FINALLY!! EDGE is happy to announce our first Hot Dyno Night of the season on June 14th, from 5-10PM.

As always, we'll be BBQing and 3 runs with Air/Fuel are $85. I **Hope** to have new T-Shirts by then, but its hard to say.

PLEASE call us to get on the list if you want to Dyno, but as always, spectators are encouraged to come on out and join in the fun!

See you all there!

 

See you all later tonight!

 

Anything to note from the dyno day? I've been meaning to get down there for some runs.

 

Yeah.. one note.. I need a Screamin' Deamon, wires and some plugs.. Fairly slow night but there was a '67 Stang there.. I think it was possibly a GT350 but I'm not sure. I believe it had a 289 in it and cobra heads. I've lost some of my old muscle car knowledge, some of which, I'm sure, was replaced with Mini knowledge . It was pulled out of a 27 year storage to hit the dyno. Badly out of tune it only put down something like 175 at the wheels. There were only a few Mini owners there.. maybe we can get a better turn out next time. I don't think there was much notice on this one..

 

Yes. not enough notice. 175, ouch.

Why do you need a new coil, wires and plugs?

 

I'm due to find-out what I have someday soon...

002, I didn't know you were in the Bay Area!!!

 

I'm usually within a 20 mile radius of walnut creek. I've been meaning to get to some meets. PM me if you need anything.

 

Also he won't get much of a turnout on a weeknight... no one from out of the immediate area is able to participate. A saturday there would be much better turnout for those that have a 2-4 hour drive each direction.

 

Mid-week kills my chances of showing up. I've been there twice and would like to go again, but it's hard to go that far on a weeknight.

Steve

 

Well, aside from an excuse to buy more parts, they were having problems getting a decent signal of any of the wires for the dyno. When he mentioned that it got me to thinking.. I do have times where the car lags a big and I'm also getting some detonation at times. It's more prevailant when the engine is heat soaked which I assumed was normal when running fuel-leaning software and a smaller pulley.

I'm sure I could bring it into the dealer and have it diagnosed but I don't think I want them trying to throw their OBD reader in there and find traces of the MTH and put me on their black list.. . Anyway, a fresh set of spark-parts can't be bad and hopefully it'll alleviate a little of the detonation by putting a little more spark in the chamber. We'll see!

 

The last two times I tried to dyno there I had the same tach issue. I was thinking about a new coil too, I already have plugs and wires. I have been meaning to ask edge if they are setting up the tach trigger for our waste spark ignition system. Two cylinders fire together. There will be twice as many signals and the secondary signal (when the sharing cylinder fires) will be weak and maybe throwing off the dyno. It's not a new idea, so I assume they know about it. I can get a signal with my fluke meter and I have no driveability issues. I was able to complete runs the first time I dynoed there so maybe it is the coil. I will bring a new coil to swap out at the next dyno day to confirm if that is the issue. Was yours reading ok and then flipping out at higher rpm?

 

Hey 002,

I know that they did mess around with the sampling rate, eventually trying every one of the 5 (I think) settings. Initially it was on 720, then moved it down to 360 and so on. It seemed to be really flakey/inconsistant but most of the time the RPM reading would start to jump around at anything above 3k rpm. On a couple of the tests, it would read a higher RPM at idle and would never be stable, regardless of rpm. I was going to pick up a coil pack, wires and plugs anyway. This just sped up the process.

I'm not sure where you're at but If you do bring a an extra coil, let me know and I'll meet you at Edge. I just live about 3 blocks away so it's pretty convenient for me. I'd like to see it can be replicated..

 

I am on the brentwood side of vasco rd. about 30min away. In the next month or so I will take a day off from work and get it sorted out at edge. Mybe even a wednesday, then I can hit the drags after. I have a couple little mods to do fisrt. I will let you know when if you want to chek it out.

