How does it work?
Let’s take the chassis dyno as an example, sometimes called “rolling roads” by those in the know. If you’ve visited a garage before, you may have noticed one of these systems built into the shop floor. It may have looked like a set of rollers, and it could have been on a movable stand rather than in the floor itself. They’re actually heavy-duty drums as opposed to simply “rollers,” and once the car is placed on them and the drum brakes active, the car can be engaged and start turning its wheels.
As the drums spin, electronic measuring equipment calculates torque and power using the data it collects. Once you have the torque at any given speed, the machines can extrapolate HP using the formula: horsepower = torque x RPM/5252.
How do tuners use this technology?
It’s all very clever and sophisticated, and it’s great that we can get hold of this information use dynos. The next question, however, is how does this connect to tuning?
“Dyno tuning,” as it’s normally called, is where auto tuners use the data gathered from their dyno to help them tune cars to their owners’ needs. That need might be to boost performance, speed, power, torque or something else — it really depends on what you’re driving the vehicle for. The dyno itself doesn’t do any tuning, but it lays down the essential baseline of information that tuners then use to make adjustments.
Think of it this way. If you want to increase the torque of your engine, you would first need to know what level of torque you are achieving now, right? If you had no point of reference, you wouldn’t know how much to dial it up. That’s where dynos come in.
You use the dyno to get your baseline, then you do the tuning and make the adjustments that you want. After the tuning is done, you can test again to get your updated numbers. If it’s not quite right, you go through the process again.
What benefits do dynos bring when used for tuning?
The first thing one should mention when looking to the benefits of dynos is the usefulness of the data they bring. The truth is that chassis dynos area not as absolutely or technically accurate as engine dynos, but are obviously much more convenient. They can also show us a more realistic picture of torque and power under real driving conditions.
How does this benefit the tuning process, exactly?
- You can fine-tune your vehicle to meet your exact driving style and needs
Because testing can be done by measuring power output at different specific levels of acceleration, you can create a tuning program that tailors the car to perform exactly as you need it each day. This is real personalization; a level that factory-specs just can’t achieve.
- You can significantly boost your car’s speed and performance
Once you have the base data, you can tune up to greatly augment your horsepower and torque. If you’re a keen racer, then this is that winning edge that you need to succeed in your noble hobby.
- You can even achieve greater fuel economy
Have you noticed your car running out of gas faster than it did before? It’s not necessarily a sign of any significant damage, but more likely a symptom of common wear and tear and the need for tuning. A proper tuning with data garnered from a dyno can boost your fuel economy by several percent. Couple that with other maintenance and filter changes, and you can keep that gas consumption at its proper rate.
At Kraken Racing we have access to a specialised purpose built facility that allow us to be at the forefront of development within the industry. Having worked closely with Dynocom, ensured we have the very latest technology allowing us to offer power runs and ECU mapping on some of the best 4 wheel drive dyno systems on the market.
Because of our commitment to development we access to not only one but two 4WD cells, each utilising either a belt or hydraulic linkage system for the most advanced vehicle control systems. This means that our development of ECU files doesn’t stop and we can ensure we offer the highest quality of ECU software.
