There was a guy doing tests via video also and the intakes for the NC gave improved torque and hp over standard, I think in some cases the K&N filter was worse than the standard.
My 2.0 was 160.1hp with just the skuzzle bolted on, the tuner claimed his dyno was not one of these optimistic ones and now its 182.1 with the 4-1 and ecuteck remap but I guess it means nothing really, all I know is the car drove better with the skuzzle and even better now with all the mods mapped.
for £150 it seems like a nice bit in my opinion but then I am not tuner so take that with a pinch of salt.
What about doing 3 runs before, taking average and then doing 3 runs after and take the average? Not sure if 3 runs is enough to be reliable in a scientific way but I think that would largely take care of standard error?
If it’s just a one-off test whereby you drive in, test one component and then drive off then yes, absolutely that’s the best you can do.
There are so many factors which make them not as accurate than we’d hope. Oil is one I can think of, in the 'box, diff and engine. the longer it’s on the dyno, the thinner it gets so shows more power. You can slew your results by putting thinner oil in too!
Interestingly tyre pressure doesn’t make a difference which you wouldn’t have thought.
The dyno I use helped with an article for a TV program (IIRC) and they tested a car with over and underinflated tyres and it didn’t really show much difference.
Let’s face it, cheating with cars and power is nothing new, with some notable instances in Motorsport over the years (The Toyota WRC cheat was a memorable one).
I wonder how much goes on in the MX5 racing series, I only say as it interests me from an engineering perspective.
Whilst I can agree that using a dyno for “comparable” before and after maps, to show what you have gained, I think that they are useful for actively changing the output graph to decide where you want the torque curve moving. This is ok for a turbo engine, but a naturally aspirated engine has more limitations.
However in the end the gain comes from getting a better driving experience. If you feel no difference, then there is no gain (irrespective of what a graph shows you). However we all know it works the other way around. If I have a graph that shows me I have 15bhp more, then 100% I can feel the gain!!
