November 30, 2010
Is Your Motor As Fast as Ours?
Pulp Racing Now Offering Dyno Services for Shifter Karts
 

Have you measured your motor lately?  Is it as fast as Hayashi's motor?

In an effort to fund my 2011 ProKart Challenge race season, I have decide to help my fellow Stock Honda racers get a little quicker.  In return for cash, of course. (you should see my SuperNats bill)  Some of you may be wondering how the Pulp Racing drivers have been so fast in recent years.  Despite our "clown image", we actually have a sophisticated (compared to what most people have) engine testing facility located at the 2500 square foot Pulp Racing Headquarters in Huntington Beach, California.  The secret Pulp Racing headquarters has a Dyno Jet kart chassis dyno that we do extensive testing on our Stock Honda motors to make sure we are not leaving any HP/Torque on the table.  Remember, we are Cheating Bastards, and will do anything within the legal limits to make sure we have an advantage.  I am offering the use of this dyno to people for at $95 an hour so you can help tune your motor (and so I can pay off my SuperNats bill).  How does this all work?  I envision it going like this:

You bring your kart and yourself (you must be mechanically inclined or bring a mechanic/tech) to my shop.  Prior to coming to the Pulp Racing headquarters, YOU MUST do the following:

1. Your kart must have both sidepods off prior to getting to the shop.  This makes testing easier.
2. Your kart must have the front bar (the suspension tuning bar) on the kart installed (to tie it down to tie it down to dyno) prior to coming to the shop. (Unless you want to pay me $95 an hour to watch you take your sidepods off and put your front bar in)
3. Take off the front bumper (so it fits on the dyno)
4. You must bring your extra jets/pipes/silencers/carbs/reeds/air filters/airboxes/cylinders that you want to test
5. You must be willing to work on your own kart (I ain't the greatest mechanic, but I run a mean dyno) I can help a little bit, but do you really want me wrenching on your kart?
6. You must have a fairly fresh piston in the kart (no use tuning if you have crappy piston.  I'd say have one race or less on the piston)
7. You must have a gear ratio between 1.50 and say 1.62 on your kart. (too tall a gear, like a 1.43, will cause the dyno to spin at 95 mph.  We don't want that for safety reasons)  Put this gear on before you come to the shop, or I'll watch you put it on at $95 an hour.
8. You must have a full tank of gas in your kart. 
9. You do not have to bring tools unless there is something specific to your kart that a normal shifter driver would not have in their tool box.

Will your motor perform as good as our baseline motors?

One you get to the shop, the procedure is then:

1. I swap on my "dyno rims/tires" on your rear axle (so you don't damage your tires from the steel rollers on the dyno drum)
2. We tie down your kart to the dyno
3. I'll do two sets of 4 dyno pulls (to warm up motor and get baseline).  I'll run the dyno, you be the mechanic/tech
4. Now you start switching parts on your kart (such as different carb or pipe)
5. We do four dyno pulls, and compare to your baseline (or the Pulp motor baseline)
6. Now you change something else (jetting, different silencer, timing, air filter, airbox, etc)
7. We do four dyno pulls, and compare to previous baseline.  Is it better or worse?
8. We continue to repeat this process until you are happy with your results.  Make a change, do four dyno pulls.  Make a change, do four dyno pulls

What we have discovered after 4000+ dyno pulls:

1. Parts ain't just parts.  Some parts just work better.  You can do A-B-A-B testing to prove it.  We cannot explain why one carb might work better than another....but we can prove on the dyno that a particular carb sucks badly.  Or that a pipe sucks.  Or that your motor in general sucks.
2. We haven't blown up a motor on the dyno yet. (no guarantee we won't blow yours up.  Make sure your motor is in good shape before we put it on the dyno. If your motor is running really badly, check your cylinder and piston BEFORE coming to the shop to make sure we don't damage it more.
3. There is horsepower to be found.  Not all motors like the same stuff/parts/adjustments.  We don't know why, we are just parts swappers.  We don't have a doctorate degree in 2-stroke engine theory.  But any moron can swap parts and compare dyno graphs.  I am that moron.

Example of dyno runs of same motor, different carburetors.   One carb is better than the other.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. Do you consider yourself a motor builder/tuner?

Uhhh...no.  We consider Darcy Decoste to be our motor builder and tuner. We just spend time bolting on various parts to his motors to see what works well.  We can dyno any shifter motor, Swedetech, SRS, etc.

2. If you are not a motor builder, why are you offering dyno services?

Because we have discovered that we can make motors run better by bolting on different parts.  It isn't rocket science bolting on different pipes/silencers/reeds/intakes/filters/jets/carbs.  Anyone can do it and figure out how to make better horsepower....if you have a dyno.  And because my wife says I need to make some money if I want to race in 2011.

3. How long does it take to maximize a motor setup?
Hard to say.  Two hours of swapping parts gets you much better and usually makes a noticeable difference (if you are fast with a wrench).  The dyno can be a black hole, you can spend 8+ hours on it getting it 100% to it potential, but I wouldn't advise spending that much time on the dyno.  Spend 2 to 3 hours on it, become familiar with what motor likes and doesn't like, get it dialed in, and then go racing with confidence that your motor is at 90-95% of it's maximum peak power. 

