Well guys, today after school I drove my Monte to a dyno shop in Durham, NC and ran on the dyno. I was a little disappointed at my hp gains... only about 7 more to the wheels. However, I picked up almost 14 more lbs-ft of torque to the wheels. This thing will lay rubber with the traction control on quite easily now, heck I don't even have to drop it to the floor. What fun.... I'd rather have had the gain in HP though, it didn't really need more torque. I was also a bit disappointed at how low my HP numbers were. And if this all seems EXTREMLY low, remember that this is to the wheels, not at the crank.

Heres the chart


And here is my baby on the dyno

 

Did that say only 155.4 Hp? That makes no sense! I thought your gen Monte was supposed to put out 225Hp in SS trim(?!?)

 

200 at the crank... you lose about 20-25% from the crank to the wheels.

 

plus we never got a good baseline... they ahd the gear ratios on teh computer set wrong, it came up to like 350 lbs ft of torque and about 250 hp. so he made a bunch of changes then and then went back, i don't know exactly what it picked up. from teh first experiment to the second it picked up what i listed... it may have made 25 more lbs-ft and maybe even 12-15 more hp to the wheels.

 

Duane, Glad to hear of someone's reports on a Dyno-tune! I know the gains seem a little low, but really you probably gained much more at the crank then you did at the wheels. prolly more like 12... The real gains from a tune job are that more power per drop of fuel (better mileage) less exits the car in heat. I bet the car ismore responsive, and you might just see an increase in mileage as well.

I would look at other areas. Are you using the stock PCM? Did they do timing and a/f ratios, or just the air/fuel ratio?
If you haven't already, a high-flow cat would benefit you big time. Stock Cats will not run a properly tuned engine, because tuned properly, the engine likely puts out more unburnt hydrocarbons, and the cat tries to burn those off.. causing extra heat. You could cause your stock cat to plug up, heat up, and meltdown.

 

Ok, the gear ratios are the FIRST thing you put in the dyno, then the weight of the car (HUGE, Very HUGE item) if it's a brake dyno (load based) then they should connect it to read the RPM, a few runs just to get a base-line, then the tune. If they didn't have a sniffer up the car's tailpipe they did not tune the car... they simply made a best-guess fuel addition.

 

yeah, maybe i should look into that cat. the check engine light isn't on, but that don't mean the cat isn't stopped up.. i do'nt know whats holding it back so much. but we never got a good baseline. the guy who tuned it was getting his laptop ready while somebody else who had been there a month set the car up on teh dyno. he used the reports from his computer to tune it and then ran it again. from that run to the last it got 7 hp and the 14 lbs-ft of torque. i don't know what it got from baseline. he set the timing up a little, reset the shift points, took all the rev limiters nad speed limiters off....

 

and yeah, they had a "Sniffer" on the muffler. they also had a wire clamped to one of my spark plug wires for the timing.

 

Ok, so it doesn't sound like they totally missed anything major. Being Naturally aspirated you probably don't have to worry about detonation, but you said you run premium anyways, so definitely a good thing. Going to regular might make the car run differently just as an FYI.

I'm just glad I didn't try it, I mean 400$ when for another 150$ you could have gotten a HP tuners module and been able to do unlimited Montes with the same engine. Tune your friends for 50$ a pop (heck, just remove the speed limiter) and make some back.


I've been seriously considering one...

 

yeah, but none of my buddies have cars anything like this. i live in a mustang dominated area.