Have been planning a while to do a small engine/intake/exhaust upgrade program for the Slowtra just to get some extra oomph. And No I'm not planning cams, high compression, mega porting, individual throttles and what nots. Decided to do a baseline dyno to see where I stand before the upgrades. Per my knowledge there are only two dynos in Penang and both are relatively new (circa 2007). Used the dyno in Northern Garage. I believe the other dyno is at M Power. The dyno at Northern Garage is a
Dastek unit. Dastek is the same South African company responsible for the famed Unichip series of piggybacks. Having been educated mostly on
Dynojet and
Dyno Dynamics dynamometers so the Dastek is new to me but so long as it can give me repetitive power readings that are not out of this world (like 700+hp for a friend's 1.5 NA Wira on the Speedworks Dyno Dynamics dyno once) I'm ok. One should never compare or brag about power readings from different dynos anyway. They're all different. The trick here is once you get a baseline on a dyno try to always use the same dyno down the road.
Checked in a very wet Slowtra for dyno after a long day at the office last Thursday. Rained Giraffes and Hippos on my drive to Northern Garage. Pix below of the Slowtra all set up for dyno.
The PC holding the dyno software. The display next to the PC is the Dastek's display.
Pix of the Slowtra all hooked up to the dyno PC and the huge industrial spec blower which is used for cooling during repeated dyno runs. Without such a fan the likelyhood of overheating is high as the car is stationary with no airflow.
The LM-1 is a single self-contained unit that combines a wideband air/fuel ratio sensor controller, a 6-channel data logger, and an easy-to-read backlit LCD display. The LM-1 also features two configurable analog outputs to connect to analog gauges, dyno computers, ECUs, piggyback controllers, and other devices with analog inputs.
Butt plug? Nope, it's the LM-1's Bosch wideband oxygen/lambda sensor plugged into the Slowtra's exhaust. The sensor is a Bosch LSU4.2 5-wire, wide-band O2 sensor.
Slowtra getting dynoed and the horsepower output graph being generated on the PC's monitor.
For car's with manual gearbox dyno should be done in the gear closest to 1:1 ratio which is typically 4th gear on a 5-speed gearbox. If you want a higher reading for bragging purposes you're welcome to try 3rd gear ;)
Closeup of the display
The bill came up to RM100 for the baseline dyno. Did it in a packaged deal along with some friends who were also doing the dyno. Aerotech previously charge RM200+ for a baseline so the cost is very reasonable and competitive with what Speedworks PJ is offering. If you decide to use Northern Garage's dyno, work out the cost with Ah Loy (boss of Northern Garage).
And now on to the question everyone's been waiting (that's if they haven't been bored to death first reading to get here) What did the Slowtra dyno for?
How does 106hp and 150Nm of torque at the engine sound to you? If you ask me that's pretty decent for a stock QG16 engine once you factor in power steering pump losses and weather variables (not sure what correction factor was used and the Northern Garage mechanic couldn't tell me). The only "power mods" I have is a K&N drop-in filter and Nippon Denso Iridium plugs. I did try to get power readings at the wheel but the Dastek gave me a ridiculous 79hp reading. I doubt the manual transmission results in a 25% power loss. The mechanic blamed wheelspin but I think that's even more ridiculous with only 106hp/150 Nm of torque. Dyno graphs to follow once I take a decent picture of the graph printout. The PC was not able generate a softcopy. Bummer!
