, and Gene was bummed. An modest torque knob bump could have gotten 300.0 but I can't do that. So after maxing out at 296, while pulling Gene's sled off the table we noticed lots of oil in the bellypan. Rob pulled the pipes off, and discovered a chunk of epoxy in the crankcase (used where the boring bar breaks through the case when oversize sleeves are fitted) had come loose, causing a huge crankcase leak! Gene was relieved, because he knows that leak probably cost 4.0 HP, and he plans to come back again this fall to get his 300.0 HP dyno sheet to admire. But what if I had knobbed him 300.0 with that unknown crankcase leak? Then Gene would have repaired the leak. come back to test again expecting 304.0! Once you do a compassion knob, you're destined to knob forever, just like people who lie must continue lieing. It's a viscious circle.

I hope Gene doesn't make 299 with his sealed crankcase, because he'll likely be even more bummed, like the guy with 11 3/4 inches who is bummed because it isn't really of foot long.







      





 

 




 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, October 11, 2008

DynoTech : AmSnow/ DTR Adirondack Shootout

This December, the Adirondack Shootout in Woodgate, NY, will once again be hosted/ covered this year by American Snowmobiler Magazine and the AmSnow website.

When our pal Jerry Bassett sold American Snowmobiler a few years back, the new owners opted to skip covering the Shootout, and we found a fine partner in SnowWeek/ SnowGoer Magazines. Tim Erickson and crew covered the Shootout for several years, but now that SnowWeek is no longer being published, we lost our instant publicity that our aftermarket participants/ companies desired. SnowGoer will not return as our publishing partner.

Instead, we've renewed our relationship with American Snowmobiler, who began the Adirondack/ Old Forge, NY Shootout 18 years ago with DynoTech Jim, George Taylor (then owner of Shootout Headquarters Van Aukens Inne), and the sled dealers in the Old Forge area. [Big Moose Yamaha/ Cat, White Lake Polaris, Smith Marine (again) SkiDoo]. AmSnow editor Mark Boncher suggested that AmSnow website can provide instant results of the Shootout, and the magazine article is planned to be featured in late January.

We're still finializing plans for the Shootout, but our initial concept is to run all 600 stockers, 800cc stockers, and all four strokes.

Aftermarket trail/ lake mods will be provided by aftermarket companies who agree to place a 1/6th page display ad in American Snowmobiler (that's always been their prerequisite). There is some discussion of bolting aftermarket parts on the Shootout stockers, for back to back upgrade results. We'll have awards for various categories as entrants are solidified.

 In addition, we're planning to have up to 10 consumer-owned lakeracer sleds, each sponsored by one or more of the aftermarket companies in the Shootout. This is a 660ft deal, anything goes, full body required situp style, 3" front and rear travel, full length skis. Trophies for these sleds will be best ET, and separately best MPH, two stroke NA, two stroke power adder, four stroke power adder.

This year, the Official Shootout Motel Headquarters is the North Woods Motel/ Restaurant/ Cocktail lounge in Old Forge. Van Aukens Inne is no longer part of our program. The Shootout Banquet is scheduled for Friday night at the Trail's End Restaurant in downtown Old Forge.


 







 
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Monday, September 22, 2008

DynoTech : November Dyno Schedule

11/1-2 Private session, DynoCams off
11/3 Allan Ulmer, Turbo Nytro, Nytro w/ replacement header and other bolt-ons with excellent PCIII tuning, made over 200 boosted HP on 87 octane w/ no signs of knock on deto-phones, the NA sled tweaked to 150hp with intake/ exhaust mods.

11/4-11/6 private session cams off
11/7 Dan Schuler, PS800 SkiDoo looking for more HP tried raising cylinders to increase port timing, lost HP, but created a good timing map with custom ignition
11/8 Dave Shoupe, HTG big bore fusion? Rescheduled from 11/1
11/9 private session cams off
11/12 private session cams off
11/13 Jeff Stinson trail mod F7.another perfect Boondocker tune, 13/1 up to 7200 valve opening then exactly flat 11.5/1 from 7201 to 8200.. PM Apex w/ Bender muffler PCIII found bigger HP with a combo of modded airbox and added fuel (a must) with PCIII
11/15  late AM Dave Shoupe HTG Fusion, new twin pipes tried a set of twin pipes with boondocker, made less HP, tried SLP pipe/ can but finally back to HTG single pipe and can for best TQ/HP
11/17 Greg Whitney (Nova Scotia) F7 w/ F1000 engine Madman Greg drove 1200 miles to get a perfect tune and bring me 12 Molson XXXs and get a perfect trail tune, beautiful installation, bone stock engine 190 plus with SW Ypipe, pipe, and can and 185 plus at ultra-safe 10.5/1 for upnord mystery pump gas..  PM Bill Swartz SDI600 mod Crankshop trail ported cylinders, CS single with stock muffler, boondocker tuned to 135 HP with no deto, all in a 440 snocross chassis...
11/18 CJ Motorsports, Full Power new production 4tek1200 stock baseline then install production turbo kit on the dyno, check fuel mgr calibration seemingly tighter stock muffler created deto on 87 that wasn't there on preproduction machine, so tuning tuning tuning finally have pump gas stage 1 and stage 2 packages 200-240 HP and race gas easily to 300 plus.
11/21 AM Joe Parfitt, Mach Z tuning  NX N2O learned something new today from Sled Shop Joe (Baldwinsville NY) like we do every day, those NX Y shaped nozzles are limited in N2O flow just like we sort of figured with Tony Koz' big Cat twin. Also Joe's MachZ may have been suffering from maladjusted exhaust valves, and that light pressure EFI pump with the wet system was creating severe on-button deto until pressure caught up with N2O, engine saved thanks to Sean Ray's detophones. But with Joe pushing the N2O button and swapping jets he's got a dandy lakeracer with 260 plus at .60 plus total BSFC (measured fuel flow from EFI plus fuel flow from wet system) the way we like it.
11/22 Ron Schantz and pals, two or three big Cat triples more Canadian madmen lakeracers with green thong underwear...learned lots today by swapping many sets of big cat triple pipes/  mufflers/ CDIs with three engines--- Ron was off 80HP on his sled because he was told to run 9200 when his HP really happened at 8500 Dont believe anyone, test your stuff on any instrumented dyno to be sure..

11/24 AM Mike Brisbane, F7/8 BMP with N2O, mike wanted pump gas power with an extra shot of pump gas nitrous, but we tweaked and tuned on his NA baseline but the detophones were warning of nasty midrange deto even with normally safe fuel flow and A/F ratio, it was rattling the detometer so hard NA I advised leaving the N2O for another day...he must check installed uncorrected compression ratio. N2O and big HP on pump gas is difficult, and if were clicking NA we must change something before we destroy parts.
11/25 private session all day, cams off
11/28 Jason Pigeon F7 mod Cat radar runner, deeder cancelled, maybe another mystery cat coming in PM...Jason was fibbing, actually F8 tuning for radar running with D&D Monster Single jacked timing and fuel flow with High RPM D&D Boondocker to over 180 HP.
11/29 Brett Smith, CS 1140 twin built by Carl's
11/30 Damon MacArthur troublesome SS900 Cat

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, September 22, 2008

DynoTech : October Dyno Schedule

10/1 AM Casey Mulkin production 09 dragon 800, pipe mods, SLP single, etc my brain is shot after 12 hours of testing changing swapping stuff. This is a hugely powerful engine, but it has been detonating easily, and when it does the ECM seems to overcompensate. Casey's sled baselined at 145, leaned out with Power Commander to 152ish but on the edge of rattling the ECU to big retard. Polaris technical people are flying in tomorrow, cams off, I need to show them what is happening here, maybe changes are in store...
10/2 Casey day 2--another 12 hour session, this one much more enjoyable, excellent technical support provided by Darren Hedlund of Polaris Engineering,  finally were able to increase HP knock-free by operating at slightly lower coolant temps (increased airflow and reduced active radicals), monitored pipe backpressure, with what appeared to be real 93 octane gas (we were surely boned yesterday by rattling fake 93 Sunoco)...we tuned fuel down to 153hp with Power Commander, then were able to add custom exhaust parts and further fuel tuning to over 162HP, limited there by the octane of the fuel. 50 plus dyno tests to review with Casey, will try to compile that information this weekend, including four single pipes and the actual PCIII numbers we used to optimize fuel flow for each combination.

10/3 10am Nat'l flat track Champ Austin Lusczak, dynotesting new custom DynoPort down pipe on his 250 flattrack bike. the new DP pipe added 10% hp with  broad HP curve, trying to get all these flattrackers to datalog their on-track RPM w/ digatron, so they can adjust gearing to allow engine to operate in the largest pile of HP.

10/3 Friday night...Just taking a break from six hours of data assessment, graphing results. Will have extremely detailed, technical report on the Dragon 800 done by this weekend on the website. You guys who didnt get instant access codes please check your spam blockers because the computer generated access codes appear like viagra ads (I don't block those ads myself, always looking for the best deal). If you cant find it there please call me 585-993-2777 I can look it up on the database.

Not being defensive or patronizing, this final production 800 Dragon is now coming out of the crate properly calibrated for that awful midwest gas w/ 10% ethanol. 110 lb/hr is what it will take for any pea-brain to take this sled WOT for 20 miles or until the belt blows, or the tank goes dry, whichever comes first. That's what mfgrs must deal with. You poor bastards who drive normally, on normal 5% ethanol gas are paying for that. But for a few bucks you can have perhaps the world's most powerful bone stock 800 twin w/ single pipe on pump gas, based upon my testing of this other 800 engines with relatively cheap bolt-on stuff.  

So I think maybe the engineering guys decided to make the sled midwest peabrain-safe, while the marketing guys were going to press with a 154HP calibration that most of us could ride to Alaska on. And surely the engine dyno'd by SLP could have made 154 CHP at their altitude with a non-peabrain calibration, so we can assume that that's what they tested over a year ago if Polaris gave that to them.

I spoke at length to my savvy friends Sean Ray, Joe DiSpirito, and Bill Davis about we encountered on Day One with the production Dragon 800. We discussed things we have learned from Kevin Cameron in the archives of DTR over 20 years. You can't cheat mother nature, and this is a prime example!

Yes it was helpful and useful for us to have Polaris engineering assistance in dialing in this bone stocker with the aftermarket stuff we had to tune and test that day. I personally learn something every day I test, and this was no exception. Just when I began to think my brain was chock full of important information, I found room for more! The good thing about a very full old brain is, I can still recall the CFM and HP of a 1984 Phazer with Boyesen 402R reed petals (that I developed for them). So new meaningful technical information comes along and fortunately, it displaces the memory of what I had for breakfast yesterday morning instead of the airflow CFM of my old Phazer.
 



10/6 AM BMP F7 800 big bore, boondocker tuning
10/7 AM Tripod Dan and Danno, back with PS800, got rid of the solid mounts, trying to fix carburetion issues with rubber. rubber mounts smoothed out that awful fuel flow made more HP than before after raising cylinders and adding compression-great peak HP 235 but a tiny pimple of a HP curve, poor midrange, will be good to see if Tripod can hit the clutching on this setup...

10/11 finally finshed Carl McQuillen's cherry GS1100.

10/12 Dan Schuler, another PS800 tuning MSD Sunday AM solid mount skidoo triple had buzzing carbs, aggravated by K&N filters that were jammed tight against chassis, fuel flow was corrected with 15psi fuel pressure plus removing the filters. Dan is going to use soft foam filters and a Holley blue pump w/ 15psi.
10/21 Ernie Pivetta, ApexSC w/ PCIII, Rob Lower Sherlock F7/8 trail sled w/ Boondocker N2O Ernie's low boost SC was tuned w/ PCIII using map sensor, spent time mapping fuel flow in midrange for good mileage, made 186 HP on pump gas and 190 with timing tweaked with PCIII. Rob's 800 was a little low on HP, maybe his head was wrong compression (Sherlock only did cylinders, someone else did the head), made 160 on pump gas w/ single pipe then made 166 w/ D&D F7 Lite pipe that was hanging on the pipe rack, then added 40 HP with Boondocker N2O.
10/23 Mike Koz & Jeff Sherlock trying to twist my large driveshaft. Jeff was smart and stayed home, twin Koz' Tony and Mike brought this F1000/ 1200 HTG big bore looking for 300 with NX fogger N2O. Problem one was motor only with D&D big bore twins the engine hit the rev limiter before reaching the HP peak 218 @8000 and climbing--and N2O would surely make this even worse! Since we had 10/24 open we stopped and ordered a BMP big bore single pipe to pull revs down, next day air using Michael's credit card. Day 2 Michael went deer hunting and sent Tony to finish the session, Tony pulled the twin pipes, installed a D&D 1200 Ypipe I had on the shelf and waited for FedEx to bring the BMP pipe. While waiting, I made Tony's jaw drop when I demonstrated how to manipulate the 218 HP dyno run still on the computer to show 251 w/ a few computer clicks to change vapor pressure from .30 to 2.30 in hg. Then of course I corrected the vapor pressure back to .30 in hg. The pipe showed up at noon, and as we hoped it peaked 208hp at 7300 then tailed off gradually, perfect for N2O. Now shooting N2O with Tony operating the button and me wearing the deto-earphones, we brought the fuel flow up to 180 lb/hr with 120 lb/hr from EFI and 60 lb/hr with two .036 N2O fogger nozzles (the dyno measures and records those separately). Then working our way up with N2O we spent four hours trying to get enough N2O flow to burn the 180 lb/hr of fuel. Bottle pressure was 5-600 psi and I was trying to convince Tony to tune it with that pressure instead of 1000 to make winter lake racing easier. Once we got up to 260 HP we picked up a sputter which was cured by pulling all four plugs and gapping them at .020". We went all the way to .053 N2O pills and were stuck at 260 but running clean. We pulled the flywheel and found a stock key (which make the timing effectively retarded from stock with the bigger bore), and installed a 2.5 deg key. HP went to 280 but just flatlined there. By now it was 6pm, I was getting mentally whipped and this was one of those times when just tweaking that vapor pressure to 1.30 in hg would have been almost justifiable to get Koz his 300 HP dyno sheet and send him home. But an extra inch of vapor pressure would not make the sled run like 300 HP. So we kept going. Tony had been eying the Mapp gas self-igniting torch I use for killing houseflies in the control room, wanting to heat the bottle which I hate and don't allow (the aluminum alloy can lose much of it's strength if it's heated above 500 degrees F) in the dyno room. So to compromise, I heated the cylinder with hot water in the bathroom sink, and raised bottle pressure to 800 psi. At the same time, we dropped N2O pill size substantially. Now we made 290 plus for two runs, but BSFC was still safe so Tony went up a few more thou on N2O pill size and we made 303 HP at .60 plus lb/hphr at 7700 RPM (with .30 in hg vapor pressure!). Finally. But I'm still surprised that with 5-600 psi N2O pressure we couldn't make over 30 HP per fogger nozzle (with the extra timing the BMP pipe netted us 220 HP). It took 800 psi to get the 40 HP per nozzle (80 HP total). Also Tony when you read this I think you accidentally made off with my Boondocker 9v battery jumper that I need back. I'll trade you for that sack of tools you left on the desk. ANYONE WHO THINKS I GAVE TONY PRETEND HP WITH EXTRA VAPOR PRESSURE CAN PURCHASE TONY'S COMPLETE 303 CHP SF DATAFILE VIA EMAIL FOR $20--THAT SHOWS during every second of that test EVERY FAKE-OUT PARAMETER THAT DYNO FIBBERS MIGHT ALTER: [correction factor %, vapor pressure, air temp, baro pressure, engine displacement]. HP must be earned here, and Tony Koz' session was no exception.         
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10/25 John Schwartz F1000 trail sled Sat AM Boondocker tuning John and his pal Snappy Dave are charter DTR subscribers, and this was a quick boondocker tune to get perfect 11.9/1 from valve opening to rev limiter, we monitored coolant and pipe temp with Cat EFI diagnostic software, made 185 with just BMP pipe mod and Y pipe.

10/27 I have to go for my annual prostate exam. Trying to get Tripod Dan come along to hold my hand. Dan came along, but he only laughed at me when I complained about the doctor having both hands on my shoulders during the exam which took way too long...

 10/28 Mike Martin Nytro SC set up by Woody, also a Dragon 800 set up by Bill Lutz w/ Boondocker and BMP pipe mod Mike remember to bring your Boondocker 9v battery jumper since I think Tony Koz has mine...Mike's Nytro SC made 211 HP on pump gas, but was running out of fuel pump or injector size at about 190 actual HP where it would suddenly begin to go lean, from 11/1 at 190 HP to 13.5/1 at 205 (as revs climbed from 8500 to 9000). Mike has purchased an upgrade kit from Mtn Perf and is coming back to verify that he can have 11/1 to 200 and beyond...Mike's Dragon 800 is a Switchback, that mysteriously made 153 HP with a lean and mean 95 lb/hr, 15 lb/hr less than our previous SP's!!?? Adding a BMP pipe mod required extra midrange and top end fuel to run w/o deto and make 156-7 HP. After initially thinking the SB's have leaner maps than SPs, now we're surmising a TPS set out of whack causing lean and powerful WOT but too-lean midrange, hoping that Mike can bring that one back again for us to test TPS.    
 

10/29 Ed Frellick Mach Z twin pipes, Boss Noss fuel controller and N2O system. bone stock w/ just the twin pipes, Ed made 187 HP a bit on the lean side, and that was cured easily by a few clicks on the fuel controller (those work well on EFI sleds that don't need fuel flow reduced). Then we added another 40 HP with the Boss Noss EFI N2O system, again an easy tuneup.

10/31 John Ransford, F7 w/ aaen port job, aaen pipe mod, Boondocker tuning John was late for his 8am session, because while driving the night before from Albany his new Tundra took a head-on hit from a loose wheel from a honda in the other lane, wiping out the front end of his truck. After getting a rental vehicle we were able to finally do the Boondocker tune, made 153-156 HP with added fuel and no key, so that partially made up for his bad trip here.

10/31 noon- 11/2 pm private session, DynoCams off


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

DynoTech : Carl McQuillen powers 1913 Curtiss America seaplane

Carl McQuillen Racing Engines in LeRoy, NY has remanufactured two circa 1906 Curtiss OXX6 V8 airplane engines which lifted off Keuka Lake in Hammondsport, N.Y. in a replicated Curtiss America 1913 seaplane. www.seaplanehomecoming.org is where you can see this amazing thing. Carl is an aviation aficionado and somehow the Curtiss Museum found him and his capabilities. They had two right hand rotation surplus OXX6 V8 engines that needed to be rebuilt, with one converted to left hand rotation to drive the other propeller. Instead of simply rebuilding, Carl redesigned the nearly century old engine with some modern technology (pistons, camshafts, valves, magnetos, etc) and instead of 80 HP as dyno tested in 1906 (and in 2006 on Carl's dyno) the rejuvinated OXX6 engines now make 140 HP, both right and left hand rotation! It was delightful to watch this project unfold, using modern-looking but century-old cast aluminum engine blocks and billet crankshafts machined in 1906 on manual lathes driven by flapping leather belts.

22 years ago, then young Carl McQuillen accompanied me to SuperFlow headquarters in CO Springs to help me assess this new computerized dyno testing equipment I saw in some Hot Rod magazine. Carl was just then beginning his engine building business, had his own dyno, and did performance stuff for street/ strip dragracers. He convinced me it was wise to borrow $50,000 for this then-new dynamometer technology "if I wanted to do it right" so I could spend another $50,000 adapting it, and creating this test cell to dyno test snowmobile and motorcycle engines. As young people are apt to type, online, "WTF?". But here we are.

Carl was helpful to me while I created this fixture/ facility for testing and tuning. When I began testing things and learning, Carl was one of many who helped me understand what was happening that had bewildered me. If you look back in the DTR archives--Volume 1 #4 Carl McQuillen explained for us, in understandable terms, why Breck Norton's "Extrudehoned" 650 Wildcat engine failed to make added HP even though airflow CFM was marginally higher.

Since then Carl McQuillen Racing Engines has invested in many bucks worth of equipment including CNC machining and EDM equipment, several new fully instrumented dyno cels, and is capable of creating intricate, useful things out of huge hunks of metal. This OXX6 engine project is a great example of that capability. Here is a good Utube video, showing the green-shirted plane builders beckoning Carl to be in the the photo-op before the flight. White-shirted Carl did wade into the picture, and surely if the plane flew Carl would get his own green shirt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMMAmTLUaTI
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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

DynoTech : September dyno schedule &tc

9/2/08 Honda VTX1800 with straight pipes, Edelbrock N2O and Power Commander street/ drag bike w/ 2.5 lb bottle bolted to sissy bar, 90 DJHP on motor, 148 with n2o, but recommended fuel/ n2o jet stagger is for carbs, not EFI...with n2o injection airflow through the carb/ throttle body drops (cylinder is partially filled by the n2o system)...so with a carbureted engine, airflow drops and fuel flow drops but with EFI engines like this VTX the airflow drops but fuel flow stays constant so we needed way less fuel from the n2o system meaning a backwards pill stagger was optimal. We tweaked the n2o system fuel down a bit, evened up pill sizes, added 4 hp to152 but still 10.8/1 wideband reading meant we could have dropped fuel pill way lower than n2o pill size. But since this bike is run only on 93 [sometimes 87 when he gets boned at the pump] we left it at 10.8/1
9/3/08 KTM SuperDuke 990 twin this fellow bought this bike used, was concerned that the original owner hadn't done proper breakin and perhaps HP was low? I tried to allay those concerns describing to him the times we've done factory recommended dyno breakin on nickasil engines with no change in leakdown, blowby or HP...I believe they are ready to rumble out of the crate...as I predicted, HP was perfect, 104 DJRWHP.
          05 bone stock F7 carbureted. this was the first bone stock 05 carbed F7 engine, turned out to be way, way better than the 03/04s, only needed jetting and two degrees of timing to be 140 plus (remember the 04 stock carbed F7 needed 9 degrees of added timing and John T Cowie's airbox mod to make good HP).
9/4/08 YZ85 Yamaha flat track bike, carburetion and timing tweaking for max HP I enjoy tuning these on the CycleDyn eddy current roller dyno--easy to hook up and easy to max out HP--this one was typical getting jetting absolutely perfect and then rolling timing about, 1/16th of an inch at a time, to create the best midrange and peak HP without excessive drop past the peak. Net gain was only 2 HP but that equates to 10% HP increase. It's all relative. I have several young racers who are national champions in 125 and 250cc class.
          Tripod Dan, HTG Polaris PS800 triple, DynoPort pipes
9/5    Another flattracker, Yamaha 450cc 4stroke on the Cycledyne roller dyno picked up 8% more HP by jetting perfectly for max HP.

9/6 Sean Ray, PS1000 twin cameras off

9/8 Hayabusa dragbike, 1460 big bore, FBG ported cylinder, built by Sunnyside, Power Commander tuning. complete remap, starting from scratch since no PC download maps are available, spent 3 hours mostly midrange tuning, now it's close enough for a dragbike. 180 DJRWHP on pump gas, 11/1 to stay safe.
9/9 Tripod Dan & Dan, PS800 setting up for Holley drags Dan and Dan had good dyno luck converting their HTG1200 from, rubber to solid mounts for 1/4 mile asphalt--fuel flow was smooth and even, tuning the lectrons was predictable. So when they put this prostack dragracer together, they tried solid motor mounts, this time with awful results...fuel flow lb/hr is all over the place, adjusting the lectron power jets is confusing--open the power jets and EGTs climb, close the jets and EGTs drop??!!we're figuring that opening the power jets causes float bowl level to drop, since the milkshake-like emulsion in the bowls prevents the fuel pump from keeping up, and causing mixture to lean out as level drops, but if the dyno run is too long then HP drops.Once again, tie wrapping my five pound crowbar to the three lectron carbs cured the problem. With the added mass fuel flow smoothed out reasonably so we could adjust jetting, and fuel flow and EGTs responded appropriately. Since this engine is for five second runs, Dan and Dan will try to run the sled as is this weekend, 220 HP if there is fuel in the float bowls.
9/11 tripod Dan & Dan, one more grass drag sled a PS1000. Another solid mount engine. Hoping for smooth fuel flow. this one had horrible fuel flow, and inconsistent dyno numbers, varying wildly as float bowl levels changed from cylinder to cylinder, open up power jets fuel flow dropped, close them down fuel flow increased, then we discovered crank PTO TIR .005" causing added vibes to goof up carburetion...stock rubber mounts usually cover up this sort of problem, but solid mount engines must have the most perfect balance to allow carbs to deliver proper fuel flow...back to Clark Spreigel for a new pto end and we'll try again...

9/12 or later Casey Mulkin with his new Dragon 800. 1000's of people are waiting for this one. 9/25 thursday

9/15 two F7 Improved stockers, cams off both D&D mods, both 180 plus with perfect max HP boondockering

9/19 Sean Ray PS1000 twin on engine plate cams off

9/20 Suzuki EFI quad, tuning Power Commander on the 901 shaft dyno. will have to reshedule because the quad arrived for tuning Sat AM, the splined dyno adaptor would not fit the frame, I have to fabricate a smaller one, maybe next Saturday

9/21 Justin Fuller and Todd Parson (driving here from Newfoundland) trying for big RX1 turbo HP for dragracing on some hill, maybe trying to take Glenn Hall/ D&D HP record? Justin has the sled, rebuilding engine, rescheduled to Monday AM then rescheduled again for Tuesday 9/23, ...fell well short of D&D record,  400 plus and probably more HP than he needs, but Justin is doing some reconfiguring, no problem with engine, perhaps needs some component alterations to hit 500 plus real HP...

9/25 Mel Severance/ Randy Cramer HTG660 Fusion Polaris twin trail mod w/ truckload of pipes after tuning, more HP than a dragon 800 stocker, single pipe with stock heat shield and stock muffler.

9/26 Casey Mulkin new production Dragon 800 w/ all those single pipes to test along with Power Commander fuel controller. still no sign of the trailer with 14 dragon 800s on it--Casey found it today, still sitting at the factory waiting for a tractor to pull the load to Jamestown, NY. Looks like next week.

9/30 Casey's been promised delivery by 9/29 so we're hoping for Tuesday...had Dr visit tuesday so now Wednesday 10/1



Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, August 08, 2008

DynoTech : August dyno schedule etc

8/9 Sat Dan Schuler PS800 cancelled, ignition not working
8/9 Last year Sean Ray replaced the Aerocharger on NASCAR sort-of-retired Buddy Parrott's HD Softail turbo S&S 113 with a GT25 Garrett for more HP and better longevity. Now Greedy BP wants more so Sean is installing a GT28. Since Dan cancelled, and BP is in Watkins Glenn this weekend Sean is tuning for big HP on the roller dyno Sat PM. tweaking up to 202 (on the way to 250 djrwhp) heard rattle in cam area, turned out to be bad cam bearing, so sean yanked it off, is rebushing cam cover, putting in a better turbo friendly cam from Zipper's, will dyno again later probably 8/15, maybe cams off because Sean doesn't want anyone to see his plenum/ intercooler/ scoop on the CV carb)
8/12-13 Private session, cams off
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, August 03, 2008

DynoTech : loose spark plugs etc..

One sign of detonation in a sled engine is spark plug(s) loosening during operation. When I was involved with sled turbo kits, we had a 700 Wildcat turbo that would loosen plugs every time we tried to ride it on pump gas. We even tried red loctite to no avail. Running half and half 100LL av gas and pump gas cured the loose plugs. Tim Bender said recently that loose plugs on their 800 mod SnoX engines meant they had to retard timing a whisker or jet up, and no more looseness. When Glenn Hall was tuning the F1200 turbo to beyond 500 HP, he listened for detonation on the dyno copper tube deto sensor. When he heard lots of midrange "clicking" he would wave off the dyno test, and go out to tighten the loose plugs on the offending cylinder.

What causes plugs to loosen? Is it some high frequency vibration doing strange things, or are the aluminum threads being stretched slightly beyond the aluminum's yield strength?

Justing Fuller drives a supercharged Ford Lightning pickup, with (of course) an undersize driven pulley on the blower. He recently had a sparkplug blow completely out of one of the aluminum heads. Was it super-high pressure or violent vibration, or both, that caused Justin's catostrophic thread failure?

One of my favorite basement shop tools is a Jet 15 ton hydraulic press with a pressure gauge showing tons of pressure exerted by the press. For an experiment, I used the press to pop the sparkplug threads out of a cast cylinder head (7.5 tons of pressure required), and a billet head (10 tons required). Considering the actual plug area, 83,000 psi was required to destroy the threads in the cast head, and 110,000 psi to destroy the threads in the billet head. There was very little "yield" before failure. Sort of like when you just begin to pull the threads of a 6mm aluminum bolt hole, in just an 1/8th turn too much you get that sick feeling. You know you are done, as torque suddenly drops by even one lb/ft as you continue to turn the wrench slightly as threads go beyond yield, threads are now useless with no strength.

Now the steel piece I was using to push the sparkplug out was slightly smaller than the OD of the plug, causing the plug to mushroom a bit before it popped, maybe wedging into the aluminum hole meaning higher pressure to pop. I may try one more using my solid head turning mandrel instead of a hollow steel sparkplug.

Is it possible that severe deto, early in the compression stroke, could cause pressure spikes that high? Don Emery who loosened four plugs on the dyno making 525hp N2O assisted not only loosened the plugs, but he discovered later that all four combustion chamber domes were deformed, permanently bulged upwards allowing fire to burn the center orings. That must have take lots of pressure to achieve deformation. But 110,000 psi?

While Sean Ray and Tim Bender were dyno testing last week, part of my lovejoy rubber coupler and a 3/8 x 2" bolt came loose and went through the ceiling, causing shaft vibration. This buzzing at 9000 rpm loosened the 1/2-20 bolts that attach the closest 1.5" pillow block bearing to the aluminum dyno drive bulkhead. I had just aligned the toothed belt, and had a solid 80 lb/ft of torque on the pillow block bolts into the aluminum fine threads. The vibration caused the 1/2-20 bolts to become loose. I replaced the rubber coupler and missing 3/8 bolt (there's a new T-shaped hole in the ceiling tile where the bolt disappeared), and retightened the 1/2 20 bolts back to 80 lb/ft. This has happened at least once a year for 22 years, same aluminum fine threads, still hold 80lb/ft so I doubt thread deformation there from the out-of balance (that out of balance has been high enough on occasion with shaft failure to explode the cast iron pillow block frames!) vibration. In the case of my dyno drive system, the loose bolts are probably caused just by vibes doing strange things I think, not thread deformation.

So assuming detonation-created peak pressure is lots lower than 100k psi, probably just continued vibration somehow loosens the plugs, and maybe hot gases erode the threads after time and ultimately the plugs gets blown out. Or maybe in Justin's truck, continued impact of the loose steel plug male threads against the weaker alum female threads created the failure and plug blowout? I'll ask Justin Fuller if the plug dangling from his plug wire had aluminum threads on it, or maybe aluminum slag from a melt-out.

For sure, loose plugs are a good indicator that you must cool combustion chamber temps by adding fuel, reducing timing, reducing boost, reducing coolant temp, or increasing octane.

Feedback is welcome from those who have experienced this, or who have ideas about what's going on. info@dynotechresearch.com

FEEDBACK/BACKFEED:

1fastxc emailed: “Hey Jim, just got done reading your article on your blog. I can definitely relate. I had
some spark plug loosening problems when i had my aerocharger on my 700 twin polaris, and didn't play
by the rules. I had a stock head on the sled and was trying to run on pump premium with about 6lbs of
boost. It would rattle the plugs loose in just a short run in the field. I figured out real fast what was going
on and knocked the compression down in the head and that took care of the problem. A friend of mine
had an interesting dilemma with some slp domes on his 800 twin polaris. SLP used to have domes for
0-3000 feet, then 3000-6000 feet and so on, with compression obviously getting higher for each elevation
change. Well for whatever reason they went to 0-6000 on their listing. My buddy ordered these domes for
his slp piped, stock motor 800 twin, which before hand ran flawlessly. After installing these domes, he
suddenly lost a cylinder while trail riding. After inspection he found his porcelain was cracked on his
spark plug. Being the very inexperienced tuner that he is, he replaced the spark plug and kept going.
Well it kept happening, and finally he called me to ask my thoughts. Come to find out, after crunching
some numbers for him, SLP made those domes a little to high on compression for sea level, even on the
93 octane he was running. We dropped a point or so on the compression and all was good. I've also
experienced the porcelain breaking before on a polaris 600 e.v. with twin pipes and stock head. We changed
to a billet head with a different squish band setup and all was good. IMHO it's got to be a very high
frequency vibration that causes this stuff. I don't know how else the porcelain would crack like that, or
loosen the plugs that are tightened down good. To loosen plugs in the short time like a dyno run, or in
the field like my experience, it's got to be some serious high frequency vibes. Just thought i'd share my
experiences on the subject. Thanks for sharing these type of experiences Jim. I always love hearing about
things like this, that way i know i'm not the only one with those type of issues.(LOL)”
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Kelsey from RK Tech emailed: “I think that you are correct and pressures are not 
near 100,000 PSI internally.. More like 2500psi (normal combustion) and maybe
4000 psi under deto (guess)..
 
I think there are several differences between your experiment and real 
world.
 
1) The "Heat" involved.. The aluminum head will expand faster (under heat) 
than the steel plug.. So, the threads in the head become larger and the plug
is no longer held as well in the threads...
2) You also have the fact that the deto will have a direction as its 
pressure wave contacts the plug area. Meaning..it may originate from, say, 
the left side, so the plug will be hit with a "blast" that may cock the plug
to one side and this would allow for easier movement in the expanding threads..
3) You also have oil deposits (uncombusted) that will act as a lubricant 
between the threads and the spark plug..
4) Deto also has its own frequency. So the wave will have some harmonics 
associated with it. This frequency may "ripple" the threads enough to cause
"loosness" around the plug making it easier for the plug to "escape" upwards.
 
Other factors are the constant "pounding" of the deto occuring at the 
frequency of the engine and the deto freq, itself.. vs. the constant 
(non-repetative) pressure your press would yield.....
 
Anyway.. just some quick thoughts, off the cuff.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kevin Cameron Emailed a few times: This is fascinating about the plugs loosening. Are they all .680 or .750" long reach? I will ask in aircraft engine circles to see if they are familiar with this. 

One interesting point is that at least some versions of the BMW 1500-cc 4-cylinder turbo F1 engine had a small, spring-loaded relief valve in each cylinder. That indicates that they had some bad events that needed radical measures to control them. I've seen insulators broken by deto.

 

I think your idea about yielding of the threads is the explanation, but with the added notion that each pressure spike causes some pretty stout sound waves to rattle back and forth many times through the metal. It might be the cumulative result rather than the single spikes. Much the same explanation as why ignition-side flywheels may slowly work their way off the crankpin in engines turning higher-than-stock rpm. The force of vibration isn't enough to push the wheel off the pin, but the general disturbance of the flywheel, being set vibrating, lets it work loose.

 

Some of the early castings used on testing of the engines destined for the B-29 cracked and in some cases whole pieces of the heads were broken loose so they fell out once the sheet-metal cooling air baffles were removed. They always had piston temperature problems until they adopted (only postwar) toroidal oil jet manifolds in those engines.

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Those guys that make the vehicle shakers, MTS, also make a device they call a "gun banger". It is used in fatigue testing gun barrels, and it applies many high pressure pulses that are very steep. I am suspecting that a lesser pressure in psi, but applied to the whole inner combustion chamber surface, would deform it enough to perhaps loosen the threads. BMW must have had some good reason to fit their race engines with those relief valves. Do you suppose they had this trouble? I suspect that only very high BMEP engines have this problem. Imagine combustion proceeding, and the flame front moves out from the central plug. Ahead of it, the unburned charge is being compressed. Because the initial density is about 2X that of a non-turbo engine, the amount of charge that auto-ignites when enough hydroxyl radical population accumulates is also large - not only because of the 2X from the presence of the turbo, but maybe also from the very high pressure pushing that end gas into squish zone and down into ring crevice spaces. When the sneeze comes, it will be a hum-dinger.

 

Related Q to KC from Jim C "is hydroxyl radical (gas?) the cause of our eyes watering in the dyno engine room? I joke with sled owners here that even with all of our fine dyno instrumentation, we still stick our noses into the engine room, and when our eyes just begin to water from some noxious smell, then we know all is perfect, and there is very little extra HP to be gained with leaner mixture. Interestingly, we get that smell mostly with max HP NA and N2O engines, very little with turbos even with huge HP. Maybe turbos allow us to make our desired HP with boost and very safe A/F ratio, keeping peak chamber temps lower."

 

I think the gas you smell is nitrogen oxides making acid with atmospheric moisture, rather like sulfur dioxide makes sulfuric acid with moisture. The hydroxyl radicals are short-lived - I don't know if they even make it out of the engine. They are the trigger for deto, and what lead oxide (product of burning TEL) does is act as a negative rate catalyst. In our old barroom analogy, the lead oxide is the big bouncers who go up to the most excited troublemakers in the room and quietly whisper what they'll do to them if they make ANY trouble. It only works up to a certain level of excitement, after which the trouble starts no matter how many big bouncers are in the room. KC

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[537 HP is] a lot of power from one of those [1200cc two-stroke twin] air compressors. How do you make pistons last even a moment at such power? That would make a good setup for 40,000 feet, if the air wasn't too thin up there to cool the rad. That was the big problem with the B-29 - above 20,000 the air was too thin to cool it properly, so on the trips to the Empire they had to run in auto-rich to fuel-cool the engines.

 

Have I mentioned that the top 125s in GP racing now make a bit over 60-hp? They are singles [operating at 13,000 RPM, equal to a 1200 making nearly 600 HP normally aspirated]. Not many secrets can be left!

 

Also, I see that your turbo sled bmeps are very high, so I have asked if any of the air racers have had the plug-loosening experience. A wartime R-3350, operating at take-off power and rpm, sees a bmep of only 193-psi. A Merlin in air racing, making 4000-hp at 4000-rpm, is at 480-psi. Those toluene-burners in 1980s F1 were at 1000-psi for qualifying and 700-750 for the races. I guess the 125s are really four-strokes, operating in double-time. I don't know how they do it. KC

 

Related Q to KC from Jim—“According to Gerhard Schruf, Ferrari F1 turbo engineer during the1980’s, they ran the Formula 1 V6 turbo in testing or qualifying at 100 psi boost on 102 octane spec gasoline !!??!!”

 

Fuel octane is still measured in a CFR test engine at 1300-rpm, so I think the fuel suppliers have gone back over the original experiments of Dr. Graham Edgar and repeated them, but this time at much higher rpm. I'll bet they found that certain fuel components that tested at 102 ON at 1300-rpm tested much higher at 12,000 and higher yet at 20,000. I think those guys have a little black book with all that useful info in it, and we would love to have a copy! KC

8/6 Smooth combustion is like a linebacker leaning hard against a door. Deto is the same man, backing off ten yards and hitting it at full speed. The door lasts a long time in the former service, and less than 1/10 of a second in the latter. KC
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Email from Swedish ME/ sled hotrodder who designs equipment that transfers the forces of vibration to be used in heavy industry:
Hey Jim,
 
I just read your text on the subject as well as the email replies.
 
I believe that you have covered most of the probable causes of the spark plugs coming loose but I want to put light on a phenomenon which has not been covered.
 
Much like the gas in our two stroke pipes the metal in the combustion chamber and the sparkplugs will have tensile and compressive stress waves traveling through them, and also much like the pressure waves in the pipes, these stress waves can and will superimpose. From experience with stress waves and threads I also know that part of the longitudinal stress wave will be converted into a torsional stress wave which can in fact by sheer torque loosen the thread.
 
A little text on how the thread can come loose from this:
 
The very high pressure of deto combustion acts on the bottom spark plug surface and thus induces a compressive stress wave in the spark plug. Said stress wave travels upwards with the local speed of sound (~5200 m/s) propelling the spark plug particles upwards with some particle velocity. When the compressive stress wave reaches the top of the spark plug it will reflect back downwards as a tensile stress wave which propels the particles upwards. This stress wave will lower the normal force in the thread interface effectively decreasing the thread friction. When combining this fact with the fact that part of the longitudinal stress wave energy will be converted to torsional stress waves traveling up and down in the spark plug and for each pass through the plug they will untighten [loosen] the thread interface.
 
The cracking of porcelain can also be explained by the tensile stress waves as when compressive the metal portion of the spark plug diametrically expand and when tensile it will diametrically shrink. This will induce tensile stress into the porcelain and we all know that ceramics does not like tensile stress.
 
The stress waves will be dampened out quite fast, escaping into the big structure of the motor, but as long as deto is going on new stress waves will be fed into the spark plug.
 
This is just a simplified picture of what is going on, there will also be stress waves in the combustion chamber which also can loosen the thread interface.
 
Thanks "Scavenger"


p.s. The "spark plug particles" is actually the material of the spark plug, i.e. the steel in the spark plug body and the "slug" of particles inside the stress wave thus have an inertia. You can picture the particles moved by the stress wave as a "slug" of steel moving. Imagine a hammer striking a rod, the end of the rod will not move until the stress wave has propagated from the end hitted by the hammer, through the rod length and to the end of the rod. The stress wave has a certain length and the metal particles affected by the stress wave will be pushed in the direction of the stress wave if it is a compressive stress wave and in the opposite direction if the wave if it is a tensile stress wave. The theory is almost exactly the same as for the pressure waves travelling through our twostroke pipes except for the differences in working media.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Cameron read "Scavenger's" info and added:
I think this sounds pretty good - especially when combined with the higher amplitude of such waves in highly supercharged engines (i.e., why our aircraft engine friends have nothing to say).

Some of the worst injuries in armored vehicles come from what is called "spalling", which is detachment of armor from the inside surface of the armor at high speed. As our Swedish informant notes, the stress wave is actually moving the material axially. When such a wave reaches the inner surface of the armor (from a shell hitting the outside, for example) it becomes a high amplitude wave of expansion, and a chunk of the inner surface comes loose by tensile fracture and flies around the interior of the vehicle, wrecking people and things. The armor is not penetrated at all, but some of the incoming projectile's kinetic energy (or, in the case of a so-called "squash-head" explosive, some of the detonation wave's energy) is transferred to material at the inner face of the armor, detaching it at high speed.
 
Another thing like this is the harmonic pile-driver. A traditional pile driver uses a steam hammer to send stress waves down the object being driven into the ground. As each one arrives at the tip, the material there actual moves, displacing/penetrating the soil ahead of it. A clever engineer then reasoned, "Why be satisfied with such slow advance? Let's set the entire pile into resonance, by applying sound waves to the top end in step with the time it takes the wave to bounce back and forth from top to bottom to top".
 
I watched such a machine at work in 1963. The top of the column was tightly coupled to a pair of contra-rotating eccentric weights, supported in heavy bearings. These were driven by a large industrial engine, mounted at the top of the column. Once everything was in place, the engine was accelerated to resonant speed, a powerful hum came from the column, and it sank quickly into the ground to its full length in a very few seconds - not the usual hours of pounding. Very impressive.
 
KC




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

DynoTech : July dyno schedule

7/1 Carl McQuillen's GS1100, nice red 81 classic [on the Cycledyn now] bought with stock engine and noisy header. Tested baseline with loud header, then trying to switch to a stock 4-2 exhaust I snapped off a grade 8 bolt in the aluminum head. Off came the head, over to Carl's now to get broken bolt EDM'd out, going oversize valves/ porting, will be back soon to finish.

7/10 Stan puddytatman, coming down from upnord to tune a Firecat asphalt sled w/ F1000 nitrous engine, tuning for big HP with deto-muffs listening. cancelled until next week?

.
7/11 5 PM Jim Cooper, PS1000 looking to cure a misfire prior to Sat MI asphalt race. misfire found, looks like base gasket h2o leaking into crankcase, going back home to ultra-gray the basegaskets, off to MI.

7/12 Justin Fuller Fullpower more 4tech this time NA tuned header, stage 1 turbo system with stock header and compare to tuned header. NA only today, tuned SS header worked well with stock muffler, even better with turbo muffler, but needed to have fuel flow bumped up to compensate for higher air flow. Justin will decide if results are public.

7/13 Glenn Hall bone stock Cat Z1 turbo, then w/ boost added and good gas. HillBilly Howard was there to help thrash and "'cipher" (hillbilly slang for decipher) amazing 184hp even in 80 degree f humid air (cheats the turbo EFI a bit due in part to the EFI not being able to adjust fuel for .70 inhg vapor pressure). Have posted now eight key dyno tests showing results of D&D turbo muffler, boost and fuel tweaks, higher octane, all the way in cheap steps to 258hp!
Meanwhile, JD Powersports continues development of their Jag Lakeracer monster turbo. Huge Garrett ball bearing turbo, water to air intercooler, custom fuel/ spark mgt, currently at 320hp, working their way up to hopefully big twin numbers.

7/15 AM Billy Howard more XP800 parts testing.
7/19 AM Sean Ray tuning on PS1000 twin
7/21 AM OneStopPerformance Jim McKeown RX1 turbo dragster w/ standalone EFI cancelled. left for home yesterday after rainout@ Syracuse drags PM Yamaha 425 quad/ big bore/ cams tuning w/ shaft on 901 dyno, 3pm
7/22 AM Justin Full Power 4tech st2 larger turbo looking for more HP 

7/22 AM/PM John Weiss, Sudbury, Three Canadian Skidoo triple race engines. had to cancel
7/22 HTG1200 triple asphalt sled, tuning for next weekend 5pm
7/23 and 7/24 D&D F1200 monster turbo, tuning for HayDays (live on dynocams). Need two days because on 7/23 on its first pass sucked the 4" dia round aluminum honeycomb air straightener off the bottom of the airflow meter which was eaten by the turbo, which wrecked the turbo compressor wheel! That's a first in 22 years. But even with the snaggletoothed compressor beating the air it managed 299 lb/ft and 454hp. Look for more on 7/24. 22 years ago we celebrated the first 100 plus HP on the dyno. Today we had a similarly joyous celebration after we made 537 HP and 355 lb/ft...
7/25 Yamaha quad 425 4-stroke big bore/ cams carb tuning on 901 dyno with driveshaft on output shaft.had to create new splined adaptor w/ small u-joint to clear the new style frame on quads and motoX bikes, dialed in needle and main jet added 5% HP, BSFC .45 
7/26 Jesse Pych trying to tune up his PS1000 price engine.was too slow, found out that he was off 60hp by overreving, tuned carbs leaner, now just needs to add weight and pull revs down 400rpm from where he was told to shift...PM and 7/27 AM Justin Fuller/ CJ Powersports' 4TEK w/ turbo stage II, made 340 hp through the stock muffler
7/29-31 private session cams off
Kevin Cameron is impressed y the 537 out of the boosted "air compressor" (his description of a big low RPM twin), but said that this years fastest 125cc single GP bikes are making over 60HP which about equals this monster turbo hp/cc. "Are there any secrets left?"



Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, June 06, 2008

DynoTech : June dyno schedule &tc

 6/7 9AM Sat Scott Brownlee & Nelson Cadieux [Carlson Sports from North Bay Ontario Canada] (1) F7 grass dragracer owned by Terry Waite I'm thinking that all "500 foot" F7 drag boxes may not be created equally--- I've seen too many that with correct fuel pressure could stand leaning out from restricter or Boondocker--this one had Boondocker and it needed huge negative numbers and a big offset key to make max HP at peak revs, and had an awful lean dip in midrange that we partially cured with big positive Boondocker numbers there... and (1) F1000 asphalt sled owned by Kevin Mossip typical boondocker tuneup, tweaked to max HP running for the time at WOT expected in the 1/4 mile...

6/12 9am Bill and Michael Phelps, SkiDoo Rev 860 twin for asphalt, need to find out why it doesn't run down the track as expected. all XP800 drag ECUs may not be created equally, either--found a huge dip in HP off the line caused by totally F'd up power valve control by the privateer "race" ECU, fixed it by fooling sensors, plugging hoses,  etc...

3pm Tony Buczek, with our original F7 carbed sled on DTR, now big bore/ twin pipes, hoping for big HP. Will he need more than 7 degrees offset keyway with big bore? Greedy Tony wants this kept quiet but with Hooper Big Bore cylinders he's right up there with the other local semi-stock dragracers...

6/18 (Sean got the wrong large injectors, now have the correct ones) crack of noon Sean Ray with a Vrod turbo kit he designed with Garrett GT25 ball bearing turbo, tuning with Power Commander boost referenced unit to control fuel and timing. the Power Commander with boost compensation is superb for dialing in perfect fuel and timing on or off boost--Sean had larger Delphi injectors, and was able to dial in good part throttle fuel flow and correct on-boost fuel flow in a few hours on our SuperFlow eddy current roller dyno. Made 206 HP DJRWHP and just quit there...

6/18 our first SkiDoo 4tech 1200 intercooled turbo for preliminary fuel/ timing tuning, possibly cameras off. Greg Bennett and sons, VP import gas, possibly record HP for bone stock anything with boost....sled is off to Crankshop Larry for tube chassis replacement, a new cylinder head is on its way to be ported by an old pal Hyabusa/ Kaw turbo dragracer, cams coming, will be back to dyno late summer.

6/20 AM Dan Forte tuning mod Banshee on 901 dyno w/ driveshaft from trans to dyno the 901 shaft dyno we use for all sleds is so useful in that it uses mechanical measurement of airflow and mechanical measurement of airflow--instantaneous and tells us what's happening right now...Dan had bored his carbs and the first thing we saw was 16/1 A/F at WOT and that was corrected with carb venting, then jacked timing around and found the sweet spot adding 10 midrange HP and close to that on top end.

6/21 our second SkiDoo 4tech 1200 turbo from Full Power Justin Fuller. this was a Bell Ringer for Justin and the hotrodders who have 4teks on order, and for those who are now ordering them based upon these results, all posted on DTR..

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6/24 Eric Johncox with a flock of flatrack bike racers, inlcuding Jason DiSalvo's YZ480, heading for a big national race 6/30...the local bike flattrack racers are finally apreciating the necessity of dyno tuning for max HP, just like our sledders began to appreciate here 20 years ago...you see more and more flattrack bikes on the dyno now...

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6/28 Captain Kacz, Jerry Kaczenowski a local legend in sled oval and dragracing since the 197x Thundercat days, bringing six grassdrag sleds to dyno tune.


 

Dragon800 update...I'm sure my Dragon 800 dyno test reports on this website have caused a stir. Sno-checkers are expecting 154 HP as listed on Polaris' website  (I wasn't aware that  Polaris posted those numbers until recently). Now our preproduction Dragon 800 with preproduction ECU came in at lower-than-advertised HP, and the followup 09 Production ECU came in even lower. Now everyone observing this stuff must understand I would not ever post "substandard" numbers on any engine package without corroborating data (more than one or two samples). A base engine that was low on HP might have a crank out of phase, etc. But in this case I wasn't aware of Polaris' 154 HP claim on their website, but my 140ish HP  was  identical to what my friends at Xtreme Dyno and Polaris in Utah (6500ft) and CO have gotten on the 08 RMK800's they've sold and dyno tested http://www.xtreme-performance.com/custompa...results_polaris. And their follow up results of that simple stock pipe "mod" is identical to what we saw here at 1000 ft. Then, my contacts at Polaris assure me that the Dragon 800 production pipe will be identical to what our preproduction sled has (without the infamous "pipe mod" by BMP). So my opinion now is that if sea level Dragon 800 buyers expect 154 HP they will have to spend $200 to have BMP or others to modify the stock pipe, or buy an aftermarket single. I'm surmising that EPA issues with sound and / or emissions caused Polaris to have a less than stellar single pipe on their RMK and Dragon 800s. But this is similar to the Cat F1000 that was delivered to the consumer with a Ypipe a dozen HP down from what D&D and others came up with. The difference is Cat didn't advertise "good Ypipe" HP, so no one complained about paying D&D $200 for an extra 10-12 HP. But there seems to be some sort of uprising among Dragon 800 snow-checkers demanding 154 HP out-of-the-crate.




 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, May 01, 2008

DynoTech : May dyno schedule and observations

I will be posting latest Dragon 800 results on 5/1 or 5/2. I used airflow meter this time to compare aiflow with stock, BMP mod and SLP pipe.
5/1 Thursday all day private session, cameras off cancelled and that gave me some time to finish up on the Dragon 800 test session with the production 2009 ECU calibration, finished and posted at 2am. Thank you Bill Davis at Xtreme Performance Dyno who got us onto the stuff that works on this engine.
5/2 Friday Sunnyside Cycle with two Yam 425ish flattrack bikes port job on the head and some aftermarket cams = only 2 more HP over the same bike bone stock. Going for more compression and bigger cams, will try again 5/13

5/7 Wed Chuckaroo with two 1000ps sled engines Chuck's own PS1000 was over 280 HP with broad HP that I could clutch, second one was  273ish but  more torque .
5/8 Thurs Crankshop Larry Audette tuning a 1000 mod and a 1500 mod. Todd DiMarinas sitting in for Larry, Todd's 1000 open mod made 270 but with better torque and midrange HP than Chuck's higher revving engines. The CS1500 was Larry's lakeracer, early pipes that he's been running for years made 207 lb/ft and 321 HP, then Todd installed the latest CS1500 pipes torque jumped to 223 and HP jumped to 342. Also I was amazed that all four of these Crankshop cranks were smooth as silk even with solid  mounted engines...we often have vibration induced fuel flow issues, but Chuck's and Larry's engines delivered fuel to the engines as smoothly as any stock stroke rubber mount engine.


