S54 Dyno Database

[stash1]

^^^ Thanx for posting and providing mod details...and nice max power results for the relatively simple mods. However, low end torque figures look typical for an S54 w/single exhaust. How many miles on the car?

[332]

Alpha N, BW Elbow, Intake, Ebay Headers, 3" Single Exhaust, 87k on the motor

[Anri]

Hi Anri,

I wasn't actually operating the dyno myself so can't confirm if the dyno fan was left running between passes / refashing the ECU or not, but I can confirm we did back to back runs on the same final tune and even after repeated passes the result was within 2whp. It's only natural that if engine is left standing without airflow, IAT will rise resulting in ECU reducing ignition timing and knock out lower power figures. I'd assume the guys are EAS have a good cooling setup to simulate road airflow so runs should be accurate in comparison of how the car will perform on the road in the real world.

On my own dyno I have a good cooling setup that i've setup simulate similar to road airflow conditions, as well as using the eddy brake control to set a ramp time that would be similar to the actual acceleration time on flat tarmac. We weren't shooting for social media numbers or anything like that, simply Blau's S54 is a particularly strong one so it made higher than usual numbers following tuning. I've tuned many of these engines and have also experienced a couple that make significantly better power than the majority of others. Why that is I don't know - maybe i'll get to strip one of them down one day and make some measurements and tests to find out

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply.

Okay, looks like EAS Dyno is using 2 large and 2 small fans.

The second guy (driver side) fan which is shooting air directly to the Air filter, ones I
did this exact location and direct air to the air filter with the same exact fan and that
pass was ~3-4 RWHP more than other passes. The more forced air is pushed inside
the air box the more oxygen will be in % which is resulting little power gains.

Yes I am aware of the fact that you are abroad, but you know, till you upload the file
online engine must be off etc, re flash etc and the fans stay on and few
degrees on the water temp and few on the oil cooler and then ones you start the
engine the chilled fluids rush and cools down the block head and chamber then that
will be strongest pass, so basically what I was asking on the hot passes is about 345ish.


The dyno I do all of my work is using exact the same large fan as seen in the back
at EAS but it's only 1. So I am missing 3 fans. For sure if I put our S54 at EAS will maintain
the 354 +/- exact what you experienced.

A single fan is not enough to simulate let say 80-90mph air pressure build in the front
nose and specially with the unique S54 radiator ducting design, also the unique air
ducting to the air filter box.

As long as CR is good, leak down is good, Camshaft in the proper location, vanos as
well we should see strong result. In S54 engine design there are several
factors must be in a good order otherwise results are not as expected.

How random this is the S54 I put together makes exact 348RWHP as well.


Regards,
Anri

[stash1]

The dyno operators @ EAS did say my car for whatever reason tested extremely high compared to other E46s that have come into their shop. From their experience, stock cars typically put down yep....275-280ish. Some cars even with full bolt-ons, cams, and E85 barely break 330s. So I guess I'm just really lucky and have a crazy strong motor from the factory.

For whatever its worth, I did do the full Beisan systems VANOS upgrades from the start, and always did annual oil changes w/ Castrol 10w-60, whether if I did 300 miles for the year or 4,500. Engine never burned a drop of oil in the 8+ years of ownership.

Who knows for sure, maybe your car already had a tune on it when you dyno'd stock? I just know from following/reading tons of various shops/dyno charts over the yrs that a lot of cars (in various stages of mods/tune) coming from EAS seems to produce unusually high numbers. Maybe if you ever get the opportunity to dyno on another local DJ, you could see if the numbers jive. Like I said, either way, those results are excellent...proof's in the delta!

[2004LSB]

Hi Anri,

I wasn't actually operating the dyno myself so can't confirm if the dyno fan was left running between passes / refashing the ECU or not, but I can confirm we did back to back runs on the same final tune and even after repeated passes the result was within 2whp. It's only natural that if engine is left standing without airflow, IAT will rise resulting in ECU reducing ignition timing and knock out lower power figures. I'd assume the guys are EAS have a good cooling setup to simulate road airflow so runs should be accurate in comparison of how the car will perform on the road in the real world.

On my own dyno I have a good cooling setup that i've setup simulate similar to road airflow conditions, as well as using the eddy brake control to set a ramp time that would be similar to the actual acceleration time on flat tarmac. We weren't shooting for social media numbers or anything like that, simply Blau's S54 is a particularly strong one so it made higher than usual numbers following tuning. I've tuned many of these engines and have also experienced a couple that make significantly better power than the majority of others. Why that is I don't know - maybe i'll get to strip one of them down one day and make some measurements and tests to find out

For the first run (and maybe even after the 2nd), I don't remember them turning on the HUGE cooling fan since the the room temps were in the 60s. According to the DynoJet run data, the recorded temps were 75 -76 degrees Fahrenheit, with 29% humidity and 29.99 inches of mercury for barometric pressure. After the 2nd run, they did switch it on the lowest setting to help circulate the air.

For quick reference, here's EAS' typical fan setup for dyno testing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs18ZIAfy08

[paulclaude]

Hi Paul,

Would you mind sharing the 348RWHP is this "Chilled" pass ? I assume yes ?

I call chilled passes those that you have the engine off but the fan is
still cooling the radiator down and say ~ 4min later you hop inside start the
engine and make immediate pass.

I call this passes "Social Media Number."

The S54 engine I put together made 354RWHP on a Chilled Pass but
run after run after run after run we land around +/-348-ish and this is the number
I care about.

There is a small tweak to be done but engine temp must be in low values or
slight hi octane will work as well, all on the same ignition timing number.

