Mustang Dyno Jet Test - The Jet Set - Tech

Prior to the advent of DynoJet availability, the "tuning" method for my supercharged Mustang LX was to find my favorite freeway on-ramp and put the power down hard in Third gear (my scientific method included using the same on-ramp for consistency-what a joke.). If the tires spun a little, something was amiss. If they spun hard, the motor was working perfectly and ready for that trip to the Silver State Open Road Race where the car would run flat out for 90 miles. I cringe every time I think about how many times I ran that motor at full throttle for the entire race (except in the narrows posted at 45 mph) without ever having run or tuned the motor on a dyno. Now that I think about it, I even ran all my SCCA World Challenge and Bridgestone Supercar races without the supercharged Mustang ever having seen the rollers (or air/fuel meter). Boy, was I an idiot. As it is now, I don't like driving a new combination down the street without knowing the air/fuel and timing curves are spot on. Boost on an unknown combination? Not on your life.

History has shown that DynoJet chassis dynos began popping up all over the place. What DynoJet brought to the automotive industry was credibility. One need only look back at the issues Ford had with the SVT Cobra to witness the power of the chassis dyno. Armed with a slew of dyno results, Cobra owners made enough of a ruckus to demonstrate that their powerful ponycars did not live up to the promised performance. As a tool, the DynoJet not only gave journalists the ability to verify performance claims made by manufacturers, but the manufacturers the ability to test and enhance its own products (not to mention verifying the claims of insufficient power made by unscrupulous individuals). Before long, performance enthusiasts came to rely on the DynoJet and actually expected their car to be tuned on them.

The decision to bring your supercharged Mustang to a shop for upgrades was made much easier if the results were dyno verified. The chassis dyno could also be teamed with new tuning software to maximize the safe power output of nearly any Ford combination. This ushered a brand-new phrase "dyno-tuned." Not long after the introduction of the tuning software, shops began to use dyno results to compete via the Internet (ethernet bench racing sessions soon evolved).

With the DynoJet chassis dyno all but a way of life now in the automotive industry, we thought we would take a closer look at the brand that started the chassis-dyno revolution and see what they have in store for the next trip. Starting the revolution made DynoJet a household name (at least, performance households) and put them on top, but that legendary status won't keep you there for long. Staying on top, especially with so many qualified competitors in the newly formed marketplace, takes a continuing commitment to technology. With shops now able to provide not only horsepower and torque figures, but real-time air/fuel readings thanks to a wide-band air/fuel monitoring system linked to the WinPep software, DynoJet decided to take things to the next level.

Sure, correlating horsepower and torque figures with the air/fuel data is handy for tuning, but today's vehicles have become increasingly more complex. Compared to the processing capabilities of today's ECUs, the original A9L computers used on the SEFI 5.0L Mustangs may well have just been carb jets and points. The sophisticated new computers make testing all the more difficult, or at least testing to achieve both accurate and repeatable results.

With the ECU constantly monitoring and altering both the air/fuel and timing values using a variety of sensors, just making repeatable back-to-back runs (with no hardware changes) has become increasingly difficult. If the motor isn't repeatable within 1-2 hp, how do you properly test components that may only offer 3-4 hp? The answer is obviously that you can't.