5/13 11AM Robert Murray asphalt Firecat with N2O
PM Sunnyside with revised 425

5/20 Tues 1:00pm Mike Luczak 85cc flattrack bike
3:00 PM Kevin Hazel two 750 Harley flattrack bikes


5/22 thursday PM Rob Brandall once more with F7/F8 asphalt sled, for added porting by HTG. late PM Sunnyside once more with YZ425 different exhaust cam, Bob Mezler with his son's YZ80 flatracker.
5/26 PM Tripod Dan Cross went to solid mounts on his HTG1200 asHphalt (there's actually only one H in asphalt) so we are hoping that fuel flow is acceptable...cancelled not finished
5/27 Sean Ray dyno tuning a ps1000 twin stock polaris ignition misfires, need to upgrade and try again
5/28 AM Looney Toon Bill DiFranco Speedwerx F1000 boondocker tuning for asphalt cancelled because Sean still had Pol PS 1000 twin on dyno
5/29 9AM Bob & Brent Antkowiak SkiDoo 800R stock grasracer Jimmy Cooper tweaking timing, watching for deto.
Noon bone stock 2008 Cat F8 testing for Arctic Cat...2pm Tripod Dan
5/30 Fri AM Looney Toon Bill then 11AM Guy Houston Honda 450 flatracker

6/7 9AM Sat Scott Brownlee (2) F7 dragracers and (1) F1000 asphalt sled
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, April 06, 2008

DynoTech : April dyno schedule, tailing off now

monday 4/7  CJ motorsports or powersports (sorry can't remember which) from Booneville NY coming with new 09 SkiDoo 1200 four stroke. Arrival 2pm, run by 3pm. Live on dynocams. had it running by  3pm, but have an issue with max revs limited by ecu to 4500, runs perfect from idle to 4500 then two-steps there, must be issue with tether etc, CJ will come back tomorrow with BUDS computer, get it running then. Got it fixed, made 20 part throttle/ ful throttle dyno runs, similar hp to nytro but you have to see the comparison graphs to appreciate how different two identical HP engines can be.

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4/10 Thursday AM  Brian Neuman, Yamaha 650 flat track bike for maxing our carb/ timing on Cycledyne eddy current roller owner of bike and driver Brian were there to max out HP, engine builder was 300 miles away, maxed out fuel flow but timing was fixed, a phone call to engine builder revealed he wanted timing left at x degrees leave it alone, he's never been to a dyno but I have dyno tuned 1000's of engines all make max HP at different timing even identical engines by identical builders, we just retard/ advance timing make max HP and drive it there. Bike owner will be back with adjustable stator plate will dyno test again. PM Rob Randal F7 mod asphalt racer for Boondocker tuning Rob had Cat 800 big bore (snoX?) cylinders, touched up by HTG, with best (for this engine) single pipe boondockered perfectly made 167 HP but at low 7600 RPM even with stock timing. Maybe compression too high?
.Denny Richards, new 08 HD NightRod with Turbo Connection Aerocharger system.used the onboard boost power commander to tweak midrange A/F ratio, got rid of a few rich burbles by tuning with PC connected to power commander, did a few WOT sweep tests made 160 HP at rear tire on pump gas. Perfect tuneup.
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4/15 Tuesday Bill Woodley H-D twin cam Delphi EFI, testing/ tuning several exhaust systems including stock, Screamin Eagle, V&H, also several intakes/ filters, all tuning by power Commander learned lots about mufflers, air filters, power commander tuning is easy, allowing quick alteration of fuel and timing maps (we need power commander-like piggy back devices for our efi two and four stroke sleds).

4/17 Thurs AM Bill Chesney, Engine Tech F7/F9 single pipe asphalt racer, tuning with N2O. textbook tuneup--started with someone's recommended boondocker settings 144hp then tweaked and tuned to 172 with fatazz single, added 60 hp with 10 boondocker n2o nozzle holes, fattened that up to a total of 226 at .60 plus lb/hphr.

4/19 Sat AM Richard Weiss, SkiDoo 800 twin hill-dragracer verifying [seemingly too-high] dyno numbers from the engine builder. Richard's intuition and his butt dyno were correct--the engine builder had it dynod for him for $350 somewhere east of here, 115 lb/ft and 185-190hp but it didn't run like 185 in the field. Today after optimizing Richard's carburetion my dyno [calibrated correctly as it always is] indicates 109 /b/ft 172 HP.

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4/24 Tues AM Yam YZ250 flatracker, added 8% HP optimizing fuel and timing

4/25 Wed AM doing more EFI fine tuning on my Triumph Tiger turbo to improve cruising mileage

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4/29 Tues AM Casey Mulkins (tentative) bringing the Dragon 800 back to try a production 09 ECU and SLP y pipe and can. We'll post on DTR compare fuel flow/ timing etc 08.5 preproduction vs 09 production. you Polaris Dragon 800 buyers who insist on leaving it bone bone stock might not be totally pleased, but those who will spend $200 on the BMP pipe mod will be thrilled with the 09 ECU programming which now appears fat enough to safely support 154 HP.

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4/30 Greg Bennett one more time with Polaris twin with Aerodyne 66. this is about the third trip to the dyno in the current state of tune 930cc big bore, the last two  ended with seizures first clearance too tight (.001" doesnt cut it with a big bore forged pistons) second severe deto at 6500 on boost. Now with proper clearance (thanks to Carl McQuillen's diamond hone) and a proper midrange ignition timing curve, tuned up to 333 HP and 213 lb/ft (new HTG single pipe created higher RPM HP peak than what we had when engine was tested earlier and posted on subscriber pages) now the Aerodyne model 66 has its tongue hanging out at 560 SCFM.


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here's a good short article on gasoline I lifted off of AmSnow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

DynoTech : A/F ratio comparison of Dragon 800 pipes


This data shows an implication of higher airflow CFM with the BMP and SLP pipes. Fixed fuel flow from EFI plus leaner A/F ratio = assumed higher airflow CFM. Adding HP with higher airflow is always good, and I should have noted that in the article. The day after the test session, Casey Mulkins was on Chautauqua Lake doing multi-mile blasts at 8200RPM with the Dragon 800 w/ BMP mod and no extra fuel. All is well and fast so far.




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

DynoTech : March Dyno Schedule

snow and ice are nearly done, things are quiet..thats my HTG1000 edge on the table, not for tuning but to reinstall the electric starter and battery that Tripod Dan and crew yanked out before the Oneida shootout. All done, now I can ride it again without asking someone to start it for me. If you watched Thursday I spent all day changing the hydraulic fluid in the dyno table lift pump/ cylinder, it was half water, froze up on me once in Feb, good for another 20 years.
3/7 Friday AM, Woody and Rob one more time with the XCR 1640 HTG  four cylinder, Clark has reindexed and pinned the crankshaft.  Current all motor DTR record is 382-384 DNE 1725 quad. new DTR all motor record, after about 15 tuning pulls, 403CHP got dyno data posted on website Should be close. PM Greg Bennett, 900twin w/ Aerodyne 66 turbo trying a HTG single pipe, just looking for a few more revs..detod a sparkplug in midrange, caught by dropping hp on real time graph (saved the nickasil but piston is dinged from plug ground strap dancing),  will try again.
 

3/12 wed Buffalo Bob with two Bender Yamaha trail triples, big bores Bob had an issue with one sled, will be back on Monday

3/13 Thursday Billy Howard bringing his good-running Etec600 to compare with Jim Coopers' Billy's swamped with late season snowriders, will try again next Thursday...

3/14 Friday BMP East Jake Jenkins BMP M1200 single piper cancelled

3/17 Monday Buffalo Bob and Bender Racing will do it today 800 big bore sxr was ok with 157hp, but the 835 Bender SRX w/ dynoport pipes made an incredible 121lb/ft and 195hp for 12 seconds on pump gas.

3/18 nostalgia day, my pal Skip Saupe (the amazing machinist who put up with my crude cartoon drawings on barrroom napkins, and created all the parts for my dyno drive/ sled fixture 22 years ago) dyno tuning an old dog polaris 650 (01) with triple pipes.

3/19 Wed Justin Full Power tuning upon a boosted APEX..another weak fuel pump causing high speed gradual leanout shown on the dyno as dropping fuel pressure as boost/ revs climb, fixed this with a booster pump, every boosted apexshould have a fuel pressure gauge since it

3/20  Billy Howard/ Jimmy Cooper seeing what Billy's ETEC 600 does, and maybe how Jim Cooper's reflash works on his Etec no reflash yet, Billy's ETEC airflow CFM may have given us a clue to what may be going on here...more questions have to be answered...I posted these dyno tests  with some ideas.
PM Jake Jenkins BMP East now with a Boondocker turbo on his Crossfire 1200. this was the fourth or so BD big cat turbo tuned here but it drove us crazy, strange burble at dandy 12/1 A/F mechanical (that misfire showes as lean on wideband because of misfire O2 blowing by O2 sensor)..finally got clean running at 15 psi boost but only 295 HP...still a bit of sputter so Jake put in two different plugs, sputter was gone 358 HP, so one dead plug on a two plug engine can run smoothly but ast like severely retarded timing, that fresh plug woke the engine up, added big HP, Jake left it at 350 will try to clutch and if he needs go up on boost to what should be 400 plus like Glenn Hall....

3/22 Sat Kurt Lombard and Jim McMahon w/ CS1000 triple and PSI carbs w/ leaner needles

3/24 Monday AM Mike Kirschner, MZ1000 twin with new heads to test 16/1 was too much for this lake racer, had to go back to original domes..
PM Tom Tyson HTG 1200 radar runner Tom just ran 151 mph on his full body sled, found out just where peak HP is another excellent HTG 1200

3/31 Casey Mulkins w/ new Dragon 800 have BMP pipe mod and SLP single coming for test.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

DynoTech : You're probably being hosed at the pump

Polaris and Bombardier are using detonation sensing technology on some of their engines to help alert us while  riding or dyno testing,  and to  try to protect sled owners who experience detonation on their engines.  They utilize  engine noise pickups bolted to the cylinder head surface and some computer tries to recognize some new loud vibration as possible deto, and adds fuel and/ or retards timing to reduce combustion chamber temperature. Lower temperature (and reduced HP) should eliminate the detonation and all is well.

Bombardier is smart, and has programmed their newest computers to recognize and remember detonation, even to the point of going into a permanent, dealer-only removable fail-safe mode if severe engine knock occurs. This way they might have the option of avoiding responsibility if the owner of a new XP800R detos a piston/ cylinder on 75 octane gas unknowingly used by the sled owner.

75 octane?

I use that low octane rating rating as an example since 75 was the lowest octane test result done by Dateline NBC on 85 samples of "name brand" high test gasoline purchased in California. In that sample group, 11 were substandard, well below the octane posted on the pump.

Since then there have been more eye-opening reports of octane fraud at the pump. Car and Driver magazine reports that of 2816 samples of "high test" gasoline tested the previous year in Michigan by the Bureau of Weights and Measures, 217 failed  because of "low octane". Just last week the Today Show did a segment on NY State gasoline cheating, stating that 15% of gasoline tested this winter in NY was substandard. Roll the dice.

Digesting that information, we can assume that 10% of the time, when we fill our sleds with high test, we get boned with 87 or worse. This is no problem for most stock sleds which have safe BSFC and excellent cooling systems. But some high performance stockers that have marginal cooling systems (to save weight and cost) seem to be susceptible  to detonation. My opinion is that the new Arctic Cats which have "reverse cooling" (heads get the cold water first like modern automotive performance street and race engines) are most resistant to detonation, and can run higher HP on pump gas than most others. I have no actual  hard data, just feedback from many 100's of dyno users who run powerfully on the lakes and trails.

Now that we can enlist SkiDoo dealer Jim Cooper to monitor engine conditions during dyno testing SkiDoo engines, we see even light to moderate deto on his computer before things get bad (either going into "safe mode" or actually eroding a piston. We let Jim's deto meter go up to maybe half way before detuning. Richard Lavanant brought "93" octane gas from PA before doing stage tuning on his new XP800R. Bone stock with bone stock jetting Richard's engine made Jim Cooper's deto meter rattle hard to the right on his gasoline. Richard filled a jug with 93 from the gas station near the dyno, and that detonation was gone.

This same problem occurred with  an XP860R big bore tested on my dyno a few weeks ago. This anonymous owner brought  five gallons of "93" from his uncle's gas station in Rochester, and that gas pegged Jim Cooper's deto meter instantly with "safe" jetting! That problem also went away with gas from around the corner from the dyno. Now the uncle knew that his nephew was coming to dyno his sled, and I would think that if he was knowingly selling 87 for 93 he would have suggested that his nephew use different gas. In that case I'm betting that the gas wholesaler could be the culprit. Think of the extra $ people make for selling 87 as 93! How about the bar on the trail with above ground tank with "93" written in Magic Marker on the pump?

I get calls/ emails too often from people who have tuned closely for max "93" performance, wondering about mysterious, sudden detonation after many miles of dandiness.  Always, something has differed from those good times.  Leaner mixture?  Hotter engine? Longer  time at WOT? Usually it's the gas.

So what are we to do? The deto protection on Polaris' and SkiDoos is better than nothing, but not perfect. Extended periods of light occasional detonation, seemingly deemed acceptable by the sleds' computer, can gradually overheat pistons as the random "hits" of deto scour away the cooling boundary of air protecting the aluminum pistons (1200 degree melting point) from the 5000 degree flame. Pistons grow and sieze on "four corners", or actually melt just before they seize, because of the loss of that cooling boundary of air. New piston, new nickasil, all because some greedy wholesaler or retailer wanted to pocket an extra $2 per sled tankful.

So what can we do? Octane boosters so far have proven useless to me. My own motor octane tester is a 2000 Silverado 5.3 with twin  GT25  Garrett turbos and completely stock EFI system. This truck has 112,000 miles all with turbos, and it knocks on what they call "tip in" as throttle is depressed, before the computer senses the MAF is in the twilight zone compared to what is normal. This one second rattle is annoying, but harmless in eight years. With 100 unleaded, there is no audible knock at all. Some octane boosters have been tried with no success. I even tried some name brand stuff that's supposed to make "race gas" out of pump gas. You'd think I knew better, but this was a free sample for testing by Terry Paine. A quart to five gallons did nothing, two quarts to five gallons did nothing but make us laugh.

Leaded race gas or 100LL Av gas is in my opinion the only reliable octane booster for pump gas. On a few occasions I get to ride a 1000 HTG triple "pump gas" engine with 200-225 HP depending on whether power jets are set for .70 or .57. I like to use 100LL Av because it's cheap and always fresh and good enough. And I can water it down as I go and still have fun until dilution makes me afraid. Then I just cool it or give 1/2 turn to the pj's. I respect that thing and get great, reliable enjoyment from it.  People who run high HP on the trail need to respect their engines, and expect to be running 87 octane on occasion. So that means tuning for 87 if you must run 100% pump gas. That means running enough fuel, with relaxed timing if necessary to get you around .70 lb/hphr for hot rod two-strokes. And, it means you must have a cooling system that will keep up with your HP/ riding style. How can a Firecat cooling system designed for 130 HP be expected to keep up with a 170 HP big bore if you ride like a madman? Coolant temp should be monitored, and when engine coolant gets to be much over 120 degrees F (like you might experience on hard packed roads or lakes) you must take it easy or risk deto since hot engines are most likely to detonate.

Rejetting for doing lake runs can be a nuisance, so I like those adjustable power jets like used on Lectron carbs. A quick 1/4 or half turn twist can take you from .70 to .60 with a similar bump in HP when you know you have sufficient octane. I have limited experience with Holtzman float bowl pressure tuners, but I like what I've seen for ease of adjusting fuel flow.  EFI owners love Boondocker EFI controllers, since you can have one map dyno programmed "up nord style" for mystery gas, and one for short blasts on what you know is decent octane gas. And maybe another for race gas dragracing. Just a click of the Boondocker and you go from race to ultra safe. Couldn't be better.

Kevin Cameron has devoted lots of time providing technical information on detonation in the DynoTechResearch archives. Understanding what we're buying at the pump, and understanding the causes and effects of deto is important if we expect to avoid it while having reasonable fun with our sleds. This most recent realization that we're being "hosed" at the pump should make us all afraid.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

DynoTech : more ETEC testing etc


2/20...After comparing the SkiDoo 600 dyno test data between  Etec and SDI, we are hunting for the missing 5 HP. While part throttle cruising A/F and BSFC are admirably low, BSFC at peak torque and HP RPM is disappointingly normal. The Etec and SDI single pipes have the same part number. So the lower HP throughout the powercurve is probably either retarded timing, lower compression, lower airflow CFM or some combination of the three.

Since I had no airflowmeter during the Etec test I relied on the Innovate wideband to report A/F. I may try to back into airflow numbers utilizing the wideband A/F ratio and mechanically measured fuel flow lb/hr. If airflow seems to be low compared to carbed and SDI models, it may be the lack of any fuel vaporizing in the engine's crankcase and transfer ports. Vaporizing fuel absorbs heat, and it's possible that Etec crankcase temps might be elevated, causing airflow to be lower than carbed and SDI.

Or it may be ignition timing. Jim Cooper's ETEC software doesn't yet have timing control like he has with other SkiDoo engines. He is lobbying with SkiDoo to obtain the control of timing on the Etec engine. Otherwise we may resort to an offset ket to add a few degrees overall. But that might mean excessive timing at part throttle (how low can those mid .30's BSFC go?).
====================================================================

When Ed Sedlmeier was dyno tuning his SkiDoo SnoX racers last week, he had with him a most dandy battery powered "Pro Vision 618" fiberoptic viewer to look at piston domes. Skinny enough to fit thorough plug openings, it's perfect for viewing tough-to-see pistons in sleds like SkiDoo and Arctic Cat F twins. I found the best deal on the Pro Vision 618 at www.tooltopia.com $170 free shipping, and ordered one today.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, January 31, 2008

DynoTech : February 08 dyno testing

2/1 Friday Jason Owens F6 Cat trail mod pump gas only, stock head, 139hp w/ DD monster single graph shows black stock single, blue BMP modified stock pipe, red D&D monster single pipe

2/2 Sat AM Russ Horn XC800R 950ish BMP big bore, PM Dave Shoup Fusion 975 big bore had several issues with 950--stock fuel pump was seriously restricting fuel flow only 90 lb/hr with 540mj--when fuel flow was resolved by bypassing pump, feeding engine with dyno fuel pump, HP was still off, BMP is taking sled back to rectify someone at BMP mistakenly installed stiff Ex valve springs above diaphragms, essentially locking valves closed during operation--springs out now all should be well, Dave's Fusion required some Boondocker tuning and timing key to get 175 on pump gas
2/4 Casey Mulkin, Fusion stock bore with trail mods/ Boondocker N2O bone stock 06 with SLp exhaust and SLP reflashed ECU, made 160 with flashed ECU .72, took away fuel with Boondocker made 165 at .62, then added 10 holes of N2O made 206 at .70 dropped to 8 holes to be safer made 190 at .70 had to tweak Boondocker fuel to get reasonable pump gas safety for short N2O burps, world's flattest hp curve, no curve at all.
2/5 AM available
      PM Sean Ray dyno tunes an MC Express turbo Apex still on the dyno, may have issue with stale gas causing misfire at 12/1...find out wed 12/6 AM...surely problem of air distribution in plenum--all four injectors firing perfect, at wot 6000 all is perfect, let engine slide slowly toward 6500 #2 leans out then as revs are allowed to slowly slide up toward 7000 #2 begins to enrichen then get fatter than #1 & #3 (which stay perfect) and #4 leans out from 11/1 to 18/1 misfire meaning it's getting more than its' share of air somehow robbing from #2...

2/7 AM Top Gun Dave Dillenbeck Cutler F1000 new Boondocker with more steps. Maybe noon Jim Cooper will have their new 600 etec DI engine to dyno test, will see just how low BSFC really is.added extra 2 deg timing and one point of compression, picked up 14 midrange HP, six at peak to 201. Jim Cooper got the sled, but found out it needs six hours run time for max timing, will ride this weekend, dyno Monday
      PM Tripod Dan Cross HTG XCR1200 got 298 last time, trying for 300.0, Jim Cooper fine tuning MSD curve w/ laptop. made 298 before center crank bearing ground to a halt.
2/8 AM Dead 1 Dave with John Wilburs HTG F1000, Rob Schooping with new XCR1600 four cylinder. cancelled the quad, but the F1000 w/ D&D twins made 223 plus with hot coolant, then when they got back to HTG shop reinstalled the pod, showed egt probe error, maybe causing timing retard?
2/9 AM Carl Theriault Engine Tech 900 tweaked and tuned this 12.5/1 trail engine from 140 to 170 (different single pipe, timing tweaks, Boondocker while the next guys Jim and Kurt watched (they arrived early).
    PM Jim McMahon & Kurt Lombard CS1000 twin rotary open mod triple this was sort of a homecoming for me since Larry Audette did so much early  twin RV triple development here nearly 20 years ago. This should have been great fun maxing out carburetion,  finding exact max HP timing, then finding exact HP peak at various pipe temps...but run #1 had misfire at 8000 with good fuel flow, new plugs then run #2 misfire gone revved to 8500 then "pop" engine was running on one cylinder...a rogue shiny new-looking 3/4 x 8-32ish plated steel machine screw had somehow found its' way into one carb inlet and jammed the pto RV, shutting off air to two cylinders, stripping either [hopefully] the RV shaft and/or [hopefully not] the crank gear. Perhaps thankfully it  wedged itself between the valve and valve cover instead of making it into the engine possibly wreaking even more havoc. We never could find an empty threaded hole on anything near or above the dyno (garage door opener etc), and all the fasteners in dyno room are coated in amber residue from 20 years of two-stroke exhaust haze.
2/11 AM Pete Nixon, RKT XP860R, Jim Cooper helping out, Boyeson reeds [special for mod engine] vs stock reeds etc. made 169 stock ypipe stock pipe stock reeds were best on this engine. Pete had purchased 93 from his uncle's gas station, Jim noted bad deto on his computer, bought different 93 gas and deto was gone.
        PM  Jeff Stinson, Cat F7 Imp stock winter boondocker tuning
        late PM Jim Cooper new SkiDoo 600 Etec EFI let's see how low BSFC is at cruise and wot trail ride sat was cancelled due to rain, wont have six hours of run time by Monday, won't test until breakin is done, good riding weather coming so hopefully this week we'll get to dyno test.
2/12 AM Ed Sedlemeier SkiDoo 600 SnoXers one stocker one mod in 1990 we used Ed's Polaris 650 triple trail mod for our big pipe shootout, Rodney Champagne ported...with the highest HP set of triple pipes screaming at 9200 Ed's  Indy mod made less HP than this bone stock  SkiDoo 600 twin snox racer.
        PM John Rudics, F7 w/ BMP pipe mod, 87 octane/ Boondocker 144-146HP stock key depending on Boondocker setting, wot for 15 seconds no problem.
        PM Gary Claxton, HTG F7/F8 big bore lake mod Stock compression ratio, 2 deg key, BMP pipe mod and stock muffler made 166 at .65, 170.0 at .57 both for 15 seconds at WOT.
2/13 AM HTG Rob with XCR1200 with turbo to dial in fuel management excessive timing looks like it bit this one, light deto with safe looking fuel flow, will be back.
        PM Sunnyside Cycle troubleshooting misfiring Suzuki 600 sportbike using our Cycledyn roller eddy current bike dyno.cancelled until it warms up a bit
2/14 four 518ers-- Mach Z mod (Jim Cooper monitor deto and roll timing)  an F9 and an F10 for tuning, plus  one more MZ  lakerace shooting for 350...IF WE HAVE TIME JIM COOPER WILL DYNO HIS 600ETEC tuned the 518 sleds, no time for Jim Cooper's Etec it's on the dyno table now, will test on Saturday AM 8/16
2/16 XP800R testing/ tuning with stock, SPI and Aaen single to see which pipe to use. F1000 with BMP single, Boondocker tuning cancelled until next week
2/17 Jim and Kurt on more time with CS twin RV triple 1000, one new rotary valve disc and one new rotary valve shaft (crank was OK). Maybe well have filters on it this time...in the 10 years since I saw the last 1000 this has evolved incredibly, now 160 lb/ft and tuned to near perfection by Kurt before it got here, tweaked timing back and forth to obtain absolute max HP, driver Jim is said to be fast on the trigger, both on race sleds and guns--see his "cowboy" competition gunsmith business at www.cowboygunworks.com     
2/18 Bob Jacoby looking for more HP with his turbo nitrous RX1, Justing Fuller tuning then Justin will dial in a new Apex turbo kit installation. Bob's plain bearing turbonetics turbo was lazy then seemen to seize up  after  one dyno run, will be back.
2/19 Tripod Dan one more time, fresh crank tweaked jetting/ timing made 299.9 but we couldn't quit with that, tweaked timing and jetting, ice water in engine finally made 301 so we could go home.

2/21 BMP East Jake with a trailerfull tuning up for Oneida Shootout 2/23

Jason Owens coming again with a F7/800 Xfire cant remember what day..that was tuesday after  GreedyTripod Dan got his 300, Jason detuned this one to 160-165 to run on 87 octane, changed to freer breathing BMP F8 pipe
2/22 Vince Mussolino tuning some more HP into his F1000 for the Oneida Shootout on Saturday cancelled till after shootout
2/24 Justin Rock, F1000 boondocker tuning, pal Jonas w/ stock XP800R and  two aftermarket single pipes, will run the best one on the trail. Jim Cooper will roll timing and watch for detonation. Jetted and maxed timing,  then tested three pipes vs stock on Jonas'  XP800R, Aaen, CPI, DynoPort also DynoPort and BMP Ypipes, results are posted on subscriber pages.
2/25 cycledyn tested  a new Suzuki GSXR600 for Suzuki dealer Sunnyside Cycle,- was having trouble with engine cutting out then back on again at 14,000 rpm. So far Suzuki recommended replacing ECU, fuel tank, fuel system, camshafts (?), and this was ready for lemon-law buyback. Problem turned out to be kick stand shutoff switch (designed to prevent driving by mistake with kick stand left down). At 14,000 rpm the kickstand would vibrate and drop down a bit (loose spring), then engine would cutoff. Fix will probably be a new tighter kick stand spring.
2/26 Bender Racing Colden with Henry Janzen's Mach Z 1100 twin trail mod/ CS pipes. Third day on the dyno (first day Boondocker wouldnt function, second day new Boondocker red labeled wouldnt function, then Jim Cooper brought sled to his shop to check all wiring, discovered the fancy "R" plugs were "Race" plugs non-resistor. Back to dyno with resistor plugs, perfect boondockering to 195hp on 91 octane, then injected ten holes of regulated N2O pressure w/ Boondocker made 220 with 400psi, 230 with 450 psi and 240HP with 500psi. That regulator deal seems ideal for moderate HP boosts, since bottle pressure is no longer an issue.
2/29 Woody and Rob Schooping with new XCR1200 with a fourth cylinder attached. Maybe new all motor record? not today, made 365 with #1 cyl about 20 degrees out of phase (had blown a belt, temporary high overrev, after that blown belt had to lighten clutch weights to compensate). Crank needs to go back to Clark Spreigel for reindexing, will set rev limiter 500 revs lower, current all motor record is DNE 384, will try in March?
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, December 31, 2007

DynoTech : January 2008 dyno schedule &tc

Wed 1/2 mr mom
Thursday 1/3 AM HTG Rob's dyno is acting up, bringing a customer's 700 triple drag engine to test on motor plate.this surprised Rob, possibly the highest BMEP NA engine here, 205 HP at 9500 = 210 psi BMEP, cold motor cold shot HP like dragracers do...today was great air--high baro, low CAT (carb air temp) 205 CHP = 210 actual HP. PM Tripod Dan Cross adding Jim Cooper's MSD ignition to his XCR1200 HTG stroker Jim Cooper is a master at installing and dialing in MSDs on dragsleds. Stutter box will help Dan heat the big volume pipes without heating the engine.
1/4Fri AM Vince Pagliano XC800 (the one who came here with a 440 flywheel and zero HP) Vince had purchased this trailport engine complete from PSI never ran good, last season dyno'd like it ran, Vince discovered it had been shipped to him with a 440 flywheel, bought and installed an 800 flywheel, now with SLP twins made 172 HP lean and 168 HP safe for 15 seconds on pump gas, the light SLP springs he had were opening way too early, stretching them 1/4 " made huge midrange improvement.
1/5Sat AM available
1/6Sun AM available
1/7Mon AM Justin Full power Apex turbo maybe one more before I have to pick up son Marty at 3:00 Justin came at 4:30, this was Mark Tangus' Apex Stage 3 with fuel management upgrades, began with 300 off the trailer and quit at 365 or thereabouts perfect for blasting 1/4 milers on the frozen Adirondack lakes.
1/8 Tues AM Joe Shear, F1200 Xfire with D&D and Cutler twin pipes,cancelled due to warm 64 deg air bad for Boondocker winter tuning, rescheduled for Sun AM planning to squirt some n2o.
PM available
1/9 Wed AM Nick Jagow, HTG 990 Twin, N2O all motor made 175 with platter-flat hp durve from 8000-9000, jacked timing to the stops made 193 with a nice pile, still broad hp curve. Boss Noss added more HP, Nick doesn't want his pals to know how many extra his button gives him.
1/10 AM John Misensik and Bob Calpeter Rev 860 big bore, this time with  revised porting  (weren't happy last time)
1/10 PM DynoTech frequent flier Tony Koz this time with na Hooper ZR1200 twin lakeracer. made 230 not quite the HP they were hoping for but still great HP for a low revving twin.
1/11  AM Richard Lavanant bone stock, broken in XP800R stage tuning, Bondi Box, MBRP can, BMP Y pipe, BMP head, Boyeson Rad Valves and wings, Jimmy Cooper using his doo laptop to monitor deto and jack timing about.all this stuff and tweaking of jetting and timing by JCooper  increased HP from 150.5 stock to 159.9 with all these parts and leaned to max HP, detailed results will follow...
1/12 Justin Rock 08 F1000 w/ Y and single pipe, Boondocker tuning, also a BMP MZ 1250 CS twins and N2O Justin's F1000 is 08, and all 08s so far have made  somewhat less HP than 07s with similar mods and A/F ratio indicating maybe less ECU timing? Jason's  1250 was low on HP na but made up for it with Boondocker 4 injector N2O. Fuel pump capacity limits this engine to 270 safe, adding pump capacity will make 300 plus easy.
1/13 Joe Shear, F1200 twin/ single pipe plus n2o. NY Speed Joe and Paul made extremely good all motor HP with cutler twins on the 1200 Crossfire, and even more with the Boondocker N2O on the EFI engine. Pauls Cutler F10 carbed made 190 plus with no key, and the Boondocker carb N2O system added a bunch more, way more than previous Boondocker carb N2O systems tested here..
1/14 Scott Pickwick two sleds, one very high HP 800 twin with n2o, one HTG 1000 triple also with n2o, should be a fun day. Scott is a Cooperstown NY Doo Dealer, loves to lakerace with his pals who work with him, the HTG trailport Rev 800 made 170 at .60 then added about 60 with wet N2O. Scott's pal Heath pissed me off because his HTG XCR1000 pump gas engine made three HP more than mine makes. Just kidding... Then to add insult Heath added another 100hp with the excellent wet N2O system. Long day of tuning but great fun.
1/15 AM mailing out Adirondack Trail Mod awards, doing paperwork.
1/15 PM Kev Oleksiw BMP 1100 Mach Z with Big Thunder N2O Jimmy Cooper will come to help tune timing and watch for deto real time with that excellent SkiDoo laptop. we had great fun with Kevin tuning this radar runner, having Jim Cooper monitor even light deto with his doo laptop is excellent for dyno tuning gonzo n2o skidoos.
1/16 Steve Catone, Rev 800 BMP single for carb tuning with just the pipe, vforce reeds, and  billet head  made as much hp as stock XP800R.
1/17 Justin Full Power two turbo sleds, one stage 4 (400 plus?) and another lesser stage. Justin arrived unfashionably late, 7pm only had time to tweak John Davy's RX1 especially since this sled came off the trailer with 420plus with fat safe A/F ratio no sounds of deto from earphones....
1/18 Jake Jenkins BMP East tuning Mach Z.
1/19 Cam Simpson Firecat F7 tuning. needed only a Pac valve to lean out trail port F7 ultra fat one, with BMP mod stock single dropped pressure to 37psi for .70 and 150 plus.
1/19pm Pete Nixon SkiDoo 600RS, Scutti Williams Polaris 600 IQ, snoX race sleds good stock SnoX dyno numbers will post this week if time permits. Both should have been at the Adirondack Shootout

1/21 pm Mike Gross edge triple 800.cancelled due to 37inches of new snow in mike's driveway.

1/23 Bender Racing, Mach Z 1100 CS twins with Boondocker nitrous tuning to max HP on pump gas, Jim Cooper will be here to change maps, timing, monitor deto etc Noon Bob Blizniak, Bender big bore 835 triple trail port pump gas. boondocker (bought used) seems to be goofed up, goes wicked lean to 16/1 at 7300 even with 40 mid high at 7300, will have new one red label 1/24AM had to push John D back to 11am, Travis to 2:00 or so...

1/24 AM That troublesome MZ was left on dyno overnight, got a new Boondocker red labeled to DTR plus Bender's guys found a new one on the shelf, this one worked perfect for two runs then reverted to stock OEM map (too lean), installed new harness, no help, installed the DTR programmed boondocker, perfect for one run then reverted to stock fuel map again.  0 for three on Boondocker boxes? Has to be a problem with wiring somehow, Jim Cooper took the sled  back to his dealership hope to find an issue...Travis showed up at noon, John D let him go next because he was planning to go to N MI Friday, boondockered  his BMP F7/8 single pipe to perfect 167 at .62, 163 at .70 (he'll ride like that on the trails to be safe) and squirted six holes of n2o made moderate 193 for lake racing. Johnny Dee Price 1000 triple turbo engine with model 66 aerodyne will need a squirt of n2o to get it to 400hp. Big shaft will be used. Jim Cooper will be here to tune new MSD. I goofed on this one, hooked up everything but Sean's deto sensor, detod a piston at 7000 RPM 10/1 making 300 plus there, possibly MSD timing was set way too advanced, next time we WILL listen for knock.
PM. Travis from Michigan I forgot your last name F8 pump gas with N2O, have no phone number, you need not come at noon, two or three is better.

1/25 AM Don Emery and Tommy McConky back with that 4cyl radar runner that made 384ish last winter on the engine, this time with N2O needs more HP for another 10mph. Maybe our first 500 HP?
yup, will post our new record for torque and HP this weekend...my armpits are just now drying out. Had  the deto muffs on this time.
1/26 Sat MA Carl Theriault and pals three sleds (down to two sleds, one F8 Engine tech and a Crossfire 1000 both to be Boondockered) cancelled due to problems with two of the sleds

1/28 Dave Augar, Pol Edge w/ Joe DiSpirito Ultra 800 triple big bore, silenced CS mod pipes,  made 193-195HP at 9800 RPM on mostly pump gas.

1/31 Texas Tim Worden and HTG Rob, dyno tuning Cat 17xx triple, D&D/ HTG cylinders, maybe N2O? Maybe another 400 or more?

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, November 22, 2007

DynoTech : December dyno schedule & other stuff

12/1 Justin Fuller again, not sure what he's bringing cancelled
12/2 available
12/3 SHOOTOUT SLEDS unless they have bad weather between old forge and batavia. if so we'll certify shootout sleds tues/ wed.
12/4 MORE SHOOTOUT SLEDS
12/5 saved in case we have any issues on 12/3 or 12/4, if all is well then dyno time is available
12/6 Chuckaroo Motorports with 800XPR shootout entrant, then his PS1000 to test MSD, then off to Old Forge.
12/7 See you at Woodgate, NY for the SnowWeek/ DTR Adirondack Shootout
12/8 Heading home from Shootut. after getting out of Utica NY hospital, had a vertebrae  pop out of place at the shootout,  manifested itself as left chest pain and arm numbness so chicken Jim checked in Fri PM missed the awards banquet my favorite day of the year, kept me on heart dyno all night, overnight pain moved from left chest to left armpit to left shoulderblade then at 3am disappeared int my spine. They made me do a stress test Sat AM my heart is like that of a Nigerian marathon runner, Tripod Dan shuttled me from old Forge to utica then picked me up Sat AM.
12/9 Ziggy and a pal Gary Monarski, tuning Firecats Ziggy's 4th trip to dyno, this time we tuned his f7/F8 BMP safely to 160something the way chicken Jim likes it, then installed new Fatazz F7 ported pipe hanging on my pipe rack picked up 10 more HP. Gary's F7 ported was dandy in the mid 150's CJS (chicken Jim safe) with pipe mod, we should have tried that same Fatazz pipe on his sled but Ziggy will buy one of those and they can test in the field if Gary picks up a 100 or more revs, he's probably making more HP. remember all of you guys have dynamometers hanging off the LEFT side of your engines! Make a change and if RPMs rise you can bet more HP...
12/10 Jamie Wimmer with BMP ported 800XPR, pipe mod etc for tuning.cancelled my son was sick I was home Mr. Mom.
12/11 all day available Jamie Wimmer slid off till today, last Sunday he rode his sled 6 hours to get rid of that goofy breakin mode, bought bad gas at a tug hill bar (left over from last season?) deto light came on and stayed on beeping. He had to go to his dealer to get the deto light and annoying beeper turned off. What's that all about? Bottom line after dyno session--165 HP with pipe mod which was good for a couple of HP compared to a stock pipe. Jamie had removed the 2 deg key after deto scared him, surely would have added threeish HP and there was more HP left on the jet tuning table,  but I suggested he leave key out, drive the sled  for a month and if deto light  doesnt come on lets try the key again.  I  predict 170 plus no problem. By then maybe we'll have  a bunch of Ypipes/ single pipes to try on stockers/ trail mods and I want to use Jamie's sled for that dyno mule.
12/12 AM available spent today doing computer stuff, finalized Shootout Trail/ lakemod awards, need to post CPR Apex turbo data maybe tomorrow.
12/13 AM Trevor Bovard F7/F8 nitrous tuning, got rid of F7 twins that were way too tight last time. PM Jeff Gould baseline HP testing an SDI600 before doing engine coatings. thakfully both cancelled so being replaced Mike Gross 11AM Pol 800 twin twin pipes, 2PM Jerry Beck (who I bought my HTG triple Edge from last year) dynoing 700IQ with pipe/ Boondocker--Jerry's 700IQ made huge torque--broad HP 155 plus for many hundreds of revs HTG porting/ single pipe was good for even me to clutch..
12/14 AM available not available Mr Mom all day again
12/15 AM Darrell Gaglianese Cat tuning Mr. Pretend-to-be-stock Darrel tweeked his Boondocker to 190plus with these simple bolt-ons on pump gas.  late AM GREG BENNETT with the big bore Pol turbo twin this time with intercooler seeing how much HP he can squeeze out of an Aerodyne original 66. Needs 400 on his lightweight to be in the running this year. Stale race gas, stored in the trailer over the summer bit GB in the testicles--10/1 A/F ratio warm engine seized a piston solid, upon inspection domes dry as a bone, fuel pressure perfect, EGTs low = stale race gas blowing through the combustion chambers like lave-lamp globules, can't vaporize until the get into the exhaust where they just cool down EGTs, Greg will be back again.[called on 12/17 found his seized cylinder came with 1 thou clearance hence instant seizure will be back again with more clearance and new gas to be sure]  2pm Chris Preston F8 Firecat was here to tune 11/19 had early Boondocker with HUGE gap between 6700 and 7800 we could not tune his sled with that. Impossible. Had his box reprogrammed by Boondocker with that important 7200 RPM step, got it today will fix his A/F curve to perfection today if he gets the wiring harnes he ordered from Boondocker otherwise will reschedule. rescheduled to 12/20 or 21 AM have reprogrammed Boondocker with no overlap box with 7200 rpm step (stock ECU goes from wicked lean until 7200 then pig fat at 7201+ so blending/ overlap makes that transition more difficult).
 
12/16 1pm Engine tech cats getting there early, will do one sled on Sun PM the other 12/17am Noreaster storm was blowing in, so Jason and Dawson came in from Northern Ontario last night, called this AM so I finished helicoiling one crank adapter (this dyno is very high maintenance--estimate every hour of revenue producing dyno time = one hour of maintenance not counting cost of upkeep). Today we dynod both Engine Tech sleds  and F900 billet cyls (tuned with D&D twins and a BMP Fatazz single stock muffler) and an F800 stock cylinders/ head (also with Fatazz single and stock and D&D mufflers). Both were tweaked to perfection,[F9 made 180 with D&D Monster twins which were good for 1000' but too tight for best power for long runs on the dyno, installed BMP Fatazz and made 175 with stock muffler...still broad top end HP plateau,, F8 made 170 plus with that same fatazz pipe, stock muffler with same DTR Boondocker setup,  if anyone wants to chip in on their dyno session perhaps their Boondocker numbers will be shared...I will pass on their Email address if that's  of interest/
12/17 AM Dave Patrick bought D1Ds F1000 not F1200 HTG engine with D&Dtwins, boondocker tuning..D1D made 220hp here on fresh C12 race gas with this engine, 6 degree key, was a rocket in the field, high compression and gobs of timing kept peak HP below rev limiter...Dave misinterpreted the need for big octane on D1Ds engine, came here with pump gas with a splash of 110, with 2 degree key made 210hp easy then adding the 6 deg key made better midrange hp but lost on top due to light detonation but no engine damage on the dyno. Not to brag but DTR Jim is a rattlesnake on the throttle yanking back when real time graph flatlines or worse during a dyno run. Chicken Jim aborts at the first sign of rattle. Needs straight 110 octane to have fun with 220hp on that low revving 1000cc twin...  plus his dad has another Engine Tech 900 this one with Jaws twin pipes. Yesterday Jason's ET F9 13.5/1 comp ratio made 180 w/ D&D twins today Davids ET F9 12.5/1 with Jaws twins made 165-170 with similar .62 BSFC.  Late PM Bob Staples some sort of Firecat which I love to tune because hookup is so quick and easy. Bone stock firecat F7 with 2 deg key and cut heat (supposedly .010) we only made 138 max wiith stock pipe, and BMP pipe mod which has added big HP and spreaded top end HP to 8000 and higher with hot pipe did not work on this sled (the first in 200 F7s that didn't benefit here from pipe mod). That high comp head must be the culprit, Bob is buying stock head will be back to try again...
12/18 Don Emery DNE with Tommy McConkey's 384hp 4cyl (on DTR subscriber pages) this time with 125hp load on n2o  (384 + 125 =  ?). Also may have that ported 08 800XPR this time with BMP Y, pipe mod, etc.  cancelled, 800R got wrecked on the ice, Tommy's mod has leaking carb boots found at the last minute, will be back later...sorry to you guys who tuned in hoping to watch dyno history being made (the first real 500 sled?) only to see my old pal Mike Gross coming in on standby to tweak an XC800 with twin pipes.
12/19 I'm mr mom all day
12/20 tentative dyno session but still not solidified...looks like a cat in early AM, then Justin Fuller with two customer's sleds to dyno tune before delivery...
Both cancelled, replaced with Andy Butler's Dragon 700 needed Boondocker to go from stock pipe to either with SLP single or DynoPort single. PM Ken Lalonde F1000 with new programming ECU Speedwerx single DD Ypipe made 180-183 HP at .59 with no key, I'm thinking that new programming has less timing? More to come as we evaluate the 08 programming. Remember that the 08 F1000 was lower HP than the 07 in the SnowWeek/ DTR Shootout.

12/21 8 AM Chris Preston retuning that F7 with D&D twins had to stop last time because his boondocker box had no 7300 tuning point, just couldnt get this one right everyone needs a 7300 blend point or 7200 fixed point to tune easily. tested with a 7200rpm point box today, still fought unmanageable fuel curve fat at 7300 lean at 7700, turns out Chris' EV servo is locked up, using Supreme Tool EV fooler chip we locked valves open, got excellent fuel curve now from 7200-8000 now 176hp, Chris is coming back tomorrow AM with a pal's EV motor and well finish tuning then we'll squirt some N2O.
12/22 Chris Preston finishing his F7/F8 working valve servo did wonders, turned perfect lean 13.5/1 to 7200 valve opening then from 7201 to 8300 11.5/1 relaxed tuning to 175 HP will be a safe trail riding tuneup, added a squirt of N2O eight holes with fat fuel yielded  30 HP plus at .67 lb/hphr. Chicken Jim suggested that should be his lake setup, could have made more with less fuel on the edge but he needs to ride his sled not work on it all winter.
12/23 available AM
12/24 AM Bender Racing dyno tuning F1000 D&D Ypipe D&D single for a customer, PM another F1000 D&D Ypipe D&D single, both 07s, Boondockers had different programming steps so couldnt compare, needed different numbers to achieve same lb/hr or fuel flow
12/26 AM Top Gun Dave finally dyno tuning his Cutler F10 and Trucks-R-us John with an F1000 hoping he brings an 07 and 08 ECU so we can compare on the same sled...Dave's Cutler F10 was a bit fat off the trailer at 190hp, tuned to greedy John Wilbur's spec 194 at .59 and then tweaked a decent squirt of N2O to 247, but the  N2O took revs to 8700 where stock EFI fuel leans out, needs a D&D Boondocker with 7300 setting plus an 8700 setting to get base fuel flow constant.
12/27 AM Jeff  Sherlock  F1000,Kirsch's Stage 1 F1000 w/ Vforce, .060 offset key, D&D twins tuned at .58, 219hp and 150  lb/ft on 100 rate acceleration good for 1/4mi,, then with D&D single and stock muffler made 210.5hpand 145 lb/ft . late AM Tony Koz with F1200 Boondocker turbo cams off till tuned.  Koz squeeked a piston last time here w/ 1000 top end and too many other variables including questionable fuel. This time with HTG turbo ported 1200 top end, Tony and Rob Schooping taking turns listening for deto with Sean Ray's deto muffs (Tony heard it once when I stabbed the engine with too lean fuel) spent 5 hours poking about part throttle to full throttle creating safe A/F ratio and BSFC working our way up to peak revs, finally stopped at 260 lb/ft 370HP at perfect safe 11.7/1 A/F ratio from low revs to the rev limiter. Rob wanted 450 but Chicken Jim convinced Tony Koz and Rob that this was plenty, put the HP to the ice and if more is needed just turn up the boost. That boondocker system is dandy when dialed in. It appears from our 10 full boost dyno tests that if Koz adds two more psi boost fuel will climb automatically as needed, 400 plus no problem. But the three F1200's tuned here have required three totally different sets of Boondocker tuning numbers to achieve the same A/F ratio on boost from low revs to the rev limiter.
12/28 AM rev 800 big bore, PM 08 RevXP800 bigbore (cameras off for second session until HP goal is reached, always the option of sled owner) will be testing stock airbox vs high flow airbox. stock airbox was maybe 1% less airflow than "high flow" Bondi aftermarket airbox.
12/29 early AM F7 stocker with Speedwerx Twins and Boondocker.this was bone stock 05F7, 2 deg key only SW twins and SW programmed Boondocker--had no overlap and a perfect step at 7200 dialed this one perfect 13.5/1 below 7200 then from 7200 up 11.5/1 153hp at .70 lb/hphr. Dialed in part throttle A/F ratio perfect 12/1 from 5000 to 7800.
12/30 family stuff
12/31 family stuff
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

DynoTech : Adirondack SnowGoer DTR Shootout trail mod entrants

D&D has committed to six sleds:
08 F8 trailport, twin pipes
SkiDoo XPR800/ 862cc with D&D single pipe/ Ypipe
F1000-1200 twin pipes
F1000 trailport twin pipes
other two sleds TBA

Chuckaroo Motorsports
1240 MachZ twin
08 SkiDoo XPR800 trailport w/  DynoPort  single pipe  (will dyno this sled next Thursday)

Full Power Performance Apex turbo, Nytro turbo.

Excell  Nytro w/ custom exhaust

Allan Ulmer three sleds (two MPI SC sleds Nytro and Apex plus one tba)

CJ Motorsports 08 SkiDoo 800R/ 860 big bore, single pipe stock muffler

DynoPort tba

Crankshop - Larry you need to come this year!

HTG tba

JD Powersports Cat T660 trail mod





 


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

DynoTech : Adirondack Shootout Decisions for 07

George Taylor and I are in the middle of this 18th annual Shootout, between new sled dealers, aftermarket companies who are providing trail mod sleds to show their wares, and SnowGoer/ SnowWeek magazines who are partners with DynoTechResearch in the Shootout at Woodgate this year.

This year SnowGoer is bringing a video crew to tape the Shootout, which will be televised on Fox Sports Network this winter. Also video clips will be seen on SnowGoer's website after the shootout.

Factory stock sleds will be 600 class and 800 class sleds.  Perhaps since Polaris won't have their new 800 delivered by 12/1  the SnowGoer guys Tim Erikson and John Prusack will have the currently available Dragon 700 to represent the 800 class?

SnowGoer has elected to delete the "Lakeracer" class we ran last year--race gas is no longer allowed. All aftermarket "Trail Mod" sleds will have their tanks pumped out and replaced with Old Forge 93 octane unleaded.

Any entrants dyno tested by DTR prior to Shootout can have HP numbers posted by SnowGoer.

All trail mod sleds will run DTR supplied pump gas, stock OEM suspensions, Uncut OEM tracks and standard trail carbides not sharpened. Sleds can be lowered a max of 2" from stock front and back.

Trail mod sleds will run1000ft.

Trail Mod sleds must be entered/ sponsored by an aftermarket company doing business increasing sled/ engine performance. $500/ sled any number of entries OK'd.

Aftermarket companies can opt to have results NOT posted by SnowGoer if problems arise, but $500 entry fee will be forfeited.

More to come as we approach December.

