Hit the dyno today with mikey from rapid motorsports. Three hours later,$540, three pulls,and a blown head gasket(felpro) got me 419 hp. Mikey feels he could have squeezed some more out of it. I got mixed feelings on what to do.What do you guys think?? Another couple hundred bucks to find another few horses after I get it fixed, and finish the tune???

 

Nope I would just let it fly , a couple horses to me is nothing your a gonna ever notice.

 

Do you have a copy of the dyno sheet with the a/f ? if so can ya post it

Also any ideas on what your timing is?

What did your baseline read before the limited tuning?( I am just guessing that 1 of the 3 pulls was a base line )

 

thats all fine and good but im sure he'd like to be sure its not the program that blew the gasket...too much timing or a/f being off like offaxis stated could be the clupret...obviously installation couldve been the problem too but id see if mikey can help out with the cost of a retune once you get the head gasket situation worked out.

lata
bill

 

I would retune, I am sure Mikey will retune for free for you or at least verify everything is ok.

 

Yea, I would also finish off the tune.......

Watching the car blow a head gasket on the dyno is never a good thing, I thought my motor was toast when it happened, filled the room w/the nice coolant mix

 

Unfortunately, a lot of things happen on the dyno. It abuses the hell out of the car.

The one good thing about the abuse is, if your car can handle the abuse on the dyno it will be greater than the abuse you can put on it in the street.

- Matt

 

I hope your right Chris ARE 360.

Pulled it all apart and found that 3 of the four driver side cylinders were leaking.

Try to get the graph up real soon

 

The dyno isnt as hard on a car as racing it...
Thats a misnomer...

 

exactly. Dyno's don't load as hard as real racing

 

JS: I didn't say racing it Most of the cars that come through are 'regular' people that drive their car daily and beat on it in the street... Maybe hit the track a few times a season.

As for the 'racers', you/fireball included, we beat the crap out of our cars on the track likes it is a crack addiction. If we weren't swamped with work and the weather doesn't suck I would love to get back out there again. Unfortunately my f-body has sat since last July because customers come first.

- Matt

 

Yea, the dyno doesn't provide the true load of the street, I heard the mustang dyno's provide this, but the dyno is an excellent source of tuning unless you are doing a complete tune of the car on the street, then its going to be perfect

 

Thats why you go to Matt at TTP and have him and George build you an engine that Takes the Beating and begs for more. Im one of the guys that fits his bill. I might see the track 2 times a year. I drive the car 4 times a week about 100 miles a week. I needed something that would last, smoke just about anything thrown at me, and start up in the morning.

Back on topic. I wouldnt dyno for the extra horses. I would dyno again to make sure everything is ok. Good Luck
Scoobs

 

depends on the dyno An Eddy current (Mustang dyno) can simulate loads a lot better than a dynojet

 

The tune will be very close. I can probably get more average torque and more peak hp but it won't be too much. That is unless the coolant leakage was throwing the a/f meter off. Best is to get it re-dynoed at a cheap dyno day and if it needs more, than call me and I'll do what I can.

Mikey

 

"That is unless the coolant leakage was throwing the a/f meter off. Best is to get it re-dynoed at a cheap dyno day and if it needs more, than call me and I'll do what I can".

There is a couple issues. First the car was blowing antifreeze from 3 of the 4 cylinders on the drivers side. so this means lost compression? , could be a combo of leaking and with the a/f ratio being off, at this point were not sure.

Second, the heads were installed correctly using gm torque specs and procedures. Now it could be that the felpro head gaskets and arp hex bolts did not work well together, another issue were not sure of.

A couple of things I know were sure of is: mikey is a badass tuner for ls1's period. He knows his ****! I do respect that. Under the circumstances it did take us an hour to drive and reach mikey to do the dynotune. $500.00 and some odd dollars later after two pulls we have a leaky head gasket. Safest decision made is to stop and remove the car. At this point we have the car tuned close to where it should be under the conditions that had happened.

To sum up the situation, we will have the car fixed and ready to go, now we have to wait to find a cheap dyno day somewhere pay whatever that price is, and to find out that the car is maybe close to its max potential, now we have to call mikey and ask him what he can do for us seeming that the car isnt tuned to its potential.

In fact, after we put the car back together it would be just most sensible to have mikey stand behind his tuning and set up another time to tune the car to its maximum potential, and we understand that mikey is charged for using the dyno & we could cover that, but we had already paid for his time to spend with us tuning and i feel we were short changed, especially knowing that the car is partially tuned due to the circumstances.

This response is not to flame mikey, because most of us know that he is a great guy and a kickass tuner, its just disapointing when you put much time, effort & money into something, and turn around to see that the light at the end of the tunnel isnt as bright as you though it should be!


Jamie

 

So let me get this straight... You bring me a car that isn't right and I am expected to re-tune for free now? If I did the installation and something was not right, I would take full responsibility for it and the re-tune and dyno time would be free. BUT, I didn't. I am willing to try and help but I need to tell you that statements and expectations like this really rub me the wrong way. If someone else screws something up at your place of employment and you are expected to fix that persons mistake without getting paid, how would that be? This is how I feed my family folks.

 

Did ya post that dyno sheet with the a/f yet?

Any idea on where the timing is? ?

anyone?

 

Does anybody else think that this should have been discussed with Mikey via the phone or PM first?

 

Well take it the way you want to mikey, all im saying is i believe for all the money you charge to do this, i would be nice if there was some sympathetic help offered when we were there actually doing the tune, not well it wont be the full $500 some odd dollars to retune it, it will be only $300 and some odd dollars to retune it! That statement rubed us the wrong way! Another thing at anytime I did not blame you for a broken down car, and i did not ask you to do it for free either?