Tuning

Imagine not having to travel hours to get your car tuned on a load bearing dyno. Now you can. Do you have an AWD car such as Subaru, Mitsubishi, Audi? That's ok since our dyno is AWD capable. 

 

We have made a significant investment to bring AWD tuning capability to Vermonters. It started with Jason getting frustrated having to trailer customer cars to a dyno out of state in order to get AWD or load bearing capability. Road tuning is just dangerous. A few close calls, even at safe speeds, is enough to make you think hard about Vermonters needing a place to test their cars safely. In 2012 we invested in an AWD Land and Sea dyno, assembled in New Hampshire. To mitigate safety concerns we decided on a hub dyno. It solves the wheel spin problem at the same time. The way a hub dyno works is to take your wheels off on the driven wheels (FWD, RWD, or AWD). and bolt some adapters in place of the wheels. Then we bolt the dyno pods to the adapters and power them on. It takes a few minutes longer than strapping down a car to rollers, but the safety is worth it. 

 

The software we use is very modern and flexible. The data acquisition is extremely capable. We sample all 56 channels at 200 samples per second to get extremely accurate results. Each dyno pod has a strain gauge to directly measure torque from each wheel. In an AWD configuration you can see the Front to Rear split and how it changes over time as conditions change. Horsepower is calculated from knowing torque and RPM. If you remember back to high school or college physics, HP = (torque*rpm)/5252. Since we are measuring actual wheel torque, and actual RPM, horsepower is as accurate as you can possibly get. 

 

The dyno software also has features such as run overlay, as shown below. In this graph, we had a completely stock BMW 525i on the dyno. We ran a baseline test, changed to one of our M50pnp Standalone ECUs, and tuned it. We are able to overlay the baseline run on top of the final result to see the improvement. The thick lines are the first run, the thin lines are the last run. Horsepower and torque improved across the entire operating range. The gap between the lines is the gain. 

 

 

 

Below is a video of our M52pnp being installed after a baseline run. It shows the process of loading on the dyno for a 2wd car (can be front or rear, similar process for AWD), the ECU change, and a run with the standalone ECU. 

We encourage questions before, during, and after the tuning process. We view the tuning process as also an education session. We take the extra time to explain what is going on and while usually extremely focused during the tuning process, always happy to answer a question or explain what is going on. 

 

Dyno time is blocked out in 4 hour sessions. We do this so you don't feel rushed. You are in no way obligated to use or pay for the entire 4 hours. It will take 20-40 minutes to get the car set up on the dyno (excluded from the dyno rental time), and some time to get connected to the car and situated. Then the same 20-40 minutes to get the car off the dyno (also excluded from the rental time). A 2WD baseline number is $150, AWD is $200. Hourly for 2WD is $150 and hourly for AWD is $200. If you want to change something quick between runs on a baseline session, no problem. If it runs long, you can always just get the full hour for an extra $25. Tuning is extra in addition to the dyno time, and it's best to contact us ahead of time for an idea of cost. We love tuning VEMS ECUs, so offer a very nice discount on that tuning. Naturally. 

 

Would you like to chat? Send us a Facebook Message We typically respond quickly between 9am and 5pm Eastern Time (UTC-4) Monday through Friday.

 

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