Tim Erickson called, will have some lake mod sleds at shootout.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

DynoTech : Month of November Schedule etcc

 10/29 10am I'm at home in my underwear trying to finish some dyno stuff to post here, phone rings, some fellow named Joe on his way back to CT from Tillbury, wonders if he can get a quick dyno test on a PS800 SkiDoo.  Then he asks me if my dyno is "as good as Freddy Klies'" that he tests there sometimes and now I'm on the spot..."well it's different, I'll meet you at the dyno in 30 min, if you don't like it you can drive away"...then he handed his cel phone to Chuch Hamara who just wanted to bust my chops. We had a good two sled session, these guys should have come here before Tillbury, or better yet before the grass season began. They will be back again.
11/1 Jake Jenkins w/ BMP ported F1000, BMP Ypipe BMP single that made 240 strange HP heare last time with stock cylinders. will begin at 10am w/ stock Ypipe stock single pipe, then D&D Ypipe D&D single pipe, then finally that strangely amazing single that made so much hp before. This would be perhaps the worst day of my dyno testing/ tuning career. I'm surmising that my dyno was for the first time in 20 years "happy" the day this same sled made 240 here but please read on...today Jake Jenkins arrived with the same sled and everything else that made 240 last time with stock cylinders, but this time with BMP ported cylinders, greedily hoping for more. Jake arrived with ported engine, and with BMP Ypipe and single pipe so instead of working our way "up" we were starting at the "top". But today HP would  prove to be very normal, very good in a normal sense. With ported cylinders Jakes sled made nearly 210 HP with broad flat HP curve we expect from this engine.  We jacked fuel up and down, nothing more was to be had. But 210 is geat HP from a single pipe F1000  but what happened to the 240  that caused all the furor? Now I've talked to another tuner who has tested this same BMP combo on track dyno with similar A to B results, but was their dyno data influenced by mine?
As all who follow my ongoing diatribe know I have been concerned with the bizarre  initial test results of BMP Erich's and  WNY Jake's  M1000/ Crossfire, same pipe similar gonzo HP. My DTR tuner pal PTM Stan called it the "G Spot pipe".
But I was so leery of the first BMP dyno session, I thought my dyno might be  goofed up, we yanked it off and the Dragon he brought for testing stock vs pipe mod was perfect (posted on subsriber's pages)! Then we put the strangely over HP'd M1000 back on the dyno and 240 again. That final test resulted in my posting on my site/ other websites of this strange very high HP that bewildered me, BMP, D&D, Kevin Cameron and many others. When Kevin Cameron told me he was bewildered I knew we might have an issue here.
So I've dynod a dozen sleds since the last over HP'd Crossfire. Everything has been dandy but I've had a couple of strange torque spikes in otherwise normal HP runs. These strange torque spikes have manifested themselves as unicorn-like spikes adding 30 hp in a 50 rpm increment then back to normal!
Jimmy Cooper was here recently with his PS1000 that he's added 5 lb of steel to his carb rack to rid himself of poor fuel flow issues. But occasionally his engine would spike from 260 to 300 and back to 265 in 100 revs. We blew that extra HP spike off as an anomaly, but I thought about the BMP M1000 single and it made my stomach turn. Next Jim and I dyno tuned a SkiDoo Mach Z twin piper to assess the value of Boyeson Rage reeds vs stock. Once again we had a spike where this 200 HP engine made 260 for a few hundred revs then back to normal. My armpits became even more wet thinking about the BMP M1000 issue. Computer guru Jim Cooper looked at the backside of my dyno control console and found the cooling fan  filter for the power supply plugged solid with 20 years of dyno dirt perhaps causing computer temp to soar.
A call to SuperFlow tech confirmed our findings--overheated power supply temps can cause strangely high spikes in torque readings!
Meanwhile Jim Cooper was blowing out the fan filter/ power supply with compressed air, resulting in a plume of dirt in the air of the control room.
The clean filter, and ostensibly cooler power supply resulted in smooth HP curves as we've had for 20 years, and the 200 HP Mach Z was once again 200 HP smooth as silk.
So after renewing cooling airflow to the power supply, everything was smooth and normal for the next few dyno sessions, and Jake's Crossfire 1000 was coming back again for BMP testing with ported cylinders.  And it appears to me now that somehow PROBABLY the original BMP  M1000 test and the subsequent BMP Crossfire test was skewed by SuperFlow power supply temps. So now Jake's 209-210 HP is what we might expect from an excellently trail ported F1000 with Ypipe/ aftermarket single pipe.
So I have deleted the dyno test results of the BMP M1000  single pipe tests from this website until further testing can be done.
This being the case, I apologize to BMP for what appears to be temporarily overstated and spiked dyno data that may have skewed your marketing efforts, and I apologize to D&D, Speedwerx and others whose business may have been affected by this apparent goofup. And anyone who has subscribed to DTR website can receive an immediate refund by emailing me and subscription will be cancelled. Mia F'ing Culpa.
 
 

11/2 Matt ProX800/ HTG 990 with twin pipes, dyno on my motor plate.water leak in mag cylinder, testing terminated
11/3 Jacobey's drag race beckons, no dyno today.This was all fun, no arguing just people lining up and whoever won a particular race got his hand shook or shaked.  Jacoby's RX1 turbo with the draw thru Mikuni HS45 ran like a rocket with no misfire, thanks to Joe DiSpirito-designed needle jet hood that Sage and I tested here.
11/5 SkiDoo 600 RS SnoX sled wow better than the average 600 twin
11/6 cancelled -11/7-11/8 more pro snoX race engine testing cams off. That's Sean Ray's head in the engine room cam just as he shut it off.
11/9 Friday more SnoX testing by  Sean Ray, Jeff Sherlock slid back a few days.
11/10 bad running Fusion 975 HTG , troubleshooting? low HP brought sled to HTG for troubleshooting Sat PM Sean back on dyno cams off.
11/12 Jeff Sherlock bringing 07 Stage 2 Ported F1000,07 Stage 1 Ported F1000 and 860 Stoker on NOS 04 F7 Trying for 300hp on this one trail mod Arctic Cats OK this turned into a mad 12 hour thrash..Bonestock F1000 w/ D&D Twins and Boondocker N2O quit at 250, then a "supposedly" stock (according to the owner) F1000 with Vforce reeds D&D twins made 219, Then Sherlock St 2 ported F1000 with D&D twins with low compression .010 off sealing surface, stock reeds made 218. So we had to yank the VForce3 reeds out of the stocker and install them in Sherlock's St 2, now made 223 HP with 152 lb/ft, now planning to bump compression to race gas spec...will be back...Finally that same F7/860 stroker with N2O that we broke the head off last time, now with BMP stronger billet head, tweaked up to 198 lb/ft torque 290  HP the orings blew out. No deto, no damage, no problem, will be back again with strength added to seal amazingly high small bore  BMEP.
11/13 Aaron Excell, Allen Ulmer testing n/a Nytro stuff, exhaust, timing, fuel etc...(Allen's flying from S Dakota this time using Aaron's sled) this one stock made more HP than Justin Fuller's posted here, wonder if Justin's is preproduction?
11/14am available
11/15am Greg Bennett trying an experimental single on his 300hp turbo pol twin. detonated on first run, I absolutely goofed watching BSFC instead of realtime graph, hp was dropping as engine deto'd but BSFC was in the OK zone...will be back  Noon Dave Peralta, MachZ CS pipes for dyno tuning. I think we Boondockered out a nasty spot just as valves open, causing a midrange bog on the trail last year, will wait to find out if the bog is gone..
11/15 3pm Deeder's HTG triple for fine tuning, came off the trailer with a measly 290hp, equalized fuel fow on all three carbs, rolled timing about wound up with 304 and broad top end HP curve, over 300 for several hundered revs--I told Deeder I can clutch it for him.
11/16 Mark Ervin and Tony Esposito w/ Tony's F9 for Boondockering and his Hooper 1400 lake racer for fun. 18 years ago Tony Esposito was the first guy to whip my butt with info he got from my DTR then-printed newsletter! Back then I began sending out printed dyno test results of various things to a few hundred technogeeks like Tony who desired independent dyno information from someone who didn't gaf. Back then if you look back in the DTR archives [so very important because everything we know today began with those early test sessions] I had great fun showing how factory's peak HP RPM was totally goofed up. They dyno tested for minutes, I dyno tested for ten seconds and the peak RPM HP was different. My method appeared better than theirs for the majority of sledders who ran WOT for less than a minute. I had no idea why they were so screwed up on where their sleds HP peak occured until. AC's Donn Eide smartened me up, explained about pipe temp/ speed of sound relationship But for sure in the field in 10 seconds the then new Wildcat 700 made max HP at 7500-7750 not 8500 as I think the owners manual suggested (where in 10 seconds it was down 50 hp). So my favorite pastime in 1990 was blasting around the frozen lakes with the buckboard-riding Phazer tuned to nearly 90 HP, but spot on at 10 seconds. I loved to hunt down big SkiDoo, polaris and Cat sleds who clutched according to the owner's manuals, overreving hopelessly in the real world to where a properly clutched Phazer with a lowly 90 hp would blow on by. I had DynoTech decals all over, hoping to attract new dyno customers/ subscribers, but most people were just bewildered and drove home.
Then one Saturday in Jan 1990 I was on 4th Lake in the Adirondacks with my 90 HP Phazer and I saw a Wildcat 700 out on a strip someone had plowed.  Now any butthole like me who would line up with a modern musclesled with an old fancooled Phazer would often be dismissed as being an annoying woodchuck--that was part of the fun. But this guy on the Wildcat 700 seemed anxious to line up and touch one off with me.
So I lined up with the Wildcat, someone waved us off and this  sled put , literally a "boxcar" on me in 1000ft. I had never been whipped up on so bad.
So  back to where it began this guy with the Wildcat 700 drove up to my decal'd sled, grinning like a Cheshire cat. This was  Tony Esposito, he laughingly told me he had received his DynoTech newsletter showing max HP at 7500, added a pile of weight or whatever to his clutches, and my normally triumphant 90 hp ass was his.
At first I was miffed, but then I realized that this was what I needed to do--help people who looked at my  dyno stuff to make their sleds run better.  The fact that Tony Esposito handed me my butt 18 years ago has surely helped me mold DTR into what it is now.
This will be an excellent reunion for me, after getting whupped by Tony's DTR tuned  120hp Wildcat in 1990 seeing his 1400 lakeracer make two or three times more than that, 18 years later.
Boondocker tuned Tony's HTG F9 to very good HP, then he tuned his Hooper 1400 to 300 plus at high revs, then installed Steve Cory's Hooper 1400 pipes and picked up 15 more HP at much lower revs.
11/17 Trevor Bovard and pals, with a couple of fast Firecats and maybe a HTG ProX 900 twin. Trevor had bad luck,  the Speedwerx  F7 twins were way too tight for his F8 trail mod.  Will be back again, next time with Fatazz single and a reasonably load of N2O.




11/18 Sunday noon Erich Bikeman Long, Pol Dragon 700 trailport w/ pipemod, also a Firecat mod of some sort. watch this on your webcams this will be more enjoyable than Ernest Angely on Sunday AM. Erich's ported Dragon was off the mark, mid 150's not near the expected 160 but pipe mod on the sled was suspect (too small stinger?), will revise and come back in December.
11/19 Chris Preston, new D&D F7/8 twin pipes, N2O.had an early Boondocker with not enough steps, couldnt tune it properly (too rich at 7300 too lean at 7700 then way too rich at 8000) will get Boondocker reprogrammed with more steps, then come back again PM Jake Jenkins F1000 mod with correct HP. cancelled
11/20 Don and Curtis Emery, trail mod 08 SkiDoo 800R. DNE ported cylinders only, stock head, stock exhaust, retarded breaking timing. compared to the stocker of Jim coopers this appeared to make 5% more airflow but  little more top end HP,  BSFC maxed at .70 meaning good stuff was not being packed back into cylinders by stock pipe, perhaps a pipe mod/ better single for mod cylinders will help. Jim Cooper came to add timing, maxed out adding 3 degrees with BRP computer program added 3 HP and 3 lb/ft but we maybe needed more, will be back after enough hours on CDI to rid itself of that awful breakin mode, and by then maybe w'll have aftermarket Ypipes/ singles to test with.
.
11/23 AM Randy Latona MZ1100 home-built, Boondocker tuning w/ CStwinpipes safe tuning with Boondocker = 196hp but a broad HP curve with nearly 140 lb/ft of torque. Light deto possibly due to substandard pump gas caused all to be righfully cautious, stay pat at .68.
PM Jeff Sherlock Boondocker tuning F1000 Boondocker turbo system, looking for big HP with Maximal gas. Will use the big driveshaft for this one. Glen Hall helped with initial setup, eased into the tuneup at 11 psi, with safe safe 11.5/1 A/F ratio made 333 HP over 200 lb/ft then bumping boost up to 13 psi got sputter that we fought for an hour until I asked them to check plug gaps (were stock then they closed them to a turbo-friendly .018) after gaps addressed the engine ran clean then began misfire indicating a popped reed (likely cause extended operation during misfire). Left the sled on the dyno, Tony "Charlie M" Koslowski and pals will be back Sat AM with new reeds. I'm expecting if ignition cooperates and fuel system is adequate we'll approach 400 CHP w/o the bottle Tony has strapped to the belly pan.
11/24 am available
11/25 F1000 single pipe/ Ypipe shootout with D&D, Speedwerx, BMP. Stock reeds first, then Vforce, then 2 deg key, then all three pipes with identical water temp, A/F ratio. Just finished deciphering details, try to post all data and graphs Tues PM or Wed POSTED WED PM
11/26 Ross Reynolds tuning an F7 and a big bore F8 Ross and his Dad Ross Sr had two good  single pipe BMP Firecats, both tuned quickly with Boondockers, 160plus and 170plus resectively, they came ready to test and both sleds done in 3 hours.
 11/27 AM Damien Andre, MZ twin pipes with N2O shooting for 300, will use the big shaft. AJ Andre, RX1 w/ CPR turbo will use the big shaft again Damien's MZ was off the mark baseline was down on HP from last year, Jim Cooper figures belt-dust-clogged reeds. Big Thunder N2O added 70ish HP no problem. AJs CPR turbo worked well, 270 hp at 12 psi I will post his numbers/ graphs compare low boost pump gas setting to good gas setting.
11/28 Justin Fuller FPP new Nytro turbo cancelled until Sat so I could finish the F1000 pipe shootout.
11/29 AM Glenn Hall with F1000 turbo maybe for Shootout? nope this for was another lakes madman named Jason who commissioned D&D and Glenn to build an F1200 BD turbo. Glenn needed a dyno tune, since he and D&D are good customers I asked BMP Jake to hold off until 10 or 11 am and we'd tune his three sleds. We're all dyno pals so that would work for Jake. Glen and his friend Jim came to the dyno with this F1200 stock looking but with an air filter sticking out the right side. This should have been a quick tuning session with easy and excellent Boondocker boost referenced fuel mgt. Started the session with Glenn's 120 octane import gas, tweaked our way up to 330 before we switched to a new 5 gal pail of new race gas bought by Jason, and trouble began...surging, loss of HP scared us enough to attach Sean Ray's copper tubing deto sensor to the F1200 cylinder head. Glenn Hall wore Sean's headset, and heard the clank of detonation as the dyno loaded the engine and frantically waved off the test run...but the prior runs' quiet undetected detonation had lifted the head and blown an Oring. After Glenn's waved off test I noticed steam coming from the exhaust. Jake and his crew went off to lunch, thrasher Glenn installed a new Oring, drained out the suspect gas and poured in three gallons of his own. Deto gone, all was quiet with the properly octaned turbo engine, tweaked Boondocker fuel/ boost to 375 HP where Chicken Jim suggested they stop so Jake could get going, now 3:00. Moral: don't assume the race gas you buy even in 5 gallon pails is good. Sean's copper tube deto sensor is the best invention for max HP things on our dyno. Today besides doing Bender/ Hentges Racing Polaris SnoX stock/ mod engine design/ dyno tuning/ clutching Sean operates dyno cels at Delphi and that deto sensor setup was derived from his dyno experience at Delphi.      Jake Jenkins BMP east, M1000 port/ single pipe, F7/F10 big bore, and that same ported Dragon tested before, this time with revised pipe mod and muffler. Cams may be off at least part of the time.
11/30 Jeff Sherlock with some big cat stuff. Sherlock Shootout sled, had issues with 1200 pipes on 1000 engine, will come back early Sat 12/1 with 1000 pipes before Justin gets there with his 3 sleds...can't do another midnight deal because divorce court will cost way more than a 15 hour dyno day... 
12/1 Justin Fuller FPP Stage 3 turbo Apex and two other turbo sleds. thankfully Justin called me 8am, cant make the session, thought I'd wig out on him but he was relieved that I was happy to have a soft day--Jim Cooper  who helps me often tuning SkiDoos here, jockying maps/ timing with his doo laptop, was desperate for a MZ1000 twin pipe boondocker tune for a customer of his before the Shootout...Justin's cancellation offered Jim that opportunity. So Sat PM Jim shows up with a Mach bone stock with newest CS twins and BMP 44cc domes, boondockered fuel to 192-197CHP, took  an hour to do that, then Jim noticed the dyno readout showed only 30 psi fuel pressure!! So we left it on the table, Jim's coming back tomorrow am with a new fuel pump then we'll have to retune the boondocker again. All MZers should check fuel pressure since that makes two low pressure MZs in one week (Damien Andre's MZ had only 40 psi on Tuesday compared to the same sled 55 psi a year ago!! Good thing Damien came to blow a pile of N2O on his sled or he would never have noticed his fuel pressure going away. Either bad fuel pump getting worse or a bypass valve spring getting lazy--either option = certain death.    

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, October 12, 2007

DynoTech : BMP M1000 single pipe field testing by Dakota Performance

IN RETROSPECT THERE IS SOMETHING AMISS HERE SINCE I'VE DISCOVERED THE GLITCH IN MY DYNO NUMBERS...HERE'S MY POST BEFORE I FIGURED IT OUT... Just got another call from Jeff at Dakota Performance. Last week he track dyno tested his stock M1000 with new BMP single and ypipe, said he made 32 track HP more than same sled with Speedwerx Y and single. That equates to 40-50 HP at the engine. He was amazed as I was at bizarre HP.

Jeff had taken the clutches off of his turbo M1000 with four 82 gram weights, and the stock M1000 w/ BMP pipe pulled the weight on the dyno, then in the field accelerated like the turbo sled from a dead stop. But from a steady 40 mph cruise, valves closed, whacking the throttle resulted in poor response. So today he locked the ex valves open, tweaked his fuel controller to compensate and now his M1000 is a rocket on-off throttle like his turbo sled.

I still don't get it.



Next wednesday HTG is coming to DTR with a lakeracer F1000 with a single pipe from BMP made with same dimensions as the single on the M1000. wrong, F7 chassis w/ F1000 engine, BMP pipe is same style used on M1000, but with outlet pipe rewelded to fit F7 chassis, cancelled test wed, reschedule for Fri or Sat.

After discovering the false high torque glitch in my prior testing, I'm bewildered by Dakota's track dyno test that showed similar results.

Carl McQuillen Racing Engines in LeRoy, NY has remanufactured two circa 1906 Curtiss OXX6 V8 airplane engines which are scheduled on 9/13/08 to lift off Keuka Lake in Hammondsport, N.Y. in a replicated Curtiss America 1913 seaplane. www.seaplanehomecoming.org is where you can see this amazing thing. Carl is an aviation aficionado and somehow the Curtiss Museum found him and his capabilities. They had two right hand rotation surplus OXX6 V8 engines that needed to be rebuilt, with one converted to left hand rotation to drive the other propeller. Instead of simply rebuilding, Carl redesigned the nearly century old engine with some modern technology (pistons, camshafts, valves, magnetos, etc) and instead of 90 HP as dyno tested in 1906 (and in 2006 on Carl's dyno) the rejuvinated OXX6 engines now make 140 HP, both right and left hand rotation! It was delightful to watch this project unfold, using modern-looking but century-old cast aluminum engine blocks and billet crankshafts machined in 1906 on manual lathes driven by flapping leather belts.

22 years ago, then young Carl McQuillen accompanied me to SuperFlow headquarters in CO Springs to help me assess this new computerized dyno testing equipment I saw in some Hot Rod magazine. Carl was just then beginning his engine building business, had his own dyno, and did performance stuff for street/ strip dragracers. He convinced me it was wise to borrow $50,000 for this then-new dynamometer technology "if I wanted to do it right" so I could spend another $50,000 adapting it, and creating this test cell to dyno test snowmobile and motorcycle engines. As young people are apt to type, online, "WTF?". But here we are.

Carl was helpful to me while I created this fixture/ facility for testing and tuning. When I began testing things an learning, Carl was one of many who helped me understand what was happening that had bewildered me. If you look back in the DTR archives--Volume 1 #4 Carl McQuillen explained for us, Align Justifyin understandable terms, why the "Extrudehoned" 650 Wildcat engine failed to make added HP even though airflow CFM was marginally higher.

Since then Carl McQuillen Racing Engines has invested in millions of bucks worth of equipment including CNC machining and EDM equipment, several new fully instrumented dyno cels, and is capable of creating intricate, useful things out of huge hunks of metal. This OXX6 engine project is a great example of that capability. Tomorrow will be a good day, watching the America Seaplane lift off from Keuka Lake in Hammondsport, N.Y. and fly through the air. I'll be watching with Carl, and my armpits will surely be drier than his.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, October 01, 2007

DynoTech : Dyno schedule month of Oct 07 and other drivel

Sept 28-Oct 1 pro racer dyno testing dyno cams off.
Oct 2 Jim sitting at dyno console punching in data for Full Power stage 4 RX1 and stock Nytro to be posted on DTR website 10/2.got the Nytro done, maybe stage 4 RX1 by Friday...
Oct 3 Justin Full Power taking another crack at 300 plus with Apex stage 3. Justin was hurting for fuel flow last session on Apex St3 turbo, back again this time his st3 Apex easily provided enough fuel for 350 plus hp, but was limited to slightly less due to turbo sizing/ camshaft timing.
Oct 4, aftermarket company experimental testing, dynocams off. Another 1000 Cat stocker from BMP, this one Jake Jenkins' new Crossfire w/ reeds, head, key, single pipe/ Ypipe made 240 plus on Jim Cooper's race gas. Still trying to figure this situation, waiting for field testing this week. Jim Cooper was next one more time with his troublesome PS1000 SkiDoo. This time his lectron carbs were tied together with 5 lb of steel brackets. Now fuel flow appears perfect, 140 lb/hr smooth top end fuel to support Jim's 275 CHP. Maybe he can make it down the track next weekend.
Oct 8 two F7 trail mods for Boondocker tuning record 85 degree made winter tuning less than optimal, cancelled until 10/11 cooler weather...
Oct 9 Sherlock ported Mach Z, Boondocker tuning for trail/ lakeracing, testing latest Boyeson reeds.
Will try to post results next week.

Oct 11 George Pointer solo Boondocker tuning firecat trail mod. F7 big bore cat piston F8, Fatazz pipe D&DYpipe, stock cut head, made 170 plus with 1000 ft boondocker setting, 165 plus with upnord boondocker setting at close to .70 chicken safe.

Oct 13 more pro racer dyno testing, cams off.

Oct 14-15 Sean Ray dyno testing new PS1000 Pol twin for Tim and Brian Tyler, engine on dyno motor plate, not sure if dynocams on or off.

Oct 16-19 more pro racer dyno testing cams still off. These greedy tuners want all the HP for all their sleds. Seemingly identical hand-ground mod engines/ sets of pipes all need to be dyno tested/ tuned. Guessing does not cut it anymore.
 
Oct 20 Sat AM? HTG Rob cant make it with F1000 lakeracer engine in Firecat chassis, Chris Squires/ Jake Jenkins plan to tune this engine with D&D Ypipe and single, Boondocker to get F7 wiring/ ignition to work with lakeracer F1000 w/ big injectors. Then Sun AM or Mon AM test prototype BMP Gspot (named by PTM) single/ BMP ypipe after HTG Rob gets here. Chris and Jake still struggling to get firecat ignition to be happy on F1000 engine. Maybe Monday? Nope I went for a fall motorcycle ride, probably the last 80 degree day of the season, so put the dyno session off until Thursday/Friday--still had issues with the electronics--ex valves refused to open. Tried Supereme Tool electronic valve fooler, locked valves open and the ECU didnt seem happy with that. Possibly the F7 stator/ F1000 flywheel combo was a mismatch? Struggled for 5-6 hours thursday then pulled the sled off to be rectified at home. Chris and Jake will use degree wheel to compare spark timing on F7 to what we have on this hermaphrodite, get initial spark timing correct, make sure valves open on the jackstand, then come back again for another attempt.

Oct xx Justin Full Power back again with st3 Apex turbo, last session has a missing temp sensor that may have retarded timing, looking for 400 this time.

Oct 23 Pete Nixon with ported MachZ and 4-injector Boondocker N2O system looking for 300 plus.
Boondocker system had issues with connectors etc, but when we got things working we made 240 plus but fuel pressure had dropped to 29 psi and we had to quit. This means fuel pump is defective, since we've seen here 240-300 hp on MachZ juiced engines with nearly full fuel pressure, injectors wide open. Jimmy Cooper was here to help tune (with his BRP computer absolutely a must for max HPing any late model SkiDoo)....Doo dealer Jim will have a new fuel pump installed this week, if we get done with the F1000 BMP pipe deal thursday, we will retest this BD N2O system for Pete on Fri AM.  If the  N2O hoses/ nozzles have the capacity, 350 is surely within reach. Watch the DynoCams Friday. Cant make it Friday, will try again in a week or so.
Oct 27 Sat Tom Mango and pals with three trail mod sleds for dyno tuning.Two Toms make it easy to remember names at the dyno, Mango and Leonard one ZR900 carb trail mod, one stock F7 with BMP pipe mod. Incredible HP on both, this F7 was one of maybe two that made 152 plus w/ BMP pipe mod, key and a touch of fuel pressure drop. Tom M's ZR900 was a very nice conglomeration of stuff that made 180 HP on pump gas. I must post the details inside.

.
Oct 29 11 am Chuck Hammara and pals stopping in from Shootout with a PS800 SkiDoo dragsled, quick dyno squirt.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, September 09, 2007

DynoTech : Kevin Cameron's new book TDC

 

Kevin Cameron (KC as he signs his correspondence) has written an excellent book about some of his past motorsports related experiences—a thoughtful compilation of Cycle and Cycle World TDC and other articles, plus past and current technical and social narrative.  I received my copy from Amazon.com (also available signed from CycleWorld.com) last week and enjoyed finishing it in two nights. The last time I read that lengthy a book in two nights was when, at the age of 12, I discovered a paperback copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover in my older sister’s stuff in the attic. TDC was equally absorbing, but in a way even more enjoyable for a 58 year old with two-stroke oil sludge under his fingernails.

We DynoTechies are fortunate to have had Kevin Cameron as a friend, advisor and contributing editor for more than 15 years. In the DTR archives there are maybe 30-some TCD (The Cellar Dweller) articles that dealt with then-current issues, to help us understand the mysteries we encountered. Many archived TCD articles on our web pages are part of our current understanding of things relating to two-stroke performance. But it’s still good fun to go through them once a year for refreshment and enjoyment. New difficult-to-comprehend issues continue to arise, and KC continues to help us. When he doesn’t have an exact answer, he tries to find that answer from someplace or from someone who does. All performance snowmobilers are fortunate that KC has chosen two-stroke engines/ design/ racing to be one of his favorite fields of ongoing study, instead of Tournament Bridge.

But how was KC’s built-in encyclopedia of two-stroke ideas and theories created? And who were and are the people in his life that have helped add chapters/volumes to his encyclopedia, and even today provide ongoing sources of answers and information when we bug him for that?

Kevin Cameron is a modest person, and rarely discusses his own past—he seems to be more interested in the backgrounds of people he’s with at the time. But in TDC we get to see rare glimpses of KC as a young man in his home cellar workshop, rebuilding from the ground up perfectly O.K. new factory two-stroke racebikes, hopefully to make them better. We get to understand his relationships with people like Erv Kanemoto who did amazing things out of tiny garages to make racebikes racier and engines more powerful. And there are more, equally interesting relationships with volunteer teammates, unknown and well known motorcycle racers, many of whom began their event travels as privateers with Kevin in rusty vans with malfunctioning heating systems, and a very few of whom would ultimately wind up in million dollar Prevost motor coaches. A lot of that, and lots more technical information is in his book TDC. And very few can tell those stories like Kevin Cameron can.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, August 31, 2007

DynoTech : Dyno Schedule for September

9/1 Sat HTG ported F7 carb we've posted on dyno pages since stock, tweaked from 120 to 150 plus so far with single pipe, now trying some new single pipes and D&D twins. D&D F8 twins with can silencer added broad top end hp curve, about 160 for 400 revs on top. Greedy Tony will next add vforce3 reeds and ported carb boots.
9/2 Sun AM HTG 975 06 Fusion hooked up to dyno now, will cal Boondocker Sun but bewildered by high fuel pressure (120psi), if anyone knows if this is normal or not please email or call me. Yup 118psi is 06 fuel pressure setting! My five year old gates EFI fuel lines that redirect sled fuel into dyno fuel flowmeters and back were struggling with this record setting fuel pressure--the old hoses looked more like lawn sprinklers straining against nearly triple the fuel pressure they're accustomed to. About an hour was spent repairing leaks, reclamping fittings etc (on my time). This 06 Fusion was much easier to dyno tune than all the 05's that have come before it. The automotive fuel line connectors on the sled are now totally accessible instead of being buried on 05s, this 06 engine seemed much smoother, and the deto protection never once caused problems [most 05s couldn't be tested here below ex valve opening, since apparently some vibration triggered the knock sensor at low revs]. On this 06 we could do transient tests from 5000 to beyond HP peak with perfect repeatability. Even with non-HTG aftermarket single this engine made close to 180hp at high .60s. HTG Rob says that 175plus should be typical even with HTG Ypipe, stock OEM single pipe and muffler. This 06 Fusion seems to be a totally different, better thing than the dozen or so 05s that have come here before it. This fellow has purschased the sled new at typical Fusion get-it-off-the-floorplan price, added the HTG big bore kit, Boondocker and has a bargain sleeper hotrod.      
9/4 Tuesday Full Power Perf stage 3 Apex turbo tuning for 400 hp (will have new larger dampened driveshaft by then). PM 2008 Yamaha Nitro for baseline testing/ airflow etc prior to Justin finalizing turbo system.cancelled
9/5-9/6 more pro race sled engine testing w/ cameras off.
9/7-9/8 Sean Ray finalizing SkiDoo PS1000 twin for Tim and Brian Tyler.cancelled
9/7 Jess Pych dyno tune D&D F7 Imp Stocker  This one was built by D&D, has the high rpm race pipes exiting on both sides of the sled, made incredible HP at 9000++rpm. Like other firecats, this one required different Boondocker settings to achieve max HP than another sled exactly like this campaigned by D&D. 

week of  9/10 getting ready for Woody's monster scheduled below for 9/17.  New  1.75" OD rubber dampened driveshaft made out of new Jeep front end driveshaft tubing/ spline and custom sled connector with 8-hole lord neoprene connector centered and aligned by a $250 helicopter spherical
bearing (all parts to connect this stuff are made on a lathe and mill, not ordered from any catalog). Also that 120psi 06 Fusion fuel pressure was an eye opener--Ive long ago converted the SF901 oil pressure channel to monitor fuel pressure to deal properly with EFI sleds and bikes. however, the blue SF901 dyno control console (seen on the homepage with Sean Ray at the controls) contains switching devices, computer boards, rheostats, transducers, gauges, ventilation fans, and many other mysterious  tiny things that create lots of  heat from electricity. Unfortunately  the pressure gauge and transducer inside the console that used to measure oil pressure now measure fuel pressure. I suspect that the 1/4" plastic tubing from engine stand to console is filled mostly with air that compresses as oil (and now  gasoline) pressurizes the system during operation. However if there should be a leak in the pressure measuring transducer, the bourdon tube inside the analog gauge, or any of the tubing/ fittings connecting the two,  high pressure (up to 120psi) gasoline could be sprayed inside the hot control console with catastrophic results...and that ventilation opening beneath the console, in front of the operator's testicles makes me cringe when I think about the fireball that might be created by a 120psi fuel leak!
So I've acquired a fuel pressure isolator from McQuillen Racing, which is basically a small cylinder with an oringed piston that contains fuel under pressure. On the opposite side of the piston is a 50/50 mix of h2o and ethylene glycol that will transfer the pressure into the console to the gauge/ transducer. Now, should a leak occur inside the console or control room, a few ounces of coolant will harmlessly be lost before the small isolator cylinder bottoms out, and pressure reading drops to zero. I plan to install this safety device on Monday/ Tuesday before Woody comes with methanol to pressurize my control console with. Methanol flames are invisible, and even scarier to think about. Isolator installed, finished Wednesday lots of work bleeding air out of  system, now only  antifreeze in line to console. Also finished machining/ pressing together new 1.75" rubber shaft, will have welded  friday in time for woody to test on monday...
9/13 Thurs AM ShiDoo Rev600 trail port w/ CS twin pipes & head.Raceport improved stocker w/ 18-1 RKT head, "race" ECU w/ rev limiter removed, maxed out at 140 8800 rpm with jetting fresh C16 needed for compression, no way to roll timing need Jim Cooper to come with laptop to try retarding/ advancing timing, should be 150 plus in this engine maybe would be happier with closer to 16-1. Needs another session with lower compression/ jim Cooper to roll timing to max HP.
Thurs PM.Sunnyside Eric/ Cody Johncox finalizing dyno tune on Jason DiSalvo's Yam 450 flattrack bike on Cycledyne. This one had awful carb calibration, tuned it with  needles/ main jets from 46 to 53 plus DJHP (DynoJetHorsepower which is a happy correction factor designed to match the numbers from a DynoJet roller dyno. More importantly picked up over 20 DJHP in midrange by optimizing A/F ratio. Cody won the last race with the bad calibration, will be fun to see how he fares with the engine dialed in properly.

9/17 Woody's Performance big bore stroker Apex dragsled, Supercharged/ Alcohol. this was the first sled weve had here EFI "stand alone" controller for fuel and spark. This was Autotronics system from Australia, installed on Woody's Stage3 MPI centrifugal SC big bore stroker Apex drag sled. Woody hired Enzo to do Methanol mapping at the dyno, but we spent most of our time hunting for missing cylinders, finally traced down to coils being wired out of sequence. After mapping midrange fuel/ spark (easy to do on the dyno), several full throttle runs finally produced 426hp before popping an oring out of cyl #4. I dont think this was deto related, but poor machining of oring grooves in head (cut too large). I will try to post dyno sheets/ more technical info on this interesting setup.

9/19 Steve Bennett from West Virginia and I think his ex-brother in law Boondocker tuning a Mach Z twin / CS pipes, asphalt racers. Steve's pal WVa Jimmy Walker asphalt races a bone stock MZ with Bikeman chambers and CS twin pipes, Boondocker.  Came to dyno with  Billy Howard's  (Jimmy's skidoo dealer) Boondocker map, made 195 at .63.  Jimmy Cooper  dropped in the mid-altitude map into  the ECU,  went to  200 at  .58. Then Jim Cooper bumped timing back and forth with laptop, perfect timing dropped midrange a bit but added peak and broadened HP curve out.

9/20 Bikeman Erich, full day or more F8 trailport/ M1000,  Pol 700 EFI, all for independent verification. Cams may be off, not sure until 9/20. Bikeman trailport F8/ vforce/ D&D Ypipe/ stamped single tuned on local 93 octane, dandily made 178hp/ 119 lb/ft.  The M1000 was impossible to believe. Stock M1000 cyls w/ Vforce reeds, BMP 12.5-1 head, BMP Ypipe, BMP stamped SINGLE pipe, made 240 HP at .50  lb/hphr at 7500!!!  Checked all dyno calibrations, which were spot-on. But I still thought something might be wrong with the dyno--how could a head/ reeds/ single pipe add 70hp to a stock engine? So we pulled the M1000 off the table, and brought in Erich's bone stock Polaris Dragon 700 EFI that he wanted to try a pipe mod on. Amazingly as we should have expected the dyno was perfect, 138hp stock  (and the pipe mod worked dandy). So at 8 pm we put the M1000 back on the dyno. We called Dead 1 Dave Craiglow (good friends with HTG, D&D) to come see this, bring his CDI to compare, and to help "tech" the engine. 240 again, then added a pile of Boondocker numbers, "dropped" HP to about 230 at .60. Dave examined the engine ports, measured stroke. No N2O lines anywhere. I will post full dyno results on all three sleds.
9/21 Tripod Dan doing another dyno tune on his HTG Storm 1000impst cancelled

9/22 Going to Old Forge to meet w/ Geo Taylor and Old Forge dealers to make Shootout plans.

9/23 Maybe going to Holley NY to observe grass drags.

9/26 Tripod Dan 1000IS, water in mag cylinder.

9/27 Full Power Justin w/ two Apex Stage 3 turbos, Nitro stocker for baseline before turbo.

email from subscriber 9/19
jim:
 
i have had the opportunity to view some of your dyno runs online and was wondering if you might be able to define the following abbreviations:
 
-LAMAF1 [air/fuel ratio determined by lm1 wideband o2 sensor]
-A/AF-B [mechanical A/F ratio, using two fuel flowmeters--for bypass EFI  quicker reacting than lm1]
-Air 1+2 airflow CFM through engine
-FulA-B fuel flow lb/hr, two turbines used for efi systems with return systems
-Fuel B turbine A - turbine B for EFI sleds with no return
-BSFC B brake specific fuel consumption lb of fuel per horsepower per hour
-ManPrs boost inches of mercury, 2in hg = 1 psi
-VolEff how many CFM compared with cubic ft displacement of engine x RPM
-Time-S duration of test
-TsTim2 duration of test
 
lots of detailed info on dyno terminology is in archives-it's useful to spend time looking at those. Thanks for your interest, too many are happy just to see HP and that's it. Jim C
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, August 03, 2007

DynoTech : Lightest possible sled weight vs max possible HP

Rich Daly (owner of DynoPort/ Bender Racing) brought his notoriously quick Pro Stock 1000 SkiDoo triple for a tuneup here.  Besides being a savvy pipe designer and thrashaholic, Rich has spent a great deal of creativity including time and $ building as light an asphalt sled as possible. The greatest possible HP and the lightest possible weight = best potential for low ETs and high MPH.  Rich was interested in maximizing his HP here, possibly assessing differences in pipe center section temps vs peak HP RPM.

He brought just the engine to be tested on my dyno engine plate. The plate is about a square foot of 3/8" thick aluminum, swiss-cheese drilled  to accommodate the dozens of different crankcase engine mount bolt patterns encountered over the years.  The plate is supported by six cylindrical stanchions, each of which bolt solidly to the steel table. Six stock early Yamaha Phazer rubber motor mounts connect the plate to the six stanchions and allow for ample movement and absorption of engine vibration.  The rubber mounted engine plate combined with the rubber-dampened drive shaft between crank and dyno brake  provide  a safe, smooth running environment for even the nastiest big twin or stroker multis.

But this pleasant rubber dampened operating environment is probably foreign to a vibrating triple stroker like Rich has! The engine is normally solid mounted into his ultra-light drag chassis, which probably provides a certain amount of flex and vibration absorption itself, but every chassis is a bit different. That's why I prefer dyno testing engines exactly as they are to be used--mounted either solidly or in rubber of various stiffness. That way if the carbs are unhappy with a particular frequency of vibration they are subjected to in the sled, fuel flow problems show up immediately. The dyno fuel flowmeters show dramatically how the carbs can shut off, run dry then surge back again as revs climb. We've often cured those problems with larger needle and seats, higher fuel pressure, adding weight to the carbs, softer carb boots, or better yet softer motor mounts that some racers dislike. But soft mounts (if that's what it takes) are way better than carbs whose float bowl levels rise and fall like Maine ocean tides, and fuel that gets aerated into the consistency of a vanilla milkshake. In that situation, you get at worst shutoff before the finish line and unexplainable seizures, or at best extreme difficulty maintaining maximum horsepower jetting.

That's why I suggested to Rich that he bring the whole sled, but he indicated that the chassis was out somewhere being lightened(!). So we bolted his stroker triple to my normally forgiving dyno engine plate.

While we were setting up the engine Rich explained his engine's unorthodox cooling system--bare combustion chamber domes with no covers, bolted to cylinders that are filled with stagnant water which is cooled between rounds. That saves the weight of a water pump, cylinder head covers, and the coolant that normally surrounds the combustion chamber domes. Plus no need for heavy radiators or heat exchangers. But this seemed like a step backwards--"free air" cylinder heads with no fins? And what about combustion chamber heat being allowed to climb with no coolant? I know from too many first hand experiences that boiling water above the combustion chamber creates steam pockets which = instant detonation. But pressurized steam is hot, fairly dense stuff, and surely must not be as bad as still air around  Rich's smooth bare combustion chamber domes!?

Rich also expressed his admiration for the CrankShop pipe stampings he was using, explaining that the shape and body length was ideal, giving him a broad HP curve, and giving credit to Larry Audette. Why recreate the wheel? Sure he could have copied them out of cones or had his own stampings made, but it's refreshing to see that there can be honor among the few who create good things like this. That's one of the reasons why Rich has so many pals.

He also was using huge (52mm I think) Crankshop carbs and a stock ignition which on his dyno made max HP at stock timing setting. So no need to mess with timing, just max out HP with fuel flow and assess its effect on pipe temp and subsequent HP peak RPM.

Initial dyno runs were shortened by poor fuel flow, allowing the middle carb to run lean and allow that cylinder to drop. We fitted a dyno pressure transducer to the carb fuel lines, and found that the stock SkiDoo fuel pump was defective, delivering only the pound and a half fed to it by the dyno fuel system. So Rich had a spare, hooked that up and 4 psi of fuel pressure made the engine happy.  But even though fuel flow was fairly constant it remained very low at about 100 lb/hr, way too low for the 250 hp we were making at the time.

So thinking that even with the rubber mounted engine plate carb vibration might be the culprit, we decided to add some mass to the already fairly hefty CS carbs. Rich tiewrapped/ duct taped my five pound two and a half ft long nickel plated pinchbar to the three carbs. Instantly we picked up 30 lb/hr constant fuel flow from 8500 to 10,000RPM! We also picked up 15HP.  Now Rich was able to begin jetting down. Even though BSFC was still high, without measuring airflow to get us an accurate A/F ratio reading we must lean out cautiously since wildly ported engines can have excessive short-circuiting of mixture, creating high BSFC at max power. Plus we had the added variable of the hot aircooled domes instead of cold liquid cooled domes.

So Rich checked plugs, jetted down a few sizes and me made 150 lb/ft and 270 plus HP with a broad powerband from 9000-9800 RPM.

Now looking for max max HP, Rich removed the air cooled combustion chambers to have a real good look at the piston domes. Nearly a one-half inch wide "wash" band was there, like you might see on a safely tuned trail engine. "Wash" in this case was the shiny residue from oil that remained on the cool piston surfaces (oil is an excellent temp indicator).

Rather than jet down some more, Rich left the carbs safely fat and installed a set of stinger restrictors to increase backpressure.

Thinking we were safely fueled, the next dyno run with tighter stingers rewarded us with misfire at 9000. Subsequent investigation revealed a DTR first--broken mag and center cylinder spark plug insulators on the top side! Fortunately, the insulators were not damaged inside the combustion chambers which could have dropped ceramic chips into the cylinders.

Could the bare combustion chamber domes, unsupported by sturdy head coolant covers, have deflected enough under the hammering of deto to break the plugs? Estimating the plug outside mass at 2 oz, and figuring it must take 30 pounds of force to snap the insulators, that equates to 240 Gs if that's what caused the plugs to break!

So stepping back, we removed the stingers, jetted down  10 lb/hr and  the HP stayed constant. We had maxed out on Rich's race gas, with what the dyno showed as trail-safe BSFC.

Back to weight vs HP; I'm surmising that after helping dyno tune maybe a thousand  full mod engines like this,  if it had good cold water coolant around the combustion chambers we could make more power with less fuel!  Here, with Rich's "free-air" finless chambers,  extra vaporizing fuel is needed to keep chamber temps low enough to stave off deto. That extra fuel makes no HP, just cools the compressed charge and takes up space in the combustion chamber.

So I'm guessing that if Rich added coolant to his chambers, that is cold coolant, he would make maybe 8 more HP with .10 or .15 lb/hphr lower BSFC. That might mean adding 25 lb of pump, coolant, heat exchangers etc. After Rich does the math, I'm betting that those odd bare chambers will remain. Plus now he has $5 [spark plug] deto sensors on each cylinder, so he can "jet" accordingly.











Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

DynoTech : DynoJet RWHP is too optimistic

When I bought my SuperFlow Cycledyn eddy current roller bike dyno about 10 years ago, they told me to expect lower HP numbers than what I was used to on my DynoJet roller that I had just sold to a friend. SuperFlow technician Brent Williamson told me that DynoJet overestimated the mass value of their drum, leading to overstated HP. That can be easily proven by dyno testing a bike, steady state using the SuperFlow eddy current absorber and strain gauge to read torque/HP in steps, which takes the inertia on the roller and absorber out of the picture. Since a steady-state step test and acceleration only test on the SuperFlow roller dyno match so closely, we have to assume their argument is accurate.

But my argument to Brett was [at that time] there were probably 10,000 DynoJet dynos and one Superflow Cycledyne (mine would be number three). So whatever numbers DynoJet has been offering tuners and magazines are unfortunately "the standard". So I had to spend the first few years dyno tuning bikes on the Cycledyn, trying to explain why my HP numbers were "lower" than what they made on so and so's DynoJet roller dyno. The last software upgrade I got from SuperFlow a few years ago now has a "happier" "DJHP" channel so our dyno sheets can show whatever  the bike owner wants. The DJHP number is about 10% higher than Superflow's SAEHP. Good move. Sean Ray used  the new HP channel to make 138 DJHP while tuning boost and EFI fuel here on his Garrett turbocharged but otherwise stock 88 CI Softail Custom. A few weeks ago, he took it to a DynoJet dyno shootout at Stan's H-D here in Batavia and made 138 there, as well (plus runs low 11's and 120+).

Now with Justin Fuller coming to dyno his R1 turbo on my 901 shaft dyno we have more good data to compare HP at various locations on the bike. When he used my Cycledyne a few weeks ago, he made 200DJHP (182 SAEHP, SuperFlow's wheel number on the same run) at 5.5psi boost and 12.5/1 A/F ratio. And it made 195 DJHP (177 SAEHP) at a more conservative 11.5/1.

Yesterday, with my 901 engine dyno connected directly to the R1 transmission output shaft, with the same boost setting and  fuel very slightly richer (10.7/1) the bike made 189 SAE HP. That is exactly accurate, strictly torque vs RPM plus exact correction for baro, temp and humidity-- no fudging for tire slip/ drum mass estimation.

That 189 actual output shaft SAEHP, according to out two SuperFlow dynos, is reduced by 6% from chain loss and tire friction to 177 SAEHP at the rear wheel (tire). That makes sense. But there's no way the HP increases from 189 SAE HP at the output shaft sprocket to 195 at the tire (DJHP). 

So when Justin turned up the boost on his R1 to 9psi, his output shaft true SAEHP was 230, which would equal rear wheel 216 SAE HP (SuperFlow) or 239 DJHP.

I'm hoping this isn't too confusing, and is just meant to be informative. Mark Dobeck's invention and subsequent proliferation of the DynoJet roller dyno is surely worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. 20 years ago, BDJ (Before DynoJet), there were few options for motorcycle performance people to get meaningful dyno numbers. Jerry Branch had (and still has) a SuperFlow engine dyno that connects to the rear axle of the bike. There was another one in CA that Cycle Magazine used to use that had an eddy current absorber, but not much instrumentation. Then there was my place in WNY. I was lucky to have racers like Colin Edwards' have their bikes tested/ tuned here with Kevin Cameron as consultant. Colin's team would travel here from Colorado with truckloads of TZ250's and related stuff to obtain the meaningful information they needed.

But now every bike performance aficionado surely has a DynoJet or SuperFlow (or other brand like Huff or Land and Sea) roller dyno within 30 miles to test and tune with, thanks to Mark Dobeck's vision.

Regardless of pure accuracy, any dyno can be a useful tool, if it's repeatable and you make HP progress going from A to B (or Z). Most magazines use DynoJet rear wheel numbers to publish stock bike's performance, so there's nothing wrong with comparing modded bikes with different but stock bikes on the same brand of dyno.

Just be aware that every HP is not necessarily created equally.

 

 

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

DynoTech : Just got boned buying 93 oct for an R1 turbo bike

Justin Fuller came yesterday with his R1 bike turbo kit prototype to do additional dyno tuning, and compare a different Garrett ball bearing turbo design with hopefully a bit less turbine inlet backpressure.

He had been here a few weeks ago using my rear wheel roller dyno for preliminary tuning, on 93 octane we made 195 DJWHP (DynoJetWheelHP) at 11,500 at 5.5psi boost and 11.5/1 A/F ratio. Leaning down to 12.5/1 added 5 HP to 200 DJWHP even, the number Justin was shooting for for pump gas advertising purposes. Some time during extensive road testing, Justin experienced some plug speckling (detonation) at high speed, top gear after over three miles at WOT(!!!), maybe 180mph plus?

I suggested to Justin that NA engines converted to turbochargers on pump gas are best used for acceleration in short bursts, and anyone who wants to do bonneville-style top end blasts should spend $20 for better gas to protect their $5000 engines. But Justin being a perfectionist was interested in seeing what we could get away with by switching to a Garrett ball bearing turbo with less backpressure. So he sceduled additional dyno time for yesterday.

This time we took the extra effort to dyno the R1turbo on my SF901 dyno. This required creating a custom shaft adaptor out of the R1 output shaft (please don't call it a "countershaft") sprocket. Measuring the torque and HP at the output shaft is perfectly accurate; the computerized absorber servo controls engine speed, and eliminates some guessing that accompanies drum acceleration due to mass value estimation and tire slip. With shaft connection, the dyno measures exact output shaft information, then computes engine RPM via the primary and transmission gear ratio. Also my 901 is more completely instrumented than my Cycledyn roller (that will change shortly). With the 901 engine dyno Justin could monitor fuel pressure, boost, exhaust backpressure, and get actual mechanical measurement of fuel flow with one meter measuring fuel from pump to rail, then another meter subtracting the fuel that gets bypassed back to tank. A fuel line nightmare, but very effective. The 4" air turbine measures CFM, and converts that airflow to pounds of air per hour, and A/F ratio.

Justin brought the bike just as it ran on the Cycledyn at 195djhp with 11.5/1 A/F ratio to obtain a new baseline measuring, without any loss from chain and tire. He wanted fresh pump gas to test with and I sent him around the corner to a gas station that usually sells you 93 when you try to buy it. Being a single hose multi-grade pump, the first of the three gallons of 93 that Justin bought was pumped into his truck, the next two were saved for testing (there surely is a quart or two of 87 in the mixing chamber/ pump/ hose that hits your vehicle before the good stuff gets there. Whenever you see a motorcyclist cruising around slowly looking at gas pumps before he stops at one to fill up, he's surely trying to find a pump that just delivered high test, meaning he's more likely to get 100% of whatever is in the "high octane" tank in the ground.

With two gallons of his newly bought gas and the engine well warmed up it peaked at 171 SAE HP at the output shaft peaking at only 10,300 RPM then dropping like a rock. Exerything mechanically looked good, fuel pressure, boost etc were fine.  Leaning the fuel down to 12/1 caused HP to drop even more! Remember last time we dyno'd the bike we picked up 5 DJHP by leaning to 12.5/1. 

Then Justin connected his custom deto sensor to the engine block, and he detected severe detonation just as the HP dropped on our real time HP graph on the computer screen.

Justin then enrichened his fuel flow to 10.5-10.8/1 and the subsequent dyno numbers carried HP all the way to 11.800 rpm where it made 198 SAE output shaft HP! The quiet but deadly sound of deto had subsided, and HP returned as the result of cooling combustion chamber temps with extra fuel. I was miffed that I hadn't thought of that, and Justin assured me that even with my moderate age-induced dementia I would have thought to enrichen mixture, eventually. This change was so dramatic, I need to try to post a Jpeg graph on this weblog.

So Justin sucked all of that mystery gas out of the tank, and refilled it with fresh 106 octane leaded gas. Then turning up the boost to 9psi, the engine was happy making 230 SAE output shaft HP at 10.8/1 A/F ratio, .60 lb/hphr BSFC. Justin tried leaning the fuel back down to 11.5/1 and the engine picked up enough HP to haze the clutch (stock plates w/ stiffer springs) so dyno info from that point on was useless. So those of you who might have heard Justin and I talking about 300HP, it was the engine slipping and grabbing the clutch, causing torque and HP spikes that mometarily fooled us.

Based upon Justin's RX1 and Apex sled turbo numbers, 300-400 HP is surely doable with lots of octane.

But for now, I believe Justin has had an eye-opening experience with "high test" pump gas. If he is to sell these kits for pump gas, he must tune each kit to 10.5/1 on boost. Car and Driver Magazine just reported that of something like 1500 samples of high test pump gas purchased in Michigan then tested for octane, more than 10% were low octane. Also maybe 10 years ago Dateline NBC did a private assessment of gas grade cheating by gas stations in CA, where they found one in eight substandard, with the worst testing out at 75 octane! That's too much of a gamble knowing that 8- 10% of fillups can destroy an engine tuned for max HP on high test gas, if deto sensing and protection is absent.

I complained to the Bureau of Weights and Measures about this bad gas purchase, and the director is going to that gas station, same pump, and take a sample today to be tested next week. I'll be anxious to hear the test results when they are finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, July 30, 2007

DynoTech : Dyno schedule month of Aug 07

8/1 Justin Fuller Full Power turbo Yamaha R1 streetbike this time on the SF901 dyno with driveshaft from bike output shaft to dyno. Will compare rear wheel roller HP to actual output shaft HP. Justin wants to use 901 dyno to utilize its exact control of engine speed (no tire slip) and more complete instrumentation.


8/3 Thursday AM Jim Cooper's PS1000 still trying to cure solid mount stroker fuel flow issues. Also a PS800 Jim is setting up MSD timing for a customer of his. PM maybe Rich Daly's PS1000 on my dyno. Jim Cooper came this time with EFI fuel pump and adjustable bypass regulator--that fixed Steve Bennett's vibrating CS1710 so maybe would fix the ps1000 stroker? No luck; running as high as 9 psi we were still plagued by violent surges in fuel flow even with float bowl flooding over. Hard to rubber mount the big triple in the MXZ chassis, so possibly a rebalance of the bottom end is necessary. The PS800 Doo triple was dandy, stock crank and stock rubber mounts as we expected perfect fuel flow, Jim optimized a timing curve on the MSD, wound up with 209 or thereabouts with very broad HP curve.

8/10-8/15 Fri-Wednesday, private pro engine testing, webcams turned off.

