asianzt

I attended a dyno day over the weekend. Although I had an idea of what it should be, I still wanted to satisfy my own curiosity.
The shop was 30 miles out so I had plenty of time to warm up the car - swung by a buddy's place quickly so we can both drive there.

When we arrived, it wasn't as busy as we had initially thought. There was one other car signed up on the dyno right now so I got in for the second spot. I was probably parked for another 15 minutes yet. While getting setup, the shop owner had some difficulty getting a clear RPM pickup from the coils. A few tries later and we finally got something but still wasn't perfect.

I left the hood up and had a large fan in front of the car. I probably wouldn't call it a "high velocity" fan though.

MY02, completely stock @ 70k miles

4th gear pulls

First pull, 188whp 128tq (no printout of this)
Second pull came shortly afterwards, 186whp 127tq (see attachment below)




That was about it - two pulls. The shop owner said they were good pulls and started unstrapping her.

I've got to say, I'm a bit disappointed. I was expecting a little more but I understand that there are many variables that may be affecting the results. First thing that came to mind is heat soak from my 30 minute drive and then parking for an additional 15 minutes without air circulation. The fan used probably wasn't doing a good enough job (or not placed close enough). Secondly, I could use more pulls after a good cool down. Also, you'll notice my torque graph oscillates a lot after VTEC -- I'm thinking that the ignition must be breaking up so I'll be looking at some new plugs right away. The first pull oscillated even more (linked video).

[media]http://youtu.be/mUi_bi2vnEk[/media]

I know dynos are to be used as a tuning tool for modifications but regardless -- most AP1s (on a dynojet and similar) are within 190-200whp while MY02 and MY03 towards 200whp. Are my assumptions valid? Should I be concerned? I haven't done a compression test or checked the valve clearances yet. The car has given me no reason to think there would be problems yet. But...I'll still check those specs when I get a break from work.

As reference, another AP1 with an F22 swap + AEM intake dynoed later that day and made 205whp 142tq but his torque reading was much smoother.

asianzt

I had some time this past weekend to do compression tests and inspect my plugs.

Plugs are NGK Laser Platinum and I haven't changed them since I've gotten the car. I measured the gap on them and they all measured over 0.044 closer to 0.050. However, they were gray to light brown in color and looked normal. I corrected the gaps on the plugs and set them aside.

Onto the compression test. I rented a tester from the local auto parts store because the friend who had mine was unavailable to return it to me that morning. I wanted to check out the cold specs first.

Pulled out all the plugs. Removed the fuel pump fuse and cranked at WOT until the gauge seems to be at max.

COLD (tester 1)
cylinder 1 - 145
cylinder 2 - 150
cylinder 3 - 150
cylinder 4 - 150

They were all consistent but well below the 220psi spec. I realize cold tests are often lower so I moved onto a warm test. Got the car up to operating temperatures and retest.


HOT (tester 1)
cylinder 1 - 155
cylinder 2 - 155
cylinder 3 - 155
cylinder 4 - 160

Yeah, I know what you are thinking. It didn't move much at all. They were still consistent but I expected closer to 200psi. At this point, I stopped and phoned my buddy to bring me my tester. As he was on his way over, I ditched the 14mm deep adapter, warmed the car a little more and tried again.


HOT (tester 1)
cylinder 1 - 210
cylinder 2 - 205
cylinder 3 - 210
cylinder 4 - 205

...and then my tester showed up.


HOT (tester 2)
cylinder 1 - 235
cylinder 2 - 230
cylinder 3 - 230
cylinder 4 - 235

I'm satisfied with the last two results. Guess this means the motor is perfectly healthy.