94legaleagle

I've been chompin' at the bit to get back to the Forum and post this - I left yesterday for Doug Rippie Motorsports in Buffalo, Minnesota and got there this morning at 8:30 for my 8:00 appointment Doug took my tardiness in stride

First, I can't say enough about the friendliness / hospitality / excellent customer service, etc at DRM - TOP NOTCH - heck, Randy even ran to McDonalds around 10:00 and offered to bring me back something And, BTW Randy and Doug, although Bobby didn't say much at your shop, he does say thanks to Randy for the pie and thanks to Doug for the stickers

Mods are as follows:

- 3.73 rear gears
- Yank SS3200 Stall
- Dynatech Lt headers w/ high flow cats

- computer had been bench tuned by Doug after the above mods

Then I added the following:
- G5X3 cam
- AFR 205 heads
- ASP Underdrive pulley
- Shaner ported throttle body
- Vararam
- Caddy Racing lifters
- Melling Oil Pump (I learned to use the BLUE spring! - trial and error!!)

- computer bench tuned for 2nd time after these mods

NOTE: the 2nd bench tune was done to compensate for the 2nd round of mods that I had NOT anticipated adding when I had the first bench tune done

Anyway, Doug hooks the computer up, does a couple pulls and asks me "what I didn't like about the previous [bench] tune" - there wasn't anything that I didn't like about the previous tune and I told him so - he laughed a said something about it was pretty close as it was, but he could do some tweaking

Well, Doug did a little tweaking here and there and did a few more pulls on the dyno while I walked around, took a few videos, wasted Randy and Todd's time visiting, etc. Doug worked till shortly after noon, then he and I went for a ride , then Doug told me to go see how I liked it

WOW, definately worth the drive! (and a whole lotta other emotional icons) Anyway, I settled up and told Doug that I hoped the car still shook the way it used to - Doug said he didn't think it would due to the fine tuning - well, I'm thinking that either Doug was joking, or that Doug and I were talking about two different kinds of shaking, cause my car really rumbles and still shakes the way I like it to (the good kind of "BIG CAM" / built engine shake!)

Doug even complimented me on my choice of mods for the car which he thought were well chosen.

Final numbers were 399.8 RWHP and 371.5 Torque (I didn't ask Doug this, but is 399.8 RWHP close enough for me to say I'm putting down 400 RWHP, or is that taboo, streching things, or what? Can I get Forum permission to say I'm putting down 400 RWHP?)

I sure I'm leaving out some of the details, but it was a GREAT experience finally meeting Randy and Doug, and meeting Todd (and I *think* the other guy was Mike but we never really got introduced, and I guess of everyone there, I wasted his (Mike's????) time the LEAST

Thanks again - car PULLS hard when I want it to , and also BTW, I made 21.4 / 21.5 MPG on the way home - can't beat that either

BIG THANKS and VERY HIGH RECOMMENDATIONS to DRM, Doug and Randy!

FactoryRaceCar

Awesome Bill! Great to hear you finally got a dyno tune and from one of the best here closest to us!

I will definately check them out sometime

Oh yeah you have 400rwhp for sure Drive safe and have fun

Vetteman Jack

Very nice final numbers. Bet she is a blast to drive now.

VRROOOM2

400 HP, yes... 401, no...

Cool story and it echo's the ones I've heard of those guys!!

Good to hear you had a great time!!

Congrats on obtaining what you wanted with your mods!

jdc

DRM

vetterlatethannever

Was the converter locked on the dyno pull?

csexton

Sounds great, enjoy that new power!

Chuck

Ryan L

Something doesn't sound right. Even with the automatic, you should be in the 450-475 rwhp range. Can you post your dyno charts w/ af ratios?

Edit: And your MPG should still be in the 26-28 mpg range on the highway too... something isn't adding up. Maybe the guys in the Tune section can help.

ditty22

Yea that seems kinda low for a g5x3 and afr heads. I had them tune my cam only car and made 399hp 385tq

vetterlatethannever

M6 Vetter

BaneZ06

Somethins screwy here

Sorny

An A4 car with a stall and 3.73 gears won't do 26MPG on the freeway... Nor will it be over 450HP (it might be the 450 range and 26MPG on a 3.42 rear geared MN6, but not a stalled A4 with 3.73's).