8/15 Wed 5pm Jim Cooper back again, still same stroker crank/ solid engine mounts, this time has CNC machined upper and lower brackets to connect three megatrons into a rack.  Also Jim has  a pile of lead stick-on mag wheel weights if we need more help to calm the carbs down.  I just read Kevin Cameron's new book TDC. In his chapter about Gordon Jennings  Kevin describes how Gordon added stick-on wheel weights to a  vibrating roadrace bike to pre vent top end starvation. Hoping the same will work for Jim Coooper.   If we cure Jim's carb vibes early enough we will  tune upon  Elite Motorsports  Jack G's ps800 that made 209 last time, now with custom built Dynoport pipes. Hoping for more and/ or broader HP. Jim Cooper's fuel flow was still horrible even with racked megatrons, and even with a pound of lead weight added to bells. So we tie-wrapped my now infamous 5 lb crowbar onto the racks and presto flawless fuel delivery. Rich Daly offered me $100 for the bar, I'm holding out for $150. It will be easy for Jim to add 5 pounds to his carbs by bolting weight to his new upper and lower racks. Next we dyno'd Jack Gs ps800 Skidoo and with Jim Cooper optimized timing  and new  DynoPort nicely hand fitted pipes made 226hp with a broad hp curve from 9100-9800rpm, up 18hp from the last session due to DP pipes and perfect timing. Also backpressure was spot on--making same hp from 4-8 seconds at WOT.

8/16 AM Jeff Stinson with a prostock 700 Firecat, full mod w/ high RPM Jaws pipes, also maybe with high RPM D&D pipes, Boondocker tuning. The Jaws high revving pipes made peak hp at about 9500, well over 170hp but tuners with D&D high rpm twins are reporting 10 hp gain so Jeff may be back with a better tighter head and D&D high rpm twins.

PM Bikeman Jake Jenkins with BM F1000 ported, this time with D&D twins, Boondocker tuning for grass  tuning on 50/50 93 and 110 max HP 226/ 150 lb/ft right at the rev limiter. tuning for trail riding adding 15 lb/hr fuel on top end with boondocker = 218hp at 7500-7600 over .60 lb/hphr.

8/21 Tuesday AM Jason Price w/ F1000/1200 with big fuel pump, Boondocker N2O system, looking for 300 plus (maybe 350?) for drag racing. Jason had D&D create this F1000/1200 fitted to a Firecat chassis as a sort of clone to Glenn Hall/ Jason Stoviac's D&D twin pipe F1200 nitrous burner tested here recently.
On motor only Jason's F1200 made 221 HP at dandy fat .60 plus even with low compression and stock timing (Jake's F1000 shown above had 6 degree offset key).

Using Glenn Hall's recommended aftermarket EFI pump and high fuel pressure and his Boondocker map, we easily made 330 HP  at too safe BSFC.  Bumping  n2o to larger nozzles we were up to 356  HP .64 at hp peak, but we had a lean midrange spot .52 at 7800 that needed to be boondockered before we added any more n2o.

So after assessing Boondocker midrange I mumbled to Jason that he take his 7800 rpm Boondocker settings of 12 12 12 and add 5 to each to 17 17 17. Jason misinterpreted my suggestion to mean "change 7800 setting to 5 5 5" which would prove to be destructively lean. Goof one since I did not follow up on Jason's Boondocker tuneup..

Goof two was not listening to Jason's pal Kevin who suggested one more dyno run to ensure midrange fuel was safe and fat before stepping up N2O one more time...After having dyno calibrated more than a hundred Boondocker sleds, I was certain that going from 12 to 17 at 7800 would flatten our midrange fuel curve to perfection. Let's save Jason 10 minutes of dyno time, I know 17 is perfect, lets just increase N2O and make another step in HP...But our midrange at 7800 was down to 5 maybe like the space shuttle with a missing tile....

Either way, Jason can step back and tune to 355 with new drummed race gas (Sunoco Supreme or Maximal are my gonzo BMEP favorites), and his performance will be safe and very powerful.   And from now on he will maintain his fuel freshness with Nitrogen gas head pressure to maintain the presence of his most important "light ends" in the fuel.. When it comes to buying "fresh" just opened race gas for your $30K sled Trust no one.

8/22 I've thought a lot about our n2o deto. Goof  three was  not remembering my own winter experience with C16. I was in Forrest Lake MN, Kip Campbell had a brand new sealed drum of C16 in his garage, cold from winter storage. We went to a lake, all sleds were filled with fresh C16, all cold turbo sleds refused to start. Someone suggested a squirt of pump gas in the intake of each sled, all sleds fired up. Once they were good and warm, the C16 ran fine. Turbos make hot intake charge-- it takes lots of heat to vaporize C16. So here we are with Jason's n2o 1200, blowing huge clouds of 120 below zero n2o vapor into the streams of C16 spewing out of the nearly wide open injectors! How can that [possibly old] C16 vaporize 100% in that mostly subzero atmosphere? Goof four was loading the engine at 7000 before beginning the acceleration test at 450 rpm/sec. The engine gets the same flow of n2o at 7000 and 8500. That means that at 7000 there may be 20% more n2o ingested per revolution than at 8500. And 20% more time for detonation [deto is time dependent] to create havoc, especially if net mixture is lean and hot. Gonzo n2o engines should be loaded a few hundred revs below hp peak--we enjoy observing the massive low end hp from the n2o but it takes too many dangerous seconds to record that info. Goof five was not immediately seeing that on our final real time graph the hp was below the prior (less n2o) dyno run that was left purposely on the screen. More n2o and less hp means shut the engine down now, and it took me over one second to notice hp was low before damage occurred. With detonating n2o engines we have maybe 1/4 second of hp curve dropping below prior run before plug/ piston damage occurs. I was late pulling out. That was a two-piston snooze. I spoke to Jason today, pistons wrecked but thankfully chrome cylinders are fine, so he'll be up and going as soon as he gets pistons from D&D tomorrow. He has what appears to be an excellent tuneup at 350 hp+ (the second to last run before deto stopped our session). He also has Sunoco Supreme or Maximal race gas coming in a fresh sealed drum, which will be pressurized with nitrogen for storage.

We didn't make it to 400 as I think he hoped, but he still has 80hp more than the F10 n2o engine he tuned here before going 8.8 in the 1/4 mile. Glenn Hall's n2o record still stands, just barely.










Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, July 09, 2007

DynoTech : Dyno Schedule month of July

7/10 Tuesday AM Bill DiFranco tuning ODS Dan's Cutler F7/F10 for asphalt. Will tune carbs for max HP plus try to tune Boondocker N2O system for extra 50 HP or thereabouts. took second in ESTA Big Twin class to Glenn Hall's 400hp turbo.

7/12 Thurs PM late, MachZ big bore with NOS N2O system, results private.

7/13 Fri 5pm Tom Murphy from Indiana w/ F7/F10 1000ps twin plus tuning Boondocker N2O. left here, drove to ESTA race ran 8.85 don't know where he finished.

7/19 Thurs AM Nelson from Carlson Sports F6 stock grass racer, SkiDoo 800 triple PS

7/28 Dan Schuler ps800 triple grassracer final tuneup. Dan picked up 15 hp optimizing timing, jetting, pipe backpressure...also after fine tuning this was very high 800cc triple hp, equivalent to the best 1000 stroker PS' cc for cc, this was accomplished by Dan's use of Tom Turner's 2 stroke software with porting done to order by a local MX engine modifier.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, July 06, 2007

DynoTech : DANGER! NITROUS VALVE RECALL

 
To:  Boondocker Dealers, Distributors, and Customers
Subject:  NITROUS SAFETY ISSUE!			
Date:  June 29, 2007

SAFETY ALERT!!

Dear Boondocker Dealers and Customers,

You will soon be notified of a safety recall by Rehvac Manufacturing that a
ffects some Boondocker nitrous oxide cylinder assemblies.  Rehvac makes saf
ety blow-off valves used on several brands of nitrous cylinder assemblies.
 This blow-off valve has a defect which seriously compromises the safety of
 the nitrous cylinder.  Because of this dangerous Rehvac defect, please obs
erve the following instructions:

IMMEDIATELY, STOP USING YOUR BOONDOCKER NITROUS OXIDE CYLINDERS and check t
he serial number of the VALVE.  If you have a Boondocker cylinder with a si
x-digit S/N number on the VALVE greater than 132349, do not use or refill t
his cylinder.  IMMEDIATELY, EMPTY THE NITROUS GAS in a well-ventilated area
, such as outdoors, using proper safety procedures.  DO NOT ATTEMPT TO USE
AFFECTED CYLINDERS BECAUSE THEY MAY BURST UNEXPECTEDLY, CAUSING INJURY OR D
EATH!

You will be notified soon regarding further details of this recall, includi
ng how the defect will be corrected.  

If you know of others who use Boondocker nitrous products and who haven
t received this notice, please tell them to contact Boondocker toll-f
ree at 1-877-522-7805.  We must know how to contact them with recall inform
ation.  

Current products being shipped from Boondocker do not have this defect.  Th
e corrected blow-off valve has a “K” stamped on the head al
ong with the burst pressure rating of “3000”.

For questions, please see the Q&A section section below. It contains all th
e information we have at this time.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Boondocker
1589 Hollipark Dr.
Idaho Falls, ID 83401
1-877-522-7805 (toll-free)
Fax:  208-524-7381
info@boondockers.com
http://www.boondockers.com 
 

Q & A for cylinders affected by this recall:

Q:  Can I use my cylinder?  
A:  No.

Q:  Can I leave my cylinder full of nitrous?  
A:  No.

Q:  Can I leave my cylinder mounted?  
A:  Yes, but the cylinder must be empty.  Using proper safety procedures, c
rack the hose fitting and open the valve to empty the nitrous in a well ven
tilated area, such as outdoors.  Remember that the gas and cylinder will ge
t cold enough to cause injury, and that breathing the gas is harmful.

Q:  How long before I can use my cylinder again?  
A:  Boondocker is working with Rehvac to quickly implement a safe plan to r
emedy Rehvac’s manufacturing defect.  For your safety, Boondocker has chosen to notify you now before all details are known.

Q:  Where do I find my valve serial number? 
A:  The six-digit S/N number is stamped on the blow-off valve body, which i
s near the knob.

Q:  What is the safety hazard caused by this defect?  
A:  The risk of a cylinder bursting is increased because the Rehvac manufac
turing defect causes the safety blow-off valve to not release at the design
ed pressure.  A burst cylinder can result in property damage, injury, or de
ath.

Q:  I am a dealer.  Should I notify my customers?  
A:  Yes, please forward this notice to them.

Q:  I know somebody else with a Boondocker nitrous cylinder.  Should I info
rm them?  
A:  Yes, please forward this notice to them.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, June 16, 2007

DynoTech : Discussion w/ Kevin Cameron on torsional vibration

I emailed to Kevin Cameron today:

Kevin

Last week I if you saw my blog I had an awful vibrating solid-mounted 1710cc crankshop triple asphalt sled brought here because of fuel flow issues (shutting off at half-track). From 6500-8000 the carbs were a blur, 90 lb/hr fuel flow was all we could muster couldnt support 300hp for more than 4 seconds. I bought a piece of aluminum strap and bolted it to the tops of all 3 flatslide carbs to tie them together hoping to settle them down. That actually made fuel flow worse. After maybe fifteen seconds of run time, the surface of the smooth aluminum bar and carb tops were fretted where they contacted each other.

Is that fretting localized melting/ transferring of metal from bar to carb? That would mean the small contact surfaces are reaching 1200 deg F from friction.

We switched to a brand new smoother running 1710 engine (turns out the first engine's crank was out of phase), added some rubber to the motor mounts, and fuel flow was good with just the right fuel pressure

Also Ive had a question posed to me by a guy on the internet about changes in torsional vibrations in the wicked turbo boosted big bore F1000 twin with about triple the stock torque output (and 414hp instead of 165 stock that I just posted on DTR), but operating at stock RPM. This guy has a boosted Yamaha RX1 or apex, and he's galling clutch parts, so he's suspecting that the same would happen to the Arctic Cat big twin. The twins are a little buzzy stock, and 280 lb/ft is maybe not constant, probably rising and falling twice/ revolution? could it be 400 lb/ft relaxing to 100 lb/ft twice/ rev (somehow averaging out to 280)? If I use a solid non rubber shaft from the engine to the absorber, there's a way of using an oscilloscope to observe/ measure the torque spikes each revolution. I did that  once after I built the dyno  20 years ago to ensure that my lord soft rubber couplers were doing their job, and the oscilloscope was nearly a flat line.I should do that again with a solid shaft with stock, turbo, and N2O added to see what the crankshaft is putting up with. I could also do that with a Yamaha 4 cyl, which has some rubber in the output shaft gear I think, which probably gets wound very tightly  under  boost.

Just looking to clarify these things.

Thanks
 Jim C.

also here's the Hardcore Sledder internet post I was referring to:



Super Advanced Member
Current Sled:
2005 135.8 MPH Mach-Z
Previous or Other Sleds you Own:
03.5 blair morgan,
Location:
Eastern Ontario
Favorite Riding Area:
eastern Ontario
Mileage so far this winter: 00000000
Mileage last winter: 607
Your Age: 41
Riding Since: 75
Group: Members
Posts: 157
Joined: 6-February 04
Member No.: 9,778


QUOTE(DynoTechJim @ Jun 14 2007, 05:20 PM) <
motorsport17 is teasing because he knows I have bulletproof glass in front of my face looking out into the dyno room, but 5/8" drywall in front of my testicles. That's why Glenn, Jason and Dale were fighting to get that seat right behind me in the control room to use my body for a shrapnel shield. Also galling clutch parts are in my opinion due to torsional vibes not pure torque.


Jim

Just a question fo you

I would have thought that a 2 stroke 1000 would have more torsional vibration then a 4 stroke yamaha.
Please correct me if i'm wrong
Thanks

Cliff


--------------------
making them fast one sled at a time!
 

DynoTechJim
post Yesterday, 03:04 PM
Post #28


Member
Group: HCS Advertisers
Posts: 16
Joined: 31-January 07
Member No.: 40,320


Cliff that is more of a Q for Kevin Cameron than me. Surely the stock F1000 crank is smooth enough at operating speed from say 6500 to 7800, but they surely have some evil vibrations between idle and clutch engagement where you dont spend much time at. Glenn has nearly triple the stock torque of the engine, so I bet there are worse torsional vibrations with his monster turbo than stock due to the increased torque peaks two times per revolution, winding up and unloading the crank, maybe 50% harder, twice each revolution even though he's operating at stock RPM.

My only first hand experience with aggravating torsional vibes in a 4 cyl 4stroke was my old Suzuki GS1100 that I big blocked to 1394cc plus larger cams. once modded this thing was loaded with torsional vibrations. Though I couldnt feel anything while riding, the vibes were evil enough to continually snap the socket head cap screws that attached the inner race of starter sprag clutch to the flywheel on the left side of the crank. The inner sprag race is a light thing, probably incapable if having enough inertia to snap bolts regardless of the severety of the vibration. So what I think was happening was at some RPM, dont know where, the flywheel was actually going backwards for an instant, driving the starter ring gear into the starter drive gear like an impact gun, eventually shearing the bolts. I think this happened twice, then someone sold me a set of grade 10 bolts or something like that that all big bore modded Suzukis required. Problem solved, but surely the life of the sprag clutch/ gears would have been short had I put many miles on it.

But I had done four things to create the evilness in the crank--heavier pistons, way more torque, higher revs, and straight cut gears between crank and countershaft plus a clutch basket nearly devoid of the soft springs that normally soak up vibrations from the right side of the crank (the starter drive and flywheel are of the left). I don't know which aggravated that Suzuki crank the most, maybe it was a combo of all four. But you have to appreciate how bad the vibrations were when you think about the crank end actually going backwards for an instant one or more times per revolution at some RPM between 1000 and 10,000 (maybe at several different RPM).

Kevin Cameron has addressed this in the archives on my website, and he may be able to elaborate on pure torque increase and effects on torsional vibrations. That's another issue I will raise the next time I talk to him. But if Glenn eats up his 6-weight clutches I suspect it will be from mostly from increased torsional vibration, not just the added twisting force.
Kevin replied:
 
Early computer-controlled engines had cam position sensors to tell the computer which cycle they are on. Now they do without - they just use the speed difference in the crank to tell them (I guess the engine sparks at every TDC during start-up). So, yes, there are very large speed variations, especially with singles and twins - enough that they give the two cylinders different fuel and ignition maps. Enough, for example, to toss the valves prematurely because the instantaneous cam speed is high. One speed variation comes from the actual cylinder firing, and others come from the steady exchange of kinetic energy between the pistons and the crankshaft (which is twice per revolution).
 
Nearly every race engine in history has had to have special attention given to the cam drive during development, because crank/cam interactions, through the flexibility of the drive (or lack of it, just as often) create problems. Cosworth make a trick torsion spring that goes in their gear cam drives, and has with it a stack of tiny clutch plates compressed by a diaphragm spring, to absorb the oscillatory energy at the speeds where it tends to get out of hand. Ducati found they had 32nd-order torsionals in their camshafts. They made a big improvement when they changed from ball bearings to plain - every plain bearing is also a hydraulic shock absorber. The oil pump refills it and the thumps of valve acceleration squeeze the oil out of the bearing.
 
Torsionals were a HUGE issue in the development of the large radial aircraft engines. Generally they had a 4.5-order (firing frequency) and a 2nd-order (secondary vibes coming from the asymmetry of the master-and-links con-rod system) dynamic counterweight on the crank - really massive things that swung back and forth, alternately storing the excess energy from a cylinder firing, then giving it back as the firing impulse died away. When this wasn't right, pieces would vibrate off the tips of hollow steel propellers - chunks about 18" long, going about 500-ft/sec. Or the prop reduction gears would crumble, or the shaft crack, &c. It was a major part of development - hours and hours of running tests to get the crankshaft system stable.
 
A few years back the NASCAR guys were floating the valves in the back of their engines. This looked like cam twist so they bored some blocks for bigger bearings, increased the cam base circle, and made some experimental cams on bigger tubes. Imagine their surprise when they got LESS power. After a while they figured out that enough valve float to increase time-area, but not enough to wreck the parts, was what was happening. SO next they designed cams to float intentionally, and gradually learned how to design the ski jump so the skier didn't lose his balance when he landed after the jump. At first, these were used just for qualifying. Now they use such "lofting" cams for 500 miles, and the Europeans are calling them "Ballistic valve trains". I think it can work only because NASCAR engines don't run across a wide range of RPM. The guys at Spintron have books and books of development records of this kind.
 
KC 
 
then Kevin added six minutes later:
 
 
The old 1100 Suzuki GSX-R (like the one we did the cam rolls with [at your dyno for Cycle Magazine]) had serious torsional problems down at 6500 - endurance teams that ran them that low broke cranks. So they went to the US Cosworth importer, who made them up a replacement crank out of trick 4340 material. Broke in the same place.
 
Similar story with the Honda twins that have staggered crankpins. When they run at higher revs, the two flywheels clapper back and forth like a lo-frequency tuning-fork, straining the shit out of the crankpin fillets, which crack. First thing the rider knows, the crank "feels funny". Then BLAMMO, it becomes two-piece, and the bike slows right down.
 
I think there is a driveline resonance in my Cobalt, which is just building up as the engine is pulled own to about 1350 in top-gear lock-up. Then the shift program clicks in 3rd, before it gets too noticeable. It's like "fan growl" that you feel more than hear, in airliners - maybe 80 cycles or so.
 
Back in the 1930s engine researchers had their choice of two different types of torsiometer for measuring the action. Lots of engines had trouble with magneto, supercharger, or other accessory drives failing because they were getting so much chatter from the crank. Gears broke, shafts spiral-fractured, stuff fretted to death.
 
Yes, friction is caused by welds that occur at the very tiny points of actual contact, and must be broken in order for sliding to take place. Temperature is high, but in such tiny places. The wear particles oxidize - when they are iron-based, it makes the familiar red powder.
 
KC
 
Then Kevin added again five minutes later:
 
 
Yosh used to try to get away with no spring drive between the engine and gearbox. Sometimes it worked. Other times it just broke parts. The spring drive is very old. When Napier offered the first in-line six for sale about 1903, the vibes caused the cam drive to chatter audibly. Master salesman and early racing driver S.F. Edge called this "power rattle".
 
When Rolls brought out their six, they weren't having this problem so after having a wood friction damper catch fire, they came up with the idea of the spring drive. On their wartime Merlin V-12s they effectively cut the crank's free torsional vibration length in half by making the center a node. This they did by connecting the front of the crank to the prop via a springy quill-shaft, and the back of the crank to the accessories by a spring drive just like what's in every motorcycle clutch.
 
There were all kinds of failures when Diesels with long lightweight cranks were put into subs, driving the props directly. There had to be lists of forbidden rpm at which the crank could not operate for more than a couple of seconds. To solve this, the US Navy adopted Diesel-electric drive (same reason it's used in rail locos) so the Diesel would run at a constant safe speed and the props could be controlled separately.
 
A stewardess was killed on a commercial flight NY-Miami in 1948 by a piece of prop tip, coming through the fuselage like it wasn't there. Metal remembers every insult - cumulatively.
 
KC
 
 
Your instincts [regarding high combustion chamber pressure] are correct - Diesel engines, with their very high compression and high combustion pressures, need much "deeper" spring drives. ZF Transmission gives their trannies a double spring drive for Diesel applications. They say it improves fuel consumption by about 6% (a lot) because the driving torque converter element rotates more smoothly, and does not advance in a series of eddy-producing jerks, which are wasteful.
 
This is why I have missed you these past years - we've had so many good conversations in which we try to think of explanations for observed phenomena.
 
KC
 
 June 16, 2:33pm email from KC:
Steve Weinzierl had that case of the prototype triples that Fuji had built for Polaris a number of years ago. They all broke cranks in testing (20 of them, and not cheap either!) and the Polaris people were just throwing up their hands. Steve, in his methodical way, got out the thick books on crankshaft math simulation and plowed through it all - approximating the flywheel discs as separate masses and working up all the shafts as torsion springs. And the math showed about what they had - a bad maximum at 8500. He added 2-mm to one or two shafts, parts were made, and on test everything was sweet and calm.
 
KC
 
Kevin
I remember that the word on the street was to avoid 8500 on 600 or 650 triples, something bad was supposed to happen there (even if they strengthened parts no sense pressing luck). Its good now to know how that info came about. So triple pipe makers all stayed at 9000-9200 except for Aaen who had peak hp at 9800 as I recall.

Also remember I was having Ron Chastine map the EFI on my  Bender 3 cyl Exciter  (an extra throw and rod pressed onto the original 2 cyl), Dyno mapping 55 gallons of gas thru the engine, steady state at all throttle positions, all RPM we surely found the RPM where resonant frequency (?) was the worst and spent enough time there to hurt parts. The flywheel taper and crank taper were welded together in a small spot, instead of a nice pop removing the flywheel with a puller, it sort of gooed off, like pulling apart a piece of licorice. About 3mm diameter chunk was pulled from crank taper, welded solid into the flywheel taper. Jim
 
 
 email from KC June 17, 12:25 
I have many times in crank rebuilding seen such welded regions. Once I took apart a crank from an early-model 500 Kaw H1 streetbike with 50,000-miles on it. Both mainshaft press-fits tore extensively on the way apart and the pieces had to be scrapped.
 
In the early days of British motorcycling the common 500 single had two cast-iron flywheels, a tapers-and-nuts crankpin, and a pair of mainshafts. As rpm got up near 5000, all the shaft started to work loose - the iron was no longer strong enough to maintain the tightenss of fit against the rising stress. So they began to use steel wheels, and then later, alloy steel.
 
It's interesting to see that the US lagged behind Europe (notably, France) in adoption of alloy steels. Schneider-Creusot began to offer nickel-alloyed steel in the 1880s, and Winchester adopted it for gun barrels after 1895. But top brands of US cars had their cylinders cast in nickel-iron and their nickel-steel crank forgings sourced from France before WW I. All US artillery designs traced back to French originals, right through WW II. The French were the first with the quick-firing 75-mm gun, which thanks to its hydraulic recoil gear was still aimed at the target after recoil - the whole gun no longer "retreated" at every shot. So all the gun crew had to do was keep slapping shells into its breach.
 
I think it was the Triborough Bridge near NYC, that was made of 3 1/2% nickel steel. Everyone was so horrified at the cost that they adopted the much cheaper low-silicon steel, which is what the Titanic was made of. That stuff was very poor in corrosion resistance, so as US manufacturers made more and more requests for better materials, suppliers did the necessary research and little by little the alloyed materials we know came into being. Now that the US is rapidly de-industrializing, I hear it's not so easy to get even basic stuff like 8620 or 4340 steel stock - "Sorry, special order only - there's no call for that stuff any more".
 
Suzuki 2-stroke flywheels were always almost file-hard, but Yamaha stuff was a lot softer - if you put a dial gage on the OD of a flywheel you could "see" the bulge caused by the pressed-in crankpin.
 
KC
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

DynoTech : Month of June 07 schedule

5/7 Jim Cooper's PS1000 triple Skidoo asphalt racer, dialing in new MSD ignition last Friday had a bad timing pickup so were waiting for a new one. Before the pickup went bad, we had Megatron fuel flow inconsistencies  (solid mount  twins are usually the worst,  solid mount stroker triples are almost as bad). Jim had trouble at the racetrack with this,  usually dropping 500 revs from half track on regardles of clutching. I'm betting the carbs were foaming like they are doing on the dyno. Along with new MSD pickup, Jim's getting larger, viton N&S's to try. Looks like Thursday AM/ PM. Got the MSD working again, turned out to be a missing crankcase bolt allowed A/F mixture to escape into the flywheel area and foul the MSD crank trigger. But those carbs are still giving us fits, fuel flow is 86 lb/hr at HP peak must be milkshake in the float bowls. Will try agian Saturday, mess with adding weight to carbs, fuel pressure etc.

Thurs AM sliding Jim Cooper's sled off the dyno, cameras off, private tuning session for another pro racer, Jim Cooper will be back on to finalize his tuning late thursday. Private session was Glenn Hall's first crack at dyno tuning a Boondocker turbo system/ D&D F1200/ Firecat (he was concerned that we might fumble this and he didn't want to goof on camera). Off the trailer it was effortless 325ish at 10 psi boost. So we spent the day cautiously tweaking boost/ fuel/ timing/ exhaust components,  gradually working up to 286 lb/ft torque and 414 CHP at 15psi boost!!! This pretty good HP for a Firecat chassis. This AM I'm going to put that HP screen up on the dyno computer, set it up to contuously replay the 400 plus HP tuneup dyno run.

5/9 Justin Fuller with turbocharged Yamaha 1000cc streetbike, maybe an R1 using the Cycledyn eddy current roller dyno to dial in boost/ A/F ratio. Justin's still not quite finished with kit, will reschedule.

5/10 Justin Fuller has the R1 turbo system done, will dyno tune this PM about 4:00 Easy to fine tune, same fuel management as Justin uses on Apex turbo kits, made 200 DJHP on pump gas at the rear tire at 5.7 psi boost. Everything is hidden under the fairing, stock mufflers are used.

5/12 Finishing Jim Coopers PS1000, then Steve Bennett from West Virginia with CS1710  asphalt sled with fueling issues once more. Short on time, pulled Jim's sled off the dyno to redo fuel system and add 5 lb of mass to Lectron carbs and will be back. Since Steve Bennett's last trip to dyno where we had bumped fuel pressure to 6.9psi to overcome foaming float bowls, then made 321hp, Steve was fine for most of the season. But then he added n2o and snapped a conrod,  replaced crankshaft and vibration was worse and fuel  flow became impossible  once more. Back to Batavia. On the dyno carbs disappeared into a silver blur at 6500 and no juggling of fuel pressure could make carbs deliver usable fuel flow--either  140 lb of fuel flow and float bowls went dry or add 1/4 psi and fuel flow went to 250 lb/hr and drowned the engine. Frustration over a vibrating engine with solid motor mounts.  Tomorrow AM Jim  Cooper is dropping in a brand new CS1710  engine into the solid mount chassis, hoping this is smoother and  if we can see the carbs, maybe we can get  decent fuel flow for 8.5 seconds.  We have difficulty with most solid mount long stroke engines.
5/13 Jim Cooper spent today dropping in the new 1710, after transferring carbs/ ignition from old engine. Tripod Dan brought some rubber mounts which we used to isolate the engine mounts from the chassis. After an hour of sputtering trying to start the engine (glad we have electric start) on the dyno we discovered the new engine's keyway was about 100 degrees off from the old one. Jim would come back tomorrow with his degree wheel/ dial indicator and figure this out.
5/14 while Jim was indicating the old engine, we discovered the crank was out of phase. Could this have been the source of excessive carb-foaming vibration? Jim rotated the MSD flywheel to align it properly with the trigger, and we were running. Now from 6500-8000 we could actually see the carbs, and even though the mechanical fuel pump was inadequate the Holley pump was tweaked up and down to where we got smooth fuel delivery without drowning the engine. Fine tuning timing and jetting netted us 229 /b/ft at 7400 and 328 CHP at 7700. Smoother due to better crank balance and/ or rubber isolation of engine from the rigid chassis.

5/15 AM Robert Murray with Bill DiFranco's D&D F9 engine that he bought from the guy in Canada who Bill sold it to. Robert bought the engine only just as when LT Bill had it, except a reed change, Robert added his own 03 ECU and it was way too fat on top end, way too lean in midrange. He brought another 03 ECU from his other Firecat, this one was 10 lb/hr fatter than the first one. We tuned it to add midrange HP by adding fuel there,  but we couldnt get the top end perfect. Robert's Boondocker had the original program with not enough steps for a twin pipe engine (only 6700 and 7800).  We got the fuel perfect at 7800, but fuel drops as revs climb to 7900 and beyond to deathly lean. He's sending the Boondocker back to have D&D's program installed (he pays D&D $75 but ships it direct to BD). Then he'll have a step at 8200, use his current settings for 3000-7800 then add a particlar number at 8200 that should flatten out his declining fuel flow as revs climb. The engine now makes the same torque and HP as when Bill dyno tuned here a two or three years ago.

Just sold my 90 Exciter with Bender Avalanche triple/ IRS EFI, but my pipes are still missing after I loaned them to Mark Forte in NJ for testing at New England dyno service 15 years ago. Need to buy another set if anyone has some hanging on their garage wall please email me.  I found out that Mark Forte still has his Avalanche with MY pipes on it (he said that to the fellow who bought my sled from me--he also said that his were lost in shipping to Jaws for modification). I plan on getting my pipes back.


.
5/21-5/28 cameras off intermittantly for private test session with engine on my motor plate.




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

DynoTech : UPDATING DYNO ABSORBER 5/21

When I bought the SF901 dyno 20 years ago, stock and race sled engines were less than half the torque and HP of what we're seeing today. The Superflow 901 absorber is capable of  controlling 1000 HP engines, but the 1986 sales  literature described how the absorber could be used for engines as small as 12 HP. After Terry Paine, machinest extraordinaire Skip Saupe and I built the hydraulic chassis lift, framework and driveshaft system the first sled we had to  test the dyno was a then-new  1987 Yamaha Exciter with those notoriously troublesome original butterfly carbs.

With dyno running directly off the crankshaft at engine speed, pull-starting the Exciter was brutal. The bronze absorber impeller acted like a 20 lb flywheel added to the mass of the engine's rotating mass. Once running, the Exciter 570 was unable to break idle and increase revs at all. The engine would sit there idling, and increasing opening the throttle would not cause RPM to rise at all--the engine would remain at maybe 1000 rpm going "whaaaaa" from added intake noise with no change in engine speed. This would only create excessive heat in the rubber Lord torsional vibration dampeners we had engineered into the driveshaft to protect the engine from the granite-like load of the dyno on fragile engine components.

Working with SuperFlow engineering people it was decided that I should disassemble the dyno absorber and machine the rotor (the internal spinning part of the torque convertor-like absorber) down to a smaller outside diameter. This would reduce low RPM drag on the engines, and reduce torque capacity to maybe half.

After reassembling the dyno with the cut rotor, pull starting the Exciter was a bit easier. But that awful 570 just sat there idling, and appying light throttle would only make more intake noise and Lord coupler heat, not more revs! A day later I got a call from local Yamaha dealer Sunnyside Cycle's tech Don Frasier who knew of my frustration with the Exciter on my new dyno. Don had been fiddling with the Exciter carbs and discovered that by popping out the softplugs and enlarging one fuel passage, a light throttle lean condition was improved.

I popped out those soft plugs, drilled the second metering hole as Don suggested, and JB Welded the plugs back in place. Unbelievably, now the Exciter ripped off of idle and ran up to 5000 RPM where the automatic control of the dyno took over and finally created the load necessary to hold the engine there at full throttle. HP and torque were displayed there, steady state.  Pushing the "test" button allowed the engine to accelerate to the HP peak and beyond, and data was finally recorded. Now let's figure out what that data meant.

Since the SuperFlow dyno did not come with a manual that expained things like A/F ratio and BSFC etc I was totally clueless about info that the SuperFlow airflow and fuel flow meters would eventually provide us. All I wanted to see was torque and HP and go from there. But eventually, fuel flow numbers would be as improtant to us as HP numbers. This was a fun learningcurve.

Eventually, I would tire of pulling ropes with that 20 lb dyno flywheel adding to the load. So I acquired a huge 350 HP Cummins 12v starter, had rotation reversed, and bought a $500 german sprag clutch to alllow the starter to drive the engine to start , then idle down to zero RPM, as dyno data is recorded.

After obtaining dyno info on the Exciter, including those hard to understand airflow and fuel flow numbers, other sleds would follow. Small 340 and 440 race engines would still be difficult to test even with the cut down absorber rotor. We even resorted to blowing some N2O into the carbs to lift the race engines from idle to whatever RPM they came "on the pipes".

Reducing the dyno absorber speed with a toothed belt drive was the last modification that would allow easy testing of those low torque high RPM race engines. The belt drive would surely convert some of the engines' HP to heat before being measured by the computerized dyno. To determine that percentage I dyno tested an engine at 1/1 direct drive. Then I installed the toothed belt reduction, and dyno tested the same engine again. That lost HP was then programmed into the dyno computer, with engine speed considered since friction HP increases as the square of RPM.

I've dyno tested thousands of engines in 20 years, and up until last year my reduced speed, cut down rotor SF901 has been up to the task. But now along comes  new monster turbocharged  RX1's and Apex' with over 300hp at reduced output shaft speed, and N2O injected sleds like Glenn Hall's D&D 1200 asphalt racer and my cut-rotor dyno absorber is now on the ragged edge of not being able to control the engine RPM.

The last straw was the Honda 450 four stroke quad owned by DeNoyer Chevrolet in Albany, overbored and modified to 50 HP plus brought here to tune the Lectron-like Edelbrock carb and N2O system to max HP. On motorcycles and quads, I use driveshaft adaptors to attach the dyno drive to the transmission output shaft (never call that a "countershaft"). The primary drive ratio is multiplied by the transmission gear ratio to get us engine RPM. In this case, the 50 plus HP engine was only creating 2300 output shaft RPM at 7000 RPM crank speed and the dyno could not properly control the engine to obtain meaningfull low RPM data.

So I recently called SuperFlow and ordered a new $1200 full size relacement bronze dyno absorber rotor, and all new bearings and seals for another $400. It required 20 hours of disassembling the dyno,  pressing off old bearings, cleaning parts, reassembling and pressing new components together with my new  full size rotor to be back to 1987 square one. Now I can control 1000 HP again, so I should be in good shape to handle all the full mod sleds have to offer for the next 20 years. But if you have a vintage 340cc race sled to tune, you must go elsewhere.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

DynoTech : month of May 5/30

305/1 Dynod a second new Hayabusa with Yosh bolton mufflers belongs to a riding pal of the one I tuned yeasterday, this one made 157.4 RWHP after tweaking the identical map but midrange HP was better than yesterdays, guessing that cam timing is different by a few degrees.

'
5/3 Gene Hurin and Rob Schooping with Gene's 1000 improver and XCR1200 trail sled. PM Lynn and Jim Cooper tuning their PS1000 asphalt sled.Gene's 1000 improver made record 1000cc triple HP after dialing in each Lectron carb with EGTs. Those of you who watched Webcams know the numbers, Gene is wanting to be secretive until Haydays. His XCR1200 was good but not as good as Rob's or Denny Richards' stroker 1200 both at 300 or a touch over. After dialing in each of Gene's lectrons to get identical EGT, and rolling ignition timing back and forth we maxed out at 296. Gene was bummed that he had less than 300 (like some would be bumbed that their 11.75" thing was less than a "foot long"), but his sled will be fast. Here is one instance where tweaking a computer knob could have falsely upped Gene's 296 to 300 and made him real happy while he pealed out the bills for the tuning session. Gene and his good family have been dyno tuning here for close to 20 years, and he always got the straight scoop. But a Knob Job will not make his sled faster. Fortunately when Rob Schooping was helping us remove the 1200 from the dyno, two missing pieces of devcon were found in the belly pan, had fallen out of the upper crancase where boring bars poke through while making room for big bore stroker sylinders. This surely created a crankcase leak and Gene is surely 300 plus when that's fixed.
What if I had compassion knobbed Gene's leaking crankcase engine to 300.0? After discovering the crankcase leak, with his knobbed 300 HP dyno sheet, Gene would have surely expected 305 after re-devconing the leaks.
So this is a great example for you dyno owners/ operators who are often confonted with a need for a "compassion" dyno knob job....just don't do it. What it is is what it is.

5/8 TRX450 quad, bored to 525 and modded, has Edelbrock flatslide (crude copy of Lectron) that needs tuning, I still have a dozed Edelbrock needles belonging to Joe DiSpirito maybe I'll get to try them. The supplied needle is wrong, DanF and I tuned this to achieve 12/1 at WOT but midrange part thottle is fat as a pig. The needle set I had would not work, so I asked quad owner to leave in on the dyno until correct needles are obtained.
Meanwhile, this big 525 quad in high gear could not be held by my modified SF901 below 7000 RPM--about 3/1 gear ratio in high gear meant 33 lb/ft = 100 lb/ft but worse 7000 RPM on dyno readout is a lowly 2333 RPM absorber speed where braking is most difficult.

5/21 dyno is totally rebuilt with a full size rotor, had 15 different Edelbrock carb needles to experiment, found one with same tip  dimension and leaner mid needle dimension. Achieved good part-full throttle A/F ratio on pump gas. Then we switched to customer-supplied race gas for N2O testing. Now surmising that the race gas was dead (the clean running engine on pump gas now developed some burbles), we dyno tested the N2O and got severe misfire with 031/038 N2O/ gasoline nozzles. Dropping to 031/034 made it better but still misfired. Dropping fuel nozzle size .002 at a crack it finally ran cleanly with 028 fuel nozzles adding 20 HP to the 54 HP at the output shaft (never call that a "countershaft"). But since BSFC was .75 plus the fuel flow appeared too high, so we dropped to .026 fuel nozzle. After loading the engine at 7000 the buttom was pushed in the control room, and one second later the engine died, before I could push the "start test" button. Pulled the sparkplug at it was melted and we were done. My first four-stroke detonation damage in 20 years. I called the sled owner who told me the rqce gas was many months old, and surely the light ends were gone. So much of the fuel measured by the dyno going into the engine was blowing out the exhaust port in those lava lamp-like globules. That misfiring was surely globs hitting and shorting out the plug intermittently. It wasn't until we had it down to 028 that the compressed mixture was hot enough to vaporize just enough on the dead gas to get a clean fire. But that .75 lb/hphr if we subtract what was still blowing, unburned, out the exhaust port, was probably .40. Hence, the instant deto whan we dropped to .026.

I felt bad about not discussing the pedigree and history of the race gas they sent for testing. They had experienced misfire and poor running on that same gas with N2O. That's why they shipped the quad from Albany to my dyno, and it was probably their gas quality all along.

Race gas must be stored in refrigerated rooms or under N2 pressure (about 3-4 psi), or those light ends, so important to initialize vaporization, will disappear like the carbonation in a half full two liter bottle of Coke in the fridge after being opened over time a dozen times for quick swigs.  I harp on this often, but here's another example of stale race gas biting us in the testicles.

5/14 Mike Memery and Doug Smith with a Crankshop modded SkiDoo 800 twin watercrosser. cancelled

5/22 Pete Nixon with a Crankshop MXZ800 race engine. Very nice 191 HP at 8500. May post Pete's numbers.  PM Sunnyside Cycle dyno'd a 250 2stroke honda with PSI Big Air carb, very easy to dial in on my SuperFlow eddy current roller dyno. As shipped, the carb was too fat made 20 HP, ten quick dyno runs late (all adjustements are external) the 250 was over 40  HP at the rear wheel. Next was a modded Honda CR450 4-cycle. Same deal here, massive changes to Kehein carb jetting netted huge HP gains.  A/F ratio is measured by Innovate wide band  measure by dyno computer. There is big HP  gains to be made when leaning down from 10/1 to 12.5 or 13/1  A/F ratio.

5/23 11am CJ Motorsports of Loweville NY (had a very powerful 860 Doo twin at the SW Shootout), tuning a mod 800 SkiDoo twin asphalt racer, on his way to nearby (28miles) NYIRPfor Wed night racing. Here's a case of the dyno hook-up being as important as the dyno tune! The dyno table is topped with steel diamond plate, welded squarely with the dyno and dyno drive shaft.  When we set a sled on the table the first thing we do is align the  sled's track with the diamonds.  Then we can move the sled forward or backwards to achive perfect  90 degree alignment with dyno driveshaft before sled is strapped down, and driveshaft connected. Sometimes this is impossible, and we must jack the chassis out of square to achieve perfect engine cranksfaft to dyno driveshaft alignment. This may have been the worst--probably 3/4 inch off square from the front of the track to the rear, meaning either the engine was way out of whack with the chassis, or the skidframe was way out of whack with the chassis.
We tuned this engine and added 10 HP with proper jetting, but it looks like he needs a bunch more compression to take advantage of the spec race gas used at sanctioned pro stock asphalt (don't call that "ashphalt" please that annoys me like motorcycle "countershaft sprockets" and "NOSS").
Also CJ now knows where their HP peak is from 400 degree F center section gas temp to 800 degree. His Racepack datalogger will provide the info after each pass to ensure that he eventually matches HP peak to CS temp during the nine second runs.
But if CJ corrects their out-of-alignment chassis he will pick up huge performance, maybe even greater than what he will gain with optimum jetting for nine seconds, and being able to correlate engine revs to pipe CS temp..
Also after they left I found a set of Craftsman metric box/ open end wrenches CJ left behind.  Mark give me a call either you can pick them up on your way back from Wisconsin or I'll mail them to you.

5
5/30 John Wilbur and Chris Squires back again with the HTG F7/8 this time to tweak Boondocker for summer weather for asphalt racing especially for the dragraces this weekend at NYIRP.. This is absolutely necessary for winter/ summer dragracers not because the Boondocker goofs but I think the stock ECU goes into enrichment at high temps like we had today (mid 80's F). The good news is it only took two pulls to tweak the Boondocker to get max HP fuel flow in 85 degree humid air. Hot humid air is another issue, since neither the Cat ECU nor the Boondocker considers humidity, or water vapor, or more modernly "grains of water per pound of air" like NHRA dragracers measures. Water  vapor takes up space, displacing O2 and fuel must be pulled out to make up for that! After this tuning plus some additional tweaks of their own, the F8 made well over 190 HP with only 12.5/1 compression ratio and .065 squish. I'm cringing because even though engine builders argue with me if you have fresh sufficient octane race gas, my opinion is that squish needs to be tight enough to kiss the piton domes on decelleration. On this engine I'm betting .045 for racing is OK.
What's the big deal?
Tight squish has two great benefits:
1) increases turbulence in the A/F mixture in the combustion chamber, increases flame speed and decreases timing required for peak HP.
2) any A/F mixture trapped in the squish band does not contribute to HP. Most of it burns on the way out the exhaust port. Thight squish blows the A/F mixture into the center of the combustion chamber, mixture is burned immediatedly and HP is added.



Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, April 05, 2007

DynoTech : Month of April

punching in info from annual Disneyworld trip, mistake this time doing it during Easter recess. Long lines and blisters, but Eight year old son Marty is having a great time.
Last Friday before we left we redyno tested Don Malcom's HTG Storm 1000 stroker engine, now with stock motor mounts, fuel flow was perfect, a troublesome trail sled has been rectified. Details after I get back this weekend.
New SkiDoo 800revXP prototype coming from Canada next week, will do a baseline dyno evaluation and see if the Bikeman 800R single will fit the new chassis. Stay tuned. dyno test done, will post this week with comparison with Rev800 DPM...

4/16 monday Glenn Hall's coming to attempt to take away Greg Bennett's twin cylinder turbo sled engine record. Glenn is bringing a Firecat w/ F1000/1200 D&D nitrous engine (moderate timing and compression) twin pipes with megaload of N2O via Boondocker. Needs to tune it here to dial in Boondocker, and see what RPM the HP peaks at with cold and hot pipes. I told Greg Bennett that his record may fall Monday, and Greg said to tell Glenn that his turbo sled will be in the dyno parking lot staging lane on monday PM with the boost controller hose yanked off just in case. Boondocker N2O is delivering max 180lb/hr with injectors wide open, very lean off the trailer with the twin N2O system glen had installed with drilled out nozzles, so we installed an upgrade fuel pump flowed easy 210 lb/hr then we were able to tune to 363hp with safe fuel flow. Will put details on website.

4/20 AM Dead 1 Dave Craiglow coming with Rob Schooping to test new HTG F1000 big bore (1180 I think) lake race/ asphalt engine. this is 14/1 100 octane engine, made 141 plus at 160++lb/ft, close to rev limiter (HPpeak at 8000) even with max offset key. Had Carl McQuillen EDM a 5 degree advanced keyway 185 degrees from stock, engine wouldn't fire --ignition pickups are different from side to side, unlike F7 carb flywheels that are ambidextrous. So D1Dave filed down his 4 degree offset key even more, but ran out of his original sunoco race gas, added 4 gallons of someone else's race gas maybe left over from last year's oval track racing season? Spit and sputter, not tunable, no more useful data with added timing to get revs down to 78-7900, my opinion is this gas is dead, Dave will be back again next week or so with FRESH 110 octane gas and try again.

4/21 AM 80cc Yamaha flat track mod two stroke on SuperFlow eddy current bike dyno 23rwhp, after jetting and rolling ignition timing.


4/24 pm Tony Buczak w/ our original DTR F7carbed sled with all that extra timing (7 degrees added right now), now HTG ported, extra compression, D&D lite pipe. added compression seemingly bit us in the butt, lost hp and lost rpm, but mag carb is running dark plug insulator now, need to autopsy carb rack and come back with EGTs in Ypipe to see if we can find the gremlin.
late PM  Tripod Dan and  Dan Forte with either  Denny Richards' XCR1200 or  a  ported/ Dynoport pipe Yamaha Banshee (I have custom splined dyno shaft adaptors to connect to bike/ 4 wheeler output shafts). Dyno tuned Denny's HTG XCR1200, cured a troublesome lectron carb by swapping mag and center carbs, began with 280hp got fuel flow equal on all three cylinders, rolled timing to optimum, wound up with 301.4 plus measuring center section temp have HP peak RPM nailed perfectly for clutching from 400 degrees to 900 degrees F (500 rpm swing).
 
4/25 am Jeff Sherlock with two sleds--stroker F7/9 WITH 100HP load on N2O and a MachZ. Jeff and new engine owner Tony arrived with the same F9 stroker (860cc) we dynod here earlier, with timing backed to stock and boondocker enrichened the 193hp engine made about 172 ultra safe and ready for N2O. Tony had installed a nice working "wet" system with separate fuel pump for N2O, and we tweaked and tuned his fuel and N2O jets to 245hp but still safe and fat .80 lb/hphr. Next we increased N2O nozzles to use the 180 lb/hr fuel flow  and proceeded to  explode the left combustion chamber out of  the head. Just like John Force might do on a 325 mph pass. Those of you watching on dynocam saw the dynoroom camera lens fog up with water/steam when the head disintegrated. I'll windex that lens tomorrow. The stock cast head was machined wider and deeper to accept the larger bore and longer stroke, and we surely found the  limit of this compromised head casting--180 lb/ft torque. Next will be a billet (hopefully not bathtub) style head machined to match compression, they are promising to be back to try for 300, incredible from a "small block"  Cat.
 
 4/26 10am Buffalo Bob Blizniak, Bender 830 big bore triple for fine tuning carbs and to see where the HP peak is.This SRX big bore trail mod made 186hp at 8500 on pump gas, winter jets, easily could have jetted for conditions and made 190, but fat and safe made well over 180 for 500rpm. Still a popular mod now done by DynoPort/ Bender in Colden NY.
 

4/30 PM or tuesday PM, stock Suzuki Hayabusa 1300 to baseline bone stock then add Yoshomura bolton mufflers and tune in a Power Commander 3. Now that bike season is here, I'll tweak the angle of the dyno room camera to catch the fun on my SuperFlow eddy current bike roller dyno. The motorcycle aftermarket is like any other aftermarket--sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you don't--these mufflers plus power commander ($700 plus $100 dyno tune) netted about one rear wheel HP not the 7 RWHP promised, even maxing HP by dialing in poer commander. Stock 160.6 with Yosh carbon fiber mufflers 161.8.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, March 02, 2007

DynoTech : Month of March

3/1 Got a call from Don Emery of DNE performance, that  384hp 1725cc four cylinder Mach Z he built for Tom McConkey (dyno sheet posted on Subscriber pages) set a radar record for single engine sleds at 177.0 mph. You can see an amazing video of madman Tom making that speedrun on www.radar-runs.com.

3/1 Justin Fuller (Full Power Performance) with stage 4 RX1 turbo drag sled owned by Tom Borges. new current record holder on this dyno, 440 CHP since dyno is idle this weekend I have that final dyno run replaying on the computer screen in the dyno control room (large HP readout) from start to finish 7300 to 10,800 RPM, click on dynocam in control room to see it. Will post full dyno run on the website with as much tech info as I can get from Justin.

Waiting for a new Lovejoy number 8 flexible rubber coupler for my dyno drive system (used in conjunction with Lord rubber coupler on driveshaft) to dampen torsional vibrations. Noticed a crack in the old one, will have new one on 3/5.

3/5 AM rebuilding dyno drive, PM private session, cameras off.



3/6 Chris Squiers and John Wilbur with two F somethings and maybe a SkiDoo. Had an F7/F8 cast cylinders, ported by Rob HTG with D&D Monster twin pipes, Boondocker,  first pull 133hp,  after maybe 4 massive, bizzare looking Boondocker tweeks made 171hp at 8600, torque was below 110 lb/ft so John surmised the guy he hired to install his Fett offset key put it in backwards, popped the flywheel and found a stock key. I just got a load of keys from D&D so John installed a 3 deg key and after a few more Boondocker tweeks made 182.7hp at 8400 and torque jumped to 116.2 at 8000 for a broad hp curve 177+hp from 8000 to 8600. Next sled was a stock 07 F8 with D&D Ypipe and D&D single with Boondocker. This one was a bit surgy on the dyno so we added some midrange and top end fuel, smoothed that out and made over 161hp on 87 octane. Something was strange about the ECU because late in the tuning session the engine became lean at low revs part throttle. After each wot run, bringing the revs back down to idle at about 4000rpm it would lean out to 18-20/1 and misfire refuse to idle and then stall. Disconnecting the Boondocker didn't help. We made one final fuyll throttle run and the engine is fine, just that mysterious leanout at light throttle. When we popped the clutches back on, the engine ran dandily and John was able to drive it into the trailer. Last sled was a HTG 1200 stroker but I didnt have a puller for the late clutch on and early style crank.. I saw that sled run at Loon lake, it doesnt look like it needs much dyno tuning, John just wanted to see the number.

3/9 Dead 1 Dave Craiglow with his HTG ported F1000,
picked up another 10hp by removing his D&D single and installing D&D twins, will post his latest numbers.


3/10 going to Loon Lake one more time with 1000 Edge this time with fresh water pump so my mag cyl wont be drinking coolant. And please don't anyone give me any free drink chips at lafalot afterwards. Those six chips hurt me last time since the bargirl was pouring about 4oz bourbons to make sure she got the big tips (6 chips x 4oz = way too much). Plus I have to be on my toes for tomorrow AM dyno session...ran great today, clutching that labored at 8-8100 last time pulled 8300 at 400 degree pipe ctr section temp, then slid to 8600 at 680 degrees, just like the dyno suggests where the HP peak occurs. Felt good, but the Sherriff put an early end to the festivities due to a complainig neighbor and a lack of a permit. Maybe we'll get an opportunity to run the weekend of 3/17 someplace. Drank two draft beers afterward.

