$50 for 3 dyno runs?

O.K. I've never dealt with dynoes before and wanted to know were $50 for three runs fits in the whole cost-benefit thing. Is that typical pricing? I thought they ran dynoes by the hour. Would this be a marketing ploy? I am considering the chassis dyno just to know what I have. Is it worth it?

Craigslist add:
Want To Know How Much Horsepower and Torque You Have??

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Originally Posted by MasterAnubis

O.K. I've never dealt with dynoes before and wanted to know were $50 for three runs fits in the whole cost-benefit thing. Is that typical pricing? I thought they ran dynoes by the hour. Would this be a marketing ploy? I am considering the chassis dyno just to know what I have. Is it worth it?

Craigslist add:
Want To Know How Much Horsepower and Torque You Have??

.

That's interesting. As you know I'm local, and I've never heard of Vivid racing. I'd be curious to know if they're legit or just scam artists lol. It looks like they might just be trying to pull in business. I mean, three runs could probably be accomplished within a half hour tops (particularly if they don't let you tune anything in between you know?). $50 for 30 minutes is probably more than they're making anyhow given the local economy lol.

On the chassis dyno thing in general...I don't put much store in them, or even in tuning with them (other than EFI cars for a baseline tune)...but it might be fun. Kind of like the punching games at the arcade =D. I mean, you can either knock a jerk out, or you can't...knowing some retarded pressure for your punch doesn't do you a lot of good lol.

If you do use them, please, report back. Like I said I'd be curious to know how legit they are.

Cris

I was kind of thinking it would be fun too. The impression I get from the pic is that they are 'Tuners' and reluctanly need outside work. They've got to be legit... they have there name on the building AND the wall inside! They got me curious because I came across there ad twice. Granted they have a brazilian keywords. I don't know when it'll be in the cards for me, I have some serious testing before the road trip to Talladega for the 40th on Halloween weekend.

Best local price I've found around here is $90/hr and you do all the work. Fine by me, because that's what I want to do. If you try them ask for tuning analysis and adjustment time between runs. Also get O2 readout on the printed sheets. Hopping on a chassis dyno is meaningless for just the numbers. If they squirm I'd still offer a few extra bucks for the tuning time. Make it worth going!

David

$50 is good for 3 runs, and it would take aprox 45mins, seting the car up is what takes long, then 3 pulls, no more than 2 are really needed tho. the shop i went to does 3 for 75 but had a special to pull business in so i got mine for 50 also. i got o2 numbers too from the tailpipe (no cats SO IT SHOULD be good). after the first 2 runs i offered another 25 to do a jet swap and i got to do that and an additional 2 for a total of 4.

chassis dyno is great info, what matters more tho are track results but its great for tuning and seeing the power curve. now that i made changes i want to redyno with a different exhuast and intake system and see what the dyno shows, want to compare to new drag strip results too, u gotta remember that yes its just a number on the dyno but u still get good info

Vivid racing is a company thats been around for awhile. They sell parts and do tunes. They are definately a legit company, not scammers or fly-by-night.

$50 for 3 pulls isnt a bad price, but they probably wont let you do to0 much inbetween the pulls just to keep the time down.

Sounds about right... At Carter Racing here in Savannah where I take mine its $60 for 3 pulls. That's just to hook it up and do the pulls. If they do any tuning, it's $90 an hour. The first time, I had them tune and jet the carb, set the advance curve, and try different timing so I spent about $200 that day.

For me, it has been good investment. Not as much to find out peak numbers, but to tune and find things that were holding the car back that I wouldn't have found on my own. My very first pull (before tuning) made less than 350 RWHP and I thought the car was running good then, but now after making some adjustments and upgrades, I'm at 423 RWHP / 448RWTQ and the difference is very noticeable! I also believe there is more in it than that once I finish upgrading the fuel system and install the new torque converter. My flywheel peak numbers?..Who knows... but I have certainly gotten a lot more out of what I have!

I believe there are a lot of people running around with "500HP" engines that are only making 400 because they don't know how to tune it properly or their combo isn't what they think it is (I'm speaking from first-hand experience here).

WARNING: Dyno's tend to hurt people's feelings!

Performance & Racing Parts | Vivid Racing
I looked these guys up again. They are accredited by the Arizona BBB. Interesting. Creigslist is a wierd way to advertise. But, hey, were talking about it on a Ford forum.

They don't appear to be slouches by any means. They are definataly import tuner racers. I wonder what view they have on the vintage iron. I dought these guys see alot of carbs. I'll will have to check these guys out.

So it sounds like most everyones experiences with dynoes is that they can be flexible. Even if its just academic, I'm going to have to do it at least once. Just not before Talladega. I want to see my power curves, not just peak. I'm too much of a realist to think in terms of peak. Squeezing some more power still wouldn't be a bad thing...

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You can tell more about a stickshift on a chassis dyno than an automatic. Plus, the looser the converter is on an automatic car, the less reliable the numbers become.

Have fun with it!

That's actually very cheap if they are including a/f with each pull. I'm a tuner that uses a dyno all the time. I will at times set up a dyno day for a club that would consist of something like this. Basically it works like this; you have a set minimum number of vehicles and set the price for the runs. Typically I run $125 for 3 pulls with a/f and you get the dyno graphs. There is no tuning, this is just to see where you are at and some clubs like to award the highest and lowest hp numbers. This works a couple ways, for you as the customer it allows you to see where you are as far as power and your a/f. For the dyno shop it gets customers in and or a good relationship built with the local clubs. Now the shop is all about making money let’s not forget. So the cost of those 3 pulls which should take less 30 - 45 minutes and is only really pays for the dyno operators. The shop has to make enough to pay the employees let’s not forget. But they are not looking to get rich doing this. The other half of this is that now the customer sees where he's at. If his a/f is way off then he can make an appointment to have it dyno tuned where they will actually tune it. Or say you weren't very impressed with the results, the shop then has the opportunity to show you and possibly sell you the proper part or upgrades and then dyno tune it for you. So yes it is used to get you in the door but it is also a tool for you to use and learn from too.

With the price of $50 though, I don't think they are offering you a/f readings.