Doug knows what he is doing when it comes to tuning a car. My guess is that their dyno is on the stingy side...



Sorny

94legaleagle

Yeah???, but what is it? (not sure I'm admitting that I agree w/ you, but I've got something I can't put into words, so to speak) I'm asking for help here, NOT trying to be smart w/ you and everyone else - I need some feedback on my results Trying to figure out what's going on here

I don't know for sure. I do know Doug adjusted when it locks up - IF I remember correctly, he said he adjusted it to lock up later. But I wasn't listening that closely to what he was saying about when he adjusted it to lock up -

What difference does it make?


I'll TRY and post my dyno chart later this week, but I've got to find a scanner and then figure out how to do it - if you pm me a fax #, I'll fax it to you.

You think 450 - 475 RWHP (just to clarify, you are saying I should have 50 - 75 MORE hp at the REAR WHEELS than what I dynoed at, correct? My CRANK hp currently would be about 487 (399.8 /.82 = 487) but you are talking REAR WHEEL HP?

I was figuring 425 min RWHP, HOPING for 450+ RWHP, and figured I'd end up between 440 - 450 RWHP - so with the posts above, I'm wondering what the deal is??????????????????



What cam you running when DRM dynoed your car? No heads, No underdrive pulley, No other mods? And you got 399 REAR WHEEL hp? (my question on RWHP - I'm just trying to be SURE we are talking the same language)

Was your's an A4 or stick? what year?

I'm puzzled - Doug spent 3 - 4 hours working on it, and pulled 6 dyno runs - I don't know how to put my "puzzled" feeling into words, so to speak - I'm REALLY appreciative of Doug and DRM's assistance as I first said and there is NO DOUBT in my mind that Doug and DRM are top notch and know what they are doing, but something in the RWHP result doesn't seem correct????????? It almost seems like I've got an unknown "hole in my pasture fence" and that "some of my horses" are missing

I'm gonna post in scan and tune and see what feedback I get.

the air suel ratio shows an absolute FLAT line

FactoryRaceCar

Bill, fax it to me and I will post it. I will PM you my fax number in a second.

Cscokd

I agree with others on this threat. With G5X3, AFR205's, and everything else you have I was expecting you to post at least 450 rwhp. Your mods aren't terribly different than mine.
John

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1654299

vetterlatethannever

From what I understand the dyno gives different numbers locked vs unlocked. I think locked reads higher, I'm sure someone can clarify. It was just my subtle way of saying that your numbers with your setup doesn't seem to add up.

peter pan

Nice numbers and if you are happy that is what counts

DSOM Z06

It is extremely difficult to get big numbers from an A4 on the dyno, especially a stalled car with gears in the warm weather.

0Randy@DRM

To Bill and other forum members,
We get this same question all the time on our dyno. I put in these parts and it should make this power. Well about 50 percent of them make the "quoted" power levels. The other 50 percent don't.

Why is this???

Well I have heard from a couple different guys that our dyno is 7-11 hp short. They dynoed at other shops in town and found this out. We had it checked out by dyno jet and it's in the range.

We tune pretty safe in all applictions. 13.0 to 13.1 with as LEAST timming to still make the power. So with that said maybe 5-6 horspower.

We don't play the cold water, hot oil game at all. 6-7 horsepower

No tire pressure adjustments at all. 2 horsepower

It was hot as hell, I know the computer adjust for this. But how good is it really?

We do lock up the convertor during the run.

Now to his setup,
His air cleaner is known by us NOT to make huge dyno numbers. I have seen guys put two floor dryers in front. We have tried this in the past, and it's worth a couple more horse power 1-4 horsepower.
I think it had cats, a fairly corked up exhaust system. Maybe he was a degree or two off on cam timing. I don't know if the heads have been cut or if he even had to fly-cut the pistons. There are a lot of unknowns.
But I do know the car runs strong and there is nothing wrong with it.

The belt is on, the temps are up, the tune is safe, the game playing doesn't happen. There is a 10 horsepower difference in bone stock cars too.

Bill if you want a big number we can do that too. I'll get out the water hose, air hose, and a couple huge fans. Doug will throw in a race tune. Pull out the little butane and make some big numbers.

Thanks for the good write up

Randy