3/11 10am Bob Jacoby and Sage dialing in their freshly rebuilt RX1 suck-through turbo. Maybe shooting for Justin's record? Bob Jiaccobe or Jiacobbe was smart--his RX1 turbo that was junk when we dynod last time had  block rebuilt with thicker sleeves, and a sleeve retainer on top to keep sleeves from ovaling when inevitable deto creates monster cylinder pressure. The needle jet extender that dyno genius Jim Czekala  recommended worked dandily. Lightning Pro saw our early post, created the needle jet hood extender that we described, his own sleds worked better thanks to Joe DiSpirito who gave Genius Jim the big hood idea. Thanks Joe I took all the credit.
 

3/13 AM Joe DiSpirito's Big needle jet Hood worked killer on this oversize turbo suck-through carb. Those turbo-useless 48 mikunis are now in the ballpark Now instead of main jet left out and lean A/F ratio, we had normal size main jets and FAT A/F ratio. Now we backed down on Mikuni round jets, Bob Jiacobbe owns the rights to the jet size since he paid all the money to correct a bad situation. This dyno sesssion cost him $1000 and his A/F ratio is mint and should create good reliability if his octane matches his HP. Bob will surely sell his boost only tuneup to others to defray his $1000 (over two days) tuning session.
Now with safe-for turbo 11.5/1 A/F ratio we made 300 plus easily with no intercooler  (not good to run intercooler with A/F mixture--one advantage of blow-through systems) with about 27psi boost, then backed boost down to 250 HP. With lower boost, Sage ran a small whisper of N2O injected behind the carb before the turbo scroll. This added over 50 HP and help cool intake charge and help off-the-line acceleration. So bumping up the boost to 27psi will get them 350plus, and surely 400plus is available with nitrous. But Sage and Bob will save higher boost/ bigger N2O jets for the dragstrip and only when necessary.

3/13 pm Don Malcom from northern Ontario who was struggling with deto on a HTG Storm stroker pump gas 1000 lake racer engine.. His first mistake was not buying 24 Molson XXXs at the duty free shop to help allay the pressure on the dyno operator. His second mistake in my opinion was using stiffer than  stock motor mounts on his stroker 1000cc. Stiff motor mounts have proven to be a nightmare for carbs that need to deliver smooth  fuel flow to their host engines. His fuel flow delivered by the vibrating carbs is totally useless; harmonic vibrations from the evil stroker causes the carbs to vibrate into a blurr, fuel flow foams into a vanilla-like milkshake, then fuel flow drops and rises as carbs buzz and settle down depending upon revs. Larger main jets = less fuel flow into the engine since float bowls are emptied more quickly.

3/15 Dan Cross and Dan Forte are installing stock motor mounts at their shop nearby (the heavy mounts were installed by one of Don's tech people in Ontario), will probably dyno again Tuesday.

Joe from Boyeson Reeds is encouraging me to post the results of Rad Valves on Casey Mulkins' trailmod Chuckaroo Mach Z. I've downloaded all dyno tests onto Excell spreadsheet, should have time tomorrow to assess the dozen or more dyno runs we ran on Casey's sled.

3/23 I deleted that post after Eyvind Boyesen called. Joe had threatened to sue me in Philadelphia for "theft of services [?]" if I didn't post their test results. I alluded to that threat as coming from "Boyesen" in my DTR subscriber pages post. According to Eyvind, Joe, who is an independent consultant, made that threat without  Boyesen or his company's knowledge or approval. Those test results are the property of Boyesen (they paid for the test time). When a company uses my facility to independently assess products, those test results are private. And if the testing is done properly, and results positive I'm glad to post the dyno numbers.


3/27 Dan and Dan are bringing Don Malcom's 1000 HTG storm trail stroker with stock motormounts, hoping to smooth out that unusable fuel flow curve.

3/24 AM Kim Stout coming from PA with F1000 with update ECU map, also Speedwerx Ypipe and single pipe. Kim also bought a D&D Ypipe and D&D single to compare to SW and Bikeman mod stock pipe vs stock exhaust.

JD Powersports is now shipping their T660 HP upgrade kits. Took many months to acquire factory style electrical connectors, their upgrade ECU now creates 130hp on low boost, toggle switch takes you to a separate map with richer mixture and timing adjusted, 150-160hp, just like they did on DTR dyno pages. Now plug and play. 585-458-0620.

Dennis Richards from Richards Machine in Buffalo [716-683-3380] races an XCR/ HTG 1200 stroker lakeracer with 280hp and 175 lb/ft torque. He invented, patented and sells the ultimate torque arm that mounts outboard between the drive clutch and driven clutch. Each end has an adaptor to fit to the bores of the clutches, high speed bearings and an adjuster to obtain the desired center distance. Todays monster engines create huge torque, and spindley jackshafts must be bending horribly (changing center distance and fatiguing jackshaft metal). My simple math on Dennis' sled is at clutch engagement and prior to shift the belt is about 2" from the center of the crank. If he's making 175 lb/ft (175 lb of force 12" from crank center) we can multiply the torque pulling on the drive belt  by SIX  (12" divided by  2")  so  6 x 175 = 1050 pounds of pull on the outside of the driven clutch! This load is exerted on the jackshaft, cantilevered over the belly pan supported only by the small drive end bearing, then unspported for about 18" then supported by another bearing in the top on the chaincase. Would you imagine hanging an iron big block chevy engine with a turbohydromatic transmission from the driven clutch on the jackshaft? How much does the jackshaft bend x number of inches from the jackshat bearing, then unsupported for 18"? And if we mounted our chainfall at 9:00 on the outside of the driven clutch how many degrees of twist would the weight of the big Chevy engine create on that tiny jackshaft?

Taking that one step further, imagine Justin Fuller's 442 HP RX1, 220 plus lb/ft, same clutch same math but add 220 x 1.19 intenal crank gear reduction = 262 lb/ft x 6 = 1572 lb of pull on Justin's jackshaft. So that's like hanging the big block chevy plus transmission PLUS an iron smallblock chevy engine. Anyone want to walk  under the sling that's holding all that iron suspended by a sled jackshaft?
I just began examining Justin's HP data to post this weekend, saw peak [crankshaft] torque really was 237 lb/ft x 1.19  reduction to  clutch x 6 = 1692 lb of side load  on rear clutch/jackshaft during acceleration. Anyone driving one of these awful things should examine Dennis' torque arms.

Being a farmer engineer, I can't figure this out accurately. How about a real engineering assessment from a real engineer, estimating materials, etc. That would be way better than standing over Dennis' sled hood up with no torque arm, watching he whacked it on a jackstand, then running to find a safe place to hide.

And it's comforting to know that drivers and onlookers are protected from all those whirring and bending parts by a thin aluminum beltguard.

It would be great if some engineer-type DTR reader would do the math for us. What is the jackshaft deflection at 1000 and 1500 pound side loads? A free subcritipon or renewal awiats the first smart guy who provides the correct data.

 









Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, February 05, 2007

DynoTech : bathtub cylinder heads vs shrinkwrapped cylinder heads

I subscribe to Cycle World magazine primarily to read Kevin Cameron's monthly one page TDC column, and to try to absorb detailed technical articles he writes that appear in about every other issue.

In the most recent issue (March?) Kevin addresses coolant velocity in cylinder heads. According to KC, turbulent high velocity coolant is vastly more effective in removing heat from combustion chamber "domes" than lazy slow moving coolant. Worse yet, is any area of stagnant coolant that rests against the domes' coolant side surfaces with slow or no movement which can create dangerous detonation causing hot-spots. 

Kevin describes large coolant volume cylinder heads as antique "bathtub" design. Conversely, he describes modern sled cylinder heads (like some SkiDoo models) as having a "shrink wrapped" appearance where the diecast cylinder heads' outer covers closely mirror the shape of the combustion  chambers. Shrink-wrapped covers create small but ample passages for high velocity coolant flow over the combustion chambers.

Some of the aftermarket snowmobile cylinder heads I see on the dyno look like bathtubs to me.  Most "billet"  head covers are large rectangular structures that appear to hold lots of coolant, exactly the opposite of what would create high velocity turbulent coolant flow over the internal surfaces of the combustion chambers.

On typical dyno tuneups especially this time of year it's more time (and cost) effective to dyno sled engines with their own coolant, letting the 7.5hp roof mounted dyno room blower cool the engine between dyno runs. To maintain consistancy, I like to measure head surface temp with an infrared gun before each dyno run. On most sleds, head surface temp runs about 20 degrees F lower than coolant temp, but this is not as important as doing each dyno run with similar engine and pipe temperature.

What I notice on some aftermarket cylinder heads is that ending surface temp (after 10-15 second dyno runs) is sometimes much higher than what we usually see with stock heads. In the past I have dismissed this difference in being caused by different material finish (shiny machined and anodized or powder coated billet instead of die or sand cast surfaces) causing different infrared gun readings. But after digesting Kevin's  info I'm thinking that we may be  experiencing the bathtub syndrome.

How bad is this?

My favorite example of stagnant coolant was Tim Bender's experience with an Exciter FIII oval racing engine nearly 20 years ago. Kevin Cameron had suggested to Tim that the golf-cart-like transfer ports on the Exciter engine limited its potential. So Tim decided to widen the engine to allow room for larger transfer ports that he would create out of material welded on to the sides cylinders. This meant having the Crankshop build him a wider crankshaft, then saw a crankcase and cylinder head in half, then weld in an inch or so of material to allow bore spacing to be wider, accomodating normal-size transfer ports.

Tim's problems began when the one-piece cylinder head was widened and welded back together. The Exciter 570's coolant normally enters the front of the head in the center, then is forced around each combustion chamber surface, then rejoins as it exits the rear center of the head at the thermostat housing. However the widened and rewelded head provided  an unintended short-circuit for the coolant straight through the center of the head from front to back without being forced around the combustion chambers. Unbeknownst to Tim and me, this allowed stagnant water to lay on the combustion chambers instead of flowing over them. Trouble was lurking.

On the dyno, even with lots of water flowing to cool the engine, we never could create low BSFC without detonation. But the engine made more HP than before and Tim was anxious to test the engine in his race sled before going to the annual big oval race at Eagle River.

I went with Tim to a nearby frozen lake where the night before he had snowblown an oval track on the shallow end. When he began doing laps with his dyno-tuned engine Tim encountered detonation with the same jets, same gas as we had dyno'd with the day before. Jets that were dandy for 15 seconds on the dyno were causing deto on the track after 20 seconds. The 48mm carbs required about 15 sizes larger jets to be deto-free, and that extra fuel drowned the HP added by the larger transfers. This was perplexing to both of us. At the end of the day, Tim's high HP wide engine was no faster than the narrow golf-cart Exciter race engine he had run previously. Why the deto? With his other race engines, winter dyno jets were within a few sizes of what he needed for 20 laps.

That evening, one of us remembered the widened cylinder head. I like to think that I came up with the solution to the problem, but it probably was Tim. One of us called the other, and we discussed the possibility of a problem with combustion chamber coolant flow. Tim went to the shop at 10pm, and upon inspection found that there was an open passage in the widened area for coolant to flow directly from the front center head inlet to the rear center outlet! He mixed up some Devcon epoxy filler and goobered that unintended passage closed. As intended, coolant would once again be forced to the outsides of the head, pass over the chambers then rejoin at the rear before exiting the engine.

The next day back at the lake, Tim was able to jet down all of the 15 sizes (and then some) and the HP was back, deto was gone. More races would be won.

Bottom line--stagnant coolant was surely the culprit. According to KC, when coolant boils and creates a steam pocket anywhere around a combustion chamber, detonation is sure to follow quickly even with the safest A/F ratio.

I'm not suggesting that all billet replacement heads are low velocity bathtub design--in each case I don't know what sort of internal passages were created by the person who programmed the milling machine to carve out the "tub". But my opinion is that before an aftermarket head is installed in might be good to compare coolant volume between the stock head and the replacement head. If the replacement head has larger capacity than the shrink-wrapped stocker I would question the design and ask why the volume is greater. If the answer is "to help cool the engine".....

The factories' sled engine designers surely use dyno software that measures coolant flow in GPH, and that figure along with temperature rise in the coolant around each combustion chamber is necessary to correctly design the cooling passages in any cylinder head, either OEM or replacement.

When it comes to snowmobile cylinder heads, cool-looking and big is not necessarily better.




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

DynoTech : Month of February

2/1 Trevor Bovard w/ two mod F8 Firecats, one Rev 830 big bore.First F8 was a clone of the sled Trevor brought earlier, this one was a bit higher in midrange tq and hp, a bit less top end hp, needed totally different Boondecoker settings. Second F8 gave us fits, huge fuel flow from 7200 on up, even -99 at 7200 couldnt cure it, ECU from first sled and Boondocker from first sled didnt help so quit this one [turns out the sled owner had EGV cables installed backwards so the ecu went into trouble mode]. The 830 has been very fast in the field, but dyno airflow cfm and hp numbers were low, not much better than stock. Going back to autopsy [maybe bad reeds, mousenest in muffler, etc?], will be back after issues dealt with. Also had a HTG proX 900 twin, 180hp but weeping coolant into mag combustion chamber, Dan and Dan are rectifying at their shop near the dyno.
2/2 Pete Nixon, F7.cancelled
2/5 Chris taking another crack at his Cudney 830.cancelled
2/6 Justin Fuller (took over Bender turbo business as Full Power Performance) with ABay/ Goose Bay madman Stanley Parker's RX1 with new bigger turbo shooting for 400? 410 with only 19psi boost thanks to Justin's cylinder head tweaks... PM tentative Dan and Dan with their formerly vibrating Storm Stroker 1000 improver.cancelled
2/7 Jeff Sherlock Firecat F9 stroker.864cc, made 182 HP with single pipe and stock muffler, 193 HP with D&D monster twins.
2/8 Aaron Luczak F1000 all D&D stuff, tuning Boondocker in AM stock head, trailport easy tune to 200hp, tweaked midrange to get rid of bog? no lean midrange on this one.
early pm, two 518ers with lake racer MachZ's microphones off HP secret, second MachZ had Boondocker troubles with N2O system, will be back again maybe with 4 injector Boondocker? Late PM Mike Gross one more time with 1107 cat, this time with shortened Jaws pipes to reduce torque but revs higher, HP higher than before. Heading for Lanzis.
2/9 am F7 trail sled for fuel pressure tuning (early ECU with key and BMP mod stock pipe).  trail porting, 03ecu only needed fuel pressure restrictor to drop fuel flow from 110 lb/hr to 98 lb/hr to make 155hp on pump gas.
2/12 nothing scheduled this week. Time to post some more info.
2/13 early PM, Trevor Bovard with the troblesome F8 once more, plus an XC800 w/ SLP head and twin pipes. Late PM Dan and Dan with the 1000 storm stroker. Trevor had trouble again--this time flatlined at 165ish hp, then hp dropped, leakdown high on both cylinders, coolant getting into engine will be back one more time...but the SLP twin pipes and head on Rick Ws stock XC800 made 160+ HP...
2/15 Boyeson Reeds another test with stock MachZ to test reed cages/ wings once more, a new sled Joe bought has broken in now, stock for sure. Jim Cooper coming to fine tune and monitor/ control engine.cancelled
2/17 am Glenn Hall w/ D&D F1000 w/ 1200 big bore for a DTR tune/ number--this one ripped the connector bolts out of D&D's dyno driveshaft yesterday, so they want to finish tuneup here Sat AM (and try to rip my connector bolts out).160 lb.ft with single pipe and twin pipes,  226 and  235hp respectively and the molecules in my grade 8 bolts are still holding hands. Will post these dyno sheets this week.
2/20 Justin's and Jonas' F7 and MXZ800 trial stockers Justin's F757 w/ BMP mod stock single with no tuning made 160 (very lean 04 ecu) added wet N2O tuned N2O jets to add 40hp...Jonas' MXZ800 made 138 stock added 4 hp to 142 with Dynoport single then added 32 hp with a safely tuned wet N2O system. In PM Greedy twins Tripod Dan and Danno with their IS1000 Storm, looking for consistant fuel flow and more HP.went back to stock motor mounts, removed reed spacers so filters weren't hitting frame, fuel flow was 50% better, but pto 48 megatron had egt temp way off from the other two,  200 degrees higher stayed that way even with powerjets cranked wide open the other two at 1/2 turn...danno switched pro and middle carb to see if hot egt follows the carb and now with all powerjets at 1/2 turn egts are identical and HP is higher...needed to jockey the dial indicated needles to create identical EGTs with identical  powerjet settings now perfect,  tried  tighter stingers not happy, cranked another 2 degrees of timing added two more HP now solid 256-257hp quite good for an old Storm  1000.
2/21 Schools closed, will have my 8 yr old son to watch over. I'll take him to lunch at McDonalds, probably the only father and son there that get a senior coffee and a happy meal.
2/22 Scott coming from MI to dial in a SLP ported Fusion w/ Boondocker, has SLP single and a set of CS twins to test, wants to compare with HTG big bore Fusion tested here considering the value of HP added by bigbore for possible summer project. Then Scott will squirt some N2O into the engine w/ Boondocker N2O system.with SLP single and reflashed ecu with all zeros on Boondocker made 115 lbft and 160hp at 7300,  added  28 hp with two five hole  N2O nozzles  HP slid up a few hundred revs which will make for easy clutching.

2/24 going down to Loon Lake Sat AM for some hardpack lake running with my HTG1000. Red edge with chewed up mudflap (I have the old Firecat track off of HTG Rob's 1200 edge with skidframe extended by HTG Joe and those 2" long carbide picks ate my new mudflap) and goofy 600 decals that I just havent had time to replace yet. newsflash Dan and Dan had Tom Chapel of Visual Impact Graphics in Byron NY 585-545-7118 suprise me with blue/ white 1000 numbers that perfectly match shape/ design of the old ugly yellow 600 numbers, so I wont be accused of trying to have fun picking on  600 twin sleds. Now I can enter the three cylinder electric start reverse carbide pick class legally... Loon Lake is about an hour South of Rochester on rt 390.

2/25 Vince came from Albany area Sunday to find out what's wrong with his ProX 800/ 870 big bore, built by a well known sled engine modifier, no revswith normal clutch weights... with SLP twin pipes, made about 112hp at 6600 rpm, then hp dropped. Airflow CFM was low compared to other ProX800s. Tried different CDI, no change, good leakdown, crank indexing was fine, ex valves opening for sure...??..I convinced Vince to leave the sled on the dyno and come back Monday with a box of parts to swap on the sled; carbs, reeds, coils, stator, exhaust, came back monday spent most of the day changing everything on the outside of the engine, no difference in HP, final change was to take off the twin pipes and install stock single pipe, HP dropped to 94 and we were out of parts to try. Vince has the sled home, pulling the cylinders/ head/ pistons to have someone else examine to see why airflow is so low, and HP drops after 6600 (airflow flatlines from 6500 to 8000).

2/26 Full Power Justin Fuller with another RX1 stage 4, once again shooting for 400 plus. moved to 3/1 to allow me to create driveshaft guard for direct drive on dyno.

2/26 PM or 3/1 Tentative Joe From Boyeson wants to basline his own bone stock for sure MachZ then install Rad valves only to see airflow change, HP change over stock reeds. Need Jim Cooper here to do that correctly.
 no test scheduled--
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

DynoTech : Month of January

1/4 Had scheduled Glenn Sabatine to dyno his new MC Express turbo PZ, inctead he's going riding way up north to find some snow. So instead at 10am on standby Jimmy Cooper with his Mom's 600 SDI with some mods and three or more single pipes/ mufflers. Also Jim is bringing some race gas so we can test the SkiDoo hot CDI destined for the Old Forge SW DTR Shootout last lear (05).
PM we're doing Ray Stevens' bone stock 05 MachZ (good runner, no hiccups) Jimmy is going to install the 07 program and we'll get a good back to back comparison of fuel flow, timing and HP. We also have the exact DynoPort single pipe and can Rich ran at the Shootout (Best Bang for Buck), a BM modded ingle plus a set of BM domes just in case Ray gets greedy. we discovered Jim Cooper's SkiDoo laptop had the ability to load three 07 maps--sea level, med altitude and high altitude! Spend all our time with loading playing with the three factory maps, posted those results on subscriber pages.

1/5 Randy Callis testing to make sure his "upgraded" F7 will be safe for upnord riding without a boondocker. If not, I have Boondockers on the shelf. no boondocker needed--Randy had added a Bikeman mod stock pipe and D&D Ypipe to his stock 03, netted 151 HP at .65 on pump gas, needed his pac valve to do that. Had to drop fuel pressure on top end to drop from 110 lb/hr to 98 and was still dandily safe for his riding style.

1/6  (Sat?) Pioneer dynotech tuner Bob Calpeter with three Doos: The trail port CS pipes Mach Z Sherlock entrant at Shootout, will dyno before (as set at Shootout with deisel-like black smoke out the pipes) and after tuning. Hoping for 200+. Next we have a 800HO with some mods and I think DynoPort single with Joe DiSpirito's custom hooded needle jets. Finally a BigJohn 800/840HO, not sure what pipe, also with hooded needle jets, for carb tuning and determining cool and hot pipe HP peak. MachZ didn't come, was replaced by Jason Owens' F6/F8 big bore single piper that we tuned to 175HP on pump gas by finding the best single on the dyno pipe rack, then Boondockering to perfection. John P's trailport 800HO made 160 with DynoPort single. Scott H made 165 with BJ840, with 112 lb/ft torque = huge midrange HP curve. All pump gas safe. I'll try to post some or all of these on the website.

1/7 availaable
1/8 AM available
1/9 all day available
1/10 AM available

1/11 Boyeson Engineering renting DTR for all day to assess here their new reeds/ cages/ air dividers for the MachZ and 600SDI. Chuckaroo and Casey are coming with Casey's MZ1000 CS pipes, one bone stock MachZ, and a bone stock SDI600 for before and after airflow CFM, A/F ratio, BSFC and HP comparison with stock and Boyeson reeds. Chuck's still under the weather, rescheduled once more to Tuesday  1/16. Instead Billy Lutz and Rob Schooping are coming on 1/11 to baseline dyno a new  Polaris 700 EFI then tune it with Boondocker and  several single pipes, also HTG trail ported cylinders.... All done, results posted on the website already!

1/12 AM Scott Trapp's dad Gary had JanCen trail port his F7 with great results. So Gary followed suit, will dial in his carbed F7 single pipe in the AM. LooneyToon Bill late AM trying to ensure his F1000 is safe to trail ride Scott can't make it so we're just going to tune LT Bill's F1000 to .65 or .70 lb/hphr so he can ride without fear. Dialed in Bill's F1000 to a level of safety that he was happy with, plus found a nasty lean spot at part throttle that we Boondockered out. Next stocker I get here I'll try to see if that lean spot exists on cool stock pipe like it did on Bill's cool Speedwerx pipe (technical details in DTR archives "EFI and pipe temperature").

1/13 AM Fusion 975 HTG to dial in Boondocker N2O. This one baselined 25 HP shy of expected HP. Boondocker N2O added another 40 HP on pump gas. Rob Scooping came in, figured the problem, will rectify next Wed.  PM Rob Schooping using a Boondocker to make a stock ECU work on the big bore. need timing key to optimize w/ stock ECU and Boondocker, Rob had prototype shorter single pipe, made 187hp on pump gas. Late PM a Cudney 830 twin for dialing in. This one couldn't match the HP or torque of the other HO800 big bores tuned here, will revise and be back again.

1/14 AM Scott Nixon from NH with a prostock 800 doo triple, having deto issues on the track, will try to find the cause(s) and eliminate them. Came to dyno with richer lectron needles, fresh C14plus, made 216-218hp for 10 seconds fine smooth fuel flow even with solid mounts. No deto no problem.

1/15 Mark Stevenson, Fireball Coatings in CA dialing in a SkiDoo DNE trail mod. 218 on pump gas, safe BSFC at full and part throttle.

1/16 Boyeson stock/ trail mod Mach Z/ 600SDI reed analysis. DynoCams on. 11 hour gruelling session, three sleds, needed to call in Jim Cooper to tweak timing/ fuel maps, maybe 50 dyno runs with stock reeds/ rad valves/ wings, need to review carefully before posting on my website.

1/17 Bill Logan, trail mod MachZ. Todd Hogan trail mod mach Z with N2O. Both 518ers, had dyno mikes turned off, results private.

1/18 Jeff Sherlock dialing in the trail mod Mach Z he had at shootout, also testing a Firecat stroker. Came off the trailer with 44cc domes and 199 HP, lean and clean, at Shootout was blowing deisel-like black smoke for 1000 ft, Jeff figures it was poor battery connection and/ or low voltage Popped in a set of 41cc CS domes, after more Boondockering made 207 with 137.5 lb/ft.
Later in PM greedy Tony Buczek (our original carbed F7 that now makes big HP) to test his newly HTG ported cylinders with BM mod stock pipe, Speedwerx and D&D twins. didn't have D&D twins but this combo with seven degrees added timing made best HP with new D&D stamped F7 single pipe, 158HP at 8100. Tony is going to add two more degrees to nine added again, maybe another nip on the head to shove HP peak back a hundred or two hundred revs, should get 160 on pump gas.

1/19 AM F1000 with home made porting, stock compression, 2 deg key, stock pipe. while warming up at moderate load, found that same .46 lb/hphr BSFC between 6-6500 RPM we found on LooneyToon Bill's trailmod F1000. Boondockered that lean spot out after dialing in for good safe WOT HP with only a D&D Ypipe made between 180- 190 HP depending on Boondocker setting (Canada safe-drag safe on pump gas).
1/20 finally getting to tune my own trailsled, 02 Edge, swapped my 800 HTG triple and some $ and dyno time to Rob at HTG for one of his 1000 pump gas triples. I'll be bummed if it doesn't come close to Mark Stevenson's 1000 DNE triple. If not, will try added timing and/ or a bit more compression than the 11.8/1 it pours right now. Also have digatron setup to measure three EGTs and center section temp, will determine location of HP peak at various pipe center section Ex Gas temps. Being helped by Tripod Dan and his partner Dan Forte who have set the sled up for me. Off the trailer it made 209. Not bad but Mark Stevenson's 218 was bugging me. So I cancelled a Sunday appointment, installed digatron EGTs and cranked the stator another three degrees. Discovered one cold cylinder, turns out one choke plunger had swelled and was hanging open. Fixed that, then made 140 lb/ft 220 HP 8500 rpm on cold run. Should have been happy with that but my pal Tripod Dan bugged me into nipping the heads from 11.8 to 12.4-1 and tightening up squish. I zinged off .015 on my lathe and touched the squish a bit. Mon AM made 142 lb/ft 223. I  used Digatron to perfectly synch lectron 44s, had to raise two needles, one more than the other, the third had to be dropped. Now EGTs are even, power jet settings are perfect that allowed max cold HP to rise to 225 and I quit there. With hot coolant temps and safer fuel flow it's still above 220 HP so that's enough for now. Maybe for UpNord riding it will take more fuel to deal with low octane and piston alley, probably two-teens? That extra HP the dyno found me will make up for some of the weight I added by having Dan and Dan begrudgingly add reverse and electric start to the Edge. This weekend they're going to play with clutching with the digatron on the sled--from this dyno session we know what RPM the engine makes peak HP at and should shift at for pipe center section temps from 400 to 800. The Digatron records all of that and replays, so it should be easy to ensure that revs are always where they should be on that 4th EGT (center section gas temp) readout.
1/25 noon Mike Gross with one 1103 Cat triple
1/26 Jake Jenkins with another tweak on his Bikeman F1000 Shootout sled, and an F7 with new Bikeman pipe.
1/27-1/28 trying to go sledding
1/29 I'm Mr Mom all day, Marty the eight year old has no school. Mom works that day. Glad she's got a W2 better than mine.
1/30 AM Two Firecats.Anthony Kozlowski called 730 am to tell me he's on his way from Syracuse, needed directions, never saw him today, Tway accident? No phone number, concerned about lack of communication. PM Tripod Dan and Dan Forte trying to tweak a few more HP out of their HTG sort of obsolete but still competitive HTG 1000 Storm stroker Improver. This one was strange--had dyno tuned last summer to 252, needed 1/2 turn at 80 degrees F then for max HP with smooth fuel flow from 6500 to 9500. This time Dan and Dan wanted to test tighter chambers/ squish, some stinger inserts and have Digatron to measure individual EGTs and center section temp. Today, fuel flow was all over the place, pto cylinder was 10% hotter than the middle, 15% hotter than mag, could not cure the troublesome 48 Lectron...when we opened the power jet it got hotter, meaning the flow bowl was running dry...tie wrapped a 24oz breaker bar to all three carbs, it got worse. Loosened the three engine stops, 50% better but maxing out at 250 with the hot cylinder still causing grief. Then Driver Dan (Forte) noticed that the new 1/8th inch thick reed spacers were causing the pto and center K&N filters to push against the frame of the sled, and found float bowl and slide screws vibrating loose...removed the filters and fuel flow smoothed out, HP climbed with no other changes to 253 at .60 then we ran out of fuel and time. That buzzing stroker emits some evil vibes that the carbs can handle on the stock boots, but apparently foamed wickedly when the filters were jammed against the frame. Will be back again next week sans reed spacers and lots more fuel for testing, will dial in carbs to max HP and then roll timing to max HP, determine HP peak at various pipe center section gas temps.
1/31 AM Stan aka PTM aka Spike dialing in MachZ stocker with latest Boondocker N2O kit w/ regulated N2O pressure. Bill looneytoon is trying to get work caught up so he can come to assist. LT had to work, Jim Cooper helped out with computer monitor, PTM Stan used all of his EFI injector capacity to make good HP on upnord Canadian [hopefully] 91 octane gas. Regulated N2O outlet pressure worked well, looks like a good setup for making consistant added HP without worrying about N2O cylinder pressure. Stan is probably just getting over the dyno N2O button wet armpit syndrome most of us experience when trying for max pump gas HP (the sled owner always runs the juice button in the control room--instructions are to  release button the instant HP drops on the real-time HP curve on the computer screen, or when I yank back on the dyno throttle... whichever comes first).

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 24, 2006

DynoTech : subscribers who can dial in chassis' for others

I would like to make a listing of DTR subscribers who can, for a fee, do clutch/ chassis tuning for individuals. Dialing in engine HP on the dyno and finding engine RPM HP peaks at various pipe center section temps is half the battle. To get that HP to the ground engine alignment, clutching, suspension, track prep etc is critical.

If you are a subscriber who does this full or part time, please email me what you provide (ie: individual name or company name, brands you dial in, if you have clutch components on the shelf, have a test track (or a mountain nearby), track dyno, cost per hour (optional), hours or days of operation, address and day phone number/ email address.

I will try to create a listing by Zip codes/ postal codes/ country codes and post a listing somewhere on my website. Maybe we can help complete the performance tuning package for DTR subscribers.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, December 01, 2006

DynoTech : Month of December

12/1 Justin Fuller, former Bender Racing engine guru is now on his own with his new company Full Power Performance. This was a SRX triple that Justin had fitted HTG 1000 cylinders to, 11.5-1 compression ratio now with a load of Boss Noss N2O. Made 218 at .78 lb/hphr on gasoline, then blasted two stages of Boss Noss after four hours tweaking those awful needle fuel jets on the dyno 308 HP, smooth as silk. Everyone should tune these things on an instrumented dyno.

12/2 another 518er probably cameras off just so this guy who wants to torture his lakeracer pals in the capital district. Back again with ported cylinders, CS twins, dialed in good NA HP then added Boondocker N2O limited to maxed out 140 lb/hr fuel flow, could only use the smallest N2O nozzles for 244 HP. Larger nozzles would surely have detod. We have an idea to add fuel flow so we can take advantage of the Boondocker EFI system.

12/2 PM, Sherlock performance, one stroker F9 and another Firecat, one or both to enter the DTR SW Shootout next week. The F9 is not ready, this is an F8 w/ stock cylinders, stock head  Bikeman Fatazz stamped single with stock muffler, with only a 03 ECU and fuel pressure booster (48 psi) no Boondocker was needed to make 174 HP on pump gas (added high octane gas and bumped to 177 HP with lower fuel flow). I need to post this along with the other recently tested, significant single pipe stock muffler stock cylinder F8s.

12/4 and 12/5 Shootout sleds arrive from Old Forge, SW guys have swapped sleds around and will be setup at Big Moose Yam Sunday then the first wave hits here Mon AM. Second wave Tues AM. All live on webcams. Let's hope we find at least one ringer to have fun with.
12/4 we'll have the White Lake Polaris IQ 600 only and the two Old Forge Powersports SkiDoos (600 SDI and Mach Z)
12/5 we'll have the Big Moose clan with 600 and 1000 Cats and Yamaha four strokes.

SHOOTOUT DONE SUCCESSFULLY, INITIAL RESULTS AND HP NUMBERS ON SNOWWEEK.COM, FULL DYNO SHEETS HERE SHORTLY

12/11 Jaison Waiman BMP trailport ZR900 Boondocker, SLP single pipe for morning tuneup

12/13 a local Apex, bone stock with two five hole N2O nozzles. wayne Stoutner made all the HP as advertised, dyno sheets posted on website

12/14 Glenn Sabatine with a new Phazer with MCXpress turbo on pump gas. cancelled

12/15 Bill Stickney, RKTek 600/730 EFI  SkiDoo big midrange HP and airflow inprovement, at peak revs airflow and HP not much different from stock bore tuned up 600.

12/16 a Canadian DynoTech user with an F7.  Sorry Carl your not from Canada but from MA instead, trail ported F7 by BMP DD Ypipe BMP modded stock pipe, low compression 2 deg key Boondocker made 163 for 14 seconds on pump gas.
pm Gary Trapp tuning a F7 trail ported by his dealer JanCen in Buffalo NY. D&D Ypipe, BMP modded stock pipe no key, more compression than Carl's one hour before,
made more midrange HP and a few HP less at peak. But still high 150's at .70, low 160's at low .60s.

12/17 9am Randy Pifer 925 DNE Skidoo triple with spot on pump gas jetting made 200 HP, Randy hung around to watch dyno session in PM with DNE Don and Curtis and radar run madman Tommy McConkey with the new 1725 quad, set new record 281 HP for NA engines on my dyno, may post this week.

12/18 Dusty Underdorfen (sorry about spelling) with a F7 cat bored to F8 with OEM pistions to Boondocker tune. just after setting up canada fat map had mysetrious seizure at 10.3/1 and .68 BSFC. Checking piston to cylinder wall clearance.

12/19 AM Art Andre one more time to try out a larger capacity fuel pump and a Boondocker boost fuel controller. Big intank fuel pump and Boondocker controller = dandy fuel flow from low revs low boost to high revs high boost. Will post his numbers soon. Then early PM  John DiAngelo with a Chuckaroo  MachZ  trail mod 1000 w/ N2O Like the other machZs with Boondocker N2O injectors wide open 240+ HP that all the fuel flow will support. But that's all one needs for trail mod. Also a Price triple with model 66 Aerodyne turbo for fine tuning. 315 HP at 12 psi boost, tried N2O adder but immediately sneezed out some reeds.

12/26 Two more F7's bored into F8s with OEM pistons, one single pipe one twin pipe Boondocker tuning both. Jason's home brewed F8, made 170plus on pump gas.

12/27 Private (cams off) tuning Big Moose lakeracer.

12/28 dyno available in AM. 12 PM, Jimmy Cooper coming with stock 05 Mach Z, baseline stock then add 07 program. Will try Dynoport pipe that Rich had on his sled at SW/DTR shootout. Also Boyeson coming with reeds for Jimmy to install, and some wing-like devices that fit behind throttle blades at WOT. Also have a BMP modded stock pipe to test. Boyeson still awaiting castings, rescheduled to 1/4 PM

12/29 8am Michael Fitzherbert another F8, this one with D&D high RPM monster single, Boondocker.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

DynoTech : Month of November

11/3 RKtech 830 big bore with four different single pipes. Private test, cameras off I hope this guy gets RK Tech to belly up there is significant positive info in this test session, if RK pays for some of dyno time we may be able to post numbers, very significant.

11/4 F757 big bore trail mod twin Monster pipes for Boondocker tuning., Stock F7  with Bikeman pipe mod and 2 degree key. The monster twins from DD were a handful to dyno tune since they hit so hard at valve opening. See our test results on DTR. But with the larger 757 the transition from valve closed to valve opening was less abrupt, we got good numbers from 5000-8400 rpm. The 757 easily added 10 HP over the stocker we tested earlier on DTR, and was way smoother at valve opening. The Crossfire F7 was bone stock with only a 2deg key and Bikeman stock pipe mod. Also had a D&D pack to drop top end fuel pressure. We dialed in at 153.8 CHP tuned to perfection, these were 20 second runs, hot engine with 87 octane gas. We continue to raise the bar on these engines.

11/6 Mach Z twin, Boondocker tuning, Crankshop twins with crankshop domes. Mike dialed in his bone stock 05 with 07 programming from Jimmy Cooper, made 190 HP on Canada safe setting .70 lb/hphr BSFC, then 200.1 HP on our pump gas, .61 lb/hphr. It will take Mike 5 seconds to switch from Canada safe map to gonzo drag map.

11/6 Got a call from Fred at Lightning Pro, Bob's nightmare turbo kit was sold to someone else, the 48 mm Mikuni was bought elsewhere so the  goofed up carb was someone else's issue. Their standard kits come with a smaller turbo, a 48mm carb and Fred is going to try a hood  mod to see if they can get instant  acceleration instead of a lean-bog hesitation like we got here. That Rajay turbo is now built by turbonetics in CA, the same "suckthru" turbo I ran on my KZ1000/1327 in 1979. Also Fred indicated to me that in lieu of an intercooler their current kits use methanol/ water injection to cool compressed charge and help stave off detonation. Sean Ray and I ran 50/50 methanol water on a XC700 turbo non-intercooled, made 200 HP for 20 seconds on 93 octane pump gas. That will surely work if engineered properly.

11/7 Sean Ray final dyno testing Pol SnoX mods, no cameras Tim Benders' Hentges Racing crew chief Sean Ray's Polaris racers won majority of holeshots, had most HP won some races (Brett Bender swept semipro class). Sean races the dyno, matches acceleration rate, pipe center section ex temp from start to finish and he knows exactly where his HP peak is (to clutch to) every 100 ft.

11/8 D&D Dale Roes & Scooter DynoTech verifying F1000 trail port w/ Ypipe and D&D single on my pump gas, lots of live cameras.Very incredible HP out of single pipe, better than best ported pump gas twin pipe MachZs so far. Will post these results with stock pipe and DD single pipe also compare stock muffler to DD muffler including dB.

11/9 518er Bikeman trail ported F7 Boondocker tuning, also a Hauck trail mod 02 Yam Viper. The Bikeman trailport/ pipe mod was excellent, stock muffler needed Boondocker to add enough fuel to be trail safe at .70 158 CBHP, on lakerace boondocker map made 162 HP ay .58 or therabouts. Hauck Viper big bore 780 was plagued by low MPH, but had aftermarket long travel suspension. We dyno'd at 166 HP very solid, broad HP curve on top with Simons pipes. If sled is slow, it's not from lack of engine HP. That long travel supension might ride cushy, but must suck up serious HP.

11/10 Ed Sedlmeier dyno tuning his sons' Polaris SnoX mod sleds, probably cameras off unless he doesn't notice them on.

 11/11 Sat AM Rich Hoag, Firecat Sherlock F8, SLP twin pipes for Boondocker tuning SLP twin pipes that Rich had were too tight for this engine, made good HP on quick dyno tests but lost HP on longer 15 second runs. Made best overall long run HP with single pipe (tested Bikeman pipe mod and Bikeman fatazz stamped pipe with D&D ypipe almost identical). By going back to single pipe Rich was able to run with his stock fat 04 ECU with D&D pac to choke top end fuel flow to optimum, plenty for 160 plus on pump gas, the Boondocker necessary for twins can be sold to someone else.

11/13 Rod Rimco two trail mod F7s for Boondocker tuning, pipe testing Rod only brought one, F8 built out of stock cyls by  Best Performance a small shop in Mercer PA. This is the highest single pipe  F8 we've dyno'd over 170 HP for 20 seconds on pump gas. Some guys are sick of seeing so much Firecat stuff but this was exceptional and deserves a page on DTR. The Bikeman stamped Fatazz pipe worked dandily.

11/14 HTG Rob Schooping brought Danny Marsh's F1000 to dyno after Rob had ported/ cranked up compression fitted with Boondocker. Cameras were off . Only had stock pipe made over 200 after Boondockering. Incredible again. I will post a short CatFest article with the BM F7, Best Performance F8 and HTG ported F1000.

11/16 Jerome Pinkston I didn't write down what he's bringing to tune. did not arrive as scheduled

11/18 David Patrick F7 w/ ENGINE TECH porting Bikeman pipe mod, watch on dynocams for close to 160 HP on 87 octane gas. not Bikeman porting, a company called Engine Tech in Canada, stock head made 161 and change with Bikeman pipe mod, need to compare to Bikeman ported F7 tested last week, looks close.

11/20 Jeff Gorski, HTG ported F7 pump gas Jeff's F7, stock compression and 2.5 deg key made 157, I think crossfire fuel flow is higher that Firecat, and maybe timing is relaxed as well. Boondocker tweeked fuel to perfection. But still Jeff will be happy with 152 HP on UpNord map (10/1 A/F ratio) and drag-your-pals map at 12/1 with 157 HP. Hes's contemplating a .015 swipe on the head sealing surface, surely take him over 160 but I'm hoping he will ride it first, this is still big big HP on pump gas.

11/21 AM Art Andre tuning Supercharged Apex PM Damien bringing MachZ Bikeman 1100.Art's bone stock Attak made 240 plus with good gas, but fuel pump capacity is lacking. I posted his numbers on DTR, should upgrade to Boondocker controoler, may be back to map Boondocker with higher capacity pump. Art's son Damien blasted n2o on his1100 Mach Z but he also is limited by stock fuel flow of fuel pump/ injectors.  I recall we got 150 lb/hr on Billy Howard's Mountain Mach, but Damien's  Mach Z was tapped out at 140 lb/hr fuel flow so he must go easy on his nitrous nozzle sizing of his Boondocker  n2o ki.

11/22 Dales Roes and Scooter dyno test 07 F8 trailport with stock Y D&D Y, stock pipe and D&D  single pipe. made 120+ lb/ft and 178+ HP on 87 octane for 20 seconds, tested with D&D Ypipe stock pipe, stock Y pipe and stock pipe will post details on DTR shortly.

11/24  [Justin Fuller (former Bender engine tech) Now Full Power Perfomance dyno tuning 200 HP SRX mod he built, with Boss Noss N2O (I think Justin is also taking over Bender's Turbo business.) Moving to 12/1 to test

PM Eric and Tom from Tom's RV repair, another of Tom's F8s this one with D&D Monster twins for Boondockering.  Tom has moved to Lake Placid, now his business is Performance Engine, this was Eric's Shootout Sled from last year (had fueling difficulties there), this time he was several HP higher 174 and same torque 113 as last year with less timing and less compression. Also we found a nasty midrange 15-1 spot that was biting Eric's piston(s) last year at part throttle, we spent an extra hour tweaking Boondocker low settings in midrange 5000-7500 trail cruising to convert 15-1s to 12-1s. 

11/24 AM more RKTek 827 stuff to test, pipes, more radical porting, all in AM before Tom Arrives. Both engines were 170 plus on 93 octane with hot stock single pipe. That's three in a row dandy 827 engines from RKTek.

11/28 two firecats, one F7 one F6 from Canada don't know if cameras will be on or off! even some of the 500 ft drag ECUs can benefit from dyno tuning--we dropped fuel pressure at high revs on one on the bone stock drag sleds, picked up about three HP...


11/29 10am SkiDoo 860 twin big bore, single pipe possible shootout Trail Mod contender. CJ Powersports in Boonville NY created this dandy trail mod, Dynoport single with stock muffler and 12/1 A/F ratio was well over 170 HP. Refused to lean it down any more than that.

11/30 Gene Hurin and Rob Schooping coming with three sleds: Gene's ProStock1000 and Trail mod 1200, and Rob's single pipe IQ Shootout Trail Mod entry.





December 2-10 all SnowWeek DTR Shootout stuff, planning to dyno Shoootout sleds Mon Tues Wed, planning to go to D&D's open-house in Loweville Thursday. Shootout Friday. Hope for snow.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

DynoTech : Month of October

10/1 Another solid mounted race engine was giving the sled owner fits (wouldn't pull expected revs in 500 ft), and it similarly gave us fits on the dyno. Fuel flow was all over the place, indicating that the carbs were suffering from high frequency vibes that caused foaming and shutting off the flow of fuel into the carbs. I think that when the fuel in the bowl turns into a milkshake, the floats jam against the needle and seats, then the liquid gas in the bowls gets sucked out, foam subsides and another surge of fuel enters the carbs. I believe this engine will make 10 more HP with rubber mounts (since it leaned to death at high revs regardless of jet size), hopefully we'll get a chance to see that happen.

10/10-10/12 private pro racer tuning cameras off.

10/13 ZR600 EFI w/ D&D single pipe 720 big bore, several pipes/ chips Dave and his dad drove from Detroit last Thursday evening, hit that monster snowstorm at the border but made it to Batavia luckily had reservation at Super8.  I met them here at the dyno Fri AM  but we had no electric power to run computers, dyno, 7.5hp air blower, 3 phase hydraulic table lift. So they left sled here, turned around and drove back to Detroit.  Got our electricity back  Fri PM,  so I  set it up on the dyno  (EFI  w/ bypass regulator on rail, lots of hoses to meter fuel).
Dave had complained about poor sled performance (that's why he came here), and that showed on the dyno as coolant inside engine became extremely hot during 8-14 second runs (est 150 deg F plus). HP was in the low 120s and torque about 80 lb/ft. I removed thermostat and coolant temp dropped 25% and HP jumped to nearly 130 and torque to 84-85 lb/ft. That increase is probably a combo of higher airflow with cooler cylinders, and the ECU seeing high temps and pulling timing (fuel flow was similar on hot and cool engine). Dave may have had defective Tstat or it was resticting coolant flow. I don't know about water pump volume/ cooling system capacity on ZR600. But if they're designed to just cool a 100 HP engine and were adding 30% HP (and heat) with the D&D 720 then we could have a problem in the field with hot coolant and low HP. So Dave will install a coolant temp gauge and if  it runs much above 120 F he will benefit from additional heat exchangers.
Dave's coming back Wed to pick up sled.
*******After Dave got home with his stack of dyno sheets and graphs, he posted on Hardcore Sledder that he was pleased to have found the problem with his sled at DTR, Jim treated him right, etc. Dave called me to ask why his post was deleted  moments later!  My pal Commie Censor Rob is at it again because he's seemingly banned the words "DynoTech" from HCS for my being an ex-advertiser for being late on my ad payment. But what if Dave was not pleased with his experience here, and posted a bad review of DTR on HCS?  I'll bet it would still be there. Are the names of any other non-advertiser tuners or companies deleted from posts on HCS? I am singled out because I WAS an advertiser there for two years, now I'm being punished for being an ex-advertiser. By being blacklisted by HCS I am surely being made an example of for his other Banner-advertizers. So the bottom line is anyone who desires to discuss anything I do here either dyno-testing or publishing on the website had better do it on ANY other sled website, all of whom are DTR-friendly whether I have a banner-ad or not. And if you Cat people desire to see what Cat stuff I have going and wish to observe and/or interact, it's best done on ArcticChat.********


 

 10/19 Fusion 900 with custom turbo system, also an XCR triple mod for tuning. Mark's turbo Fusion has given him fits. No problem tuning boosted Boodocker box, perfect 11/1  A/F ratio but low HP, low airflow, low boost on what looks like a perfect model 53 Aerocharger. This is second time to dyno with similar results, since last session  had HTG do turbo porting (similar to what he did on Greg Bennets  300+ HP XC  big bore model 66 twin) but still no HP.  Will try a different ECU in the  field, if that helps he may be back. Al's XCR SLP trailport SLP pipes tuned in nicely with Holtzman variflow valve. That was my first experience with them, worked great, could tune from 171 HP .70+ lb/hphr leaned down gradually to 185 HP .60 by just tweaking variflow, now has EGT numbers to help him field tune from rich to lean. 

10/24 AM Doo 830 RKtech twin for tuning and a bunch of pipes to test.Had wrong date, was supposed to be thursday 26th but we're still waiting for a few more things to test, maybe later this month.
 1 PM Firecat F7 Bikeman trail port BM pipe mod, maybe will need Boondocker (have some on the shelf). Jake lucked out today--his 04 ECU was one of the fat ones, higher fuel flow lb/hr than most 04s. So instead of having to buy a Boondocker from me to add fuel, he only had to choke down top end fuel pressure. The higher flowing bikeman cylinders stock bore with 106 lb/hr fuel flow gave jake 154+ HP, choking fuel pressure down to give him 100 lb/hr made 158+ HP and adding a D&D Ypipe gave him nearly 160 HP. This was on Jake's 93 octane pump gas, 17 seconds at WOT on hot engine.

10/30 Apex w/  NA trail mods from SD, private test cams off. Lots of interesting fine tuning stuff, cheap moderate but significant NA 4 stroke HP upgrades,  maybe  sled owner will decide to share results on DTR.

.
10/31 10 AM---- RX1 with CPR turbo engine/ Lightning pro turbo kit (draw-through single Mikuni flatslide). Will also blow N2O on top of turbo. this session began negatively, engine would start spit misfire run on one cylinder then get enough cylinders to fire to drive the sled off the trailer, then it died. Restart attempts were futeless, installed frash plugs then it fired up then seemingly drowned in fuel again. Sage and I put the dead critter on our wheeled autopsy table--we managed to muscle the heavyweight modster onto the dyno table. I've watched Sean Ray correct many turbo Harleys on our Superflow Cycledyne eddy current rear wheel dyno. First thin he does on troublesome bikes is rip the carb off and check that out. On most turbo Harleys the trouble lies within the carb.
Sage and I pulled the Mikuni HS48 [H-D design] flatslide carb supposedly as delivered by Lighting pro. When Aerodyne was installing HS42 Mikunis on the early HD hits (we did over 1000 of those), and I am very familiar with them.
We dissected the HS48 and found that the float level was too low, preventing the 2.4mm needle and seat from shutting off fuel flow with 4 psi fuel pump pressure. This was apparently causing gas to overflow the carb and fill the bottom of the turbo compressor housing. So every time Sage tried to start this beast it would slug a shotglass full of fuel from the bottom of the huge Turbonetics compressor into the engine, into the cylinders drowning most of the plugs. If one cylinder could keep firing, it could eventually clean out two or more of the flooded cylinders and get running. This was surely not impressive in the pit staging area.
Afterdissection, we discovered that the HS48, as deliverd with the Lightning Pro kit had float level hopelessly uncorrect, could not shut off fuel pump pressure. All we did was set it to factory spec at 20mm and for the first time the engine could start, idle cleanly with no loading and stalling. Time for a preliminary dyno run.
I had Sage drop the boost from 22 psi where they were running to what would be 12 psi. With float level correct, it ran clean at part throttle, we loaded the engine on the dyno, and when oil temp and water temp was optimum we began our first 7 second dyno test. Even with Mikuni's LARGEST main jet 240 by 8500 we were leaned out to 14.8 and rising [bad]  so we aborted test.
 Sage and I had an old pal Don Frasier visiting us after his byannual prostate exam. He was exhibiting some misforgivings since, as Don indicated, during the very long exam period the Doctor had both hands on Don's shoulders.
Don suggested that since we were frighteningly lean with the largest main jet, lets take it out. Great idea.
So with the 240 main removed from the needle jet, we blasted again at 12 psi. This time we added gobs of HP and instead of 14.8 A/F ratio we had 12.4. Dandy and good HP. Thank you Don.
Next we bumped the boost up gradually to just over 20 psi where the engine made nearly 300 HP. A/F ratio remained at a dandy 12.4/1.
Sage tweaked the boost controller on the Turbonetics turbo (an oversize copy of the RayJay 370F40 turbo I ran on my 1977 Kawasaki KZ1000 thirty years ago) and on that next run our live dyno test graph virtually copied the previous run until 9500 where HP dropped like a rock and we aborted the test [real time graphs are extreme engine savers!].
That drop in HP on the real time graph was accompanied by a cloud of steam out the breather vent. This was surely at least temporarily terminal.
Day two, we engaged former Bender Racing engine/turbo/ dyno guru now independant Bender Turbo guy Justin Fuller to repair what we hoped was a blowen[d] headgasket.
Justin Came to the dyno day two with a set of gaskets--on any mod engine a stock headgasket is a perfect failsafe device--going into severe detonation will destroy ANY engine, and a popped headgasket is the cheapest failsafe device to fix.
But in this case, the engine was fitted with very rigid oversize cylinder studs that would try to maintain head gasket integrity even during the ravages of detonation.
But the forces of deto are surely like the 8000 lb Gorilla--unyielding studs create incredible cylinder to head sealing forces, so deto will instead either knock piston domes into the crankcase or yank stud threads out of the crankcase! Something must give.
So it appears after Justin's autopsy that one monster stud was loose (surely pulled loose from the crankcase threads from deto) and the headgasket had blown between cyls two and three.
There is evidence of extended deto on pistons and cylinder bores--piston domes distorted, squeezing ring lands tight but opening ring end gaps, plus cylinder bore distortion (number three was .006 out of round!).
This drag sled needs a new block, new pistons, and there is an unusual added friction in rotating the crankshaft that may add to the cost of ressurection.
The bottom line in my opinion is that if this Mikuni HS 48 carb did, indeed come with the Lightning Pro kit it was inadvertantly tuned to destroy. The tiny needle jet hood only intrudes into the massive 48mm carb bore by maybe 3/16" where there is so little airflow that signal at needle je ontlet is not strong enough to deliver adequate fuel flow. How often have you heard of leaving a main jet completely out of the carb and getting perfect 12.4/1 A/F ratio? That stock biggest possible 240 main jet delivered 15/1 death A/F ratio with 4 psi of fuel pressure.
Then Sage relayed to me that on the first field test run, with original 240 jet the boost controller created 29 psi boost [at probably 15/1 A/F ratio]. After that test they dropped boost to 22 psi. So with no intercooler, and the leanest possible A/F ratio Justin and I believe the major damage was done on field test 1. That surely would have deto'd the engine, perhaps begun pulling the middle stud, distorted pison domes/ ring lands and set up the damage that would manifest itself here as being terminal.
I'm hoping that the owner of this sled will repair it (new block, pistons, etc) and bring it back here for proper tuning before it hits the grass or ice.
The stock Mikuni HS 48 carb is useless in delivering safe A/F ratio in this application. They seem to work well on big inch Harley (this carb's intended application) where incredible multiple carburetion from reversion enrichens mixture to a safe level. Just like on piston port two cycle sled engines, big cammed big inch HD's have a cloud of fuel vapor hovering outside the carb at WOT--every time air goes in then back out the venturi then back in again it picks up more fuel!  But with this suck-trough turbo, the air only goes in, no reversion to help enrichen mixture. I have a plan to copy Joe DiSpiritos tall hood mods he created for SkiDoo carbs many years ago. This hood will be JBwelded to the stock needle jet top, increase signal and hopefully draw fuel from the float bowl as quickly as needed, not one second later.
If that doesn't work, I will recommend (and almost guarantee) that a single Lectron 48 will do fine in this application. On second thought, a suck-through turbo might not be a good application for a big Lectron--I had a set of 40mm Lectrons on a big block GS1394cc Suzuki back in the mid 80s that were horrible only because when you rolled off throttle to shift, the slides stuck shut and it was all but impossible to  reopen them. Unless the new Lectrons have improved their flatslides' friction, that "stiction" could be a problem with a turbo. The HS series Mikunis have rollers behind the slides to eliminate that.
I truly hope that this sled will be back so we can fine tune before the next 500 ft field or lake blast.



Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, September 01, 2006

DynoTech : Month of September

Sat 9/2 still have HTG's IQ600EFI on the dyno, just received a Bikeman modded stock single via UPS today, will test tomorrow, were promised a production DynoPort single w/ temp sensor bung hope that shows up as well.
Rob Schooping is coming to see final dyno tests, take his sled home in PM. Sat AM Rich Daley showed up at 10 AM with his production IQ600 single, forgot aboout the  Temp sensor bung fitting.  I opened the Bikeman UPS box, his modded stock pipe  also had no bung, so Rich and I went to Ace Hardware-- Rich bought  the correct size 12mm 1.25 nuts and washers for Rich to weld to the pipes  (both his and  Bikemman's--Erich you owe Rich a beer when you see him at the Old Forge Shootout) so we could use pipe temp sensors during tests. Prior to running for metric hardware we made one dyno run with temp sensor disabled lost 10 HP so that was not an option). I will post Stock vs DynoPort vs Bikeman modded stock pipe this weekend.

tues9/4 Dave Sanford's HTG XCR 1080 asphalt sled, new engine for breakin/ dialin of Lectron carbsHad the wrong ECU, torque and HP were way low with correct fuel flow, turns out we..needed an HTG "hot box" which we got WED AM.  That hoot box added half of what we expected to make up, wound up grinding slots on stator,  added a bunch more static timing wound up with dandy 260 CHP. A bunch of tweaking but that's why the dyno is here.

Wed PM Dan Forte and tripod Dan w/ HTG XC700 mod headed for HayDays after dyno tune.Cameras went off early in this session, forgot to pay intenet/ phone bill, should be back operating on Thursday. More tweaking and tuning, wound up with 166 CHP at 9300 Dan and Dan are please with that, especially since before they shipped the mod stock engine to HTG it made 148 CHP.

Wed PM 2007 Yamaha Phazer for stock evaluation prior to Bender turbo installation.Maybe Thursday PM or Fri AM  make that Fri PM 9/8, as you can tell from the dynocams the Phazer is on the dyno now, picked it up from Bender/ Sunnyside Cycles at noon, pain in the butt (for dynoers) return EFI system with small Fusion size automotive connectors, got it running two minutes before I had to leave to pick up my 8 yr old son at school, will probably dyno Sat AM but I have to find out bore and stroke of engine to enter into dyno computer for correct correction factor, anyone who has that info please email to info@dynotechresearch.com.



Thursday 9/7 tentative Terry Paine coming with Kip Cambell's Stage 3 RX1 has bigger turbo now, planning on 400 plus HP with Terry's pitot/ boost/ MSD tuning. Cancelled

Sat/Sun 9/9 9/10 testing continues on Phazer, concentrating on airbox mods, big gains so far similar in percentage increase to F1000 Cat Y pipe. Posting will be done Sun/ Mon.

Thursday 9/14 reposted the Polaris IQ600 stock info with updates from Polaris engineering adressing the lean bog Rob experienced on his early release grass dragger. On the Yamaha front Brian Olson from Turbo Connection in Rapid City SD (makes turbo kits for Harleys, Triumph motorcycles (including the excellent turbo Tiger that I ride) and some snowmobiles including his girlfriend's Phazer. Brian reminded me the the 07 PZ has deto sensors, an orange light comes on when the computer senses knock. So lean that baby out, but it still is smart to have A/F ratio info since we know that max HP is created at 12.5-13-1 A/F ratio.

Sat Sun I'm riding my turbo Triumph Tiger (it was beloved until it destroyed my boney butt in 490 miles in two days) to Old Forge to meet with George Taylor and the Old Forge dealers to make plans for December DTR/ SW shootout. I'm excited that we have great competition this year with the fairly equally powerful MachZ and F1000.

THIS YEAR'S SHOOTOUT:
600 class
1000 class
possibly exhibition runs with 750-800 sleds but not determined yet.
AFTERMARKET no more two sled limit. Charge is still $500/sled bring what you like.

9/21-9/26 That Polaris twin you see on the dyno is one of Tim Bender's Snowcross Race Team prototype Polaris 600 snowcross sled, dyno tuning with Sean Ray finalizing pipe spec, mufflers, carb tuning, all other tuning prior to this season's racing. If the picture/ sound is locked it's because Tim understandably wants testing private. Five days on the dyno, someone forgot to tell Tim "you don't race dynos". That session will make my next mortgage payment.

9/28 A Cutler F10 coming 18 hours to dyno tune, Boondocker tuning etc. Starting at 8 am.
This one is high compression race gas for sea level, Boondockered for a total of four hours an extra 30 HP for these fun guys, hope everyone watched this excellent session on dynocams. We were monitoring EGT in pipe center section, learned a lot from that so these guys know where clutch at 100 ft and how high to let revs slide up at 500 ft (match pipe center section temp to RPM to time). These guys will surely enjoy their 18 hour ride home.

9/29 AM bone stock 01 Mach Z triple, dyno jetting only, determine RPM for cool pipe HP peak vs hot pipe HP peak.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, August 19, 2006

DynoTech : Hardcoresledder-no more for me

I've gotten inquiries from DTR subscribers about my absence from Hardcore Sledder. For a few years I was a banner advertiser on HCS, and the last time it expired I was a few weeks late with my check, no arguments there but instead of calling me (my phone number is on my website) to remind me my check was due, the woodchuck who operates the HCS website simply locked me out completely, deleted my banner ad, canceled my posting priviledges, then to rub salt posted a "LOL" post about me on HCS. I can envision this butthole Laughing Out Loud about turning off my posting priviledges. So I'm done with that website out of principal.

I have a good relationship with ODS Dan (who operates ArcticChat.com) through Looneytoon Bill DiFranco, so any internet reading/ posting I do on Cat stuff will be on ArcticChat.com and/ or AmSnow.com and/or SnowWest and when SnowWeek gets their website going correctly I'll surely be involved with that, since they're my (our) partner in the Old Forge Shootout.



 

  
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, August 06, 2006

DynoTech : Month of August

STOCKERS WE SHOULD HAVE WITHIN 30 DAYS: Fusion EFI, Phazer, Cat 1000 2 stroke.

8/7 Monday 10 AM  Derek LaPorte Boondocker tuning an F7 Improved Stock. I love to tune Boondockers--Derek's homebrew 700 Improver took about three hours to hook up all flowmeters/ dyno connections then run ten dyno pulls to go from blubbering 150 HP to nearly ideal A/F ratio from 7000-9500 finally hit 180.2 or thereabouts on run ten, fairly flat A/F all the way. Boondocker settings varied from -40 to +25 depending on area in the powerband.

8/9 Wednesday PM Jim and Lynn Cooper coming back agian with their HTG MachZ triple 1000 PS to see if they have cured erratic fuel flow on big CS carbs with their solid mount engine. Wed PM still struggling--now fuel flow is too high because of oversize Needle & Seats (won't control mechanical pump pressure), ordered one size smaller will try again Friday, hoping to find the sweet spot on these carbs where fuel flow will be flat and predictable.

8/10 Friday PM, Looneytoon Bill with ODS' Cutler F10, trying high compression heads, looking to see how power and RPM peak is changed before Friday night 1/8th mile Lancaster drags. Bill's sort of on standby if we get done with Coopers' sled in time. Coopers gave up on solid mount stroker 1000/ CS 54mm carbs, back to Megatron 48s that gave much better fuel flow control, off to NYIRP to try to dial in. LT Bill was next, higher compression domes plus  removing the restrictive carb airbox (EFI is much better) got him over 200 HP, dropped his peak HP RPM by a couple of hundred revs. I need to post this  engine's results.


8/16 PM Sean Ray using the DTR CycleDyne eddy current roller dyno, mapping his Delphi EFI Softail Custom Twin Cam88 with Garrett ball bearing turbo. Shooting for 180lb/ft and 150 rwhp on his bone stock but boosted bike, pump gas.Sean couldn't get his laptop computer to communicate w/ his bike's ECU, will be back after he figures out software/ hardware glitch.

8/17 Thursday PM, Mark Cross' (Tripod Dan's brother) Yamaha Banshee quad, hooked to our SF901 via drive shaft from engine output shaft (don't call it countershaft) to dyno. Has nipped head, DynoPort twin pipes. Will dial in carburetion to perfection.I forgot how nice it is to dyno bike engines on our SF901 engine dyno. We have various splined adaptors to match drive sprocked splines, install a light driveshaft, punch the final drive ratio into the dyno computer and we get engine speed data. We picked up a solid 10% HP by simply tweaking A/F ratio to 13/1 (drag setup), rolling the ignition timing to max, and messing with the"boost bottle" connecting the two carb boots.

Maybe later Thurs PM, Dave Sanford w/ new HTG XCR 1000 triple improved stock. We were late getting started on Mark's Banshee, so we'll try to fit Daves mod in next week.
 
8/19 Saturday AM we have an anonymous 518er initials T.L. coming again with a MachZ twin, CS twins, Boondocker N2O hoping to match Billy Howard's 1250cc MachZ 300 HP with less motor and more juice.Tapped out at 280 today, while doing so I think we banged the reeds hard against the 8400 rpm rev limiter, maybe popped a few because we added more n2o, lost HP and struggled after that. Motor only was down 20hp after that rev limiter pop. TL will surely be back again. I must set dyno rev limit at 8350 just below stock ignition rev limit.

8/20 Sunday AM almost for sure 7 AM unlike my usual "crack of noon" starting time.  [make that 8 AM since Glenn got into town at 6:30 AM so he's napping until 8] Glenn Hall coming to dyno new F10 Cat. As of 8/16 Glenn was on his way to TRF to pick up some new F10s. His schedule looks like it will put him in Batavia late Sat PM, will try to crack one open and do a DynoTech breakin and get us some numbers, including seeing how closely they're tuned by Cat. Just got a call from Billy Howard who's planning to help out/ grab one of the sleds Glenn is bringing, so far it looks like a go for Sun AM, I think Glenn Hall will get to town late Sat so we can hit the dyno early Sunday. ****
Unbelievable, it was a hassle first time connecting F1K to dyno, new (better than hose clamped hoses) EFI connectors set us back but now we're ready to dyno tune F1Ks. If you watched on webcams you saw me struggle for contol at low revs just to pull the foreign load of the dyno from 1000 to 3000 rpm. I will try to post dyno results of out of the crate stocker, D&D airbox inlet mods (big) and D&D Ypipe (even bigger). I thought maybe glenn and Billy were goofing on me, tuning the torque knob when I was buying a new battery, but I checked torque again this is for real for sure. Won't need any fuel pressure dropping restrictor valves/ jets, maybe even a Boondockler to add fuel for the upnord multimile whackos.

I
just posted the Bikeman 1250 MachZ twin that Billy Howard dynod here recently, along with a full load of N2O.  Nick Piazza  helped me figure out how to put Jpeg files (graphs and photos) in my articles. What a genious. Thanks Bill D Looneytoon for helping me with that.

Thursday 8/24 HTG XCR800/1000 improved stock maybe PM.this was a struggle with this stroker small bore legal 1000--Tripod and Dan and Shane were strapped for time, bolted engine into chassis and brought it to dyno without firing it up first. The engine spit and sputtered refused to rev up, we found dyno cooling water in all three cylinders, popped the heads and discovered the wrong (too small diameter) Orings in the inner grooves. HTG fedexed the correct orings,  we installed them Friday let  silicone cure overnight (around studs). Then Sat AM  fired up and it refused to rev again, fiddled arounf for an hour or two, finally called  Jimmy Cooper who faxed a schematic we discovered the three coils were wired wrong, firing order was  all wrong.  Fixed that, braaap perfect made 266 on its first pull I told them to  go run it but greedy 'Pod wanted more, closed power jets 1/2 turn made 274 at 9600 (200 higher) but this was on the edge so he added 1/4 turn made 272 at 9500 that's the way they's run it. Note this engine had 48mm megatrons with air filters, ice cold water in engine 7 second pulls. Just the way they race it  in 500 ft (but hopefully less than 7 seconds). What should have been two hours on the dyno turned out to be eight hours. Moral of this story: make sure your engine runs clean and holds coolant before coming to dyno.

Next Mon/Tuesday Rob Schooping HTG with his Fusion 600 EFI ready to grassdrag, along with some helpers from Polaris Today John T Cowie was at HTG on business, picked up Rob's (I think they call it) IQ600, brought it to DTR now sitting on dyno table. Tomorrow I'm going to the auto parts store to get tools to disconnect fuel lines, then use automotive fuel line connectors to go from IQ600 fuel pump to dyno fuel flowmeter 1 then back to rail then another line from bypass regulator to dyno fuel flowmeter 2, then back to tank. Then the Superflow computer will compute fuel 1 minus fuel 2 to get us net fuel flow lb/hr. This is a bunch of work but necessary to see where we are with this new EFI sled.  I'm planning to do all connecting Tuesday, maybe get a baseline dyno run, then on Thursday Rob Schooping will come to dyno,  trying to get a production  DynoPort  single pipe to test by then.
8/30 Just posted stock numbers on DTR, cool pipe/ hot pipe including graph thanks to Nick. Hood closed same HP as hood open, waiting for Dynoport production single and a Bikeman mod stock pipe to try before we pull it off the dyno.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, July 17, 2006

DynoTech : Month of July

Tuesday 7/18 finishing up Billy Howard's Bikeman big bore Mach Z twin, cast cylinders, 1250cc. Crankshop quiet can big bore twin pipes, Boondocker tuning. Last session last week was over 156 lb/ft CBT and 230 CHP (should have had cameras on, but Billy wanted private session in case the numbers were poor, didn't want anyone watching us struggle. But now we have a big bore that surely works. Bikeman is sending us two more sets of chambers to try (lower and higher comp). Then Billy is planning to squirt his Boondocker N2O system to shoot for 300 plus (that's the new Champagne number). Dyno session today, began with usual repeat run to back up previous session last run,  down over 1 lb/ft to 155 and down 1 HP to 228.9  very unusual and disconcerting but that was all she had,  Billy pulled head to change to revised squish chambers, discovered damage from a piece of wire than left serious pock marks on heads/ pistons, hoping damage-caused debris was out the exhaust, installed new chambers fingers crossed, ran one 10 sec pull 160 lb/ft with 233.2 HP at 7800, but repeat run was down 20 HP and we quit, the autopsy showed serious FOD (foreign object damage) to piston head and awful gouges and cracks in cylinder wall from circlip popping out of one side of mag piston and wedging part of itself between dome and cylinder wall. Bikeman will have a new cylinder  in our hands Fri AM 7/21, hoping to drink some 300 N2O HP champagne in PM.

Thursday 7/20 Curtis Emery from DNE coming with three Yamaha 425 4 stroke flattrack racing motorcycles (one bobe stock for baseline, one stock cc full mod, one big bore stroker I think 500cc plus.DNE Curtis Emery modded flattrack Yamaha YZ450 mod and big bore stroker picked up 10% torque/ HP by A/F ratio dyno tuning, with broader HP powerband.

Fri AM Billy Howard will reassemble 1250 Mach Z live on dynocams,  late AM we'll dyno tweak to max, then add fuel to relax engine to .700 lb/hphr pump gas spec, then blast N2O juice with Billy holding button, maybe we'll sip some 300 HP champagne.Billy received the fresh cylinder this AM, reinstalled with new piston and a new high compression head, did breakin on dyno then saw maybe a one and a half to two HP drop in peak HP that bewildered us. We tweeked timing up and down, jetted up jetted down (not really jets just quick clicks on the Boondocker). It was just simply down .8 lb/ft and just over a horse and a half. We stopped tuning on high comp domes, switched to "pump gas" domes and Billy discovered his new cylinder has ex port over one mm lower than it should have been and booster ports visually smaller. That's surely the result of  buttholes and elbows flying at Bikeman, sending a cylinder blank red label the same day to chrome to be shipped red label the following day to DTR, trying to  finish this project on my dyno (other sleds waiting to dynotune Sat AM and Sun AM). But really what's a couple of HP on a 230+ HP engine? Never feel it in the field but I must say Billy Howard's not happy with knowing the engine was down from 233 to 231 HP. He was a madman, dialing in everything he could, pulled plugs after each run, tweeked fuel from side to side, we ran 26 dyno tests, 231 and a few tenths was all it had. He finally relented and after pulling the high comp heads discovered the port differences, that was the cause of the HP drop. Very very slight but surely bugged Billy H. But there was great relief knowing an ex port variance caused the HP drop. An hour with his die grinder will fix that.

We had spent maybe 4 hours trying to tweak that freshened up motor to match the one we beat up and made so much HP with a loose circlip dancing about in the engine on Tuesday. Here is one advantage of a brutally honest dyno operator. I brag that I don't GAF what HP any engine makes on my dyno, but I really do. But I refuse to "tweak" any HP reading for anyone anytime for any money. Any comptuterized dyno operator can add or subtract 100 HP to a readout and you could not detect the deception (but I could). Billy my excellent friend was hung up on trying to match the Tuesday HP, and was really just stuck .8 lb/ft low. Billy was flustrated (a word John T. Cowie coined to combine his being flustered over being frustrated trying to find HP on the dyno). I could secretly have added .8 lb/ft of torque to that rebuilt engine, matched the original HP with a few pretend HP and Billy would not have known and have been very happy. Would that be a good thing? Would that make his sled faster? But then when Billy removed the heads and discovered the innocent but significant goofup on port size/height we were both relieved there was a reason for the HP drop, not the dyno reading differently from day to day, or something else wrong with the engine. Finally we were both happy.

Billy installed the lower compression heads, and we tweaked fuel and timing back and forth, wound up at 229 and a few tenths, Billy was really hoping for 230 once again a touch of dyno sickness but it was what it was today. Another MM on that new cylinder Ex port and yes 230 plus no problem with low compression max HP tuning.

Finally we fattened up fuel dropped HP to the low 220's with high BSFCs to be extra extra safe before N2O dyno testing (Boondocker boxes are so easy and delightful to tune here). Then we went to hook up Boondocker N2O system Billy discovered he's left his nitrous oxide solenoid at home in Coutersport PA 2.5 hours away. So Billy drove home, I went swimming with my son, Billy will be back at 7:30 AM with his solenoid and I hope we can sip some 300 HP champagne (with OJ) before my next dyno session at 9:30 AM (the 950 big bore Rev twin with more N2O juice).

See you saturday AM 7/22. Sat AM met Billy at 7 AM at the dyno, reestablished na baseline, then began using only two out of the four N2O nozzles Billy had in the airbox. We made 280 with two nozzles but before we added more nozzles we bumped Boondocker N2O setting to try to get the 160 lb/hr that I thought we needed for 4 nozzles. All we could muster  with boondocker set at 99 about 148 lb/hr, about flatlining from 7000 to 8000, so we're betting the injectors were wide open. So like the HP Nazi I allowed Billy one run with a third nozzle connected (the 10AM Rev was coming in 10 min), and luckily we popped 300.1 CHP, which is way better that 299.9.

Sat AM 7/22 10 AM dialing in a Rev 800 HO big bored to 950 I think. Then I we'll be spraying N2O juice in this one too. This one had to go down 200 jet numbers to get fuel flow correct, close to 170 CHP at high .60's. Then their Boondocker carbed system suprised me with 210 HP out of a 40 HP squirt. Fuel flow was lean at .59, but surely didn't load up like the last one we dynod. Before we could tweak fuel up to be the way I like it we snapped the plastic fitting that connects the Boondocker solenoid to the lines and we were done. I should try to post this information.

Sun AM 7/23 Dan Forte and Dan Tripod Cross dyno tuning their hopefully not-so-obsolete 1000 prostock Polaris Storm. Have original HTG mod pipes plus a srt of Jaws mod pipes to try. Surely no 300 hP champagne but hoping for close to 250. After tweaking ignition timing, fuel flow (very smooth fuel flow numbers with factory motor mounts), worked our way up from 225 to 250+ HP with the HTG pipes, Jaws pipes only added a couple of HP on this one, at 750 higher RPM.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, June 05, 2006

DynoTech : Month of June updated

I'm planning Tuesday 6/6/06 to post lengthy dyno results from Shylock44's Fusion 600 with pipes/ airbox mod/ VForce 3 and four petal reeds, and a cut head. Also I have a session where Rich Daly from DynoPort, after he heard his Fusion 600 stampings were not so good, rented the dyno for a day, came with his hacksaw and torch set, modified his stampings, and made his pipe competetive with Bikeman and SLP.

Wed 6/7 Jimmy Cooper will come to dyno tune his new HTG MachZ triple 1000 prostock asphalt sled, comparing Lectron carbs to Crankshop carbs. 274 CHP, but solid mount triple w/ big carbs caused fuel flow anomoly, could cause leanout on topend from foaming bowls, next step custom needle and seats from Fox, maybe test week on 6/ 18

Sat 6/10  Yamaha factory roadracer Jason DiSalvo's (his Dad Jim is an old pal of mine)  YZ450  flat track racer, Wood mod engine tested with Wood "up" and "down" pipes. These results are contrary to what Wood suggests, Email me if you think I should add some bike stuff to DTR.




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, May 06, 2006

DynoTech : Month of May updated

5/4 Thursday, Erich Long Bikeman dyno testing 06 Rev800 stock and with Bikeman single pipe stock muffler, fit under stock heat shields. Also Bikeman trail port 06 Rev800 with Bikeman pipe. Tonight 5/8 I'm baching with my seven year old son Marty while his mom goes to knitting club meeting. While Marty is watching his fifth TiVo of the sat Ricmond Nextel Cup race, I will try to post Bikeman single pipe results, then if I have time the gonzo HP Boondocker turbo  Apex will be next.

5/6 Sat AM Sean Ray dynotuning Aerodyne turbocharged Evo 80" Harley. PM dyno tuning Sean's Dad Rex' Fusion 660  this time with  SLP single and DynoPort Single, waiting for a new Bikeman single  arriving early next week.

5/17 Rex' Fusion 660 is still on the table, got the Bikeman single last week, got a Bikeman can this week, Sean came up with a set of twin pipes, hope to finish that Thursday 5/18. Next we have Shylock44 Dave's  stock Fusion 600 to try these  pipes/ mufflers and also some reeds and maybe one of Sean's low compression tight squish heads.  Then this weekend I'll do my best to post these results plus the  results of the Boondocker gonzo HP turbo Apex (I'll do the Apex first).Shylock's Fusion600 numbers will be posted tomorrow, then try to get Rex' 660 numbers on Thursday.

5/17 Eric Johncox of Sunnyside Cycle Sales in alexander NY will dyno tune his son's flattrack bikes--a Yam 450 four cycle single and a 125 two cycle single.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, April 28, 2006

DynoTech : Stock sleds needed for drive belt testing

I'm in the process of putting together a dyno test program for aftermarket snowmobile drive belt performance comparison.

The concept is to take a stock sled, dyno at crankshaft like we usually do, then install drive clutch and driven clutch, slide the sled forward on my dyno table, connect dyno drive shaft to custom sled jackshaft that will allow jackshaft to drive SuperFlow dyno driveshaft instead of chain to driveaxle. This will allow us to measure horsepower delivered to jackshaft/ drive axle at various engine/ vehicle speed with various drive belts.

I need to "rent" stock engine sleds to do this testing if possible.

In exchange for one or two days of of drive belt/ clutch testing, the sled owner will get a day of whatever dyno testing he would like to do, value 8 hrs x $125 =  $1000. Or we can work out less dyno time and cash to boot. And there will be drive belts (the ones that work better than OEM) to go to the sled owner. Engine/ sled safety will be gauranteed by DTR/ belt manufacturer.

The first sled I need for this is a bone stock (other than timing/ fuel tuning that we can temporarily put back to stock) 03/ 04 Firecat F7. Then I need to line up a dozen other performance sleds for similar testing, I will post a detailed list next week. If you are nearby, have a F7 EFI stocker we can use, please Email me at info@dynotechresearch.com.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, April 08, 2006

DynoTech : Week of 4/9/06 and beyond

4/9 Sunday AM Jimmy and Lynn Cooper dyno tuning a HTG prostock 1000 That was John Cleveland's Price stock stroke 990ish XCR triple w/ Jaws pipes, those of you who watched saw a classic tuning session jockying MSD timing, Lectron jetting wound up with 253 HP.

4/11 Tuesday dyno tuning a Crankshop 1710 triple, owned by a W Virginia asphalt (not ashphalt please) dragracer, Jimmy Cooper is installing MSD ignition on Monday, dyno dialin on Tuesday. Jimmy Cooper installed a new MSD ignition on this formerly troublesome monster (used to pull like a monster to 1000 ft then spit and sputter and die). We spent 7 hours on the dyno getting the 52 CS carbs to flow enough fuel to feed the engine (solid mount engines like this often present challenges to create decent fuel flow into the carbs, but we usually can overcome that), plus optimizing timing curve/ retard now 210 lb/ft and 325 HP on six second cold run, and 205 lb/ft and 321 HP on 13 second hot run (needed  the longer run to ensure fuel flow to carbs was more than adequate for 1/4mile drags!)

4/22 AM Jeff and Dave from JD Powersports (who dyno tuned the big HP Cat 660 upgraded turbo) are bringing their new Arctic Cat 2007 four-cycle 1100cc Z1 big bore twin for baseline testing. This one stock is normally apsirated, JD is planning to develop a turbo kit to sell using the same ECU controller they used to make gonzo HP on the 660. Better-than-expected dyno numbers are posted on our website, JD Powersports turbo numbers should be coming this summer.
 

4/25 and 4/26 Glenn Hall and Jason Stoviac bringing Jason's Apex Boondocker turbo from Wisconsin to fine tune and to show off. Rocky and Dave from Boondocker are flying in for that session (I'm 30 miles from the Buffalo airport on the same road rt 33), Rocky will want to tune to the max on gas, then add a load of Boondocker nitrous oxide injection. Rocky will surely want to go for Bender's 415 HP record here, but Jason's butt is a bit puckered since he has forged turbo pistons but still has stock rods. Also Boondocker Dave took exception to the poor results we got on Ed's Garage's Carb Boondocker N2O systems. Ed sent me a nice used Extra12 suspension for my worn out stock 97 XLT 600, I owe him a dyno session for his new watercraft base big triple. Maybe I can get Ed to time it so he can bring his new triple plus one of his Boondocker N2O carb sleds again, maybe a day before the Boondocker guys arrive, to had Dave and Rocky show us how to get pressure into the floatbowls more quickly. I will call Dave to see if logistics can be worked out.Dave and Rocky won't have time to dial in Ed's N2O system, scheduling to do Apex is tight, maybe Ed could be on standby if we get done with Apex in a timely fashion. 

No time for Ed, but we dialed in Jason's Boondocker Apex boost-only to 360+ with hot intercooler, larger-than-stock injectors required some negative Boondocker numbers, but had the custom oversize injectors nearly maxed out. Boondocker EFI controller boxes have surely been my favorite for dyno-tuning dialing in fuel flow on big power EFI Firecats and Mach Z's and the turbo Apex using boost-referenced Boondocker box seems equally adept at providing good A/F ratio from idle to  max boost max RPM. I will try to post several Boondocker Apex dyno runs (varying boost levels, varying intercooler temps) this coming week.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, March 27, 2006

DynoTech : week of 3/26

Only dyno scheduled this week is Thursday 3/30 10 AM, ProX800 ported with SLP twin pipes, XC600/660 big bore I think SLP ported, 3 sets of twin pipes to test, several CDIs.Finished both sleds in five hours, 800 made about 170 HP, 660 close to 150 but the 660 pipe comparison was much different from what we saw on John T's 600 with same pipes. I may post results, showing generic changes in HP/ power curve with different pipes/ CDIs.

Internet/ cable/ phone guys are madly thrashing to get us a better line for dynocams. Hoping to have that done by Thursday, please email/ phone me after that if picture speed is noticably improved.Internet guys are still struggling, I'm contracted to have 1 meg whatver that means but I only have less than half of that, they are hooking me to new equipment this week, hoping dynocams will be smoother by week's end.

Also beginning April our webguy will have reprogrammed the webpage for subscribers to allow only original computer used for subscription to use user ID/ password. If another computer uses the same login info, the subscrition will be reduced by some length of time (maybe one month). So if 13 people share a new single password in a week, it will expire the first week. Many unhappy subscribers report that they log on with several in-house and at-work computers, don't want to be penalized because we're trying to thwart large scale sharing of DTR ID/ PW's. Still working on a compromise solution.










Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

DynoTech : week of 3/19

Thursday 3/23 3:00 pm, dyno tuning a troublesome XC700 stocker w/ SLP pipes Internet connection disabled by lightning, cameras should be running again tomorrow. XC700 was dialed in, jetted timed perfectly, plus took off loud can put on stock muffler added 3hp.
Friday 3/24 AM (tentative) dyno tuning Vince Logan's trail mod MachZ,  Jimmy Cooper coming to tweak and maximize ignition timing.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, March 05, 2006

DynoTech : weeks of 3/5 and 3/12

Monday 3/6 AM more testing on yamaha motoctross bike w/ aftermarket silencer.

Mon 3/13 nothing scheduled from here on out. Jimmy Cooper planning to stage tune a sdi600 this time with lower compression and added timimg plus we can dial in the Skidoo sdi600 shootout sled box.

Monday 3/13 dyno tuned F7 and F6--extensive tweaking multiple keys multiple heads multiple ECUs  fine tuning fuel flow  with restrictors. Cameras off  because  1) sled owner didn't want his competitors watching. and 2) something's amiss with building phone/ internet service. Sleds were from the twin city area of Minnesota.

Wednesday 3/15 9am a Big Moose lakeracer coming down for late season tuning, no cameras again (option of dyno customer). got this one dialed in, fixed an awful lean midrange, fattened a lean overrev A/F ratio, determined HP peak at 3, 6 and 12 seconds to enable proper clutching for the lake Saturday. 11am hoping cameras are fixed by then, Greg Bennett back with his turbo Polaris twin lakeracer, model 66 Aerodyne turbo with very custom mountain motor cast cylinders from HTG (Rob Schooping created a gonzo HP low port XLT 10 years ago, applying that experience to these 990cc cylinders). 116 octane gas, unlimited boost pressure. My armpits are beginning to moisten. rightfully so, nearly 200 lb/ft torque on my standard 1.25" OD driveshaft (my more correct large shaft would not fit bellypan) 296 CHP but EGTs are moon-high with safe mixture, indicating this engine may need more advanced timing, left it on the dyno, THURSDAY AM try an ECU with added advance, must have 300+ to try to keep up with the Big Moose Lake madmen this Saturday, hoping to have morning 300 champagne.

Thursday cameras will be rolling again, expecting something to observe soon.Thurs AM my armpits are still wet, 1.25" tube shaft held 204.7 lb/ft of torque EGTs are comfortably low thanks to custom Wahl Bros ECU for turbo, will try to post dyno numbers this weekend.




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, February 19, 2006

DynoTech : weeks of 2/19 and 2/26

I forgot to mention on 2/14 we spent four hours boondockering (and installing a key) with Sam from South of Detroit, a Bikeman F8 with BM single and stock muffler came up with four beautiful Boondocker fuel curves, HP from 155 to 161, posted power/ fuel curves on DTR.

Feb 20 HTG will be back again with ported MachZ with Boondocker and Crankshop twin pipes. Also blasting some N2O (don't call it noss) after NA tuning is done.boondockered from 192 to 197, stock compression (this included making a reed change and picking up 10 cfm and 4HP). Tuned conventional N2O kit to 268HP on good gas.

Feb 21 John Z bringing an 1100 big bore MachZ and a Cutler F10.F10 cancelled. John Z's 1100 easily made 200 on pump gas low .60's with 137 lb/ft NA, this time we got excellent HP out of  John's Boondocker EFI N2O which added 42 HP with two five hole foggers in the outer airbox...at only 500 psi cylinder pressure.

Feb 23,  JR  bringing troublesome F7  w/ SLP twins, modified to fit stock muffler, Boondocker to tune in. added a bunch of part throttle fuel, took away various amounts of top end fuel to try to obtain decent mileage and safe .70 lb/hphr WOT BSFC on JRs bone stock F7. These twins into the stock muffler were quiet but unruly at 7200 rpm valve opening I think because at about 6700 the HP begins to tail off as revs climb, then jumps about 30 HP as soon as valves open.  This would be less noticable in the field on 05 and 06 models since valves open in the field as soon as throttle is whacked. 2/27 update JRs dad called sled runs poorly in the field, plugs scary gray, I'm concerned since  we dialed in fuel flow at .70 then dropped numbers that should have created .65 and more HP on the dyno but it dropped HP. Was the stock muffler choking airflow CFM and creating deto? JR may come back in a week to try the real SLP can.

Feb 27, Intimidator Jim bringing his F7 stocker to try some fine tuning prior to going to Phatman  Shootout. Phatman Shootout cancelled, we learned a lot today about Intimidator's HP peak RPM depending on pipe temp. He and Fast Eddy will be at Big Moose this weekend with an all-new helix to match dyno RPM.

Feb 28 and/ or March 1, more CycleDyn (SuperFlow eddy current roller dyno) endurance testing on packing material on motocross race muffler. Also one or more of those days, a local performance company will be boosting performance of Cat 660 turbo.Today 2/28, local automotive performance shop savvy w/ car turbo/ supercharging came with bone stock T660 with  their own electronic upgrades (boost/ fuel/ timing/ parameter protection overrides), would you believe on their pump gas 165 CHP hot engine/ cool intercooler stab? Long pull hot intercooler still well over 150 on pump gas. They are planning to sell a plug-in deal that has these overrides.

March 1 PM going to Batavia Holiday Inn Yamaha show to look at the new Phazer. Will offer to barter coctails for use of a Phazer for a few hours on the dyno after show. No barter deal would work here, these truck guys just wanted to go down the road to next stop.

March 2 AM more dyno endurance testing of aftermarket motocross bike muffler packing. One muffler user is Ricky Carmichael who eats packing in one race, but last weekend was bounced for fuel violation after winning race.  Could nasty gas eat packing?

March 2 PM  three sleds to dyno: #1  a HO800 SkiDoo (dynod stock a few weeks ago) with  custom low dome pistons to alter port timing w/ custom head dropped into cylinder more on this situation later. #2  Dan Forte's XC700 stock cylinders w/ HTG twin pipes, cut head, timing cranked,  147 HP at .60 lb/hphr. #3 John T Cowie's XC600 looking for more HP on his twin pipe trail mod sled cut 1/2" from center section cut 1/2" from header pipe, should have gained a few hundred revs, and gained 5 or more HP? lost 10 HP.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, February 03, 2006

DynoTech : weeks of 2/5 and 2/12

2/6 AM HTG trail port XCR800/ Edge 600 chassis The HTG pump gas XCR800 trail port with HTG pipes made 180 at .70 and 192 at .58 lb/hphr, HP peak from 8200 to 8500 depending on fuel flow.
2/7 AM Charlie Primmer with a troublesome Hooper 1365 triple.Charlie and I struggled with this, HP peak was  not smooth-- humps and valleys, while changing main jets noticed only a drizzle of gas in float bowls after 10 second dyno runs, found  1.5mm needle and seats fouled a bit with corrosion/ debris, switched to new 2.0mm n&s and  had to jet down to achieve same lb/hr fuel flow. No more humps and valleys, Charlie's radar run sled is still a bit low on HP with 270 (considering displacement) but should not surge and gurgle anymore like it did with undersize partially obstructed n&s's.
2/8 AM Larry Frasier ZR900 with full D&D trail package porting/ pipes/ Boondocker we tweaked Larry's sled to safety with 170HP, high .60s BSFC but the EVs opened way too early for twin pipes, early EV opening = airflow drop causing rich condition that we had to go negative with boondocker to partially correct
2/9 AM Vince and Bill Logan, 518ers (518 area code HP madmen) Vince' juiced/ piped Mach Z tickled 250 HP, Bill's all-motor MachZ out-HP'd Chuckaroo by a few tenths of a HP, will post Bill's dyno sheet.
2/10 a HTG ported CS twin pipe MachZ, also with juice to boot made 198 on mostly last season's pump gas left in tank, but never got chance to shoot N2O since we frosted a plug in midrange trying for 200--that makes two frosted MachZ 2-pipe plugs on two sleds (caught before seizure could occur) in midrange with seemingly safe A/F ratio and BSFC. Need to boondocker these twin pipers heavy in middle WOT to make them safe.
 2/11 AM thru 2/12 noon Marathon session, 5 [Massachusets] sleds to dyno tune (maybe we'll begin Friday PM).Ed Derby and pals; spent most time with a troublesome Pol 800 twin w/ billet 900 cylinders, made way less airflow CFM and HP than a different brand billet 900 Pol twin topend tuned here two weeks ago. Will investigate cause. Had better luck with same brand billet 860 cylinders. But that sled had boondocker carb N2O kit that was impossible to dynotune (as opposed to EFI boondocker N2O which are a delight to dyno). I don't think the boondocker system of pressurizing floatbowls to add fuel can possibly work reliably with any sort of HP--I will post those results. Anyone who is making good HP with that kit please email me.  Ed dyno tuned two Carl's Cycles built Polaris twins--a low comp 660 that made mid 140's and a 800 twin trailport that made 155 with a quiet single pipe (nearly as much CFM and HP as the troublesome billet 900 created with twin pipes).  Finally a previously often-seized F7 carb 780 big bore, now tuned to mid 150's HP at .70 lb/hphr and similar very safe BSFC in cruise mode at all midrange part throttle positions on the dyno. All tuning done with 120 degree F coolant temp. Sled is now fitted with coolant temp gauge.
2/14 late PM, Sam Verduce Boondocker tuning on  Bikeman F8 single pipe trail sled Sam's F8 dyno session was four hours, added 2.5 degrees of timing, dialed in  160+ Hp at .65 BSFC and a second boondocker map 157 HP at .70x lb/hphr BSFC from 7300 to 8000 RPM. one hour of the test session was devoted to creating optimum cruise A/F ratio to obtain safe fuel flow without drowning engine, expect now an extra 3 mpg?
2/16 AM a tweaked F7 non-Boondocker will dial in with fuel pressure if necessary Five Star Ken had 04 stocker with reprogrammed ECU, Bikeman mod stock pipe, 2.5deg key, only 98 lb/hr fuel flow at 44 psi gave him 154 HP @.low .60s lb/hphr NO FUEL CHOKE ALLOWED also tried his MBRP can, lost 5 HP you will see that on Ebay. PM John T Cowie's infamous Ultra now 1080cc HTG mod, now a bit more compression and stock can removed in favor of higher flowing individual silencers/ stingers.JohnT's HTG Ultra made 261 HP this time, with ice cold water in the engine like he does dragracing--with fresh fuel and good vaporizing carbs like Lectrons there are no cold seizures.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, January 21, 2006

DynoTech : Weeks of 1/22 and 1/29

Monday, Kevin Freeman driving in from The Sled Shop in Presque Isle ME. Mach Z trail ported. CS twin pipes, Boondocker to dial in. Boondockered this Sled Shop trail sled to a safe 192 CHP at close to .70 lb/hphr, 125 lb/hr fuel flow on top end. also Boondockered out a vicious midrange .45-.47 lean spot at 50-70mph cruise. now it's dandily safe everywhere.

Tuesday Randy Haulman back again with revised nitrous oxide plumbing on his SkiDoo, new plumbing = good HP easily made 200 plus before cylinder ran low of liquid in his Boss Noss setup-- and that F7/F8 should be here for tuning this time this F8 was done by Racin Station and has excellent airflow and HP, picked up 8 HP with Bikeman pipe mod to boot. Also in PM a Canadian lakeracer F7 for tuning Craig's F7 trail port was done by Iantamassi (sorry about spelling) made dandy CFM and HP, also picked up 8 HP with Bikeman pipe mod, could have used Boondocker but we were able to get by with tweaking fuel pressure.

Wedneday Tim Ellis with a lake racer mod 1000cc TCat.150 psi compression, 44megatrons, D&D trail pipes = 218 CHP, Tim had a dynosheet on this engine from Anoka-Ramsey's SF901 dyno 220 CHP close enough.

Thurs-Tues off on ill-timed vacation to FL.

Wednesday 2/1 am Bikeman trail port single pipe F7.SnapOn Dick's F7 was surely one of the best, with BM pipe mod DDY and BM trail port, Boondockered on pump gas three Horsepower settings 161, 157, 154 (the last = Canadian trail setting .70+ lb/hphr)


Thursday 2/2 9am a stock Mach Z and CS pipes to be Boondocker tuned Mike's bone stocker w/ 05 map, CS domes wound up with three Boondocker HP settings, 192, 188, and 185. 11am a MXZ700 w/ mcDizzy ultra midrange package. we jetted, tweaked different reeds/ boost bottle combos made nearly 140hp, about 20 more than stock. 2PM a Union Bay Polaris 900  billet cylinder twin with SLP twin pipes, plan on testing pump gas and race gas domes (tentative--confirm on Wed) Rescheduled for Sat AM 2/ 4/06... dyno'd Sat AM, on race gas 182 HP with timing and jetting optimized, pump gas made 178 HP, Friday 2/3 AM Jeff J's homebrew trailport F7, 010" off head, 2.5 deg key, Boondocker, new Bikeman stamped pipe (clone of modded stock pipe?).Jeff's was another good one, but it took our BM mod stock single to reach potential of 158 HP,  154HP and 151HP (three Boondocker pump gas settings). Jeff's first Bikeman stamped clone pipe split the difference between bone stock single and BM mod single. Also a new DDYpipe added zero to this particular combo.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, January 15, 2006

DynoTech : Week of 1/16

This week will post dyno results Fusion 900 w/ SLP airbox/ ECU program, SLP single SLP can vs stock muffler, Dynoport Ypipe, Dynoport single, Dynoport can.

Monday AM Rob Schooping HTG Fusion (not sure if stock or otherwise) Boondocker N2O system tunup, if we have time a dyno pull on Rob's 1200 pump gas triple (as run at Shootout).  975 cc HTG Fusion with and w/o N2O will be posted this week with other Fusion dyno dumbers, also  will post HTG 1200cc pump gas triple.   Early PM dyno tune the same Bender RX1 turbo that made 400+ HP here, with some sort of tuning modifications spent 8 hours w/ Ted Jannetty and Casey Mulkin tweaking and tuning (394 HP), finished too late for Sean to dyno.  Late PM, Sean Ray's Dad's Fusion 600 (now big bore), hoping Rob Schooping brings a set of HTG twins to test on this engine will dyno Tues after F7 imp stock.

Tuesday AM, trail port MachZ w/ Crankshop twins still lacking parts, will reschedule. Tues PM an F7 Imp Stock from Maine, Jaws pipes Severely Boondockered the imp stock ECU, made 178 HP at 9500 RPM.

Wed AM nothing scheduled spent all day posting dyno numbers of stock Fusion with single pipes and HTG's 975 both n.a. and with Boondocker N2O. Wed PM Sean dyno'd his dad's 660 Fusion with stock pipe--Dynoport sent over one of their new Fusion 600 pipes to dyno with, but delivery person hid the pipe out back in a trailer and we never found it until we were done testing. I will try to post Sean's results this weekend.

Thursday three MachZ's, various trail mods including Bikeman big bore, CS twins, Bikeman mod single, etc. Jimmy Cooper is helping out with his computer to dial timing on each sled to max HP.
Two MachZ's now sheduled for Thurs, Bikeman big bore w/ Bikeman mod stock single, and stock bore Bikeman trail port w/ Bikeman mod stock single. Jimmy C will be there at 10 AM. Richard Lavanant's 05 MachZ was here recently bone stock except domes and pipe mod, this time he came back to dyno w/ trail porting and added about 20 CFM but only one HP, even with timing rolled around. Then we dyno'd Richard's dealer Russ Horn's big bore MachZ w/ quiet CS twin pipes, only 10 CFM more than Richard's single pipe 1000 and only about 10 HP more. Turns out we had 1000cc CS pipes on the big bore, need larger stingers, pipes are being updated by Crankshop. Should be back to redyno in a few weeks.

Friday Boondocker tuning an F9 with 50 HP Boondocker N2O.one of our 518 area code pals, this was a return trip (he discovered after first tuning session the his EGvalves had been in backwards). Boondocker seems to shut the engines off with a pop at about 40% fuel flow increase. The 50 HP nozzles were too much (required a total of 50% more fuel) so we welded four N2O nozzle holes shut with hot screwdriver, added nearly 25 HP to NA with no Boondocker shutoff.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, January 07, 2006

DynoTech : Friday 1/6 forward


.....Fri AM is reserved for an F9 twin piper that needs tuning if I can find a tech wrench to help out, I should know by wed results Bill LT helped dial this one in from 175 to 188 HP, adjusted carb vents and needle height to imrove mileage. Owner promises to install a H2O temp gauge to monitor.

Sat AM dyno'd Chris Nixon's  MachZ with Boondocker N2O, tweaked fuel numbers/ tweaked four N2O nozzles to add 80 HP on race gas. There had to be something partialy blocking N2O flow on prior MachZ Boondocker.

Sunday 1pm dyno tuning Greg Bennett's Polaris 780 twin with Aerocharger turbo. He will start with a model 53 then move up to a rare model 66 and add big boost.

Tuesday a new Apex with Hauck fuel control and maybe some mods, and one Fusion 900 to try some Fusion single pipes on!Did Ben's Fusion, tested w/ SLP pipe & can vs Stock muffler, then tried my DynoPort Ypipe, single and can. The Apex wasn't ready so we tweaked in a stock MachZ w/ Crankshop twins and Techlusion box (box was difficult to tune in).Tuesday PM hoping to have Sean Ray bring his dad's big bore Fusion 600 to try SLP single, DynoPort single, and maybe HTG can send us a set of their twins to try Still no pipes available for Sean to try. Rob Schooping had to cancel his Wed N2O session, rescheduled to Monday, he will try to bring a set of his twins for Sean to run.

Wed AM HTG's Rob Schooping is coming to dyno a Boondocker N2O equipped Fusion 900.cancelled until 1/17

Thursday two more MachZ's, some sort of secret test with one of the sleds said to need the big driveshaft. JIMMY COOPER WE NEED YOU HERE WITH YOUR COMPUTER TO ROLL TIMING ON BOTH SLEDS (he charges $50/hr to do that). Thurs PM a Firecat sort-of-stocker from WAY up north, begin thurs PM finish Friday AM. dialed in Boondockered CS trail port pump gas w/ CS twins 190+ very safe, struggled w/ Boss Noss on another Mach Z.

Saturday: 1) 830 SkiDoo twin, 2) ZR900 EFI, 3) M7 Racin Station F8 F8 couldn't make it, dialed in the same tweenerized 830 I posted on DTR a year ago (will try to repost new numbers w/ better head, tweeked timing, and dialed in Boss Noss N2O)

HOPE TO POST THIS WEEK SnowWeek/ DTR Shootout dyno certification results including SkiDoo hot box, some successful Nitrous numbers.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, December 31, 2005

DynoTech : This week's Dyno schedule update

Finally some more non-cat stuff on the schedule.

Thurs AM we finished off the 800 SkiDoo twin. Jimmy Cooper spent a few hours dialing in timing, added timing could not keep the race twins away from rev limiter. Larry put the stock pipe back on, Jimmy rolled the timing up and down, adding timing helped miidrange but lost on top. With added compression, stock was best.

Thursday PM Greg P. brought in a boondockered (with suggested settings) F9 with twins that they were having trouble getting to run decently, came with 142 left with a 170 HP trail map and 175 HP lakerace map on his boondocker.

Fri AM I goofed, SRX is coming in spring.

Monday 1/2/06  is a big HP day I hope. This afternoon Terry Paine is dropping off my monster driveshaft (he borrowed to dyno a stage 3 RX1 on Bender's SuperFlow dyno). First some Central NY Racing guys are dialing in a big load of Boondocker nitrous, shooting for 275 in the AM?
In the PM, Thousand Island Goose Bay radar run madman Stanley Parker is coming to dial in his stage 3 Bender RX1 turbo with MSD. I'm hoping that he's not hoping for 400. Preliminary results: within an hour after Terry Paine returned the monster shaft to us it got twisted like a piece of black licorice (it had been dented and weakened by an earlier hydraulic lift mishap and just came off Bender's dyno on a 390 hp turbo with no problem) while we were dialing in MachZ stocker w/ Boondocker & Boondocker N2O. Since we were having trouble achieving the expected monster torque we went back to standard shaft. NA the Boondocker was perfect in enabling us to match the improvement  we saw with the Shootout  MachZ racebox. After that we struggled to add 20 hp with what was supposed to be a 100 hp  four-nozzle kit. We  tuned in what we could,  we will try to get some assistance from  Boondocker tomorrow to enable us to increase N2O and fuel flow to create more meaningful improvement.  With no monster shaft, I had to cancel Gooose Bay Madman Stanley until a replacemnt monster shaft is built.

Tuesday we'll put another few hours testing Race Tools' muffler packing on our Cycledyne. The eddy current absorption unit maintains constant speed load, and we dial in enough throttle to maintain a desired HP level. In the PM my pal Big Joe DiSpirito is coming with Mike Gross to tune a ZR900 with twin pipes that Joe built. Then if we make 180+ we're going to eat Joe's favorite low carb best in the world ribs at Alex' Place. Joe didn't make it, but  Mike and pals came, made 180 plus and I bet they ate ribs without Joe.

Wed AM Jay from Sun and Snow someplace in Central NY is bringing in an F8 with Boondocker nitrous to dial in. PM I'm Mr Mom (my wife works Wed's and Fri's as a Court Reporter those days I pick up our 7 yr onld son at school so only one fairly local AM sled on those days).

Thursday Richard is bringing in TWO MACHZs, one ported with Boondocker and CS pipes, the other I think with Bikeman domes and stock pipe mod.Richard also wants to dyno tune a third sled, either an 800doo twin or a Fusion, can't remember which.

Fri AM is reserved for an F9 twin piper that needs tuning if I can find a tech wrench to help out, I should know by wed.

Sat and Sun are open (weekends are $25/hr more).

