Alright Readers, the moment you've all been waiting for. By the end of this post at least one thing will be for sure... Phase 2 is complete on my project and Phase 3's parameters and goals become much more apparent.
The day started out at 9:00am when the apartment began stirring. Our goal was to start at 9:30, so we probably weren't going to make it on time, but we did after another tiny bout with the CPK sensor throwing another CEL. A quick reset actually cleared this problem for good but something tells me I know what caused this problem at the end of this post.
We arrived at 9:50 at Evolution Motorsports and we actually had to wait until 10:30 for the owner of the shop, Gabe, to show up. For the record I have never seen a DynoJet before, just a DynoPack at some Subaru Shop I bought my first exhaust from years before. But this was cool because you put the car on a lift and then it raised it to the level of the giant roller. Here's some pictures for those of you who are like me and are relatively new at this:
The rollers
The lift including the Lamba Meter plugged into the exhaust.
Gabe in the drivers seat
How the Dyno finds your timing parameters, just like a timing gun
So we basically jumped right into it after strapping down the car. We took out the Hondata ECU from behind the carpet and ran a line to the Dyno Computer and my laptop. We also hooked up the Lamba Meter to the exhaust and also a sensor around the last spark plug wire for timing purposes and away we went.
The first dyno pull showed a disappointing baseline (to me at least) of 196 horsepower and 212 ft/lbs of torque. The torque seemed impressive, but the top end left more to be desired. It was our first pull and it sounded really wild because we were reving the engine to 8,000rpm (because of my dual valve springs, we figured it was fine).
Okay, so we had our baseline, Bob did his thing on the laptop to adjust fuel maps and away we went again, 208 horsepower this time. A gain of 12 horsepower.
I could go on with all of our adjustments and runs, but we did probably 20 separate pulls on the dyno over 3 hours. The hardest part was trying to find (and keep on) the VTEC point. Sometimes the VTEC would just stop. At one point when it had stopped, Bob turned it back on and it killed the power curve and torque curve until the last 500rpm and then spiked hugely (literally from 140hp to 208hp in an instant). Since VTEC hit so violently, we also witnessed a puff of smoke come from the engine which alarmed everybody until we looked in the engine bay and noticed the oil dipstick had shot out. Radical.
But after some resetting, it got back on track and we witnessed a jump to 225 horsepower. At this point we stopped to examine the plugs and I decided to give up the Denso Iridiums (IK22) that I was saving for a special day (which had no date in particular). With the same settings though, we ran it again and picked up one (1) horsepower. The next run we made 229 and the final run we made 230 horsepower and 201 ft/lb of torque. At this point, we were noticing our Intake Temperatures to be around 155 degrees, and although it would probably be an accurate representation of the streets, we went to the gas station next door and grabbed a bag of ice to see if we could lower it.
I had a hard time finally finding a set of sparkplugs that were one heat range colder that could fit the prelude. But for the record, here's the kind you should all be using, Denso part number IK22. (IK20 are the stock heat range)
The surprising thing is, that with the bag of ice on top of the supercharger and intake temperatures at 105 degrees now, we ran it again and the horsepower went down to 228 HP. This was puzzling until you look at the big picture that we only ran 5psi on that run. For some reason, even with the next run hitting 230HP again, we still only topped out at 6psi.
As I mentioned before, I've seen this thing hit 9psi, and i know it's not slouch. I don't know what the problem with the supercharger was, the belt seemed sufficiently tight and relatively cool to the touch. But this is when we called it a day. The gains we made were impressive and I'm guessing that even more horsepower will happen once the exhaust gets fixed and expanded. I might even try to add on a larger throttle body to the mix to increase some airflow.
But the car runs hard and hits with a powerband that most cars on the streets of el paso will be afraid of. It's no turbocharged monster, but the whine of the supercharger should be sufficient in making others think twice.
With some spray, this car could really come alive, and the engine block can handle it. Can the transmission though? I don't know... but all of this is for another day. For right now, I'm going to enjoy what I've got.
...Or will I? After paying $100 for my 3+ hours on a dyno (quite the deal!) Kevin opened the gate for us to go out and he wanted to see me let it out on the road as I drove off. Well I showed him but then Bob saw the dummy light for the brake came on. The pedal ran soft and sunk to the floor quickly and suddenly the realization that this car still retained the nickname "White Diamond Disaster" just didn't come with engine.
We pulled over into a Checkers Autoparts store and examined the brake fluid, which looked fine, and then the engine bay, which also looked fine. But when pressing on the brake pedal and checking all 4 corners, we found the culprit to be the brake hose on the passengers rear wheel. It sprayed a fine mist in our face to boot. Nice. So we had to take it easy going home, careful not to get ourselves into any situations where having no brakes could cost us the car. We did make it home but now it sits in the parking lot, waiting for the time when it can come out again to play. Tomorrow it will be dropped off at a shop before I leave town so it can get fixed while I'm away.
*Sigh* and this is the life of a car nut, a real enthusiast who pours life and money into the car he wants so badly to run right, and at the moment he finally gets his power back, it's taken away because he can't control that power.
But the Prelude shall live to rule the night, that much I'm sure. The interior now must be cleaned up, my new floormats, door panels and roof need to be put on as well as the Recaros back in their rightful spot. The engine will get sprayed down and rechecked. The exhaust will get that last 8 feet or so of stainless steel pipe and muffler in 2.5" and then, and only then, will Stage 3 begin...
To be continued...
Now hold on! I promised in the previous post that I would whine if i didn't hit at least 250, but I'm not down about it. First of all, I believe in order of accuracy, DynoJet will be the most accurate (see: lowest) and something like a dynopack will be the highest (see: least accurate). But to start out from a base of 196 horsepower and increase 34 horsepower is something to be proud of. Yeah, I lost some torque, but wait till you see this power curve!
Shazam!
And yes, this is with VTEC on, and it's so seamless, that I lose no power at all. It kicks on at 4000rpm by the way, which may seem early, but at any other part in the powerband it wouldn't make sense because the lower cam was dropping power dramatically after 4,000rpm.
I'm guessing that although heat soak made a significant problem with power production, finishing the exhaust, adding on that throttle body and perhaps getting an intake to match (could this be the end of the top Fuel intake?!) will be next on the list to getting the power back. And also finding out what happened to my other 4 or 5 psi will also make a difference too!
As Charles Bronson once said "Dis ain't ovah"
