“I just got off the dyno and you wouldn’t believe the horsepower I have with my new mods.”
Surely you’ve heard that before from one of your buddies or a buddy of a buddy of a buddy.
That statement can sound like a typical day at the dyno, depending on whose/what dyno you’re running on. The ups and downs of the world of dynoing are extremely real for most consumers.
“The Internet said I can add 10 hp with just this one mod and their dyno proved it.” The truth behind all this information could be very real or completely bogus but only the real truth lies in dyno operator’s hands. Debunking a dyno or dyno information can be quite a task, but here are just some of the major considerations to understand with regards to the what and why questions you should ask when getting a dyno session done or in just reading a dyno sheet.
Dynos come in all shapes and forms from engine to chassis to driveline to hydraulic to water to eddy current as well as many others. Choosing the right dyno for your testing and understanding the information correctly is a huge undertaking for the average person. If a company owns and operates a dyno, those folks must be professionals. At least that is the assumption, but the real truth is anyone can purchase a dyno, install an engine onto it or drive the vehicle onto it, but operating the dyno correctly is whole other lesson.
Choose Wisely
That’s why you should choose carefully who you want to do your dyno work. Do some homework and find out details on how long the shop has owned the dyno and what kind of experience the dyno operator(s) have. If you really want the best information to help you determine what mods you want and what mods will give you the performance you are looking for, then you should do some investigating before you ever show up to a shop.
You should also understand that a dyno is only one tool of many in a performance shop’s tool box to help aid in engine development, fuel tuning, porting and pipe development, just to name a few.
In today’s ATV/UTV world the engine and chassis dyno are the most widely used for a variety of testing.
Debunking an engine dyno can quite a task, especially if you are not familiar with what all the information is, how to read that information and how to process it. Probably the No. 1 myth we hear is, “If they ran in on the dyno and it made horsepower” it must be true. Correction. This may not be at all the truth as the operator has complete control over all the information shown on that piece of paper he prints out.