Week of 1/8 Tues and Thursday are full (on those days 3 MachZs and one Fusion 900 to try Fusion single pipes on!), have  Monday all day, wed AM HTG Rob Schooping is coming to dyno a Boondocker N2O fusion and Friday AM open. next weekend looks full unless we get cancellations.









 







Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, December 29, 2005

DynoTech : Dyno update

Today we dialed in Dave Morris' ZR1010, we have his last year's dyno numbers posted on subscribers' pages. this time he came with twin pipes insead of last year's single with stock muffler. HP was down by maybe 8-- Dave didn't have time to reinstall his single pipe to redyno but I suspect that his twins are beating him up. not the first time we've seen that. But we were able to tune his Boss Noss system to add very close to 30 HP to his baseline.

We also dyno tuned his pal Dan Anderson's Bikeman F8, added a key here to get 160+ HP at .70 extremely safe BSFC with only raised fuel pressure. We needed to bump timing because with stock key his HP peak was sliding up to 8200 where stock ECU map pulls fuel flow out to dangerously lean for F8, and installing a 2 degree key shoved HP peak down to 7900-8000 where fuel flow is fat and happy.

Dan had a Boondocker box with him to dial in, but his low-revving bikeman modded stock pipe and his added Bikeman fuel pressure made that unnecessary. He was fine with stock ECU, bumped fuel pressure.

After Dave and Dan headed west on I90, I called Larry Bartlett (local sled tuner on standby) who brought in a 03 1/2 Blair Morgan MXZX800 that he had tweaked with a .015 headnip and sanded ports, stock pipe and DynoPort can made 104 lb/ft 158 HP at .58 lb/hphr. We fattened up jetting to drop HP to 152 at .65.  Larry installed a set of last year's factorymod snoX twin pipes, made 154 just as the rev limiter kicked in 1000 rpm higher than stock, with maybe 10 less lb/ft torque. Jimmy Cooper is coming tomorrow 8:30 AM with his computer to bump timing to see if there is more HP lurking.   
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

DynoTech : Rest of dyno schedule

12/28/05 Dave Murray is driving tonight from IL will get here in time for meat at Alex' restaurant, dyno tomorrow beginning 8AM DD1010 this time w/ twins, then a Bikeman F8 of some sort. Then in afternoon I have a local Larry Bartlett on standby with a ported SKIDOO 800HO with twin pipes.
12/29/05 9AM Dave Crampton I think has a ported F7 to dial in. In PM Greg Peffolano is bringing in someone's F9 to dial in.
12/30/05 9AM Jim Zucco dyno tuning a Yamaha SRX.

1/5/06 Richard LaVant MachZ lakeracer, ported, twin pipes. Also a stocker with bikeman heads and Bikeman pipe mod/ Bikeman muffler, compare to stock

1/14/06 Randy Haulman and two as yet unnamed accomplices: SkiDoo 830 twin w/ Boss Noss, ZR900 EFI, and Racing Station modded F7/ F8.

1/15/06 Bob Craybiss with a trail mod SkiDoo; I can't recall model.

Lots of time available Jan 3, 9, 10, 12, 17, 19, 21, 22,  23, 24, 26.

In between on standby, Sean Ray's Dad's Fusion 600/670 (cylinders arrived late, still waiting for pipes). Bill Rogers' Fusion 900 with pipes, HTG big bore Fusion with pipes.

Soon to be posted on website: 06 Polaris 440IQ SnoX racer, Boss Noss evaluation. SnoWeek/ DTR Shootout sled dyno results (as soon as SnoWeek Shhotout issue is in their subsribers' hands) including Mach Z with hotbox making gonzo HP with dragmap.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

DynoTech : Finally figured out my blog password

My webguy Jim M. is in Saskatchewan for Xmas/ New Year (family stuff), my home computer lost all stored passwords including the one for editing DTR. By trail and error I'm finally back in, will try to update dyno schedule tonight. This afternooon we'll be running that YZ450 sitting on the Cycledyn, trying to burn the packing out of the muffler. Tomorrow for sure Dave Morris coming from Chicago again, bringing that same Cat 1010 we posted here last year, this time with twin pipes. I think he's also bring an F8 of some sort for Boondocker tuning. 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 18, 2005

DynoTech : Sunday's Dyno tuning results

If you watched today's dynocams you saw us we struggle with Scranton PA sledder Mark Dombrowski's 04 Fusion fitted nicely by him with a Series 53 143N300 Aerocharger, intercooled and Boondocker boost measuring box. Mark was shooting for 200 pump gas HP. No problem.

For normally aspirated EFI mod sled it usually takes 2-2.5 hours to dial in Boondocker to perfection. The Boosted mode on this prototype Boondocker was new to me, but we dialed in A/F ratio safely at 5 psi boost in about three hours. But with perfect A/F ratio and 5 psi boost the HP and airflow CFM were only marginally higher than stock!

Turbo 2strokes normally show us 4-5 or more PSI pipe center section pressure higher than boost pressure, but this one measured 3 psi LESS than boost pressure!

After checking out the Aerocharger top to bottom, then even wiring the vane controller closed we failed to create backpressure or more than 5 psi boost.

Mark and his pal Allan (Allan brought a troublesome trail mod XCR800 to diagnose but he had a new-style clutch on an old-style crank end and we could not remove his clutch with either our new or old style pullers so no dyno tune was possible) are on there way home to Scranton.

Then I got a call from Sean Ray, on his way home from the Gaylord MI SnoX race where his Sean-tuned Tim Bender/Team Industries SnoX racers had some difficulties with a few perpexing mid-race seizures. Since I am the only person that has exceeded Sean's personal dyno piston seizures at DynoTech he occasionally consults with me when that happens on or off the dyno. When you tune for max HP you must dance around temp, baro, fuel octane, fuel reid vapor pressure, piston clearance, etc etc.  I am confident the Sean-tuned racers will be fine for the next race.

Then I  discussed Mark Dombrowski's very strange tuning session today with the Aerocharged Fusion 900. Sean has more boosted dyno tuning at DynoTech than me while we were doing Aerocharger kits next door. And Sean immediately suggested a split tuned pipe seam weld-- too common on boosted stock singles. Since that seam is hidden under the stock pipe's heat shield that is likely to be the culprit. I left a voicemail to Mark that he will  get in a few hours. I'm hoping that when  he pops off his heat shields tomorrow he will find the airflow/ boost/ HP robbing gap in the weld.

No dyno tomorrow I will be Mr Mom with my sick 7 year old son, Tuesday two lightly modded F7s, Wednesday Bill Looneytune DiFranco to dial in his F9  Lancaster Championship winning sled into a Canadian Trail-Safe monster with Monster single pipe and quiet stock can. Thursday I have another dyno session I can't remember what since my calendar is back at the dyno. Thurs PM Sean Ray is supposed to bring his dad's Fusion 600 sled (our first tuneup posted here) now poked out to 670cc and with aftermarket pipes. Sean and his family are scheduled to go to their camp in Tug Hill next weekend and it will suck to be Sean if his dad can't ride his new sled.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, December 17, 2005

DynoTech : Saturday's dyno tuning results

Canadians Vinnie and Hoppy drove through lake effect snow in S Ontario/ Buffalo this AM to ensure optimum performance on their F7s.
They had essentially stock F7s, one 04 one 05 with .010 nipped off their heads. Both had DD F8F9 Monster single pipes with large ZR900 diameter outlet pipes.
We began with Vinnie's sled-- after we dialed in his booondocker box it still seemed slightly low on HP considering A/F ratio and his offeset key etc. I've dyno'd 100 of these  Firecats and this seemed off the mark. So we installed a DD F7 Monster Single and picked up a solid 4 CHP. Fine tuning Vinney's sled we wound up with 152 canadian trail-safe HP assuming he can maintain cool coolant temps.
Next Hoppy's sled, F7 identical to Vinnie's but the Boondocker I provided him had my dynotecch map.
we tweeked fuel flw for a while, when we were done with my trail safe map Hoppy had 152 HP just like Vinnie's . But both Bondocker maps were totallly different. Vinnie has DD program, Hoppy had DTR map wirh zero overlap A/F ratio.
Tomorrow a Fusuion turbo- Dialed in on our dyno.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, December 16, 2005

DynoTech : Some new data

I checked al my 3.5" floppies at home--my Boss Noss data is on another computer either at work or on a newer (seriously used but cheap) computer being reconfigured by Jimmy Cooper. So I opted to do a graph of Darrell Gaglianese' 05 F7 carbed sled. We dyno'd it stock (way better than 03-04 no 5 degree offset keyway needed) it has a much better airbox carb inlet, check out Bikeman modded stock single pipe vs D&D F7 monster single. Which one do you like? Do you seek max peak HP with minimal midrange torque/ HP or max midrange torque/ HP with a bit less peak HP? Test and data will follow shortly.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, December 16, 2005

DynoTech : This week and Boss Noss tuning

I had cancellations on Mon Tues this week, I had reserved midweek to update my SF901 Software to read 02 sensor A/F ratio. Computer savvy Sean Ray and Bender Racing's Terry Paine were a great help. This would enable us to read A/F ratio on complex return system EFI sleds like 900 Fusion (a multi-hour plumber's nightmare) by simply sucking exhaust gas through a wide band O2 sensor. Now it's easy to measure airflow CFM mechanically, then the new software should crunch the numbers and give us fuel flow lb/hr and BSFC without actually measuring fuel flow. Two strokes eat )2 sensors but the time savings justify that.
 I had a nostalgia Wildcat650 mod on the dyno Tuesday, we struggled with that since it was a mod sled solid mounted (solid mounts on most twins are a nightmare causing fuel foaming and fuel flow shutoff even while float bowls are going dry)). Today (Friday) was my first Firecat of the week-- Tim Smith dialed in his Bikeman F8 with Bikeman mod single and Boondocker. He picked up 3 or 4 HP by removing his loud can and reinstalling his stock quiet muffler. I'll let him tell which brand of obnoxiously loud can he removed. Then we dialed him in 11.5/1 from EGV opening to 8100, plus we made sure his part throttle cruise was a safe 13/1 or close to that.. And since he has a peak airflow-robbing 440 snopro intake, he is going home to reinstall his stock intake but will have to bump up his high RPM Boondocker settings to compensate.
The dyno will be humming this weekend, two sleds Sat and two or more Sunday. Monday AM David Crampton F7, then Tues a mod F7 and F8. Then hoping on Wednesday to have Bill Looneytoon dial in his Lancaster NY asphalt drag champion DD F9, now with monster single and stock muffler, to make it trail safe. The Boondocker is great for that--Bill can have an 85 octane program plus two others in his Boondocker box-- maybe one for 92 and one for race gas. It takes only seconds to switch programs.
This weekend between sessions I will try to post our first Boss Noss tuning session. Hint: sometimes you are lucky enough to get what you pay for.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 11, 2005

DynoTech : Seven days a week-- Sunday's results

This morning we finished off Ziggy's F8 with Boondocker and a hermaphrodite (part stock part custom stamped looks like it won't fit the stock heat shield) BM single prototype that matched Ziggy's F8 modded stock pipe. The modded stock pipe had that camel hump dip just after valve opening and the new pipe was smooth, peaked at higher revs and had flat HP from 7600-8100 revs, but matched the modded stock pipe output. Ziggy used one of our zero overlap Boondockers and we dialed him in yesterday at .70+ 11/1 from 7200 valve opening to 8100, even with his fuel pressure dropped from 57 to 45 psi, 160 HP flat for maybe 4-500 revs.  Then we created a leaner Boondocker map, went to .65 and mid 11's/1 and 163 HP. I'm such a chicken-ass Ziggy was thinking 12/1 for dragging but I talked him out of it. Surely could have made high 160's but I just want him to be reliable. The final 20 minutes of dyno tuning was dyno trail riding in the midrange, using the computer control, varying throttle position and revs watching A/F ratio, a few lean spots were enrichened and a few fat spots were leaned out. This will be dandy for Ziggy to ride since during his last dyno session (preBoondocker) we had to crank his fuel pressre to the moon to be midrange WOT OK then mainjetted him to make good top end A/F ratio. But he was blubbery at cruise with that. His jeep got better MPG than his sled. The Boondocker is the best for dyno tuning these big bores. Ziggy is ordering a digital water temp gauge to install in his sled, will monitor that this winter. He is overpowering his cooling system by 20-30 HP and observing coolant temp is critical for reliability.

Then Bikeman Erich Long rolled in and dyno tuned the two F9's he brought to the Shootout last week. He had planned to do final tuning of his sleds here last Thursday on his way to Old Forge but was way too late-- I had to pick up SW / SnowGoer ed Tim Erikson at the Buffalo airport at noon, then Tim and I blasted to Old Forge for me to make Slickers at 5 and then Shootout dealer meeting at 7. So today we started with Erich's 901cc F9 single piper, stock muffler. Somehow his Boondocker calibration had been goofed up, and he made "only" 166 HP at .80 lb/hphr 10/1. After leaning out the Boondocker we dialed it to 176.4 HP at .60 and 120 lb/ft. Erich should have hurried last Thursday.

Then we dyno'd his twin pipe F9--that was OK on Boondocker cal, but that new quiet stock cannister muffler he installed without dynoing before leaving for NY (he was hoping for the DynoTech SW Quiet Giant award which he received at the banquet) choked 10% airflow CFM and consequently "only" made 181 HP. We made two dyno runs, A/F ratio was surely lean enough but there was no way to get to 190+ without that missing 10% airflow CFM. Tuning would not help this one. And the loud glasspacks he dyno calibrated with last week were back in the BM shop.

This week I think i have I have sleds every day, a few on standby in case I get a cancellation. You can watch on DynoCams, and when I check my schedule at work tomorrow I will try to post what sleds are coming when. ILMJ.  
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, December 10, 2005

DynoTech : Back from Shootout

This mat have been the best Shootout ever--decent temp, lots of snow, 13 aftermarket sleds. And we caught one ringer. all results will be in SnowWeek magazine. After that article is out I will post my numbers of stock sleds including that wicked SkiDoo provided Mach Z ECU. I'm still kicking myself for having Jimmy Cooper overwrite the race fuel map with an 06 fuel map. We should have reinstalled the stock retarded ECU, let it run that way at the Shootout  and I could have sold that Shootout 10 HP extra hotbox on Ebay for $1000. I need to pay Jimmy Cooper for the five hours he spent here with his Doo computer getting this  ECU correct, and Ebay would have made that easy. But I still have the 600SDI race box, we didn't mess with that, renstalled the original ECU in the sled. That may show up on Ebay next week so we can remunerate Cooper's Sales and Service (585-682-9707).
Curt came back today with a full N2O cylinder (please don't call it noss) and we finalized that evaluation. The newly supplied EFI Boss Noss box was fitted, now needle valve fuel flow was seemingly in range, we were able to dyno tune Curt's ZR800 into the twilight zone. Actual dyno results will be released after Curt lines up with his dad's RX1 Bender turbo stage 1 (Curt's dad has no idea what Curt is plotting).
We finished with Curt's juiced up ZR800 this afternoon, and we hooked up Mike Ziggy Zigmont (we found each other on the I90 today) to the SuperFlow dyno. Mike has a Bikeman F8 and ran blubbery but safe all last year with 58 psi fuel pressure. Now we have installed a DynoTech programmed Boondocker and we've been able to drop fuel pressure to 45 psi. In an hour we created a safe .700+ BSFC and 11/1 A/F ratio from valve opening to HP peak and beyond. Those Boondockers are great EFI tuning devices especially if you can tune on a fully instrumented dyno to utilize.
Sunday we will finish off Ziggy's F8, will try the Bikeman F7 mod stock pipe, then spend the last part of the session tuning midrange, part throttle settings, to make sure we have no lean spots. ziggy's F8 will be powerful and reliable after we dial the Boondocer in tomorrow AM.
Somtime tomorrow Erich Long aka Bikeman is supposed to show up at DTR to dyno his two Shootout sleds. I'm hoping Sunday 10 AM we'll be done with Ziggy's Boonocker/ various single pipe tuneup (3 hours total) and we can next wrench and tune Erich's two F9s, albeit after the SW DTR Shootout. I love my job.


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Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

DynoTech : Wednesday before Shootout

We struggled again today with Boss Noss, added a restrictor to help cut down 45 psi fuel pressure. Made extra 25 HP on our first pull today .72 LB/HPHR BSFC, but gas solenoid began leaking fuel into the engine. Got my magnifying glass out, gas solenoid is good for low pressure only, Boss is red labeling out an EFI kit for delivery Wed AM. Despite these glitches customer service is great.
This surely will goof up Erich Bikeman who was planning to dyno his Shootout sleds tomorrow. I called him at 2pm expecting to catch him on his cel in, maybe, Chicago but he was still [probably on the dyno] at his shop. So tomorrow AM I will finish the Boss Noss ZR800 then blast off for Old Forge and 5 pm happy hours at Slickers.
Then talking to Erich plan B is to have him dyno Shootout sleds Sat PM/ Sunday, Mike Ziggy Zigmont will be dynoing Bikeman F8 Sun AM, we can do Bikeman's two sleds after that. I won't have time to post what the final plan will be, but check your dynocams this weekend.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

DynoTech : this dyno session ZR800 Boss Noss

The sled on the dyno right now is an essentially stock ZR900 EFI with speedwerx slightly high compression head and SLP twin pipe, bondocker box, and Boss Noss nitrous oxide injection system. We tweaked for a few hours today, fuel flow was way too high even with fuel valves nearly shut, Boss Noss told sled owner they has forgotten to include some fuel regulator, we will have that red label tomorrow AM. Watch DynoCams.

thursday AM Bikeman Erich will be here--dyno evaluating (they'tre surely already dyno tuned on his own SuperFlow dyno) for SnowWeek, will blast off for Old forge/ slickers to be there 5:00pm.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, December 05, 2005

DynoTech : Shootout certification update--

Jimmy Cooper was contacted today by Bombardier, explaining that wrong ECU's had been shipped to DynoTech. No one called me. I will guess that last year they fooled me with the same dragrace ECU. Look at the numbers on DTR last year's Shootout. That one had way too much HP, compared with the first stocker I dyno'd a few weeks earlier. But I admit I was harried, pressed for time to blow four Shootout sleds actross the dyno in a day. No time for fuel flow / airflow meters to be connected. HP is king. Last year's Shootout Mach Z was much higher HP than the first 170 HP broken in bone stocker i tested a few weeks earlier. I know the guy who bought that sled after the Shootout--the tabs on the ECU wire harness connectors are all chewed up indicating someone had exchanged ECUs.

I'm surmising, my opinion only, that since we let last year's hotrod Shootout MachZ slide, they could do it again. Instead of planting hotrod ECU's maybe in all of Old Forge Powersports' Mach Z's perhaps sending hotrod "non breakin mode" ECU's to DynoTech would fool us again. But this year Tim Erikson and Dave Wells dropped off a few random sleds every day for a week. Now I had time to really examine what we had. With fuel flow meters connected (a royal pain with some of these EFI sleds but surely necessary to assess what we've been provided with) I could easily discern that this was abnormal. Too much HP, too little fuel. I spent an extra five hours on the dyno correcting the too-hot MachZ and 600SDI. A full dynotech report will be posted here as sooon as SnowWeek publishes their Shootout issue.

Erich "Bikeman" Long will be at my this dyno thurs AM live on dynocams, obtaining SnowWeek HP data prior to Shootout.

I will review my aftermarket trailmod list tomorrow, will post who is bringing what. But plan on last year's pump gas trail mod record ET MPH to fall.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, December 03, 2005

DynoTech : Final shootout dyno certification

Friday/ Sat we dyno tested the  last sleds,  I had a great deal of help from Jim Intimidator Gonyea, Fast Eddy, Dan Tripod Cross, and Nick and Alex  to get these done.
We had a huge problem with the SkiDoos. Our Shootout Group (Tim Erikson, John Prusak, George Taylor, Me, and the Shootout dealers) had agreed earlier to allow SkiDoo to send us ECUs for the MachZ and 600SDI that had breakin mode removed. Replacement ECUs for the MachZ and 600SDI came from the Valcourt race shop. This year since the sleds came to me early, prior to the studding party at Big Moose Yam/AC this Sunday (thanks to SW/SG editor Tim Erikson who spent three days here on the road  swapping Shootout dealers' sleds with random  Northeast dealers' sleds, then handing off the truck to Dave Wells who finished the job) I had plenty of time to hook up fuel flow/ airflow meters and see what we really have. Unfortunately the MachZ made way too much HP--the stock ECU delivered a crisp 106 lb/hr fuel flow at HP peak. The SkiDoo supplied replacement ECU was supposed to only eliminate breakin timing retard but also mysteriously lost 16 lb/ hr fuel flow, 90 lb/ hr created way too much HP, .510 lb/hr BSFC. So computer-savvy Jimmy Cooper of Cooper's Sales and SERVICE in Waterport NY overrode the ECU map with an actual 06 fuel and timing map,  back to 106 lb/hr and that is how the  MachZ will be run at the shootout. The actual dyno results of the SkiDoo-supplied MachZ ECU vs the truly stock MachZ ECU will appear first (our agreement) in SnowWeek magazine, then on DTR website (with more technical details).
Expecting the worst, we first dyno'd the 600SDI with the stock ECU, Jimmy Cooper installed the "non breakin" ECU from the SkiDoo race shop, and halfway through the first "non breakin" dyno run I had to abort the test--it was so lean HP was much lower than the original ECU dyno run (we watch closely real-time graph of current dyno run vs previous dyno run). The much leaner A/F ratio of the "non breakin" box was possibly causing deto in the 600 or was leaner than max HP A/F ratio. Either way, we aborted at about 7000 RPM, reinstalled the original ECU and that's the way it will run at the Shootout. Once again, test results first in SnowWeek then here in greater detail.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, December 01, 2005

DynoTech : more shootout news

Tim Erikson got back late last night with Polaris Fusion 600/ 900s. SW contributing editor Dave Wells met us at the dyno, then drove Tim to the airport  in Buffalo to catch a late flight back to MN. No time for Tim's dyno training this time, maybe next year.

This morning I dyno'd the two Polaris' Tim had picked up from  dealers in the Northeast. Everything is dandy there--per our agreement with SnowWeek SnowGoer  I won't release certification dyno rsults until SnowWeek Adirondack Shootout issue is released.

After the Pol's I dragged in the F6 EFI, dyno tested maybe six runs, that temp probe in the pipe center section appears to be influential on HP output. The 600 class will be interesting next week!

Tomorrow, dyno cert of the hopefully 120 HP Yamaha 4 stroke triple, then the Mach Z (this time with blocked compression releases), then the SkiDoo 600. Later on Friday/ Sat AM the Apex will arrive (Yamaha was desirous of us having a non-reverse Apex at the Shootout, and they are delivering one from somewhere North of Albany NY to the dyno tomorrow).

Lastly, we will have the ZR900 showing up to the dyno Fri PM. What I dont' finsish Friday will get done somehow before all sleds are brought to Big Moose Yam/ AC for studding/ weighing etc this Sunday. While they are studding on Sunday, I will be dynoing Trail Mod participants Jeff Sherlock Performance (trail F8 kit in morning) and also Denny Johnson/ Kuyohoora SkiDoo MachZ with some awful load of N2O prior to entering the SnowWeek DTR Trail Mod Shootout. So Sunday pm you can watch our dynocams as they may attempt to exceed the 300 HP mark with N2O juice on the already powerful Mach Z.. Stay tuned.





Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

DynoTech : another Shootout update

I just came home after meeting Tim Erikson (one K) at the dyno in Batavia NY.. Tim flew into White Plains NY Monday, picked up the GM loaner truck, drove to Old Forge, spent the night, picked up a four place trailer at White Lake Polaris, picked up three sleds from Big Moose Yamaha/ Arctic Cat,  visited/ phoned dealers/ factories regarding  random sled swaps,  drove 200 miles to Batavia, dropped off two sleds that will  be swapped at other NE dealers  Friday.  Tim is now hammer-down back to Old Forge 200 miles, but I'm hoping he will sack out at some  Motel 6 before that,  tomorrow picking up four more sleds, working his way back will swap two sleds at NY dealers, drive back to Batavia Wed afternoon, drop off two sleds for me to dyno certify Thursday AM, I will give Tim a ride to Buffalo airport for his flight back home while Dave Wells picks up truck and trailer and sleds at the dyno and heads to the next dealer swap.
Thursday AM begin dyno certification--two sleds to dyno that AM (watch dynocams). Then Dave will hopefully be back with a few more sleds to dyno, then swap some more at other dealers (as far as 300 miles from here!) then back again to the dyno.
With some luck, I'll get all dyno certification done Thursday/ Friday, and stragglers Saturday, then somehow deliver all certified normal sleds to Big Moose Yam for Sunday studding/ final tech/ weighing on Buzz Chew's nascar scales.
 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, November 26, 2005

DynoTech : Dyno Schedule

Today we dialed in Darrell's 05 F7 carb, expecting to struggle like we did with Tony's 04 last year, this one was different animal. No problem tweeking to match EFI power, tested with DDYpipe, DDF7 Monster pipe, Bikeman F7 mod single. Now that I have some non-Cat stuff posted, I can get this stuff on the website probably this week.

Many of you guys saw the Polaris 440IQ SnoX sled on the dyno a week ago, it was Sean Ray's sled, will try to post a dyno sheet next week. It was different from last year's 440 racer.

Sean Ray is flying back from this weekend's SnoX races (he's still tuning for Tim Bender/ Team Industries/ Polaris SnoX), we're planning to install new SuperFlow Windyne software before the Adirondack Shootout. This will retain all the features we're used to, but will add the ability to use wide band O2 sensor to give us A/F ratio. Two strokes are tough on O2 sensors but if it saves hours dyno testing EFI sleds (ie: Fusion EFI is return system--we need to run fuel from tank pump to dyno fuel flowmeter 1 then back to fuel rail, then bypassed fuel from bypass regulators has to be plumbed back to dyno fuel flowmeter 2, the computer does a fuel 1 minus fuel 2 calculation to get net lb/hr). With wide band, no more fuel lines to connect, with A/F ratio determined by wide band O2, and airflow CFM measure with mechanical airflow meter, the computer will do the math to give us lb/hr fuel flow and BSFC without me getting gasoline on my hands. I hope to have that done before Shootout sleds arrive for certification.

SNOWWEEK DTR SHOOTOUT- SnowWeek Editor Tim Erikson is flying to NY Mon 11/28, somehow picking up a loaner Chevy Silverado 2500 from Chevrolet (facilitated by GM's Scott Norine aka our pal Predator711), driving to White Lake Polaris to borrow a 4 place trailer, picking up 4 sleds from Old Forge NY area dealers, then with SW contibutor Dave Wells going to random dealers in the Northeast to swap for identical new sleds (this arrangement is coordinated with all mfgrs). The tentative plan is for Tim to deliver this first load of sleds to my dyno Wed AM, we will dyno certify sleds then (I will show Tim how to run the SuperFlow dyno). Tim E flies out of Buffalo Wed PM, then somehow Dave Wells will go back to Old Forge, pick up the rest of the sleds, swap them at othe NE dealers, get them to me Friday, dyno certify Friday and Sat AM, then deliver selds to Old Forge for Sunday studding/ weighing/ 1/4 keg of PA Yuengling Lager (Shootout coordinator George Taylor is a PA native). Then the sleds are locked in trailers with SnowWeek padlocks, stored in competing dealer's warehouses (ie: SkiDoos stored at Cat dealer, Cats stored at Pol dealer etc...) and won't leave trailers until Friday AM at Woodgate NY for the Shootout.
There is SNOW in the Adironacks now, it is probable that we will have great conditions for the Shootout this year! We should also have 20 Trail Mod sleds, we will pump the gas out of each Trail Mod sled, pour in three gallons of Old Forge 93 pump gas, and the sleds will participate in a SnowWeek trail ride led by editor Tim Erikkson and publisher John Prusack. This willl enable Tim and John to assess each sled's true trail manners, drivability, sound levels, etc. This is meant to be more than a 1000' dragrace--all Trail Mod sleds have trail carbide studs, trail tracks, stock suspensions and shock travel.
With the Shootout looming, I'm trying not to book too many dyno tuning sessions for the next two weeks, but here is what's on the calendar:
NOV 29 PM Robert bringing in an F8 that was troublesome last year due to low HP and poor performance, now hopefully rectified, we'll know on the 29th.
NOV 30 AM Tim Erikson and Dave Wells, Shootout Cert
DEC 3 Nick and a pal two F7s to tune
DEC 11 Mike with a single pipe F8
DEC 13 Ray's XLT600/ triple pipes
DEC 16 Tim is bringing another F7
DEC 17 Canadians Vinnie and Hopper coming with two F7s
Lots of dyno time available before and after Xmas.   




Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, November 21, 2005

DynoTech : The rush is on

Sorry Pol Yam Doo guys, the cats are pounding on my door again.
I have mortgage payments to make, and though I'd like to  do more non-cat stuff, they are coming one after another.

This year the big deal is mod  F7's with EFI and Boondocker boxes. Today we tweeked Pete Nixon's lake race F7 ported by him, D&D monster twins, and DTR programmed Boondocker. 2 1/2  hours dyno time total $300 he's dialed in  at 12.5/1 from valve opening to  where the pipes go dead,  165 HP.  The Boondocker numbers are a bit bizarre but the final result is flat  dandy A/F ratio that should be fine for his 2000' canadian radar runs.

Tuesday 11/22 two custom built F8s-- Jeff from Surelock Perf has one in the AM, Tom Reynolds has another in the PM.

Wed 11/23 my wife (court reporter who I met,  in divorce court 20+ years ago) works, our 7 year old son is off from school so I have to be Mr Mom.

Thursday Thanksgiving I will get shot if I dyno that day. I will sit on the couch watching Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, pretending to enjoy that knowing full well that a screaming sled on the dyno would be much more fun.

Friday, a D&D F9 carbed, trying to dial in reliable HP with Bill LT DiFranco hopefully helping out with tuning. Friday PM Robert Murray, Bikeman F8 that has been troublesome in terms of HP output, back to BM, now sled seems to run well, dyno evaluation late Friday.

Saturday Darrell Gaglianese brings his F7 carb to test with Bikeman spacers and with Supreme Tool  mechanical  EVs.

Monday-Wed  SnowWeek  editor Tim Erikson will be in NY dealing with the DTR SW Adirondack Shootout,  hoping that we will have sleds to certify, I'm planning to train Tim on the SuperFlow dyno, let him make a few "pulls".


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, November 14, 2005

DynoTech : This week

Today I had Kim Stout from PA, bone stock 05 F7 ( another lean one) dyno tested with stock pipe/ muffler, Speedwerx pipe and can, Speedwerx pipe and stock muffler, Bikeman mode F7 stock pipe and stock muffler. Will post those eye-opening numbers after I get some non-cat stuff posted.

Tomorrow, we're dyno tuning the Doo 827 (blogged earlier), then Wed I'm Mr Mom (but I have time during school for any local tuneup from 10am-2pm), Thursday Jeff from Surelock performance dialing in his own F8, Friday Bill Mead Boondockering a Bikeman F8 w/ D&D Y and Monster single.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, November 13, 2005

DynoTech : communicating with scandanavia

Please someone in scandanavia email this person, he punched in an incorrect Email address when he subsribed to DTR, consequently never got his ID PW, I've tried to email his ID PW from DTR and also from my home email, his server keeps kicking my emails back as unwanted spam. I have his $20, but he has no ID PW and I want to help him but his spamblockers are preventing that.
lars.jussi@aimpoint.se
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, November 10, 2005

DynoTech : F6 followup, next week's agenda

 D&D saw last blog, brought back the revised F7 Monster Single for us to test on carbed F6 this morning. There was very good improvent in HP curve with D&D pipe, partially because F6carb EV opens way too late, discussion on website.

Next tuesday 11/15, Jeff Stranges is bringing in a SkiDoo 01 MXZ800 RK TEC 827 big bore, stock carbs, bored carbs, stock pipe, DynoPort single, Decker Twins.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

DynoTech : Sean Ray dyno tuning F6

Right now, 6:30 EST Sean Ray and John T Cowie are setting up an 04 F6 Carbed on the dyno. tonight, will dial in carbs, add timing and Bikeman spacers, tomorrow more tuning in AM along with an 06 carb boot.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, November 07, 2005

DynoTech : another F7 150hp stocker

Paul and Dan Cross came today, dyno'd Pauls newly acquired 04 F7 EFI with reprogrammed ECU supposedly to 05 specs. This one made 144 w/ 94-95 lb/hr no key. Made 150 w/ newest Bikeman F7 modified single I have hanging on my pipe rack. D&D Y added a horse and a half to the stock pipe (145.2) and 2 lb/ft torque. Then the D&D Y added a couple of HP to the Bikeman  mod stock single, to 152 and change at higher revs 8100+ where fuel flow was dropping to 13/1 A/F.  It was still OK for 20 seconds WOT  93 octane, but Paul is going to play it safe, get onother stock pipe to have modified for dragracing  at 152 HP, keep his stock pipe for trailriding at 145 HP. No Boondocker was needed and NO FUEL CHOKE ALLOWED. I never thought to try the ethanol mode to see if we could have dropped the Bikeman/ D&D Y setup into the 12/1 range and 150 HP which could have been Paul's trail combo. 

Tomorrow, Scott Lyons is coming in the afternoon with a more modded F7 with more stuff including Speedwerx single/ D&D Y.

Wednesday late afternoon, Sean Ray is bringing in a stock 04 F6  carbed, we may have a new  F6 pipe from D&D by then that is supposed to be good for some extra HP.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, November 05, 2005

DynoTech : Saturday results, thumbnail sketch

I didn't realize Chris has a Boondocker N2O system on his ported F7 sled. With just gasoline and a new F7Monster single (different from F8F9 Monster single), we made 161-165 depending on A/F ratio. The juice added a solid 40 HP, Dale Roes was the button pusher (I alsways make someone else turn on/off the N2O). I will post Chris' numbers later, I think he's going to post them on Hardcoresledder.

The big HTG triple cancelled.

I got a call yesterday from a local guy with an RX1/ centrifugal supercharger (Mountain Max?) to dyno tune on low boost pump gas and big boost race gas in late November.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, November 04, 2005

DynoTech : Saturday/ Monday dyno sessions

Sat AM- Chris Squires & Dead1 Dave, Chris has DD trail port, a couple of DD singles and a Boondocker to dial in. Dales Roes is coming to help.

Sat PM- a Polaris HTG pump gas 1280cc triple if we have time.

Mon AM Paul and Dan Cross, dialing in Paul's newly acquired 04F7 with box reprogrammed to some sort of 05 spec.

Also anyone who called or emailed in the past week looking for password, and haven't gotten a response please call my cel phone any time until 9pm, or leave detailed message, plus I need middle initial. I have some sort of worm on my office computer that seems to be swallowing emails, halve with good addresses get kicked back 1/4  seem to get where they atre supposed to go, 1/4 seem to disappear.

Sean finished up on that ProX800 stocker with Sean's low compression tight squish head and newest SLP twins, made around 170hp on pump gas, will post his numbers when I get time.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

DynoTech : Sean Ray dyno tuning tonight

As of 6pm EST Sean is on the dynocams tuning a proX800 with his lower compression  head, timing, reeds and newest SLP twin pipes.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, October 28, 2005

DynoTech : upcoming dyno stuff

The SnoX session lasted longer than planned, no finished, Sean Ray is planing to bring the ProX800 (notXC) this weekend to dial in with the latest SLP  twin pipes. Hoping we have time to install new SuperFlow Windyne software. Sean also has an 04 F6 carbed, when we have time we will dyno stock, with improved airbox carb boots, jetting, key, D&D Ypipe, Bikeman mod single, and Supreme tool mechanical exhaust valves.
Monday AM Chuck Hammrah (sorry about your last name spelling Chuck, you should have a last name as easy as mine) and Casey Mulkin are bringing in an 05 MachZ trail ported by Chuck, with twin Crankshop pipes for dyno tuning. Chuck told me he's done a bunch of these, run good enough on pump gas that he's contemlating bringing one to this year's SW/DTR Adirondack Shootout. We'll find out Monday how the dyno numbers look. Tune in.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, October 21, 2005

DynoTech : D&D/ Glenn Hall test session

Glenn Hall was coming by Batavia on his way back to WI from a long stint at D&D's dyno, and he did a driveby yesterday afternoon to dyno here the production Monster single and Y pipe and Boondocker on the same pump gas F9ss sled dyno'd earlier with hand built pipe. Also Glenn dyno'd his very amazing race gas only "lake" racer, with Monster single and Boondocker. Bill LT DiFranco helped out as usual, and was planning to provide lodging for Glenn last night after the dyno session. What Glenn didn't realize was that LT was also providing for a vacationing neighbor, temporary lodging for four cats and two dogs who were also staying in the same bed in the guest room. Glenn can use this blog to explain to his wife the presence of curly, multi-colored hairs on his Hanes shorts.

D&D will likely post their latest DynoTech numbers, and I will also do that next week after I post Bikemans similarly interesting dyno results.

Saturday, we're doing a camera-off tuneup for a factory sno-x racer, then Sunday Sean Ray is bringing in a trailmod Polaris XC800 with twin pipes. With the XC800 on the dyno, we'll tune first, then switch to the latest Windyne software, then make sure the new software delivers identical data to the current software. The new software will allow us to use O2 sensors and wide band A/F ratio meters to  measure A/F.  This will eliminate the need to run all those hoses back and forth to mechanical meters while tuning EFI sleds. And, if we fit our airflow meter to a sled, the dyno will compute for us fuel flow lb/hr and BSFC. And I'm hoping that, on mod airbox-less race engines, if we use O2 sensors to measure A/F ratio, and mechanicallly measure fuel flow by mechanical meter, the dyno will compute airflow CFM without an airflow meter.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, October 13, 2005

DynoTech : Bikeman F7 test session

We spent all day today dynoing F7 EFI stuff-- just received my pile of D&D production Y pipes. Erich Bikeman flew in yesterday from MN, stayed overnight w/ bill DiFranco arrived here fashionably late after sled was set up on the dyno.
Bikeman stock pipe mod was good.
D&D Y pipe was good.
Bikeman stock pipe mod plus D&D Ypipe was even better.
Bikeman stock pipe mod plus D&D Y pipe plus Bikeman ported F7 cylinders = 160 HP plus, 16 seconds at WOT on 93 octane gas.
Dyno tests will be posted here within a few days.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

DynoTech : Just finshed session with Excell Motorsports

Aaron Excell (Excell Mororsports) has come up with an extermely dandy replacement header for the Yamaha Vector--all stainless, with great airflow CFM increases from midrange to top end, and similar HP increases even with stock quiet muffler.  I will post the results this week. Also he had a new oval center outlet muffler for the Apex, we dyno'd stock and with his muffler, added  airflow CFM from midrange to top end with minimal dB increase.

Thursday Bikeman Erich is flying in to help dyno tune a local Bikeman customer with various Bikeman mods, watch your dynocams all day Thursday.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, October 10, 2005

DynoTech : Disabling dyno room houseflies w/ Surefire Mapp Gas Torch

I've received several Emails from DynoCam watchers who were very intrigued about me using Yellow-bottled Mapp-Gas torches, instead of fly swatters to shoot flies off of the walls and various surfaces of the dyno room. The past two weeks have been hot and humid, perfect for those annoying houseflies that must enjoy snowmobile dyno tuning, and wish to join us in the air conditioned control room. Many years ago, I discovered that the Mapp Gas Surefire torches we sold at the welding supply next door were perfect for dispatching these annoying, germ covered pests. Surefire torches use trigger operated peizio ignitors to create an instant 2000+ degree F flame that is quite perfect for incinerating, or at least burning the wings off of  houseflies. After aiming carefully and closely at the offending insect, a deft click, on-off of the flame, regardless of the surface the fly is resting upon, results in at best a dead fly, or  a wounded wingless  pest that will walk around the control room floor untill someone steps on him or her. One subscriber noted that while he watched on the DynoCam, I blasted several annoying  houseflies off of the plexiglass covers on the four analogue gauges on the dyno console with the 2000degree Mapp gas flame. Dead flies, but perfectly fine plexiglass that will melt into a useless glob at 400 degrees F. Why would I fire, point blank,  a 2000 degree F  torch at a plastic gauge cover on a $50,000 dyno console just to dispatch a housefly? It's the confidence I've gained dynoing 1000's of engines, where I know 5000 degree F combustion chamber temp fails to melt aluminum pistons and combustion chambers that melt at 1200 degrees F! That same cooling boundary layer of air that insulates and protects the pistons/ combustion chambers also protects the equally expensive plexiglass guage covers on the dyno console guages.
Using Surefire torches to kill or wound flies in the dyno room is much more sanitary than squishing them with germ-covered fly swatters.
And the plexiglass covers on my SuperFlow analogue guages are like new, no heat induced distortion that might make  130 HP look like 180 HP.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

DynoTech : Cool weather is finally coming,,,

Now thy're beginning to line up It will be 60 towmorrow, 50's the next week or so. Team Industries is dynoing Sat/ Sun so cams will be turned off. Then Tuesday 10/11 Aaron Excell is coming with stock Apex to dyno with stock exhaust and then his slick looking Stainless replacemt exhaust. Also Aaron is binging a Vector to test stock and with his total replacement header/ muffler package.
Then Thursday 10/13 Erich Bikeman is coming to dyno tune an F7 stock w/ bikeman mod pipe, D&D Ypipe, maybe a D&D single with Boondocker, then ported F7 cylinders and whatever else he thinks might add HP.
YOU CAN WATCH ALL OF THIS LIVE ON OUR WEBCAMS . This will be much more fun than working--hopefully  your supervisors will think DynoTechResearch is a useful website for whatever technical work you're involved in.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, September 26, 2005

DynoTech : Cameras shut off for a week

Sorry about lack of audio/ visual webcam info for the past week. Those of you who emailed me complaining of blackout have to understand the Tim Bender/ Sean Ray/ Team Industries/ Polaris snoX dyno session has to be private, cameras turned off.  Tim Bender has blacked out the webcams for a week, ending last Sunday PM. The cameras are back on again, today was Paul Cross, who repainted my 16 year old dyno last month in exchange for a dyno tuning session--, a PSI Genesis 800 Polaris triple, we tweeked and tuned to 182hp using a set of SLP 707 pipes I was ready to put in the dumpster. John T Cowie was helping today, he suggested a 1/2" head pipe cut, that took HP peak to 9300 and added 6 HP. Paul Cross is grinning today.

Tuesday I'm dyno tuning another F7, and you can watch that live on our webcams.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

DynoTech : Dynotuning F7 and Fusion 600 tomorrow

Scott Norine predator711 is bringing a like-new  04 F7 EFI stocker to tune tomorrow 8:00 AM, if he can get Bill DiFranco looneytune up that early (Scott's staying at Bill's house tonight). We have a good pile of new stuff to try, we'll be on webcam.

In PM, Sean Ray is bringing in his dad Rex' new Fusion600. We'll have baseline numbers Thurs PM or Fri AM. Again we'll be on the webcam so you should be able to see/ hear the numbers we come up with. We're planning to leave the Fusion on the dyno for a few days while we try to find some early relase aftermarket stuff. Also Sean will be installing the latest Windyne software which will allow us to use wide band O2 sensor to measure A/F ratio on EFI sleds. Sleds like EFI Fusion 900 require a plumbers nightmare of hoses/ connectors to measure fuel flow--fuel goes from sled fuel pump to dyno flowmeter A then back to the rail, then bypassed fuel has to be plumbed back to the dyno's fuel flowmeter B, then back to the sled fuel tank. the dyno computer computes Fuel A - Fuel B to give net flow lb/hr. The new system will allow us to use O2 sensor to get A/F ratio, then with our Superflow Airflowmeter fitted, we get accurate CFM, then computer uses the known pounds of air/hr per hour at each step to figure lb/hr of fuel and BSFC without requiring us to get gasoline on our hands.

We have that same new software on the Cycledyn eddy current roller dyno and it workds dandily.

Those of you who registered complaints about seeing Tim Bender in the dynocams last Sunday AM setting up an engine on our motor plate with Sean Ray, then cameras going blank, that is the option of the dyno tuner whether cameras are on or off.   
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, August 27, 2005

DynoTech : More dyno maintenance and DTR/SW update

Last week we blew out an aluminum water feed line in the dyno water tank--16 years of corrosive action from our city water ate the aluminum into white powder. After several days of replacing white dust with solid brass pipes/ pipe fittings we're about ready to go again.

I'm still waiting for a new gonzo-volume water valve--to control water into the dyno very much like a toilet refills the resevoir  behind the bowl. It should be here thisweek, and we'll be "cackling" again.

On Sunday I'm, driving  my favorite bike, a 99 Aerochargerd Triumph Tiger, 125 rwHP to Old Forge NY for a pre-05 DTR/ Snoweek shootout meeting with George taylaor and the Old Forge area dealers who have been partners in the Shootout..We're planning a conference call with Tim Erickson and John Prusak  to finalize details of this year's DynotechResearch/ Snoweek Adirondack Shootout.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

DynoTech : Tuning today

Today we're dyno tuning a couple of SkiDoos--one MXZ800 trail mod big bore 827, and one 670HO. Starting at 9am. Jimmy Cooper is coming over with his computer to roll the timing on the MXZ to see where it is happiest with.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, August 19, 2005

DynoTech : F7 carbed update

I'll be posting this stuff soon, but our carbed F7 tested earlier--now with 020 cut on head and Bikeman pipe mod and D&D Ypipe is well over 150 hp with max HP jetting. The D&D Y pipe was good for 3-4 HP extra with the Bikeman stock pipe, less on the stock pipe since the combo of 9 degrees added timing and added compression was trying to shove the HP peak lower than where the stock pipe was happy at. Remember this F7 carbed stocker began life at about 122 hp on the dyno last year and look where we are now! Watch for detailed dyno results of this sled.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

DynoTech : new DTR HP record

Chuck Hamrah/ Frank Jarocki's  Bender Stage3 turbo  was tuned yesterday to 415 HP. My armpits are just now drying out.  If you look at the  webcam in the dyno control room, we have the corrected HP  digital readout filling the screen so you can clearly see the HP numbers, with real time replay of the last dyno run. That is programmed to replay over and over until I switch it off. That's an excellent "screen saver". I'll post the actual dyno sheet later.

Wednesday we're doing some more stuff on an 04 carbureted F7 including Bikeman modded stock pipe, I'm going to try to get a D&D Ypipe by then to test as well.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, August 14, 2005

DynoTech : Brute HP shootout

During our brute HP tuneup Saturday the sled lost fuel pressure (fuel leak at electric pump) and detonated the turbo Price 1000cc Mach Z triple, but before we stopped we made 308 HP at less than 10 psi boost. He will be back with freshened up engine, looking for 350+ HP. Interesting note--the engine had Swaintech coated pistons, we ate three sparkplugs but the engine showed no signs of seizure--no  scratches on cylinder walls. But to play it safe, turbo and engine will be examined and freshened up if necessary and then back later to finish dyno tuning.

Monday 8/15 Bender Racing is bringing a new RX1 turbo drag sled to dyno tune for Chuck Hamrah. Expecting 350+HP maybe 400? The sled is coming at 8:30AM EST it will take about one hour to set up for dyno tuning. Dyno runs should begin at about 9:30 or so, watch your dynocams to see if DTR HP record is broken.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, August 12, 2005

DynoTech : DynoUpdate

Last Sunday Sean Ray completed the updates on our SuperFlow Cycledyn roller inertia/ eddy current motorcycle dyno. Now we read A/F ratio with up to two O2 sensors. And if we fit our original airflow meter to the engine, the computer can then give us fuel flow lb/hr and BSFC. One new feature of the new software is it gives you SAE corrected HP and also something called DJ Corrected HP. That is the HP a DynoJet dyno would give you which is typically 10% happy compared to SF numbers. That was my suggestion to them 10 years ago when they developed the Cycledyn and found their numbers accurate but 10% lower than DynoJet. Since there are 1000's of excellent DynoJet dynos out there, why not make comparable numbers possible? Now we have that option.

TOMORROW AM-- SHOOTOUT OF THE GONZO TURBO SLEDS?
At 8:30 AM we'll begin our first dyno session with John DiAngelo's 1000cc MachZ triple mod drag sled w/ model 66000 Aerocharger turbo. He'll surely be looking for 300++++ I haven't heard from Bender's Terry Paine yet today but he was hoping that I could dyno the RX1 turbo drag sled they built for Chuck Hamrah. Chuck will surely be shooting for 400. It might be fun viewing on the dynocams.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, July 21, 2005

DynoTech : Finalizing sled dyno overhaul

As we can see on our dynocams, the sled lift and framework have been stripped, sanded, primed and painted a lighter blue eurethane. The frame is now bolted to the lift, and this weekend I'll have the 901 absorber and its black framework and engine cooling tower bolted in place.

The toilet that is seemingly relocated to the seating area for use by [nervous] sledowners while they observe in the control room is actually just sitting there temporarily. It was removed for the ceramic tile installation, but now is waiting for me to somehow remove the blue overspray from the white ceramic before it is reinstalled in the head to the right of the control room cam.. Like a jerk I had left it sitting in the driveway outside the overhead door while Paul Cross spraypainted the dyno (I'm bartering his labor for a 150hp drag tuneup on the 04 F7 he's buying in August).

After the sled dyno is back together and operating again, Sean Ray is going to do all the SuperFlow upgrades on our CycleDyn eddy current bike roller dyno.

Then later on we'll upgrade the software on the sled dyno as well.

Before we do that I have an improved stock F6 mod to tune this Tuesday. I want to dial him in with our tried and true existing software. Then I can put one of our local sleds on the dyno, establish baseline and then switch software/ computer boards etc to make sure there are no surprises.

Today I looked at the dynoroom cam, and it looks blurry. If that camera is not out of focus, then I have blue eurethane overspray on it that will need to be dealt with.

Another project I'm working on is creating a dyno drive shaft to RELIABLY deal with the monster torque and HP of some of these new four stroke turbo sleds, and gonzo displacement drag and radar run two strokes. I'm doing this in conjunction with Terry at Bender Racing who's got a bunch of 350-400HP turbo  sleds waiting to dyno. We can easily build strong conventional driveshafts to connect crank taper to dyno, maybe a few hundred bucks gets you there. But that offers zero protection for the violent torsional vibrations created by singing stroker/ multi cylinder engines. Solid steel shafts can hold up to these engines, but they also can wreak havoc on the engines--twisting welded cranks out of phase is a too common problem when you deal with high output engines with solid metal connections! By next month, Bender and I will each have $1000 dyno driveshafts that will handle 400 HP, and with built in rubber dampening media that will accomodate steady stae 200 lb/ft torque and spikes to 2000 lb/ft (that many 200 lb/ft strokers create).
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

DynoTech : Summer happenings---

Slow season is here--waiting for new models to be shipped. We were scheduled to test a new 600 Fusion in June, but Rich Daly from DynoPort snatched it first, ostensibly to create better exhaust etc before it comes to DynoTech (now July).

I dyno tune maybe one asphalt sled a week now, and maybe one bike on our CycleDyn eddy current chassis dyno. So Sean Ray and I have taken  this slow time to upgrade both the CycleDyn and the SF901 sled dyno to the newest Windyne doftware. There are many advantages to the new software, but primarily that accomodates O2 sensors in exhaust to give us A/F ratio, and with the new software continuing to use our accurate Airflow meters, we get airflow CFM, fuel flow lb/hr and BSFC lb/ hp /hr. We'll aslo be able to map EFI, measuring TPS, baro sensors (both one and two bar).

While I'm waiting for the new SuperFlow software and comuter upgrade, Carl McQuillen shamed me into finding places for miscellaneous but important stuff that only  rests as piles of clutter on  the two dyno tables. So I have installed many new Home Depot cupboards in the control room and dyno room to hold and hide everythng relating to hooking up whatever, to our two dynos.

Next I'm having installed dirt/ grease colored ceramic tiles in the control room to replace the impossible-to-keep-clean asphalt tiles.

Finally, I'm in the midst of engineering snowmobile dyno drive shafts for his new breed of too powerful hand built multis. The last straw is a guy who wants to bring a Union Bay 16xx triple that might break my 1.25 standard rubber dampened drive shaft. When shafts break, violence occurs and I was wise to have oriented the sled engine table 90 degrees from the viewing window--hence during a dozen shaft explosions nothing has pierced the walls protecting the operator and spectators. It's comforting to know that I have bulletproof glass in front of my face, but disconcerting knowing that testicles are protected by two sheets of 1/2" drywall.

Now that people regularly want to tune 300+ HP gonzo torque mountain motors and turbos I am in the process of designing an 1.75" diameter, fully torsionally dampened dyno drive shaft. I'll have that done by the time my new software packages are installed. Bring 'em on!


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, May 12, 2005

DynoTech : more updates.......

