Dyno day prep

[TiZiK]

I have some dyno time booked in the near future.  What are some things I should do to prep for the day of?

My set up is a 1316cc Turbo gsxr1100 with an efi coversion using a Microsquirt.  I have boost control set up via solenoid and also a methanol injection system from Snow Performance which uses its own controller and a 2 stage MTC lock up clutch.

Currently, I have a basic base tune.  I have never been to a dyno tuning session before so want to show up prepared with expectations of what changes I may have to make on the day of so I can best utilize my time while there.

Any input appreciated

[bluedog59]

While I have zero experience of dynoing a turbo bike I have done 100's of runs developing my carbed race bikes and I believe the basics apply no matter what.

Make sure the bike is up to it, Dyno runs are brutal. Check the chain/sprockets, rear tyre are in good condition and tensioned. Oil level is correct and take spare oil if you have to remove any covers for any adjustments. Check all oil cooler fitting are tight. Take spare plugs in case you need to change them. Take your own tools including any special ones required ( don't waste the Dyno operators time looking for tools to borrow). Make sure the kill switch works and is easy to operate. Check and double check everything is tight, safe and correctly routed.  You're pay for the operators time and experience so make the most of it.

Don't get hung up on the numbers, you're looking for power where you want it, how you want it.

Take biscuits and make sure they're "the good biscuits".

Enjoy the day.

[Gixer1460]

Besides having the engine running as well as you can get it, plenty of fuel as a long dyno session will drink it, plenty of your methanol injection fluid, tyres correct pressures, take off anything that is liable to fall off or get in the way of straps to hold bike down and make sure that the tuner knows his way around your ecu's software - you don't want him 'learning' on the job!

[Arttu]

As said above, make sure that everything on the bike is in good order. No leaks, loose bolts, etc. Pay special attention on hoses near exhaust and engine since they will most likely get more heat on dyno than on road. My experience is that during pretty much every dyno session some random issues come up. So if you try to minimize these in advance you have better changes to get something useful done instead of troubleshooting issues. Bikes that have been on road after building are usually better in this sense compared to completely fresh builds.

Regarding tuning, are you going to do that by yourself or will the dyno guy handle that? Especially if you are going to tune make a plan in advance how you are going to proceed. In any case try to make sure that you have the basics in good shape. Stable fuel pressure, no crank trigger issues, injector parameters set correctly and so on. Since you mentioned boost control it's good to double check that it's really behaving like it should. Troubleshooting that can take plenty of expensive dyno time.

If you are using the lockup clutch for controlled launches then you probably need more weights/springs in it for the dyno. And in any case it's a good idea to prepare for harder clutch setup if you are going to increase boost higher than what you have tested before.

[TiZiK]

Cheers fellas.  I will be going over the bike to be sure all is up to snuff.

I do have a lockup and will add a bit more weight for day of plus bring some extras with me.

Tuner did say he is familiar with Tunerstudio and I will be there for the entire session as well.

On 2/17/2023 at 1:02 AM, Arttu said:

Regarding tuning, are you going to do that by yourself or will the dyno guy handle that? Especially if you are going to tune make a plan in advance how you are going to proceed.

Arttu - I will be looking for the dyno guy to take the lead on this.  He has experience with turbo bikes.  I would love some input from someone like yourself in how you approach.  What to focus on first and maybe some tips/tricks for getting the best power out of these oil cooled engines.  I am running an 85mm block (1316cc) will all supporting mods (HD head and main studs, Carrillo rods, forged MTC pistons etc) and a Holset HY35 turbo.

Edited February 21, 2023 by TiZiK

[Arttu]

11 hours ago, TiZiK said:

Arttu - I will be looking for the dyno guy to take the lead on this.  He has experience with turbo bikes.  I would love some input from someone like yourself in how you approach.  What to focus on first and maybe some tips/tricks for getting the best power out of these oil cooled engines.  I am running an 85mm block (1316cc) will all supporting mods (HD head and main studs, Carrillo rods, forged MTC pistons etc) and a Holset HY35 turbo.

Well, my typical approach is quite logical and straightforward, I think. First I set the ignition table to some relatively conservative values. But not too retarded since that can drive exhaust temp and pressure high and affect on other tuning too. The boost is also set to lowest possible value. Then I go through the fuel table, whole rpm range and TPS/load positions.

Once the fueling starts to be good I play with the ignition timing. This is the tricky part since I don't have too good confidence that I can reliably detect knocking... If the engine setup can be considered as "safe" I just find timing range that gives the best power and use lower end of that range.

After that I start upping the boost. I go up with some reasonable steps and fueling is checked and corrected at each step. At this point I usually do only full throttle pulls. For ignition I use some default retard by boost and at certain points I may do some experiments to see how well that default works. But at higher boost levels I'm usually very carefull with timing.

That's the basic process in the nutshell. This assumes that all the basic settings are already done correctly and idle, warmup etc. tuning is done separately. Description also skips all the fault finding and troubleshooting which are often major elements of the process

Then depending on the case I may spend more or less time by optimizing details like injection timing, acceleration enrichment, boost control parameters and so on.