New engine dyno facility

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 8:11 pm

Just a heads up about a new engine dyno facility that will be up and running later this year. Neil Bainbridge has realised his dream of
having his own dyno cell and having spent the last nine months building it, it's nearing completion!

It will be the ultimate in engine diagnostics and set up, enabling Neil as an engine builder to have his own in house dyno to test and
run in his new builds, but also to offer it's use to anyone else to test their engines. From the amateur builders to test a top end rebuild
or to other companies testing their work the dyno will be available to all. You will even be able to take your car in, Neil will drop the
engine put it on the dyno attach every conceivable sensor then you at home can watch on-line live feeds as it runs, showing the control
panels with the readouts, dials and video all live, really cool stuff!

My RSR engine will go on it and we'll have a combined firing up party and opening day, I'll let you know closer to the time when this
will be.

Here is the dyno in it's cell as of last weekend, and a shot from the control room, still loads more to do yet with inlet and exhaust
trunking and miles of wiring still to go in but pretty exciting stuff, no wonder nothing much has been happening to the build of my car
recently!

If anyone needs any technical info about it, Neils on: 01296 658422

hot66 · Post by **hot66** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 9:35 pm

that looks superb

myatt1972 · Post by **myatt1972** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:22 pm

That looks a great bit of kit, very impressive.
How is the remote oil tank replicated I wonder?

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:24 pm

It's pretty incredible in there James, it's taken a lot of work but now the building side of it is done, it's looking more like an operating
theatre than something you see in a garage workshop. Just the ducting on the unit roof for the intake and extraction gives you an
idea of the scale of everything.

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:41 pm

Holy Moly

.

Mike, a word to the wise, and Neil can have this for free: pop a course filter over the inlets for that ducting. This will prevent customer's engines from being sucked up, and spat out over the roof.

HTH

.

Looks brilliant, good for Neil

.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:52 pm

myatt1972 wrote:How is the remote oil tank replicated I wonder?

Keith, that's the beautifully made aluminium tank Neil is leaning on.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:05 pm

Barry, these are the fans for the cell arriving last winter. There are 4 of them and your not wrong about the flow they produce!

myatt1972 · Post by **myatt1972** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:16 pm

Mike wrote:
myatt1972 wrote:How is the remote oil tank replicated I wonder?
Keith, that's the beautifully made aluminium tank Neil is leaning on.

Thanks Mike, I did wonder if that was for oil or fuel.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:30 pm

Keith, the main fuel tank is outside the cell, fuel comes from that into the blue tank on the wall. It's then piped to the two nozzles you can see in the overhead
unit above the engine. Flexi lines will connect from the engine to those. The fuel pumps and regulators are in the white box alongside the blue tank and are
operated remotely from the control room.

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:07 am

As we would say round here:

That's bostin'!

A nice looking pro set-up. Should get a lot of contract work.

I am sure many would like to discuss the Dyno BHP v the Rolling road bhp

Can you tune (say) a set of PMO's on a dyno as well as (I hope) you can on a set of conventional rollers?

Facinating.

Hope we get advanced warning of the open day and that funny RS motor I've heard about on here!

Graham.

Highfield · Post by **Highfield** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:38 am

That looks to be a wonderful facility, and if it is done to the standard of your engine, then I see why it is so clean - there also appears in the first shot to be the worlds largest plug socket to the right of Neil

Like the idea of an engine firing party - would be a great run out across country to Neil's from where I am.

Ian

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 4:03 pm

Too true:

Like the idea of an engine firing party - would be a great run out across country to Neil's from where I am.

Mike · Post by **Mike** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:44 pm

911hillclimber wrote:I am sure many would like to discuss the Dyno BHP v the Rolling road bhp. Can you tune (say) a set of PMO's on a dyno as well as (I hope) you can on a set of conventional rollers?

Hi Graham, the main point here is that the engine dyno as opposed to a rolling road is by far the more reliable and accurate way of setting up an engine.
The problem with the rolling road is that it can only approximate the environment the engine is running in, whereas the engine dyno in it's cell is a totally
controlled atmosphere, which can be replicated exactly time and time again.

Air intake temperature is very critical in the setup of your PMO's for instance and rolling roads have little or no control over ambient intake temperature, in fact
that's one of their biggest drawbacks. If you image your car strapped down on a rolling road screaming at 7000 rpm, the air temperature around the engine
would bear no relation to the car on the road at the equivalent speed with large volumes of cold air being forced into it. The engine dyno air intake on the
other hand is thermostatically controlled and can be set to replicate any conditions, both in temperature and pressure.

This is only one example of the way sensors are used all over the engine to read what's going on, from the air intake as above, to individual head temperature
sensors, exhaust gas analysers, fuel flow meters, knock sensors, breather pressures and so on, you really know exactly what's going on inside your engine!

As well as all that for the engine builder the most important aspect of the engine dyno is that there are no variables at all in the testing. You take away the
gearbox drag and drive train variables, the halfshaft and wheel bearing factors, all of which effect your true readings. (You also save on the wear of those parts as well)
So each time the engine runs you get the true reading every time.

Going back to your PMO's Graham to sum up, if you had them tested on a rolling road one day and went back a couple of weeks later, you would get a different
reading due to weather, humidity, ambient temperature etc; therefore it would be pointless going on the rolling road say in March if your hillclimbs are in the summer.
The engine dyno would set them up for your optimum conditions using whatever averages you liked, and as for air pressure, now in a hill climb it will be different at the
start as to the top so.......................

HTH

johndglynn · Post by **johndglynn** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:45 pm

The usual OCD applies! Love it - great stuff.

911hillclimber · Post by **911hillclimber** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:58 am

Good stuff Mike, and I accept the reasoning.

Rollers are good though in that you can simply take the car there and back, but to get the engine 'dyno'd' in the first place is perfect, and must be invaluable for any builder esp if the engine is a bit experimental, ie twin turbo etc. and a bit of time and adjustment is needed to optimise.

Certainly my Impreza went from 390 bhp (late winter) to 340 bhp (hot summer) but on two rolling roads.....

The Lola's gearbox is coming apart this winter, so the engine is 'loose' so this might be an opportunity to sort the PMO's!

Thanks for the reply, an interesting topic.