Dyno-Rental Checklist

  • Wheel lock key!   We will need to take your wheels off of the car to set it up on the dyno, so if you have wheel locks make sure you bring your key. If your lugnuts require some off the wall socket, make sure you bring that as well.

  • Please bring what you know you need!  You are renting the dyno, not our entire shop! If you need something we will be happy to help in any way that we can, obviously unexpected things pop up.  However, please do not show up knowing your going to change a head gasket and expect to use all of our tools, towels, rags, cleaners, etc.  Some people will rent the dyno for multiple days at a time, or even change motors to do back to back testing.  If you are going to knowingly be doing any major work on the vehicle let us know so we can discuss and game plan what all will be needed/not needed.  Also, please do not assume we are going to have whatever tools you may need. If you need something specific, bring it to be safe!

    Things that are typically needed and not brought:

    -Shop rags, brake cleaner, spark plug related tools, *fuel jugs for draining fuel*, fuel lines/fittings for draining fuel, oil, wiring and related supplies, valve adjusting tools, basic hand tools, oil, trans fluid, spark plugs.

    -We do not stock E85, race fuel, or even pump gas for that matter.  E85 is not available anywhere around the shop, it is about an hour away, so if you may need E85 make sure you bring it!

    -If you are running methanol, bring more than you think you need. We have had numerous cars run out and end up cutting their days short.

    *With all of that being said, we will go out of our way to help in any way that we can during your dyno rental, it just makes it a better day for everybody the more prepared you are!  With in a few miles of the shop, there is a napa, car quest, advanced auto, and autozone and there is a Fastenal on the other side of our building.  Waldorf has a majority of the major food chains if you need lunch, ordering pizza is what most people do.

  • Please bring a reasonable amount of people with you.  Some cars have teams of several people to make the operation work and obviously that is fine.  But there is no reason to bring 27 people with you just to hang out. we try to keep the number of people in my shop to a minimum.  It is also small and can feel very cramped in a hurry with a lot of people.

  • Your Dyno numbers will not be shared if you do not want them to be.  We do a lot of grudge cars where the customers do not want anybody to know their numbers, no pictures, no videos, etc. and we respect that. On the other side of it, we try to take photos/vidoes of  cars on the dyno when possible. If that is something your interested in let us know and we can make it happen.

  • Make sure you are mindful of your time.  The majority of dyno rentals we do are for a full, 8 hour day but sometimes we will rent it out hourly.  If this is the case, you will obviously be charged for the amount of time spent on the dyno regardless of how you are spending your time.   So we suggest you do your best to make sure the car is ready to go.  We have had several cars come in, get set up on the dyno, and it takes 4 hours of sorting things out on the car before they are even ready to make their first run. Or we have had guys take long lunch breaks at sit down restaurants.  Feel free to spend your time however you would like, just keep in mind that you are being charged hourly from your appointment start time.

  • Our parking lot is not very trailer friendly. It does not “loop around” the building, so you will need to reverse out of the parking lot.  Most people park their trailers in the parking lot across the street. Some will park on the main road before pulling into parking lot.  Big stacker trailers will usually go one street down and park on Rockefeller street right past Fastenal.  If you have something larger than a traditional truck and trailer let us know and we can help show you where to park.

  • if possible, make sure you know what your gear ratio’s/rear end ratio are.  If you don’t know, we can calculate it but inputting the info directly into the dyno will have the best results.

    For example: 3 speed trans, 3rd gear is 1:1, rear gear is 3.55.   1 x 3.55 = 3.55 

                             6 speed trans, 4th gear 1.147:1, final drive is 5.062.   1.147 x 5.062 = 5.80

    The 3.55 and 5.80 would be entered into the dyno software to convert axle rpm to engine rpm.  This makes operating the car in units of engine rpm instead of axle rpm which is more of what we are used to.  For example, if we wanted to hold the car at 3,000 engine rpm we could simply use 3,000 engine rpm. As to where if we do not input gear ratio’s, we will now need to use axle rpm. So 3,000 engine rpm on one car may be 1000 axle rpm but may be 920 axle rpm on another. If the gear ratio is input incorrectly, the rpm targets will not match up.  You may command 3000 engine rpm, but find the car is being held at 2400 engine rpm instead.

    Don’t let this freak you out, if you do not know the ratios the dyno can calculate it pretty easily, it just adds a step to the process, and on cars that make a lot of power or have super loose converters it’s a little trickier to do.  On those cars, doing it this way will get you in the ballpark, which is fine, but may not be exact. (this has no effect on the horsepower numbers, its just used from a control standpoint)

  • We will need to choose a ramp rate / rate of acceleration for your runs.  If you are using a remote tuner you may want to ask them what they would like to use.  If you/they do not know, we can help you with that as well.  The best way to choose a ramp rate is to look at old data logs if available.   If you want to start your dyno run’s at 3500 rpm and end your run at 8000rpm and you have a log making a similar run, and say it takes 9 seconds. Going from 3500 to 8000 rpm is 4500 rpm (8000-3500). So that means we are accelerating 4500 rpm in 9 seconds. Divide 4500 by 9 and that will give you your rate of acceleration. 

    (4500/9= 500) so our ramp rate would be 500rpm per second.   This number is primarily based off of horsepower and gearing.  As long as you have a ballpark figure on how much power your car is going to make we can pick a ramp rate for you if you are not sure. Also we can change this at any time so if it seems too fast or too slow we can adjust it accordingly.

  • We will continue to update this, check back for more info!