Hi All,

i'm putting my Capri on a dyno next week. The chap who is doing it asked if i knew what horse power it should have, I know that a std V6 should put out somehwere near 130 - 140HP, can someone clarify that this nominal HP that ford states it has is at the flywheel or at the wheels ? - if it is the flywheel as i would expect,is it fair to say that there would be about 30% loss through the drive train ? - therefor a reading of about 90-100HP at the wheels...

regards Paul

Manufacturers will market the highest figure so my guess is that the standard figure is at the flywheel. Most work on 25-30% losses so you are right there.

Just be carefull that they dont stay at WOT for too long. Dynos can put more torque on the car than it will ever see in real life and do horrible things to your engine and drive line - especially ones that are 40 year old. They can also over rev if the load is too light at the beginning.

And it's very hard to push a car off a dyno - been there

Aussie model v6 is quoted at 144hp gross at the engine. The net figure is 128hp at the engine. This lesser figure is achieved by allowing for the power it takes to run the alternator, cooling fan, waterpump, etc. In other words, 128hp should be getting to the flywheel. Then at the rear wheels allowing for 30% driveline loss somewhere around 90hp.

I'd put the driveline loss at 20% max for a manual english Classic Ford

Just to clear up the myth around dyno's blowing engines up...a dyno cant induce anymore load than could be encountered on the road, eg, if the car is in 4th gear on the road heading up a hill and the engine can rev out, thats your power run load equivalent on a dyno. What does see engines fail on a dyno is pre existing weaknesses or defects, poor state of tune, poor fuel quality, or in the case of programmable management being used, an error while programming by the operator. Every failure on a dyno will fall under one of these categories. Saying that, if your dyno operator has half a clue he will be listening for abnormal noises or pinging and stop the run if that occurs. Our club days usually see at least one car pulled off the dyno without completing the full power run due to an issue the owner was unaware of. We have completed over 300 power runs with around 80 different Small Fords and are yet to see one get pushed off the dyno

The moral of the story is that you have nothing to worry about if your car is in good condition and the dyno operator knows his craft[;^)].

Cheers,

Phil.

Sorry Phil but thats not quite correct. If you are driving up a hill and the engine starts to load up you change down. On a dyno they keep loading it up (in 3rd) until it it peaks. Rarely does anyone do this on the road. So weaknesses that are ok on the road can cause expensive problems on a dyno.

I was lucky, mine was only a blown head gasket. That was when I was young and stupid. 20 years on, after jusy spending over $6k on my engine there's no way it will ever be dyno'd. I dont know its bhp and dont care. Like me these days its built for comfort not for speed

I also worked at Orbital for a while and saw lots of blown up engines come from the test cells. They were testing but it did show me just how much damage can be done.

There are some great examples on youtube. Just search for dyno fire or dyno explosion.

Here's a taste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-04a-7Glng

Good luck Paul - hope it goes well for you.

I guess anything is possible Steve, although I have never seen a dyno run completed in that way. All that I have witnessed involve the load being lifted/decreased as the run progresses

With the standard weber, roller rockers, extractors, 5 speed and mild cam, my V6 was dyno'd at 100 HP ATW.

(130HP with triples.)

Mark