Thanks.


Regards,
Anri

Hi Anri,

I wasn't actually operating the dyno myself so can't confirm if the dyno fan was left running between passes / refashing the ECU or not, but I can confirm we did back to back runs on the same final tune and even after repeated passes the result was within 2whp. It's only natural that if engine is left standing without airflow, IAT will rise resulting in ECU reducing ignition timing and knock out lower power figures. I'd assume the guys are EAS have a good cooling setup to simulate road airflow so runs should be accurate in comparison of how the car will perform on the road in the real world.

On my own dyno I have a good cooling setup that i've setup simulate similar to road airflow conditions, as well as using the eddy brake control to set a ramp time that would be similar to the actual acceleration time on flat tarmac. We weren't shooting for social media numbers or anything like that, simply Blau's S54 is a particularly strong one so it made higher than usual numbers following tuning. I've tuned many of these engines and have also experienced a couple that make significantly better power than the majority of others. Why that is I don't know - maybe i'll get to strip one of them down one day and make some measurements and tests to find out

[Anri]

strong engine!

Hi Paul,

Would you mind sharing the 348RWHP is this "Chilled" pass ? I assume yes ?

I call chilled passes those that you have the engine off but the fan is
still cooling the radiator down and say ~ 4min later you hop inside start the
engine and make immediate pass.

I call this passes "Social Media Number."

The S54 engine I put together made 354RWHP on a Chilled Pass but
run after run after run after run we land around +/-348-ish and this is the number
I care about.

There is a small tweak to be done but engine temp must be in low values or
slight hi octane will work as well, all on the same ignition timing number.

Thanks.


Regards,
Anri

[2004LSB]

Great numbers! The engine is definitely running strong. However, I’m a little skeptical of the absolute numbers when I see you fully stock pull at 290 rwhp. It’s pretty well documented that stock Dynojet SAE numbers are between 275-280. Not sure I’d say these are the “best” numbers out there based on that. Especially on 91 octane.

Was there some new tuning technique you used? I’m running almost the exact same setup and am showing lower numbers with 288/280 cams??

The dyno operators @ EAS did say my car for whatever reason tested extremely high compared to other E46s that have come into their shop. From their experience, stock cars typically put down yep....275-280ish. Some cars even with full bolt-ons, cams, and E85 barely break 330s. So I guess I'm just really lucky and have a crazy strong motor from the factory.

For whatever its worth, I did do the full Beisan systems VANOS upgrades from the start, and always did annual oil changes w/ Castrol 10w-60, whether if I did 300 miles for the year or 4,500. Engine never burned a drop of oil in the 8+ years of ownership.

[stash1]

Great numbers! The engine is definitely running strong. However, I’m a little skeptical of the absolute numbers when I see you fully stock pull at 290 rwhp. It’s pretty well documented that stock Dynojet SAE numbers are between 275-280. Not sure I’d say these are the “best” numbers out there based on that. Especially on 91 octane.

Was there some new tuning technique you used? I’m running almost the exact same setup and am showing lower numbers with 288/280 cams??

It looks like it was dyno'd at EAS, and they seem to have an unusually high number of cars producing better than avg. numbers...sooo, I wouldn't get too hung up on the 'absolute' numbers, and that's all I'll say about that. I think the focus (as always) should be on the delta, and it looks like between the chosen mods and Paul's tune, that the car responded very well and made very nice gains!

[duracellttu]

Fantastic result Blau and a pleasure to tune it for you - exceptionally strong engine!

Great numbers! The engine is definitely running strong. However, I’m a little skeptical of the absolute numbers when I see you fully stock pull at 290 rwhp. It’s pretty well documented that stock Dynojet SAE numbers are between 275-280. Not sure I’d say these are the “best” numbers out there based on that. Especially on 91 octane.

Was there some new tuning technique you used? I’m running almost the exact same setup and am showing lower numbers with 288/280 cams??

[paulclaude]

Thank you PCS Tuning! Will start a dedicated thread for more details!

Fantastic result Blau and a pleasure to tune it for you - exceptionally strong engine!

[2004LSB]

^^^ Thanx for posting! Would you mind providing some details of the build in the dyno thread please—thanx!

More details can be found here:

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...r-yuge-numbers

Basically I went from the following:

1. Stock baseline run
2. Karbonius CSL carbon fiber intake, snorkel, Euro headers & cats, PCS Tuning (canned tune)
3. Karbonius CSL carbon fiber intake, snorkel, full Supersprint oversized system (stepped headers, HJS race cats, resonated twin pipe, street muffler), Mishimoto electric fan conversion, Paul Claude Smith's custom dyno tune & 91 octane pump gas on stock cams 👍

[stash1]

^^^ Thanx for posting! Would you mind providing some details of the build in the dyno thread please—thanx!

[2004LSB]

Thank you PCS Tuning! Will start a dedicated thread for more details!

[stash1]

Appreciate the commentary. It would have been reassuring to see Kassel raise a hand and say something looks off; he's more qualified than many others. In the video I linked, it was actually the guy filming who did this but nothing more was said on the matter, and we can see how that video was titled for upload to YT. At the end of the day, the allure of big results and YT clicks will win and this a good example of such.

Ya, I'm not sure how Kassel left it w/the customer, and we don't know what may or may not have been edited out of the conversation in the vid? Jim and Matt are both solid ppl, and I would choose not to believe that they would intentionally mislead the customer. I think we can let this rest here (at this point) knowing that his car isn't the "fastest stock S54"-lol.