Well, after hearing so many great stories in the Major Horsepower Upgrades section, I decided it was time to get my 8 ready for the GReddy turbo. I wanted to do a before and after dyno so I would have a good comparison. Well, my gf (also an 8 owner) wanted the same thing. I made the appintment for the dyno before talking with her, and after she used her "Jedi-mind trick" on me, I ended up taking her 8 in instead of mine.

I leave for Evolution Racing this morning... and this is where everything goes wrong...

I arrive shortly after 10am, walk in to the front and no one is around. I start making alot of noise, coughing and clearing my throat... nothing. I dial thier phone number from my cell... all the phones around me start ringing. After 30 rings or so, I call it quits, drive to McDonalds for some breakfast. I call again after breakfast and someone answers the phone... Great! I drive back to the shop and behind the counter at a computer is who I believe to be the "ringleader" of the outfit. I send him a greeting... he looks up and then back at his computer. This goes on for a few minutes with me standing there like a goon and him not responding to me. I finally say, "Hey, Im here for that dyno"... he mumbles a reply and keeps at his computer... I'd love to elaborate more on his wonderful personality but I have to get this story rolling.

He finally drags his *** around back and opens the garage door to the shop and asks me to drive around. When I get around back, I notice he only has one roller (not sure the technical term), so I back the 8 in. He asks, "what are you doing?", well I reply back that it is a rear wheel drive. He stares at me for awhile and says "are you sure?"... I almost wasnt sure what to say to that, but I again assured him that yes, it was rear wheel drive. He goes back to his computer... starts typing, gets up 5 minutes later and says, "I just wanted to check". I'm thinking, great, this is going well.

Fast forward an hour... yes an hour... it took him and his 16 year old assistant an hour to strap my car in. He starts hooking up the equipment now. He sticks his head under the hood... looks at his equipment... looks under the hood... back at his equipment... he then looks at me and asks... "Where do I connect it?"... I am now staring at this guy like he has an arm growing out of his ***. Guess what happens next... he goes back to the computer.. starts typing, 10 minutes later he comes back and starts hooking it up.

Fast forward another 20 minutes... I am now sitting in the control room watching the monitor for my car. There are now three 16 year old assistants running around the place. I notice the monitor is reading 2500 rpms... the car is at an idle. I mention that it looks kinda high. He sends one of the kids out to take a look. He fidgets with it for about 15 minutes and then comes back. At this time, one of the other kids gets behind the computer and starts messing with the settings. The reading gets "close enough" as the ring leader states.

They start the first run... as soon as it shifts into second gear, the rpms on the monitor goes crazy and disappears. The dyno comes up blank. The "kids" mess with the computer settings again and start a second run, the rpms again went ape crazy and disappeared, but it gave a reading... 130 max power, 118 max torque. The ringleader starts celebrating like he scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl... "we did it!"... again I start to look for the arm growing from his ***. They make another run, same crazy rpm effect... 109 max power, 117 max torque.

Well, to wrap up this long post... I would rather **** glass than to return to this guys shop. Now my gf's 8 is a totaly stock 6 speed manual running 91 octane. Other than these guys not knowing what they were doing, can anyone else give me an explanation as to why the dyno would read so rediculously low? I thought about attaching the dyno to this post, but I dont want that thing anywhere near my screen name.

 

The dyno jet seems to get a bit fried by mine and many other RX-7's ignition system, WHEN they attach it to the spark plug wire. Instead, we've had better luck hooking it up to the wire going from the ignitor to the coil pack.

Tim

 

On my first dyno (RB exhaust only) I had almost 180 whp. That seems really low. Are you running the automatic....with only one of the rotaries ?

 

when he would have asked me where to hook it up ........I would have quietly walked to the front of the car and start disconnecting the straps..............

 

i think it's in your best interest to THROW OUT those dyno numbers, as those idiots may have incorrectly set up the dyno and screwed the whole test up.

if I was you, I would have pulled the car off the dyno and left as soon as the kid asked you how to hook it up...

 

Ummm the auto doesn't have 1 "rotaries". If you mean the auto has a 4-port design and the 6-sp has a 6-port design, then yes you are correct. BOTH versions of the engine come with 2 rotors, alas a modified 13B is the Renesis.