A FLOCK OF LATE MODEL VARIOUS STUFF SHOWING UP ON MY DYNO IN LATE MAY!...............................................................................
Stock Fusion w/ dynoport pipe vs stock pipe
Stock fusion with electronic fuel tweakers
Stock fusion with SLP pipe and SLP reprogramming
Big bore fusion with dynoport and SLP pipes.
Fusion is various states of tune with Boondocker box.

Bone Stock Fusion  600!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next some Yamaha stuff-
Bender racing Mach Z BR muffler, then switch to Garrett turbo system. Bender is finalizing the turbo system on their own SuperFlow dyno, will pay me to verify numbers for public consumption..

How about MachZ stage tuning? We're working on a stage tuninig deal---close the compression release ports, add aftermarket heads from BikeMan (on our shelf right now), add Crank Shop twin pipes and their fuel management deal. With this valuable info DynoTechhies can hit the snow runnig next fall.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

DynoTech : Latest dyno cam schedule (slow season is here)

2/1/05 New GMN $480 sprag clutch installed, back to tuning
2/2/05 Bill Mead Bikeman F8, tuning Boondocker EFI box
2/4/05 AM, Jimmy Tanner, F7 dragracer tuning 500' and 1000' setups
2/4/05 PM Jarred F8 DD, tuning Boondocker box
2/7/05 AM Jim Gonyea and pals, Hooper 1400 triple [cancelled]
2/9/05 AM two Cat mods- 700cc & 1000cc
2/10/05 AM Jim Gonyea and pals, Hooper 1400 triple
2/11/05 AM F7 stocker w/ Boondocker box [cancelled]
2/22/05 Les Ferenczy F7 stocker, DTR style Boondocker box, Bikeman mod stock pipe [CANCELLED]
2/25/05 Jeff Sherlock, two troublesome ZR800 big bores to analyze
2/26/05 2pm Matt Bennett new D&D F7 757 big bore, maybe w/ new Boondocker if needed [boondocker was not needed]
3/2/05 9:00 AM DNE Perf, Don Emery (1) Mach Z twin w/ porting etc plus Bikeman stock pipe mod, (2) 1234cc 4 cyl radar run engine, made 280 HP here last year, shooting for 300,  (3)  Gonzo larger bore 4 cylinder radar engine, shooting for  Bender's 359 HP DynoTechResearch HP record and 172 mph Ontario radar run record.
3/3/05 9:00 AM Mike Gross ProX800 trail port, SLP trail port single pipe, pump gas heads and race gas heads.

3/6/05 9am Dan Cross HTG 800 Storm Trail Mod

3/6/05 5pm Nascar's Buddy Parrot's 113ci H-D Softail turbo, Sean Ray tuning for 200hp. 3/23/05 Cooper's Sales & Service 05 SkiDoo 440 snoX sled w/ 800rev engine, baseline stock today then pull cylinders, have trailporting done 3/24 then redyno Friday 3/25
3/24/05 5:00pm CycleDyn Sean Ray supertuning Al Specter's 113 S&S Aerocharged bagger.
3/25/05 Finishing up Jim Cooper's SkiDoo, hoping that trail porting will get him 150 HP+ on pump gas.
3/25/05  afternoon, 3/26/05 afternoon, CycleDyn tuning  2 Yamaha flat track race bikes- one 80cc 2stroke,  one 450cc 4stroke.
4/2/05 AM final dyno assessment of Blue Marble oil on Jim's XLT600 baseline dyno tested with Polaris oil, six dyno runs repeated within a few percent, then drained and switched to Blue Marble, trated cylinders twice per instructions, 100 miles on trail with Blue Marble, back to redyno in 4/2 AM.
4/6/05 Kevin Dellinger two Cat triple asphalt sleds
4/8/05 Dusty U's D&D F9 stroker with twin pipes and with new Giant Single and stock muffler, then in PM D&D's Dale Roes with a new F9 stock stroke, Giant Single stock muffler.
4/22/05 Fri 11:00AM Bill Looneytoon DiFranco dyno tuning his asphalt sled Boondocker box. I predict we will find him 3/10ths in the 1/8th mile.

4/27/05 Wed 9:00 AM Kim Peckler, HTG XCR600/800 (while her husband Tom E4 watches his sled being dyno'd live on the internet in Baghdad Iraq).

4/29/05 Fri 9:00 AM Scott Trapp dialing in his carbed F8 for asphalt.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, April 01, 2005

DynoTech : Things we will be testing

 I have in my possession a DynoPort Fusion Single pipe kit. I would like to find other Fusion owners who have SLP pipes/ SLP programming, HTG or other big bore, etc. Call me at 585-993-2777 to discuss.

Mach Z stuff needs to be addressed, since all we've done here is plugging compression release, DNE mild trail porting, etc... anyone with twin pipes, big bore, etc etc please call me too.

The Boss Noss kit we had here has been sent off to a Firecat owner in the Southern Tier of NY, he is installing it now, will bring back for dyno tuning late this month or early next month. 200 HP  or bust?

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, April 01, 2005

DynoTech : update dynocam schedule

1/2  AM Tom Reynolds mod Viper [trail ported by Tom, bored carbs, pump gas, Hauck trail pipes 160 HP]
1/3 AM Dan Johnston 03 F7 [107 lb/hr stock, then he used his own $20 needle valve to choke down to 100 lb/hr and 145 HP]
1/4 Steve Orlaski 03 F7 10 AM
1/5 Jim Gonyea, FastEd and one other Italian lakes madman, two F7 EFI's one carbed
1/6 AM Rich Simonetti F7 of some sort
1/7 Paul Coleman 04 F7 am, Gary Claxston 04 F7 EFI, pm
1/9 Adam Bonner 04 F7 10 AM, Larry Bartlett 12pm 04 F7, maybe later a F5
1/12 Dan Roes- D&D Performance, bone stock 05 F7 then with new D&D twins. See it live on DTR webcam beginning at 10 AM. Also F8 top end w/ monster twins into STOCK MUFFLER [=stock dB].
1/12 HTG Racing, Fusion Big Bore with DP single pipe and/ or can [cancelled until production stamping of single pipe is available].
1/14 9AM, Robert Morris Bikeman F8 with D&D new monster twin pipes [some problems]. Then Patrick Ferland, Quebec EFI F8 12 PM or deux heurs [CANCELLED]..
1/15 9am Dave Craiglow, DD F8 twin pipe/ Boondocker EFI controller, Bill Looneytune DiFranco assisting. 1PM, two 1132 Cat D&D triple lakeracers, Dave & Jeff want to be anonymous.
1/17 9AM AJ Andre, ProX800 lakeracer mod, twin pipes and with Boondocker N2O system [CANCELLED] AJ is a snowplower in NJ, and there is snow on 1/17.

1/19 D&D F8 w/ stock can twin pipes[CANCELLED] Dan has flu, [no flu germs allowed here]

1/21  9am Curt Allen [cancelled, waiting for D&D twins into stock muffler!]
12pm Tom Tyson, HTG 1080 pump gas triple, new Jaws pipes
1/22 2pm Patrick Ferland F8, dialin Boondocker EFI box
1/23 9AM D&D F9 !!!
possible problem with dyno electric starter sprag clutch, cancelled all dynos until fixed...
2/1/05 New GMN $480 sprag clutch installed, back to tuning
2/2/05 Bill Mead Bikeman F8, tuning Boondocker EFI box
2/4/05 AM, Jimmy Tanner, F7 dragracer tuning 500' and 1000' setups
2/4/05 PM Jarred F8 DD, tuning Boondocker box
2/7/05 AM Jim Gonyea and pals, Hooper 1400 triple [cancelled]
2/9/05 AM two Cat mods- 700cc & 1000cc
2/10/05 AM Jim Gonyea and pals, Hooper 1400 triple
2/11/05 AM F7 stocker w/ Boondocker box [cancelled]
2/22/05 Les Ferenczy F7 stocker, DTR style Boondocker box, Bikeman mod stock pipe [CANCELLED]
2/25/05 Jeff Sherlock, two troublesome ZR800 big bores to analyze
2/26/05 2pm Matt Bennett new D&D F7 757 big bore, maybe w/ new Boondocker if needed [boondocker was not needed]
3/2/05 9:00 AM DNE Perf, Don Emery (1) Mach Z twin w/ porting etc plus Bikeman stock pipe mod, (2) 1234cc 4 cyl radar run engine, made 280 HP here last year, shooting for 300,  (3)  Gonzo larger bore 4 cylinder radar engine, shooting for  Bender's 359 HP DynoTechResearch HP record and 172 mph Ontario radar run record.
3/3/05 9:00 AM Mike Gross ProX800 trail port, SLP trail port single pipe, pump gas heads and race gas heads.

3/6/05 9am Dan Cross HTG 800 Storm Trail Mod

3/6/05 5pm Nascar's Buddy Parrot's 113ci H-D Softail turbo, Sean Ray tuning for 200hp. 3/23/05 Cooper's Sales & Service 05 SkiDoo 440 snoX sled w/ 800rev engine, baseline stock today then pull cylinders, have trailporting done 3/24 then redyno Friday 3/25
3/24/05 5:00pm CycleDyn Sean Ray supertuning Al Specter's 113 S&S Aerocharged bagger.
3/25/05 Finishing up Jim Cooper's SkiDoo, hoping that trail porting will get him 150 HP+ on pump gas.
3/25/05  afternoon, 3/26/05 afternoon, CycleDyn tuning  2 Yamaha flat track race bikes- one 80cc 2stroke,  one 450cc 4stroke.
4/2/05 AM final dyno assessment of Blue Marble oil on Jim's XLT600 baseline dyno tested with Polaris oil, six dyno runs repeated within a few percent, then drained and switched to Blue Marble, trated cylinders twice per instructions, 100 miles on trail with Blue Marble, back to redyno in 4/2 AM.
4/6/05 Kevin Dellinger two Cat triple asphalt sleds
4/8/05 Dusty U's D&D F9 stroker with twin pipes and with new Giant Single and stock muffler, then in PM D&D's Dale Roes with a new F9 stock stroke, Giant Single stock muffler.
4/22/05 Fri AM Bill Looneytoon DiFranco dyno tuning his asphalt sled Boondocker box. I predict we will find him 3/10ths in the 1/8th mile.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, February 21, 2005

DynoTech : current events

As you can see from the schedule we're coming into the end of the winter trail sled performance tuning sessions. Les Ferenczy called today about trying one of the Boondocker DTR programmed boxes on his stock F7--he'll be here tomorrow to try that out.

The DTR programming I requested from Boondocker eliminates overlap fuel, and adds several definite steps, the most important being right at valve opening (7200 and 6500 depending on year) so we can dial in correct fuel flow perfectly. It does add fuel or take away fuel as necessary, and it shows great promise. We dialed in an original Boondocker on a twin pipe D&D F8, but were unable to smooth out the declining fuel curve after vave opening, but the DTR Boondocker box enabled us to make the A/F ratio as flat as we liked from 7200-8400. I will try to post those results this week.

We're looking forward to trying the Boondocker box on mod Fusions/ MachZs.

I have in my possession a brand new two cylinder Boss Noss kit that we need to assess! I'd like someone in WNY to buy this kit (call for details) and for no extra cost we will baseline dyno tune your sled here, install the kit on live webcam, then dyno tune with the juice turned on. The uniqueness of this N2O kit is its self contained electrical system and most importantly a liquid N2O pressure regulator that eliminates the need to maintain constant bottle temp/ pressure for consistant performance.

I will also post this week dyno results of the new D&D F7 Twin pipes on a bone stock F7; with dyno tweeking would you believe 160+ HP?. I would like to get actual field testing feedback from DTR F7 subscribers who have these twins on their sleds.

I haven't had my own snowmobile to ride in many years. This fall I acquired a 97 XLT600 w/ reverse and electric start, 12" travel just perfect for an old guy that wants to go out on the lakes just to watch the dyno tuned stockers and monster sleds go at it. I recently got the engine bay detailed, carbs rejetted the way I thought they should be, and of course had to final dyno tune before riding it for the first time last weekend. After setting the A/F ratio at 12/1 the engine repeated just over 98 HP over four or five runs within 1/10th of a HP. So I decided this would be a good candidate to assess the HP potential of the two cases of Blue Marble Oil provided to me by the manufacturer. After draining the Polaris oil out of the injection tank and relacing it with Blue Marble I "treated" the engine by filling each combustion chamber with Blue Marble oil then gradually rolling the crank to "coat" cylinder walls/ piston rings/ bottom end with the oil, then let it set for three days before firing it up. After the three days, I was glad to have electric start since it took a lot to fire up the oil-soaked XLT engine.

After I get a few weeks of  run time on the sled with Blue Marble, I will redyno to see if there is HP to be had. In anticipation, I've saved two gallons of the 93 octane gas I used for baseline test, and that will be used for the final assessment.

I recently dyno tested a Polaris IQ440 and I will post those numbers this week.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, January 30, 2005

DynoTech : Latest update.....

.Last Sunday we were dyno tuning Dustin Unverdorben''s brand new F7/ F9 EFI, a complete sled purchased from D&D, F8 stroked to F9, with monster twin pipes, fuel pressure booster, pac, and eqaulizer.
After doing part throttle high load midrange we saw deathly lean A/F ratio.We jacked up base fuel pressure 10 psi higher thn the pac gauge read--the dyno now read 45 psi, the pac gauge was pegged to 60+. Those pac gauges read way too far off of our dyno gauge. Regardless, now the engine was happy in midrange and with the very excellent equalizer tweaked to perfection we made 191 HP at .68 lb/hphr or therabouts.
Chicken Jim decided that this was too much for pump gas, and we bumped equalizer to create 188 HP at .70 plus. I guess that should be fine! Dusty please limit time at WOT to 1000ft!
I will post Dusty's F9 numbers this week.







Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

DynoTech : current events...

today we dyno'd D&D's F7 bone stocker with their new twin pipes feeding into stock quiet muffler. Great results to be posted on DTR and on D&D's website.
after F7, D&D installed a stock D&D F8 top end (they hadn't dyno tested that combo with new quiet twins). We managed to airlock the cooling system, I think I lightly detonated the engine on our first run as a result of air trapped above the combustion chambers. So D&D headed home with the sled, very happy with F7 quiet twin results, will be back with fresh F8 next wednesday to try again.

We had scheduled a HTG Big Bore fusion for this afternoon,  D&D took up the bulk of the day, HTG expects to have production Ypipe/ single pipe to try early next week, will try to dyno as soon as they have production stuff in hand.

Monday we will be testing a ProX800 twin pipe, with Boondocker N2O system. That begins at 10 AM.

My dyno pals Bill Davis and Donavan Facey have made 2800 instrumented dyno runs at 7000 ft altitude. They have very interesting dyno data on Fusion, MachZ etc at high altitude. The info they have amassed will be a great benefit to mountain riders--  Be prepared to be amazed at the difference in stockers from  sea level to 7000 ft and above!
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 26, 2004

DynoTech : SuperFlow Windyne software, SFD files

Sorry about confusing new subscribers with these quick-for-me-to-upload SFD files.

Go to www.superflow.com, click on free windyne software download, then you're all set to view SFD files on DTR.

Open articles w/ SFD files, click on one SFD file, it opens automatically as a graph that you can edit as desired. To view numeric data, X out graph and the graph closes, and is automatically replaced with OBSERVED NUMERIC DATA FROM THAT RUN. To see corrected data, click on number 2 box above observed data, and you then see STANDARD CORRECTED DATA (corrected to 60 degree F dry air, sea level 29.92 in hg baro).

Then to save this test for later  viewing or  comparing with other tests, click on FILE. Then  click "save as" and save the SFD file to your computer with the same numbering as I use. Also under FILE you can click TEST DESCRIPTION to see what we did/ changed for this test. Also you can click PREFERENCES and then click CHANNEL ORDER to see any desired test information (ie: Baro pressure, air temp, TimeS[seconds of dyno run time], fuel pressure, water temp,etc). BMEP numbers are available, but won't be exactly be accurate unless exact bore/stroke/displacement has been entered prior to test session. I will try to remember to accurately enter that info into the database prior to testing so BMEP numbers and Volumetric Efficiency % will be perfect.

Now open another SFD test file, and if you leave graph open you can click OVERLAY then click SAVED TESTS below to open and graphically compare any other tests you've saved yourself.

Dyno tuners here can get their own dyno runs downloaded onto a  3.5" disc for their own comparison of  DTR posted SFD files.


When I do other testing I will continue to attempt to make time to include printed test data (from excell files) in the articles.

 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 26, 2004

DynoTech : F8 PROBLEM SOLVED

We lucked out today, checked compression it was fine, the same on each cylinder. So we popped the flywheel off, and found the .020 offset key in backwards, effectively retarding the timing @5 or 6 degrees from where it was supposed to be.

So reinstalling the key properly, we had time to make one pull before leaving for xmas shopping,  11.5/1 A/F now gets 107 LB/FT and 159 HP! That's 11 LB/FT and 18 HP added with 5 or 6 degrees of timing.

I'm sure the guy who installed the F8 kit on Gary's sled feels bad, but it's surely an easy mistake to make! He did a beautiful job fitting up all the F8 components including equalizer etc. For years all we did to bump timing was loosen the stator plate and crank it counterclockwise X number of degrees. Now the stators are fixed, and popping in an offset key it's easy to understand how we can get that backwards; get that flywheel to move clockwise to hit the pickups sooner.

So we'll be back MONDAY 12:30 PM to fine tune fuel flow w/ stock pipe, try a Speedwerx single, then go back to the new style D&D twins to dial them in w/ fuel pressure, PAC , equalizer.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, December 24, 2004

DynoTech : Back to the dyno this AM

Gary's brand new 05 F7/ F8 EFI is way low on torque/ HP. With new DD twins it pretty much maxed out at 109 LB/FT and 166 HP at 12/1 A/F ratio. Aiflow CFM is fine, crank has not twisted out of phase. Thinking maybe the pipes were off the mark we installed Gary's stock pipe/ muffler, at about 11/1 A/F ratio it makes 96 LB/FT and 141 HP.

This AM, we're checking compression to make sure they didn't goof and put F10 conbustion chambers on it, then if that's OK we're hoping that the 3 degree keyway is installed backwards.

If we find the missing 10 LB/Ft of torque, we'll tune the sled with the stock pipe, then maybe rerun the twin pipes on Monday.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

DynoTech : 2005 DynoTechResearch $ cost to tune

Weekdays $125/ hr from overhead door opening to overhead door closing.
Saturday/ Sunday add $25/hr.

Setup time on F7s is usually 30-45 minutes if sled arrives w/o clutches and w/o hood, breakdown is 15 minutes. Max setup/ breakdown is one hour (in case I'm fumbling for wires, bolts, etc).

Minimum cost per sled  $250 weekdays $300 Sat/ Sun.






Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, December 11, 2004

DynoTech : back from the Adirondack shootout

We lucked out on the weather, could have been monsoon rain but it turned out to be very light mist so we had a good crowd of observers.

The SnowWeek guys were great to work with, they are pleased to be partnered with DTR and the Adirondack sled dealers. They'll have a full stock Adirondack Shootout issue in your mailbox in two weeks, including dyno certification test data. Trail mods to follow in the next issue.

Tomorrow we're dyno tuning Jarred's stock F7 from about 10AM to noon or so, webcams running. Expecting to tune another one into the mid 140's.

Monday is SkiDoo day, in AM a Bondi trail port 800 twin, then in PM an 830 big bore twin. Tune in to the live streaming audio/ video for all of that.

Also for new subscribers, to read the SFD (SuperFlowData) files, you must download free Windyne software at www.superflow.com.  I think it's easiest if you first open  the DTR article, right click on each SFD file (one at a time) left click "copy" then  "paste" each test on your own  computer (I use a 3 1/2 inch floppy for that). Then open Windyne, go to "file" "open saved test" from your floppy, then have at it. Remember the data opens up as the OBSERVED HP in the dyno cell that day, then to see corrected numbers click on "2" above the test data. Then if you click around, you can operate the software, do comparison graphs, etc.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

DynoTech : Off to SnowWeek.DTR Adirondack Shootout

We finished the Shootout dyno cert yesterday, everything came in within reasonable expectations. SnowWeek is publishing the "official" dyno numbers in about two weeks. In deference to SW we won't post numbers. It would help promote the continuation of the SW/DTR Adirondack Shootout if we all subscribe to SnowWeek!

 Erich Long from Bikeman Performance is supposed to drive all night from W WI to the dyno Thurs AM, to final tune an F8 for the Shootout Trail Mod. If he makes it, he will be on the webcam in the AM. Maybe he will be cutting some Z's while I dyno. I have to leave for Old Forge midday.

Then back on Sunday AM, beginning at 10 AM dyno tuning another F7.

Monday dyno testing two SkiDoo twins--one Bondi mod 800, then in the PM an 830 big bore.

Tuesday possibly another DD F8 (if his twin pipes show up), or another F7 on standby.

Wed is officiall colonoscopy day, goofed on schedule-- today was pre-scope physical, bought home some nasty lime flavored stuff to mix with beer on Tues night. Whoosh.

Thursday another F7 tuneup.

Friday two '05 F7's for tuneups.

Saturday two 04 F7's for tuneup.

Sunday one F8 and one ZR900.

Start over again on Monday.

I am collaborating with webmaster to see if dyno computer screen can be connected to website.
For those dyno tuners who wish to remain anonymous, DynoCams can be turned off during test if desired.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

DynoTech : SnowWeekShootoutCertificationDone!

We started out "freeview" testing our live streaming audio/video Sunday while testing consumer MachZ. By mid test the website suffered from viewer overload, and it shut itself down.

Then Monday, when we were dyno certifying the Doos and Pols the same thing happened. So to reduce viewer load,  our webguy shifted the DynoCams to subscriber only access. So as I understand everyone had uninterupted viewing of the certification today. As viewer load increases the webpeople will upgrade equipment to provide uninterrupted viewing.

SnowWeek has requested exclusive use of certification dyno test numbers for their publication. Since we have partnered with them for the Adirondack Shootout we will wait until they publish the dyno numbers in SW later this month before we put those numbers online here.

I've got some very tentative dyno tuning scheduled for Thursday AM, some aftermarket Trail Mod guys may tune here before SnowWeek Shootout at Woodgate, NY on Friday.

After that I'll be dyno tuning an F7 Sunday 12/12 beginning 10 AM, the F7 owner may not know he will be on dynocam but we will be there, everyone can see his tuneup. If he doesn't want his pals to know what he's up to, we won't mention his name, and he may have to wear an Al Qaeda-like scarf on his head.

Before I leave for Shootout, I will try to post some meaningful recent dyno stuff.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Sunday, December 05, 2004

DynoTech : First crack at live streaming video.......

I'm only listening to the webguys, but our local server may be overwhelmed with overwhelming simultaneous viewing. On Sat everyone was OK initially where we looked like Max Headroom. But as more people logged on, the time delay increased to the point that it finally locked up.
Just finished a too-full Sunday on the dyno. It appears as though the same thing happened today--first sound went away, then video. If those porn guys can keep up, we must be able to do the same. I'm glad this was freeview so no one can complain.

Most importantly, I just posted the MachZ SFD files on our website, not much explaination but there they are. I'll  try to elaborate tonight.

 The  05 F7 we were testing yesterday and today, absolutlely bone stock made 141 stock with leaner than normal 96 lb/hr fuel flow. We added a bunch of timing, then dropped fuel flow to make 150+ HP. Since some of you were watching those tests, I will try to post the test data tonight.

In between, you may have seen us dyno tuning an XCR 800 asphalt dragracer, those numbers won't be posted.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, December 04, 2004

DynoTech : Live Streaming Video Update

We blasted away at another 05 F7 today, with cameras lit up. This one was excellently lean, 42 psi idle fuel pressure, 96 lb/hr at peak, 141+ HP with stock timing! No need for fuel choke here. The cameras worked for an hour, then locked up due to a fried junction box. The webguys came right over and rectified that with a new box. Meanwhile, we were fitting a 2 degree key to the lean F7 to try to bump that up to 145 with stock fuel flow, discovered they had F7 Carb keys (too small) so as  I type this John T and Dave the sled owner are at Loonetune Bill's picking up the correcy key(s).

We'll be back at it tomorrow at 8 AM, fit the new key and go for 145. Great pump gas HP for a 700 twin.

Then we have Joe T's XCR800 asphalt sled coing to dyno tune (heads/ pipes/ fuel) until noon.

Finally our first MachZ will arrive at noon-1pm, with enough time on it to eliminate the soft breakin ECU program. We'll probably spend all afternoon, we'll try to hook up fuel flow meters to get us good stock tuning data.

Then Monday/ Tuesday we'll be doing dyno certification of the Adirondack/ Snowweek/ DTR shootout sleds. If LSR equipment holds up, you can watch that live. In deference to our SnowWeek partners, we will only report that each sled "passes" (or "fails") the bone stock dyno test. SnowWeek wants to be first to ress with Shootout sled dyno numbers, and we will accomodate their request.

Wednesday I'm doing the colonoscopy thing that all of us old guys should get occasionally, looking forward to that great stuff they pump into the IV, but not looking forward to the "prep" the night before.

Thursday AM, Bikeman is scheduled to bring two F8s to dyno tune (one single, one twin pipe) on his way to the Shootout.

Thusday PM off to Old Forge, Shootout on Friday. we're looking forward to good and timely Shootout coverage (in your mailbox December) by SnowWeek magazine.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Friday, December 03, 2004

DynoTech : Cameras rolling,, F7 TPS testers

We're online now with DynoCams, complete with high buck sound. Take a look on the free side of our website. We'll leave it on free view this weekend,  everone gets to see dyno hookup of an 05 F7, then tuning to max HP. This will be either Sat 1 PM EST or Sunday 9 AM EST. Then on Sunday 11 AM we will dyno tune Joe T's XCR800 asphalt dragger, with two sets of heads and two sets of pipes. I haven't heard yet from the DTR subscriber who's supposed to take delivery of MachZ today, hoping he will bring it here on Sunday PM.

Then Monday we will switch to subscriber-only access, when the fleet of SnowWeek/DTR shootout sleds arrive for certification. This cert will be done on Monday, Tuesday. Then Wednesday I go for routine colonoscopy (I couldn't talk the Dr into performing that on the dynotech table), then Thursday AM Bikeman is going to dyno two F8's on his way to Shootout (you will see that) .

Shootout is at Woodgate NY on Friday 12/10.

F7 TPS assessment-- the goofy numbers Looneytune and I have been getting apparently are the result of us getting the wrong AC TPS checkers, designed for ZR EFI's which have different wiring. So the jury is still out on how those few F7 hotrods are creating wickedly low fuel flow lb/hr and wickedly advanced timing.



 
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, December 02, 2004

DynoTech : more F7s, streaming video etc

We dialed in another 05 F7 today, had 2 degree key and a D&D PAC. For a 500 ft drag spec Chris made 150.5 HP at 40 PSI on his PAC gauge (= 38 psi on my dyno gauge). Dropping pressure lower than that ran too lean-- dropped HP. These all really need to be dyno'd somewhere to be sure if you want to tune fuel pressure to max HP. I will try to post some of the incredible lean fuel bone stock hotrod results this weekend.

We're dialing in two more F7s tomorrow from  north of Albany NY, at the same time our webguys are coming to install cameras in the dyno--one in the control room, and one in the dyno room, both with audio pickups. So if all goes as planned, you will be able to observe the goings in both rooms while we hookup sleds on my dyno hydraulic lift. Then you can see/ hear the howling of the engines while the SuperFlow dyno accelerates the engines through the powerband and records the data posted on DTR. I'm hoping that we can connect the Superflow computer screen to the webpage so you can see, immediately the results of each dyno run. We'll know more about the ultimte capabilities of the live streaming video by Sunday.

Now on Sunday we're hoping to have our first consumer MachZ on the dyno. It would be good to have that data before Monday when the SkiDoo and Polaris SnowWeek/ DTR shootout sleds arrive for certification.

Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

DynoTech : Late developments before Shootout.......

Today I just dyno tuned another couple of very hot F7s from MA/ NH. One had too much HP, 93 lb/hr fuel flow (compared to 110-115 expected at this temp here). The other has almost as too much HP, 96 lb/hr. I will try to post some of these hotrods this weekend.

I have purchased an Arctic Cat TPS tester, and it appears that after using the Cat tester there is something wrong with the TPS' on these sleds (and the one we tested Wednesday).

Regardles of what the Cat manual suggests, normal TPS' idle at @ 2.8vdc and at WOT are 0 vdc.

The last three gonzo hotrod stock F7s appear to idle at correct voltage, but at WOT they are MORE THAN 0 VDC. I won't say what voltage they show, but these anomalies appear to have correct voltage at idle, 1/4,1/2,3/4 but then instead of dropping to zero volts they seem to hold 3/4 throttle voltage to WOT!  This could explain the wicked lean fuel flow of the hotrod F7s, combined what appears like advanced iginition timing! I want one of those for myself.

I believe this is a glitch in these particular TPS', not adjustment! The last two hotrods (brought here by custom tuner Mike Chudzik  of  Gill MA) had apparently perfect TPS voltage from idle to 3/4 but mysteriously that voltage locked there from 3/4 to WOT instead of dropping to 0! So at WOT the ECU probably thinks the throttle is at 3/4...giving us crisply lean fuel and advanced timing that explains the 148 + HP we recorded on these bone stock sleds!

But remember before you roll back your TPS to similarly fool your ECU-- if you do that , then when you roll back to a true 3/4 throttle after a long lake blast the ECU wil think you're at 1/2 and you will  likely be toast. Normal TPSers are way better off with timing keys and PAC-like restrictors. But if you have one of the strange but too often recurring hotrods, beware of adding timing or dropping fuel pressure!

SHOOTOUT!!
Committed Trail Mods are coming from Bender, D&D, Crankshop, Hooper, HTG, DynoPort, Bikeman and hopefull more will drizzle in..

LIVE STREAMING VIDEO!!
The two cameras have arrived, and if my tech support people do their jobs you wil be able to watch the Dynotech certification live on the internet Monday, Tuesday, [I'm going for a colonoscopy on wednesday]. We're planning to have one camera/ sound in the control room, one camera/ sound in the dyno room so you can watch either or both? Then the Bikeman is hoping to dyno tune his two F8s live on Thursday AM before we head up to Old Forge on Thursday for the Shootout on Fri AM.







Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Monday, November 29, 2004

DynoTech : more HOT F7's and Mach Z's

Recently completed some more dyno tuneups with 05/04/03 F7s. Several have proven to be  what I call "hot" F7s--very low fuel flow and apparently advanced ignition timing. The latest,  most powerful yet (fitted with a 2.5 degree key but otherwise stock) made 149.5 HP, with a drag-stingy 95 lb/hr fuel flow at 43 psi rail pressure! And this was a long hot dyno run. I've got about three of these on a disc. I will try to post a Hot F7 gallery tomorrow including one we tested with a "thing" silencer.

Then hopefully this week we will have Mach Z numbers to post.
Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Saturday, November 27, 2004

DynoTech : FUSION ETC

I just finished initial dyno testing of my cousin-in-law Bill Roger's new Fusion. And since I'm measuring airflow CFM to compare to fuel flow lb/hr I have some very good, very promising info that I will post tonight or tomorrow AM!

Sunday Bill and I are going to try some tweeks to see if we can do trail-safe low buck (other than dyno tuning) perkup to the Fusion.

Also today we dyno's a very excellent PSI1200 Genesis top end on a 1000 Tcat. Will try to post that this weekend.

Another significant tuneup was a great SLP ProX 800 dyno tuned yesterday, seems like it's conceivable for upright 800 twins to match the F8's pump gas performance.


Comments | 12:00:00 AM

Thursday, November 25, 2004

DynoTech : Updates

Of the 10  F7 Firecats dyno tuned so far this month, four have been hotrods, with way more HP than the average stocker. Three with offset keys made 145+ with no fuel tuning (those had stock fuel flow in the mid-high 90 lb/hr range!).  Just observing the variance in F7 HP curves it appears as though not only do we have variation in fuel flow, but ignition timing  as well. Firecats make more HP with advanced timing, but then overrev HP suffers (a box with more ignition retard at high revs would help). So I'm rethinking my standard recommendation that Firecat owners install offset keys before coming to dyno tune to save expensive dyno time. If you are one of the fortunate F7ers that has a good "box" with lean mixture and generous ignition timing, adding more timing with an offest key narrows the HP band (from 7200 Ex valve opening to where advanced timing causes HP to drop).  This may be OK for savvy clutch tuners who can make adjustments to keep engine speed at max HP. But surely relaxed ignition timing allows for much greater overrev HP and ease of clutching. It might be worth spending an extra hour changing the key at the dyno if just fuel tuning leves HP short.

The fourth November F7 "hotrod" we encountered, a brand new 05 sled made 140 HP off the trailer. It had fuel flow that was in the low 100 lb/hr range (maybe 10% less than typical 03/04's), and probably programmed timing that was more generous that the more typical 03/04s that make closer to 130 HP. The owner of the sled opted to leave timing stock, and in this case by just leaning fuel flow a bit he was rewarded with 145 HP with a great, flat HP plateau, over 140 from just after valve opening to beyond 8000. And since the many 03/04s we tuned last season have proven totally reliable at 140-145 HP, obtaining that HP level without adding excessive timing will make this sled easy to clutch for good performance. After I get some non-cat stuff posted I will try to remember to post this latest 145 HP tuneup with that great, broad powerband.

On 11/28 my cousin-in-law is bringing his new Fusion to dyno test. Other dyno testers have reported difficulty with deto sensors being set off by dyno vibrations (remember we had that problem with the 800 Pol in last year's Shootout). Since we've all heard modest dyno numbers so far, I'm anxious to see if it's tuned lazily. If so we may be able to help that some.







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Sunday, November 14, 2004

DynoTech : recent revelations...

I talked to Dan and Dale friday--after they saw my 05 F7 post, they grabbed one of their own 05's and put in on their dyno. Their 05 made way less HP the ours, 110+ lb/hr fuel flow. So probably Kaz' 05 was one of those lucky hot ones like we've seen in the past.

Also D&D is planning to bring two sleds to the SW Shootout--a long track F9 (their F8 cyls with larger bore and longer sroke) and a 660 turbo with trail hopup kit. I hope we get to dyno both here, since SnowWeek will publish any Trail Mod dyno sheets we come up with.

Carl McQuillen (585-768-2322) has set up a jig to make it easier to EDM advance keyways in Cat flywheels. The latest on he did a 7 degrees for an F8 carb sled we're dyno tuning tomorrow. He stamps the original keyway with a "0" and in this case the new keyway is stamped "+7". Carl is also the guy who manufactures the Fuel Safe nitrogen blanket system to pressurize drummed race gas, maintaining light ends with  three psi nitrogen. The Fuel Safe also dispenses the fuel like a beer tap. Our drummed race fuel lasts indefinitely this way. Half-full drums of race gas can go "dead" in a short time--light ends go away like CO2 goes away in half-full liters of Pepsi (every time you open the Pepsi bottle to take a swig that "whish" means more carbonation lost). Similarly, every time you crack the bung on your drum of fuel the "whish" you hear and smell means more light ends gone. When enough light ends are lost, fuel does not readily vaporize and detonation can occur with low EGT's and safe-appearing A/F ratios.

Last Saturday we also did our third back to back comparison of big mouth  Firecat airbox inlet vs stock. And for the third time, Bob Swift's SLP twin-piped F8 lost low end and midrange WOT airflow, then added airflow at HP peak when we switched from  big mouth to stock. As I recall we picked up 2 HP at peak due to added CFM with fixed trail-safe fuel flow lb/hr. As a bonus, the slight reduction in midrange airflow was welcomed, since the ECU does not provide adequate low end/ midrange fuel to keep up with the high-flowing twin pipes without jacking fuel pressure to the moon.

I'm planning to take a crack at dyno tuning a Polaris Fusion this week, hopefully Tuesday. Sled will be borrowed from Cooper's Sales and Service.

 


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Friday, November 12, 2004

DynoTech : 2005 F7 EFI shocker and new stuff being tuned...

Today we dyno tuned our first 2005 F7 EFI.
Kaz was bringing his his new sled to tune, figuring on relying on his D&D pac to drop fuel pressure to optimise HP. We had communicated by phone a few times and I suggested as I always do with EFI F7ers: install a 2 or 3 degree key ahead of time (all smart F7 riders need that). It's more economical to do that in your garage than on my dyno at $125/hr. Come here with timing key in place and we'll be done more quickly.
Normally that means a baseline test or two, 10-1 A/F ratio is typical, then reduce top end fuel pressure with a main jet, a D&D pac needle jet, or any other needle valve to do the same thing.
So Kaz brought his new '05 F7, remember he has a 2 degree offset key, and blasted two runs back to back cool and hot, 147 HP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then we installed a Speedwerx single and added  more HP.
Then we choked down the fuel pressure with D&D pac and added even more.
That two degree key  adds a few HP but this is unbelievable. Base fuel  flow lb/hr on this '05 F7 was 99-100 lb/hr. One hour earlier we had a 03/04 F7 on the dyno, 110 lb/hr base fuel flow. Was this another anomoly like Mike "Ziggy" Zigmont's '04 F7? Or is this how the new "05's are tuned by AC?
I've got all the dyno numbers here, SFD files, etc,  if I can stay awake I'll post them tonight. If I can't stay awake I'll try later this weekend. Everyone needs to see this.

I'm dynoing three sleds tomorrow (Bikeman F8, Speedwerx 1000, ZR900 mod) then dynoing two more on Sunday (both SLP ported ProX800's).

Spiders build fancy mosquito-catching webs on my dyno all summer. But in the fall the cool air sets in, and the spiders flee as the hordes of blue, yellow, green, red, black, and orange sleds converge here to dyno tune, having great fun optimizing whatever they have.

Also there is a new Fusion sitting at Cooper Sales and Service waiting for me to have two days to test and tune. Maybe next week. Plus the new MachZ's hare on their way, we need to dyno one of those before the Old Forge Shootout.
 
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Thursday, November 11, 2004

DynoTech : SNOWWEEK/ DYNOTECH SHOOTOUT

SnowWeek/ SnowGoer has partnered with DynoTech, George Taylor, Big Moose Yamaha/ Arctic Cat, Old Forge Powersports Skidoo, and White Lake Polaris to make the Adirondack Shootout better than ever.

Because of SnowWeek's participation, we expect a good turnout of "Trail Mod" sleds from aftermarket companies. Each sled will receive 1/2 page with photo in SnowWeek magazine.

SNOWWEEK/ DYNOTECH RESEARCH ADIRONDACK SHOOTOUT

  “TRAIL MOD” RULES

Between the box-stock and “dealer prep” runs we will offer aftermarket companies the opportunity to showcase specific trial modifications (engine, components, etc) to stock sleds as run in the shootout.

Each sled will receive ½ page in SnowWeek including photo, with text describing the performance upgrades on each sled.  The great benefit of the SnowWeek partnership is immediate publicity (December). There is also expected similar publicity in SnowGoer, later in the season.

 Optional: dyno tune at DynoTech (before or after the Shootout)—those dyno results will be published in SnowWeek and on line DynoTechResearch after SnowWeek.

 In the past, there has been lax enforcement of trail mod “rules”. In deference to our aftermarket partners this will change this year. We want TRAIL MOD SLEDS. All sleds will be weighed and “teched” by Pete Webb and Sean Ray. Displacement, compression, etc will be noted. Perhaps sleds that don’t fit the “trail mod” classification can be run in exhibition, separate from Trail Mod.

 THE PROPOSED RULES:

 Pump gas, 93 octane supplied by DynoTech will be used. Gas in sleds will be pumped out, three gallons of the 93 octane pump gas will be put into each sled.

 Each sled will be weighed, and if weight is less than the stockers at the shootout, a list of components/ cost will be supplied that created the weight savings.

 Suspension travel must be reasonable, 50% travel should be acceptable.

 Whatever stock track comes on the sled will be used. Trail carbides will be used (no more than used on the stock sleds) and not carbide tipped ice picks like Big Bob used several years ago (that precipitated the “Big Bob Rule Stretcher Award).

 The SnowWeek crew will organize a short trail ride before the aftermarket sleds are run—maybe a two-three mile trial ride (the Woodgate Shootout track hooks up to the trail system), possibly allowing SnowWeek guys to switch off and ride all the aftermarket sleds so each can be assessed and its trail manners reported on.

 So far we have commitments from Bender, DynoPort, D&D, Hooper, Crankshop, Excell Motorsports.   We are looking forward to more participants this year. In the past, AmSnow required aftermarket participants to be display advertisers in AmSnow. SNOWWEEK IS WAIVING THAT REQUIREMENT.

 Any aftermarket business that has an interest in showcasing their performance products on December 10, and would like to discuss details please call Jim Czekala (585-993-2777) or George Taylor (910-269-1018).

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Saturday, November 06, 2004

DynoTech : Dyno Vibes

Today I spent an hour on the phone with  7K Dyno Bill Davis (fully instrumented engine dyno @ 7000' altitude in Marysvale Utah).  Bill and his partner Donavan are now preparing to create a sled chassis-holding fixture like mine that will allow  testing without removing the engine from the chassis. This will be a fantastically good thing for high altitude riders who seek optimum performance without having to jerk the engine/ ignition/ fuel system from the chassis'. They've dyno tested many hundreds of sled engines, 1000's of dyno tests on their engine fixtures. But now the complexity of the new breed of EFI sleds with hoses and wires and computers mounted everywhere means it's time for Bill and Donavan to begin dyno testing with engines in their chassis'.

The gist of our conversation today was how to create a  long enough  dyno drive shaft to allow for motor mount flex as well as dealing with the most evil torsional vibrations emanating from long stroke (and even longer stroke "stroker")  big bore twins that are in vogue today.

Tim Bender and Sean Ray have been dyno tuning their Polaris/ Ieam Industries 800 twin snowcross engines here. Without getting into specifics about engine output one of these 100 and something lb/ft evil vibrating twin engines recently snapped a [prototype very stiff] dyno driveshaft weld, and twisted out of phase a press-fit joint that required 15 tons (measured on my hydraulic press) to assemble. Aproximately 500 lb/ft of torque was aplied to try to reindex the shaft to no avail. How could this be? Huge torque spikes are created by some of these monster twins when they reach their resonant frequencies (that engine speed where the PTO and mag ends are "ringing", going back and forth in different directions!). The monstrous torque spikes created by these vibrations can be as destuctive as 1000 lb/ft impact guns, twisting themselves out of phase and/ or turning steel dyno driveshaft components into red dust. That heavy mag flywheel winds up, then unloads at just the wrong time, acting like a sledgehammer on the crankshaft itself and anything attached to the crank PTO taper. Those torsional vibrations are the cause of Big Twins prematurely wearing out drive clutch moving parts. Since we do mostly "sweep" testing from low to high RPM, it is very likely that we will encounter, somewhere, the critical speed(s) of any crankshaft. Even if that encounter is brief, torsional vibes can wreak havoc on dyno shafts and the engines themselves.

How can we protect our $100K dyno systems, and equally importantly, our customers' valuable engines from these torsional vibrations and the resultant violent torque spikes? If we use a solid driveshaft capable of handling the torque of. say, a 6-71 Detroit Diesel, driveshat and dyno  longevity will be excellent. But those impact-gun torque spikes from the Big Twins will have nowhere to go, and can easily turn on themselves (literally) and turn the crankshaft out of phase. I've done that here in the past, protecting my stuff with solid shafts at the expense of the potentially offending engines. No one wins or learns anything from that sort of standoff.

So how do we deal with this? Simply, lots of rubber dampening media between the engine and dyno absorption unit. The more the merrier, and those destructive torque spikes are converted into hot rubber that cools when the torque spikes subside. There is some engineering that goes into determining the proper stiffeness of the rubber couplings to absorb the torque spikes. In my case it has been 16 years of farmer engineering which determined that sweet spot of torsional dampening media--if it's too supple for the peak torsionals the rubber will wind up like black licorice chewing gum on the ceiling and shaft parts will fly. If the rubber's too stiff, engine components may suffer.

Today, after 1000's of variously evil engines, we've come close to learning how to deal properly with each situation. There is lots of rubber dampening media in our shaft system, we pay attention to heat levels in the rubber couplers between runs. With the experience gleaned here from the holes in our ceiling, Bill and Donavan can hit the ground running and high altitude "in chassis" dyno tuners there can be comfortable knowing that their expensive engines will be pampered while valuable information is  learned.

A dynomometer with a properly dampened dyno driveshaft is absolutley easier on the engine than a drive clutch, since there is zero side load on the crankshaft PTO!

Every mod engine deserves to be dyno tuned. Bill and Donavan have found that what works here close to sea level is totally different at 7000ft. I need to find a way to include them more ofter in DTR, so they can share their valuable (for mountain riders) technical info. More valuable High Altitude stuff to come after they get their chassis fixture/ driveshaft system complete.





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Monday, November 01, 2004

DynoTech : wanted F7 for free dyno tuning 11/19--

I've got a good pal Don Schroeder in Alberta who wants to fly down to NY with his F8 cylinders/ pistons, F7 ECU, injectors  to dyno tune here on Friday 11/19. But he needs a donor sled/ engine to fit his parts to for testing. The deal would be: free dyno time to dial in your F7 EFI to 140+ HP (or F8 to 150+ HP)  (value $250-400). Then remove your cylinders, install Don's Pistons/ cylinders injectors ECU etc and dial him in, probably and extra five-six hours, reinstall your pistons/ cylinders and you're done Phone 585-993-2777 or. Email me info@dynotechresearch.com if interested.
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Sunday, October 31, 2004

DynoTech : This week on the dyno

THIS COMING WEEK...Monday doing a 99 XCR800, Stock vs
DynoPort pipes, Vforce reeds, shim kit to raise cylinders, modified heads to compensate and then some...
Wednesday we have a SkiDoo600 with a 734 big bore...
Friday we'll be tuning another D&D F8 top end with a Bikeman modded stock pipe and maybe a new version of a D&D big bore single....

THIS IS BUGGING ME: some guy posted on the web, whining about not wanting to pay $20 for DTR because he heard that all we say here is aftermarket stuff doesn't work?! So he has a stock F7 with 132 HP that I can put on our dyno and tune with timing and fuel only to close to 150 HP. A bone stock 700 pump gas twin with 150 HP!!  Did Arctic Cat/ Suzuki leave anything on the table? Does a factory stock 700 twin capable of 150 HP have bad reeds?  Is the stock F7 single pipe low on HP? Did Arctic Cat goof on the best possible airbox intake? Give us all a break. The 03 snowPro intake was huge like the high $ billet aftermarket intake horns, but 04 and later airboxes have the smaller high velocity intakes like the F7s-- could the smaller intake inlets make more HP at peak revs due to airbox sound wave tuning? Or should you poke a bunch of holes in your well-tuned airbox for "bullboys" and let a bunch of HP robbing hot air into your intake??
Last Friday I had  a guy from Maine tune his F7 dragracer w/ 500' factory drag ECU. He came with a large diameter 03 snowpro intake, switched to a stock F7 intake and he increased top end airflow CFM with the smaller stock F7 air intake. With that stock airbox horn in place he tuned to 151 HP.
So this whining guy with the 132 HP F7 can pay big bucks for big reeds, big air horn, aftermarket pipe, big loud can  and still may have 132 HP. Or he can read our stuff, figure out the facts, and have great fun if he can find an instrumented dyno to tweak upon. The whining guy has all the parts in his bone stock sled to make 150HP. All it takes is tuning to get him there, or (wisely) partway there. My own tinking is based upon the many sleds tuned here ONLY with fuel reduction and timing increases, those 132 HP F7s are perfectly reliable for intelligent people at 140-145 HP. And those 145 horse guys have stock reeds, stock pipes, stock airboxes, and stock mufflers.

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Wednesday, October 27, 2004

DynoTech : SnowWeek/ DynoTech/Adirondack Shootout, current and upcoming projects etc

Last week I had  an F6 travel 1300 miles (one way) from New Brunswick to tune a Firecat, probably a new distance record. The owner requested anonymity, so all you NE Canada guys can do is look for an extra pair of hose clamps on the hose from the fuel pump to the injector rail on a newly extra-quick F6.

Next week, we're dynoing a 600 SkiDoo twin with a 732 Big Bore. Hoping that this will be positive, information that we can share.

Also next week we're doing a popular XCR800 tuneup--DynoPort triple pipes, cylinder shim to increase port timing, various combustion chambers, reeds, etc.

I'm surrounded by Polaris Fusions sitting in dealers' warehouses--no one is knocking at the door here yet but if no one shows up I will try to borrow one from Cooper Sales/ Service next week. I had heard that Polaris was going to allow their dealers tuning access to Fusion ECU's, but are now understandably rethinking that. The Fusions have deto protection so there's seemingly no need for Polaris to tune fatly, but if they are we will try to figure a way to override the fatness and get big HP like we do with the Firecats.

No 1000cc SkiDoo twins  available just yet. I'm hoping that we will have an independant sample prior to the SnowWeek/ DynoTech/ Adirondack Shootout in Woodgate on Dec 10. Also where AmSnow required aftermarket trail mod particpants to be display advertisers in their mag, Snowweek/ Snowgoer will not require that. Anyone who has REAL trail mod packages to sell/ show off, you are welcome. Thi year it is really trail mod, no pro stock dragracers, stock tracks, trail carbides, (our) pump gas, engines teched (bere/ stroke/ compression etc).  Maybe an organized trail ride for the trail mods before putting them on the track at half-time?

One contentious issue is aftermarket sale of fuel pressure dropping devices for Firecats. Because of the WIDE variation in stock F7 fuel flow these things must be dialed in on instrumented dynos to be safe.I have dyno tuned many dozens of Firecats--stock fuel flow varies more than 10%!! So if you take one of the [lucky like Ziggy] properly tuned stockers and lean it out by blindly reducing fuel pressure it will probably be toast, just like Ziggy would have been on the dyno if  observant dyno people hadn't caught it.
 






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Friday, October 22, 2004

DynoTech : Blue Marble Oil?

The Blue Marble guys just shipped me a couple of cases of oil for me to test. I've followed BM oil streams around the internet, and you DTR subscribers know our batting average for dyno testing fancy oils/ oil additives/ treatments etc.....00zero.

This time Sam DynoMan (he has a track dyno testing service) who is a local Blue Marble distibutor brought a low mileage bone stock Polaris 600 twin, with polaris oil for baseline dyno testing. His plan was to baseline on our SuperFlow engine dyno, treat his engine however they do it by soaking cylinders and parts etc, run it for a while, track dyno it and if results were positive, bring it back for an "after" test.

After we baselined the engine at about 115 HP (very typical) I  checked compression and squish, wrote my initials on the CDI, and Sam took the sled home for treatment/ further evaluation and dyno testing on his DynoJet track dyno. A week later Sam called me, ready for another "pull" on my dyno. Bring it on.

This time, with Blue Marble oil as the only change (***) the engine made 117 HP on the average of two hot engine tests. Compared to the baseline test, fuel flow lb/hr was identical (= no jetting chages), airflow CFM was identical (= no airbox mods or porting). And since the HP peak occurred a hundred revs HIGHER than baseline probably no ignition timing was advanced. Very interesting.

(***)
What could be done to fool us? We're measuring fuel flow and airflow and we can expect increased torque and shifting of midrange HP and HP peak RPM to lower RPM with added timing and compression. In this case the midrange torque was identical and HP peak was a hundred revs higher! Since friction drag increases as the square of engine RPM, could lowered friction be helping us?  About the only thing someone wanting to cheat our system would be to add HP increasing additives to the gas (ie: propylene oxide). But usually that stuff is noxious smelling, especially since propylene oxide is used commercially to sterilize fruit flies in fruit storage buildings (just what I want to sniff during testing). I don't think DynoMan Sam was cheating, but I have to test this for myself.

My plan is to take John T. Cowie's Polaris 600 twin that Sean Ray used in DTR (shimmed up cylinder, cut head,  etc etc) and  do that same Blue Marble oil treatment procedure ourselves. Very Soon.
 

 



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Tuesday, September 17, 2002

DynoTech : Adirondack Shootout 2008

We're contemplating changes for this December.

This is Shootout #19. Amazing, since it seems like yesterday that Jerry  Bassett and I created this concept of me dyno certifying stock sleds then us doing some sort of field shootout with guaranteed stock sleds. Shootout #1 was held in a farmer's field in central NY, Tim Bender was the shootout test driver, handheld stopwatches and a radar gun provided data. Tim caught our first cheater that year, noting that the carbureted 650 Indy accelerated like a dragster, impossible to be box stock! Turns out somone had compromised the sled hood seals and installed dragrace clutches. Jerry Bassett deleted that sled's data from Shootout #1.

Eighteen years and a few caught cheaters later, here were are again.

But this past few years with SnowGoer awarding a Shootout Trophy for "most improved" performance for stockers out-of-the-crate to "dealer prep", there seems to be some finger pointing about detuning box


 

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