Got my truck dyno tuned using SCT last week. Went pretty well although the weather conditions could have been a little better. The dyno used was a Mustang Dyno. My understanding is that this is the most accurate dyno that gives real world actual numbers. Calculations are made using a variety of info including vehicle weight. Unlike a dyno jet dyno which places no load on the engine, the MD places a load on the engine which simulates you rolling down the highway at full operating temp. I learned alot about dyno's that day.

Never knew that dyno jet style dyno's are basically showing flywheel horsepower and torque, some drivetrain loss but not much. The MD dyno is providing actual numbers, numbers that I am pretty happy with.

The SCT tuning resulted in max torque being made at 2900 rpm's and max hp being made at 4650 rpm's. Numbers are 319 rwhp and 465 ft lbs rwtq.

Those numbers were generated on a fairly hot, muggy day with the vehicle running at full operating temp and somewhat high inlet air temps. With the tune that I have now if the vehicle was cool and I had more favorable outdoor temps, the dyno numbers would have been higher.

I don't mind though because these numbers are much more accurate and I know now what my truck is putting down to the road. The water/methanol injection I installed definitely helped. It allowed for the tune to be done a little more aggressive.

With the Kenne Bell chip it was running 12 degrees of timing and now with the computer properly tuned for the injection it enabled the program to run a little over 15 degrees safely. The SCT tune was definitely worth the money, she really get's up and goes now.

 

Sounds like it is running good. I will have to get mine dynoed one of these days. I was told by a few people, including Bob Kennedy who makes the water injection kit that I have, that you should disconnect the water injection when doing the dyno. I forget why this should be done.

 

I've never heard that, doesn't make sense to me. I found out that water injection isn't just something that you can throw on and expect it to work miracles. The vehicle needs to be tuned for it in order to get the maximum benefit from it, how else to do this except for on the dyno.

 

I hear what you're saying but to a degree that still doesn't make sense. If you're not spraying the water/methanol at the time of tuning, you won't know how far you can safely push the tune. Regardless, the SCT chip I have has a dial switch that allows me to go from one tune to the next and if I ever get a bad tank of gas or any other issues I can switch over to another program that is running less timing. I guess I consider that my insurance policy. BTW, I contacted Kennedy's when I was in the market for a supercharger and they told me it didn't exist my truck. I knew that was false because I seen it on the KB website. Needless to say, I ended up getting it straight from KB. Kennedy's response didn't sit to well with me so I never contacted them. Got my injection kit from Snow Performance.

 

It wouldn't matter what if you used the water/alcohol during tuning or not as long as you safely tune the vehicle to run in the 12 to 1 a/f ratio range since its a forced induction application. If you were to have tuned it to say 13:4 to 1 or so then yes it would be a really bad idea and tuning that close to the edge is generally only done on race engines where your trying to get every last bit of power out of the motor. Tuning in the 12s and under a load condition like a Mustang is essentially the way to go because you know that under normal conditions the a/f is still in a safe range.
If you used the SCT chip and in Maryland then theres only two places that could have done it and only one if it was a Mustang Dyno. So you took it to Mt Airy Motors/Total Performance? There the only ones that I know of who fits that description. I work in Ellicott City but live in Lisbon and have been by there before. They installed my roll up hard bed cover, dual exhaust and SCT X-calibrator. They are building a friends 2003 Mustang with a stroked 4.6L and supercharger. He intends to use the SCT setup as well.

 

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will
thats great news and numbers. wish you well with all those ponies

 

RichH, kenneBF at the end of his first post said" With the Kenne Bell chip it was running 12 degrees of timing and now with the computer properly tuned for the injection it enabled the program to run a little over 15 degrees safely. The SCT tune was definitely worth the money, she really get's up and goes now". So, are you saying that above 13.4:1 is unsafe?

 

You are exactly right, I went to Mt Airy Motors. JJ from Woodbine Motorsports is the guy who did my tune. He worked on the A/F first then once he got that where he wanted it he started working on the timing and a variety of other things. Turned out pretty well, I'm satisfied.

 

I would have to look at the printouts from my dyno session to see what A/F was commanded, if memory serves me correctly it was in the 12's. All tuning was done with the engine at full operating temps and with the engine under full load. The final result of the tune on the dyno is what I can expect while I'm out on the highway. That's the nice thing about a mustang dyno, it gives you real world numbers, not inflated feel good numbers like that of a dynojet.

 

kenne, do you have a A/F gauge?

 

You can buy relatively affordable datalogging wideband O2 sensors like the FJO units if you want to run a wideband all the time in your daily driver just in case. Also yes a high 13 to 1 a/f reading would be a bad idea on a daily driver where you had no way to monitor conditions for things like bad gas, heat soak, high humidity and things like that. You also need to pay attention to the amount of deviation that is seen during the dyno pull so that you don't have a large total deviation of something like .7 when if tuned properly you can tune any forced induction application to only have a total deviation of like .1 however not everyone wants to spend the extra amount of money for fine tuning like that.

 

No A/F gauge. I use to have one on a steering column pod but got rid of it, got enough gauges to monitor as it is.

 

I think that now that you got the tune, you should get one. That way, when you hit WOT you will see if it is running lean and you can back off before any damage is done. That is the only time I look at mine. I put mine on the dash. It is the gauge that is next to the steering column on the right.

 

Just don't waste your time with a narrow band O2 setup like the BS Autometer stuff. If you get one that will datalog it also doesn't require you to keep looking over at the gauge, just take it for a test run and then upload the info to your laptop.