 

Frankly, I'd draft a letter to the owner of the business, and file a complaint with the local BBB - if this shady operation belongs to the BBB.

The people at that shop are not only ignorant, they are incompetent.

 

he was probably saying 1 rotor since it was so low..meaning it's blown a rotor. They also have to set it up for the rotary engine, if they don't it's calulating output for a piston engine in regards to the timing it sees.

Tim

 

I knew the 8 lost a lot of hp from the crank, so I was actually planning on seeing 170's for her stock 6 speed. After the little show they put on for me, I wasnt really suprised that the dyno was all jacked up... but it was a disappointing waste of my time.

 

I'm sorry man.. but I agree with that guy a few posts up.. throw out those dyno numbers and find another shop. Make sure to ask them specifially if they have dyno'd rotary engines before. Otherwise they won't have the proper setup pre-programmed in their Dynojet. Dynojet dyno's are a bit more accurate, but they are fidgety with rotaries. You have to attach the RPM meter to the wires coming off the 1st coil for leading 1. Make sure they set the ignition section of the dyno jet to 1 pulse every 360degrees and you will get an accurate RPM figure. However, if you have aftermarket plug wires that are better shielded than stock, they can get poor RPM readings.

 

There were plenty of signs there that should have tipped me off to simply leave. One thing I did leave out is that they had a "tuned" RX7 in the front lobby... I was asking the "ringleader" questions about it and he couldnt answer any of them. One of the questions was simply "what generation is it?"... so sad.

 

You didn't pay 'em did ya!

I thought we only got ***** service like that in the good old United Kingdom!!!

 

LOL...She must be a Hot jedi...

 

I meant that 1 of the rotors was toast. No way a functional engine dynoes that low unless the people at the shop were blindingly incompetent.

 

I have seen plenty of 2 rotors make 130whp. I have seen engines dyno at 60whp on a dyno. You might want to change the wording of your statement.

 

Ahhh ok gotcha!

 

That blows!! Request a refund if you paid. As the guys already said...throw away those figures and pay a visit to another dyno shop.

- Irish

 

a big smoky burnout would have been the proper way to assure him that it is indeed rear wheel drive. :D

 

Before you try dynoing again somewhere else, read here about the tricks required to prevent getting a limp-home failsafe mode in the PCM that will cut peak power and prevent you from getting an artificially low reading (as 80% of the people here have received when they've incorrectly dyno'd their RX-8s). You need to turn off DSC and TCS, AND unbolt and tie back the rear wheel ABS sensors so that the PCM can't sense the rear wheels turning and the front wheels stationary.

Failure to do the above renders your dyno results useless (even if they were performed otherwise competantly).

Regards,
Gordon

 

wow...i would soo be torching that place if i were you:D

 

I am starting to have serious doubts about the whole limp-mode during dynos. How many runs were made by Philodox & MazdaManiac without any indication of limp-mode? It's a given their situation may be somewhat special, but....as far as I know, an eManage doesn't interfere with the Bosch(?) ABS/TCS module. That somewhat renders the whole: my front wheels ain't spinning, I am not getting a good reading unfounded.

Or, it occurs randomly, when the stars align and someone is trying to sell you the next best snake oil to gain power output, and can't provide anything substantial to prove it.

 

I would have been offended that he had to check to see if my car was rwd or not because he didn't believe me when I told him the first time. I then would have walked out the place when he asked where to hook it up at. Get a refund, and try another dyno.

 

what then accounts for the dyno graphs that get all "jaggety" at the top end?

oh and if he had to go check some computer to figure out its rwd instead of just looking under the car then that is a sign to run away and run away fast. go talk to the owner

 

Myth. We all believed that for a while, but the data indicates that this simply does not occur. Sorry.

Incompatability of the dyno's pick-up with the ignition system.

The dyno session that we had last week allowed us to not only dyno the cars, but log the actual CAN data as output by the OEM PCM.

There is no limp mode. The ECU will not pull power just because the rear wheels are spinning alone as long as the TCS/DSC is off.
The only way for the PCM to pull power is through throttle control and this didn't happen. The A/F ratios were consistent with what we were trying to accomplish with the E-Manage, indicating no attempt on the part of the PCM to dump fuel for "protection" either.

 

The "ringleader" was the only adult there, so I can only assume that he was the owner...