Here is what I think is happening. When cylinder 1 fires it grounds through cylinder 4. It has to jump two air gaps to complete the circuit. At low load the two cylinders will have similar air gap resistance fot the spark to jump. This will give two relatively similar signals for the tach lead to pick up. Divide the signals by two and you have the rpm. Then when the load increases with rpm and boost the air gap of the firing cylinder has much more resistance than the wasted cylinder and difference between the two become much more. I think at this point the dyno can't pick up both signals and it's trigger setting is no longer effective. Then again, the extra resistance (from more boost) could just be taxing the ignition. Although, I don't have any misfires or driveability issues.

Either way it's a great excuse for new parts and time at the shop.

 

Hey 002,

Good deduction.. but one question... Why do you think this wouldn't happen in other boosted applications?.. or does it? ( I have no idea.. I'm just fishing for thoughts) If the dyno has a hard time picking up the feed because of a differential of resistence and response time, how does this not effect the ECU?.. as it should be monitoring the response time of the plug(s) firing so that it can adjust fuel and timing appropriately?... You don't need to answer these questions.. I just have an enquiring mind..(and no, I don't read the Enquirer)

Previsouly I had a Supercharged Type R and don't remember having a problem dyno-ing it. I do remember some people having problem using big, thickly insulated plug wires.. as the pickup had a hard time reading through all that sheathing.. (some blown, some n/a)

Anyway.. just questionis to ponder.. Let me know when you'll be running by Edge and I'll meet you there.. I think I'll be going in there for for the coil install and another dyno run sometime later this week, whenever the parts come in..

Thanks 002!

 

Bmw's and I assume most cars fire only one cylinder at a time. Our set up fires 1+4 and 2+3 at the same time. So if you put an inductance lead on #1 wire you read when it fires and a lower signal when #4 fires. It may be more of an issue with boosted cars because as the cylinder pressure increases so does the spark plug air gap resistance. This is not a "problem", but maybe why there is difficulty on the dyno.

Another thought is that the two signals look more like one, to the dyno, at higher rpm.

I really don't know. This is just something that has been in the back of my mind. If I have time I will hook up the old and new coils to an oscilloscope to see if anything catches my eye. I won't be able to run it a load, but I am curious.

 

Ahhhh ic... Yeah. I could see that at higher RPM's the dyno could have a hard time differentiating the 2 signals as their so close together. Thanks for all teh clarification 002.. it really helps.

If you do get around to playing with different coils, let me know what you find out. You've got my curiosity going now..

Thanks again!

 

002, ok your knowledge is once again shining! Are you a mechanic, or one in a previous life?

 

Thanks, I have been a paid mechanic for a year now, but always worked on my own cars. I actually took the day off to finish an exhaust project I started sunday. It is turnng into a mess. My header is all chopped up, I can only find generic flanges and now I am out of mig gas. Oh yes, and I don't really know how to weld. Let's say I am a little stressed and it's not helping that I am wasting my day online.

Although this is how the ignition system functions, I do not have any evidence that this is the reason for dyno issue. It may infact be a worn ignition coil.

 

You've been a true asset around here (NAM), thank you. My guess was right...

Would love to see what you're up to some day... Sounds like you are in the East Bay. I'm in canyon about 10 miles south of SJ, between Morgan Hill and Santa Cruz (address is MH though).

I have a rather unique exhaust set-up, and think I have a photo or two in my Gallery... If you know of a good place to get a header coating, man, please share! I'm going crazy trying to find someone local. Just trying to avoid the hassle of shipping, and the extended down-time...

 

I don't know about header coatings, but I do know that I cannot weld. I'll be lucky if this thing stays together let alone not leak.

 

Can't help ya there. I had a quick lesson one time from my cousin on some scrap metal... I tried on aluminum for my rear deck (rear seat delete), and I was clueless, and sought help. Hope you can source the right parts, and get everything welded-up properly!

 

I think the main issue (other than having very little experience) is that the welder I barrowed is under powered for the job.

I think I subconsiously get myself into these binds. There is a superman feeling I get when I pull of a job that I thought wasn't going to happen.