Dyno's? Thought and usage

What are people's feelings on dyno's and there uses?

Lets have a talk about them!

Great topic!
Dyno's have helped me work out bugs in several cars and to tune them. While it is not a replacement for going to the track, I think they serve a very good purpose. Dyno Don Nicholson, was a real beleiver in dynos. The thing that I have also learned, is that many dyno guys love to try to get you the most HP that they can and many times will make a car too Lean. I don't much care for that.

HP is usually rated as a much more desirable number than torque, yet torque contributes heavily to keeping a lot of area "under the curve" for HP.

I think there really should be a better way to view the area "under the curve", perhaps figure it as a number using calculus to estimate. The more area under the curve for a wider range would lead to having a large number.

What should we call this unit? And it's a figure of area, so dealing with size.

I think we should call it "balls". As in, "your car may have more HP at a certain RPM, but my car certainly has more balls!"

Dyno's are a Great Tool IMHO. Like you said they are no replacement for the track. Peak numbers are usless to me and I find to many people put to much stock in those Peak numbers.

For true tuning I feel an Eddy Curreent Dyno is best and a inertia Dyno like the 248C Dyno Jet is the excepted norm for WOT tuning for many people. I think the 248C carrys the most weight in many conversations but leaves many things on the table.

For a true street car I preffer to do a street tune followed by WOT tuning on a 248C. That being said when the time comes for our shop to buy a dyno I will be leaning heavily towards a Eddy current unit

Seahawk...Youy know I always go for what is under the curve over a peak Good Points and yes many of the cars we work on have BALLS

Ellis, what are the different brand of dyno's?

Torque vs. Horsepower: Sure on the dynos everyone pretty much focuses on HP, but that doesn't say much for how the car is on the track. Stop me if you've heard this before....
Horsepower is only indicative of the mph you are going to potentially run. Torque is how fast/quickly the motor car accelerate the car. I'm not sure the 1/4 mile simulator on the dyno would show you this either because you're not actually trying to push the weight down the road. It will be interesting to see someone trying tho....
So what is "under the curve" anyway?

Jeff, how is your Mach coming? Any plans to dyno it?

Hey Kent,
Scribner has the rear end and I probably won't see it for another couple of weeks.
I'll go to the other section and post a pic and tell ya what we are doing. I don't imagine it will be ready before dyno day, although it would be fun to see where it is now. Previously at Carb Connection it was 365hp and 350torque.

Jeff~

redmach1 wrote:

Hey Kent,
Scribner has the rear end and I probably won't see it for another couple of weeks.
I'll go to the other section and post a pic and tell ya what we are doing. I don't imagine it will be ready before dyno day, although it would be fun to see where it is now. Previously at Carb Connection it was 365hp and 350torque.

Jeff~

Yep... saw your rear-end at Scribner's.

Dana