4.  What days can you do this?

I can only do it after 5 p.m. by appointment, usually on Monday night or Tuesday night, or possibly anytime during the weekend if there is no PKC race (or kid activities I have to attend).  There will be no dyno testing the five days prior to a PKC race, so plan accordingly (since we will be packing trailer and getting ready for the race. And probably testing my motor on the dyno)

6. What motors have you dynoed?

So far, I have only dynoed Stock Honda motors.  I have not dynoed any TAG motors.  Yet.

7. How accurate is your dyno?

Accurate enough that when you switch parts, you get see the results.  When you don't switch parts and do multiple sets of pulls (on the same day), the HP/Torque graphs are the same.  Remember, we are measuring "relative differences between parts on the same day".  You can also review your graphs against the Pulp motors to see where you stand.

8. How long have you had your dyno?

Uhhhh.....a while.

9. People say that DynoJet chassis dynos don't relate HP accurately when comparing to actually running the kart at the track.

Well....if that is the case, if your butt is a finely tuned instrument that can measure HP, then perhaps you do not need to dyno your motor.  I cannot tell on the track if my motor is up or down 1-2 HP via my butt, but I can definitely tell on the dyno.  But there are some drivers that do have a finely tuned butt and can tell the difference.  Perhaps you are?

10.  What's the best way to do this?

Email me at dougha@msn.com to figure out an appointment.  I would think you would bring your kart, and maybe a buddy's kart to dyno.   Or better yet, bring a team of karts down to the shop. We dyno kart #1, make changes to it, get it running with more power.  Then swap in kart #2, compare it to kart #1. Which is better?  Swap out known good parts (pipes/silencer/carbs) and see what works best.  Swap in Kart #3, compare to karts #1 and #2, re-swap parts to confirm what works.  If you don't bring a friend's kart, no problem, you can compare it to recent dyno runs on our motors. (yeah yeah, different day, different atmosphere, etc.  But you'll be in the ballpark in terms of getting your motor ready.  The air density altitude at the shop is always between 500 and 1500 feet.  We are close to beach, so that doesn't change much)  I've been doing this for quite sometime. If it dynos good, it runs good at the track. If it doesn't dyno good, it ain't good run optimal at the track.

11.  Will you be my sponsor and dyno my motor for free?

Uh....no.  I'm trying to make money to go racing, not lose money. 

12.  What if this exercise is a waste of time?

I have dynoed probably 14 totally different motors. (some of the motors have 500 dyno pulls on them over the years)  We have found additional power in all 14 of them.  I haven't had a person who thought it was a waste of time so far.  I'm not in the habit of ripping people off.

13.  Can I just drop off my kart and motor, and have you do all the work and show me the graphs later so I don't have to be there?

Uhh....if you really want to pay me $95 an hour to swap parts on your kart, change the timing, etc, I guess I could.  But I think it would be more beneficial if you where there wrenching on your own kart, observing the differences that certain parts can make in terms of horsepower. 

14.  Do you take credit cards?

Uhhh....not at this time.  I don't want to setup credit card processing until I know there is a demand for dyno services.  Cash or Paypal works best.  You might be able to convince me to take a check.  It better not bounce or I'll put your picture up on this website.

14. Why do you think you know what you are doing, and are qualified to do this?

I test my motor out before every race weekend.  Before I go out and spend $1000 + 48 hours of my life at a race weekend, I spend a couple of hours on the dyno to make sure my motor is close to peak condition and in the 90th percentile.  If it is down on HP/Torque, I figure out what the problem is, or I swap on my spare motor.  Usually the problem is bad carb/silencer/pipe/cylinder/etc. Qualifying these days is tough, 2/10ths of a second can be the difference between pole or 6th place on the grid.  If your motor is down 1.5 HP on the dyno, you will probably suck in qualifying.....because Jeff, Wayne, and I have bolted on the right parts to haul ass.  Look at our results over the past 11 months and ask yourself the following questions:  Are those guys really that good as drivers? Or could their motors be working a little better than my motor?  Especially look at the results for the high horsepower tracks, such as Streets of Willow, Streets of Lancaster Grand Prix, and SuperNats.  I used results from qualifying, because there will be less traffic than a race, and everyone is doing their best to throw down one quick lap.  Results below:

ProKart Challenge Race #1 Qualifying at CalSpeedway  Jan 29, 2010

ProKart Challenge Race #2 Qualifying Willow Springs Kart Track February 26, 2010

ProKart Challenge Race #4 Streets of Willow Springs Qualifying May 14, 2010
(Note: Streets of Willow Springs is a 100+ MPH track.  You uh...need HP/Torque)

ProKart Challenge NorCal/SoCal Shootout Santa Maria Qualifying August 13, 2010

SuperNationals XIV Practice #1 (P2 Group)

 Supernats XIV Practice 3 (P2 Group)

Supernats XIV Practice #4 (P2 Group)

Supernats XIV Practice 6 (New P1 Group)

Supernats XIV Practice 9 Qualifiers warmup