Dyno Day Disappointment

[OllieVRS]

Went to the dyno before work to see how my car was performing stock with just a cold air intake, Rev G DV and on Irish 95 octane (raised roughly to 98/99 octane with octane booster).




Got to say I'm pretty bummed to have gotten 184hp. I expecting 195+, especially considering the cold air intake is supposed to add a few horses even without a map.

But my engine's compression was 145psi last time I checked 6000km ago, so that may be part of the reason for such a disappointing result.

The guy doing the dyno run also pointed out the weird bumpiness in the graph, and suggested something may be wrong with the spark plug gapping  . I changed out the spark plugs 1000km ago with some NGK BKR7EIXs so I dunno.

I'm planning on returning in a month or so to get remapped on 95 octane without any booster, hopefully that won't be the final nail in the coffin for my engine 

[Clarkj93]

Any reason for sticking to 95 and not 99?

A really good service could raise the numbers. Mine had a creation motorsport intake, miltek cat back, pre cat delete followed by a good service (fuel filter, r8 coils, oil etc.) And an inlet valve and fuel injector cleaning and made 220bhp before mapping. May have been less before the inlet cleaning mind. Your torque curve also seems to drop before mine did when it was stock, mine dropped at about 5500 rpm. It does look quite bumpy though as said already.

[rich83]

Odd. Torque numbers are about right. 

[OllieVRS]

Any reason for sticking to 95 and not 99?

I'm in the Republic of Ireland, unfortunately all we get is 95 octane.

My engine is too abused from having low oil pressure and not enough maintenance to justify spending money on having the injectors cleaned. But it's also not worth spending €2k+ on replacing it with another used engine if I'm only losing 16hp.

The fuel filter was changed 20k miles ago. I also got a P0441 'Tank venting system, incorrect flow, Permanent' code that's somehow not throwing up a CEL, but I don't think that should affect the engine's horsepower. Oil and filter was changed less than 1k miles ago. No misfire codes or anything like that.

Odd. Torque numbers are about right. 

Yeah that is pretty weird, I thought they were directly linked/correlated? Since 280NM is factory spec, shouldn't the horsepower figure be in or around 200hp too? Could the dyno be off a bit?

[ald1717]

after my experience with so called octane boosters im gonna guess without it added you will see better numbers slightly,
these cars are supposed to run on superunleaded, if you run it on 98 your performance will be around 197bhp i bet..

[pudding]

HP implies measured at the wheels, otherwise it should be BHP if a crank figure.

Did Mr Dyno man state if his readings are wheel or crank power?

I wish all dynos would just quote standard kilowatts 

Bumpiness in the line is likely detonation if he applied smoothing to the graph.

[OllieVRS]

after my experience with so called octane boosters im gonna guess without it added you will see better numbers slightly,
these cars are supposed to run on superunleaded, if you run it on 98 your performance will be around 197bhp i bet..

Well I'm going to be going back in a month for a remap after running the car on a tank or two of just 95. When he dynos the car before the map we'll see if you're correct and if the booster's useless.

I'm kind of hoping you're right though, that it'll still be 180hp+ on 95. Otherwise if the octane booster actually works it should read ~170hp on pure 95, which would put me on par with a diesel vRS 

[ald1717]

it would be interesting if you could fill up with 99ron fuel from newry for your next dyno, dont know how close you are to them but it would give you an idea of how close you are to quoted bhp using the recommended fuel, generally 1 extra octane generates an extra 5bhp i found,  so if you got 180 bhp on 95, add 15bhp from 3 extra ron bringing it to the recommended 98 ron that would give you 195bhp which is only 2 bhp down from quoted when new figures which for a 16 year old car would be brill..

[OllieVRS]

it would be interesting if you could fill up with 99ron fuel from newry for your next dyno, dont know how close you are to them but it would give you an idea of how close you are to quoted bhp using the recommended fuel, generally 1 extra octane generates an extra 5bhp i found,  so if you got 180 bhp on 95, add 15bhp from 3 extra ron bringing it to the recommended 98 ron that would give you 195bhp which is only 2 bhp down from quoted when new figures which for a 16 year old car would be brill..

I'm in Dublin but after I get it mapped and I'm in the north I'll definitely fill up there, then come back for another dyno. Although some people on the forums do say that it being '99 octane' is a load of bollocks, since it's the only pump in Northern Ireland (afaik) selling above 97 octane.

[ald1717]

are you sure theres no where in dublin that sells super?  seems odd, 

[OllieVRS]

are you sure theres no where in dublin that sells super?  seems odd,

I'm 100% positive nowhere in the entirety of the Republic of Ireland sells above 95 octane. There is premium stuff of course, but even that still says 95 octane on it. I've done hours of googling, all with the same conclusion that it's simply not imported to the republic, and not imported because of environmental policies/green party/not enough demand etc.

There's been a few occasions in the past where people have found 97 octane on pumps here, but it has always been an error and fixed quickly by the petrol station.

[RBS]

Weird!?!

[RBS]

Was it a hot day when you went on the dyno?? Heatsoak is an enemy…

[ald1717]

Was it a hot day when you went on the dyno?? Heatsoak is an enemy…

   catch yourself on...lol    this is in ireland    wish some of that nice english weather would blow over here..

[ROH ECHT]

NGK BKR7EIX are a 5k Ohm restricted plug. You really should consider going back to the 1k Ohm plug (NGK 1675 PFR7S8EG) w/gaps at 0.8 mm, and allow more voltage to pass through the plug when stock as yours is. At stock there's no need to restrict the power for the arc it can generate. Because your combustion situation is not likely to disturb its arc.

You may consider, if just seeking higher power numbers, try a lower visc oil to 0W20...if using 5W30. Or 5W30...if using 5W40. That always makes more power....but you might want to change it back after the dyno day.