First time on a Dyno...

My buddy and I had the chance to get the Merkur on the dyno this past weekend. This was originally going to be our $2006 Challenge entrant that we blew the budget on. The changes we made to the engine, turbo, injectors, fuel pump, megasquirt, and the cost of the car had us within the budget. Even after wheels/tires,repairs to the brakes and half-shafts, we stayed damn close to the budget. Once we roasted the T9 with this combo, and spent real money on an exhaust since none of us knew how to weld at the time (our neighbors didn't like us running an open downpipe) we'd blown the budget and knew there was no going back, so more fixes, repairs and ugrades later here it is, it'll never make a Challenge appearance, and there's more tuning and safety upgrades to go:

Engine: Stock 180k+ mile longblock, stock E6, stock throttle body, gutted upper, knife edged lower intake, stock cam running factory timing.

Headgasket/bolts: Felpro 1035 + Felpro 6 point TTY bolts

Turbo: Holset HY35w, internal wastegate hogged out to 1" diameter, 2.5" intercooler aluminized piping, tbolts clamps, big-rig stick heater hose couplers, eBay intercooler.

Engine Management: MegaSquirt-I V3 MSnS Extra

Fuel: 255lph high-pressure in-tank pump, 93 octane, 75#/hr injectors

Tune: Street tuned, AFR 12:1 from 0-4500RPM, 10.5-11:1 from 4500RPM+, with the rev limiter set to 6000rpm to save the engine and trans (you'll see why).

Exhaust: 3" all the way with a metal-matrix catalytic conveter (we haven't gone back to the test pipe because it's a PITA to swap in-out which we used to have to do for emissions but now we can just run the pipe since it's 25 years old in GA, just haven't gotten around to it) and a MagnaFlow muffler.

Transmission: Tired stock 150k+ mile WC T5 out of a TurboCoupe grinding 1st and reverse synchros.

Dyno: Dynojet

Made 230HP/292TRQ @ 22PSI @ 90°F ambient with 145°F inlet temp

1st pull in 3rd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7UAR2G-wHo&feature=plcp

2nd pull in 4th gear that netted the above result: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZLj-QwS6oI&feature=BFa&list=HL1342359491

3rd pull in 5th (top speed ~ 160 MPH): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U61ffR_RbKg&feature=plcp

We need to lean out the top end, add some timing, swap in our ported exhaust manifold, and switch back over to our test pipe. That should make things a bit nicer up top, but we're still limited by our head big time, but we can huff on it harder, we've had it up past 30psi on the street though our T5 won't live as long so we'll have to figure out what we're going to do. We plan on taking it over to Dynolab for some more pulls after we've properly analyzed and modified our settings.

Does running the cat really sap an appreciable amount of power? I think it would be interesting to see a back to back comparison.

Looks good!

thatsnowinnebago wrote: Does running the cat really sap an appreciable amount of power? I think it would be interesting to see a back to back comparison.

we've noticed an appreciable difference in loss of low-end torque when it's out driving around town and to-from events, but it picks up on the top end much faster, so the tradeoff is what it is. I think our next test will be with it out...

Judging by those results your turbo flows about two and half times more than your stock-ish top end.

Im guessing since you went with a way bigger turbo than what you could use, that you're planning something for the head,cam, and manifolds?

Vigo wrote: Judging by those results your turbo flows about two and half times more than your stock-ish top end. Im guessing since you went with a way bigger turbo than what you could use, that you're planning something for the head,cam, and manifolds?

I had to go back and remember what turbo he was using.

Looks like an F2T curve but.... wow. I'm thinking valve float.

Vigo wrote: Judging by those results your turbo flows about two and half times more than your stock-ish top end. Im guessing since you went with a way bigger turbo than what you could use, that you're planning something for the head,cam, and manifolds?

You're absolutely right that the head is our major bottleneck, and we'd like to get something to wake it up but really we'd rather spend $ now on safety and reliability upgrades since this science experiment needs to be driven instead of tinkered on after so long. I have a ported stock exhaust manifold which has been shown to flow good numbers, and had one on there once that cracked when I wasn't supporting the turbo (50lbs), I just need to slap the new one in there. The intake is already set, as is the intercooler so really the head is our limiting factor.

The original intention was to just see what is possible for a completely stock 2.3T longblock with only 'bolt-on' mods with a MegaSquirt (which I still consider pretty bolt-on compared to say porting a head, grinding a cam, stroking a motor, etc), and with a few minor tune adjustments and maybe some more boost I think we'll be happy with this setup. I'd like to see our final numbers running a full 30psi of boost on a dyno with slightly more timing and a slightly leaner top end.

Sounds good.

i calculated that i need around 240 hp /240 tq to meet my power limits for the class I want to race in. I have very similar stuff done (or will have done) so it looks like i'll be way over on my power to weight. nice numbers btw