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You're probably being hosed at the pump

Polaris and Bombardier are using detonation sensing technology on some of their engines to help alert us while riding or dyno testing, and to try to protect sled owners who experience detonation on their engines. They utilize engine noise pickups bolted to the cylinder head surface and some computer tries to recognize some new loud vibration as possible deto, and adds fuel and/ or retards timing to reduce combustion chamber temperature. Lower temperature (and reduced HP) should eliminate the detonation and all is well.

Bombardier is smart, and has programmed their newest computers to recognize and remember detonation, even to the point of going into a permanent, dealer-only removable fail-safe mode if severe engine knock occurs. This way they might have the option of avoiding responsibility if the owner of a new XP800R detos a piston/ cylinder on 75 octane gas unknowingly used by the sled owner.

75 octane?

I use that low octane rating rating as an example since 75 was the lowest octane test result done by Dateline NBC on 85 samples of "name brand" high test gasoline purchased in California. In that sample group, 11 were substandard, well below the octane posted on the pump.

Since then there have been more eye-opening reports of octane fraud at the pump. Car and Driver magazine reports that of 2816 samples of "high test" gasoline tested the previous year in Michigan by the Bureau of Weights and Measures, 217 failed because of "low octane". Just last week the Today Show did a segment on NY State gasoline cheating, stating that 15% of gasoline tested this winter in NY was substandard. Roll the dice.

Digesting that information, we can assume that 10% of the time, when we fill our sleds with high test, we get boned with 87 or worse. This is no problem for most stock sleds which have safe BSFC and excellent cooling systems. But some high performance stockers that have marginal cooling systems (to save weight and cost) seem to be susceptible to detonation. My opinion is that the new Arctic Cats which have "reverse cooling" (heads get the cold water first like modern automotive performance street and race engines) are most resistant to detonation, and can run higher HP on pump gas than most others. I have no actual hard data, just feedback from many 100's of dyno users who run powerfully on the lakes and trails.

Now that we can enlist SkiDoo dealer Jim Cooper to monitor engine conditions during dyno testing SkiDoo engines, we see even light to moderate deto on his computer before things get bad (either going into "safe mode" or actually eroding a piston. We let Jim's deto meter go up to maybe half way before detuning. Richard Lavanant brought "93" octane gas from PA before doing stage tuning on his new XP800R. Bone stock with bone stock jetting Richard's engine made Jim Cooper's deto meter rattle hard to the right on his gasoline. Richard filled a jug with 93 from the gas station near the dyno, and that detonation was gone.

This same problem occurred with an XP860R big bore tested on my dyno a few weeks ago. This anonymous owner brought five gallons of "93" from his uncle's gas station in Rochester, and that gas pegged Jim Cooper's deto meter instantly with "safe" jetting! That problem also went away with gas from around the corner from the dyno. Now the uncle knew that his nephew was coming to dyno his sled, and I would think that if he was knowingly selling 87 for 93 he would have suggested that his nephew use different gas. In that case I'm betting that the gas wholesaler could be the culprit. Think of the extra $ people make for selling 87 as 93! How about the bar on the trail with above ground tank with "93" written in Magic Marker on the pump?

I get calls/ emails too often from people who have tuned closely for max "93" performance, wondering about mysterious, sudden detonation after many miles of dandiness. Always, something has differed from those good times. Leaner mixture? Hotter engine? Longer time at WOT? Usually it's the gas.

So what are we to do? The deto protection on Polaris' and SkiDoos is better than nothing, but not perfect. Extended periods of light occasional detonation, seemingly deemed acceptable by the sleds' computer, can gradually overheat pistons as the random "hits" of deto scour away the cooling boundary of air protecting the aluminum pistons (1200 degree melting point) from the 5000 degree flame. Pistons grow and sieze on "four corners", or actually melt just before they seize, because of the loss of that cooling boundary of air. New piston, new nickasil, all because some greedy wholesaler or retailer wanted to pocket an extra $2 per sled tankful.

So what can we do? Octane boosters so far have proven useless to me. My own motor octane tester is a 2000 Silverado 5.3 with twin GT25 Garrett turbos and completely stock EFI system. This truck has 112,000 miles all with turbos, and it knocks on what they call "tip in" as throttle is depressed, before the computer senses the MAF is in the twilight zone compared to what is normal. This one second rattle is annoying, but harmless in eight years. With 100 unleaded, there is no audible knock at all. Some octane boosters have been tried with no success. I even tried some name brand stuff that's supposed to make "race gas" out of pump gas. You'd think I knew better, but this was a free sample for testing by Terry Paine. A quart to five gallons did nothing, two quarts to five gallons did nothing but make us laugh.

Leaded race gas or 100LL Av gas is in my opinion the only reliable octane booster for pump gas. On a few occasions I get to ride a 1000 HTG triple "pump gas" engine with 200-225 HP depending on whether power jets are set for .70 or .57. I like to use 100LL Av because it's cheap and always fresh and good enough. And I can water it down as I go and still have fun until dilution makes me afraid. Then I just cool it or give 1/2 turn to the pj's. I respect that thing and get great, reliable enjoyment from it. People who run high HP on the trail need to respect their engines, and expect to be running 87 octane on occasion. So that means tuning for 87 if you must run 100% pump gas. That means running enough fuel, with relaxed timing if necessary to get you around .70 lb/hphr for hot rod two-strokes. And, it means you must have a cooling system that will keep up with your HP/ riding style. How can a Firecat cooling system designed for 130 HP be expected to keep up with a 170 HP big bore if you ride like a madman? Coolant temp should be monitored, and when engine coolant gets to be much over 120 degrees F (like you might experience on hard packed roads or lakes) you must take it easy or risk deto since hot engines are most likely to detonate.

Rejetting for doing lake runs can be a nuisance, so I like those adjustable power jets like used on Lectron carbs. A quick 1/4 or half turn twist can take you from .70 to .60 with a similar bump in HP when you know you have sufficient octane. I have limited experience with Holtzman float bowl pressure tuners, but I like what I've seen for ease of adjusting fuel flow. EFI owners love Boondocker EFI controllers, since you can have one map dyno programmed "up nord style" for mystery gas, and one for short blasts on what you know is decent octane gas. And maybe another for race gas dragracing. Just a click of the Boondocker and you go from race to ultra safe. Couldn't be better.

Kevin Cameron has devoted lots of time providing technical information on detonation in the DynoTechResearch archives. Understanding what we're buying at the pump, and understanding the causes and effects of deto is important if we expect to avoid it while having reasonable fun with our sleds. This most recent realization that we're being "hosed" at the pump should make us all afraid.

Winter testing schedule

12/14 Petschke Motorsports dyno testing the ETEC 800 with their new flowbench tested Y pipe results posted on this website members' pages

12/15 Keith Monroe, F7 w/ D&D trailport dissapointing performance last season was traced to a counterfeit BMP pipe modded stock pipe that Keith had bought on EBay. I was leery since the counterfeit pipe had poor welds, and my suspicions were confirmed when we installed the BMP modded stock pipe I have here for test purposes and picked up 13hp.

12/17 John Joyce,Wayne Yeardon, Rob Schooping testing Merc 440 freeair oval racer- Rob is back at his home shop now, back to his roots modifying/ porting engines. Since the Merc 440 piston port engines are similar to the powerful 650 Polaris triple engines Rob created back in the 1990s, these are a natural...

12/21 the worst day of testing ever--two sleds with freshly rebuilt engines, freshly installed back in the sleds with what appear to be air locked oil pumps...no premix in the gas, sled 1 (a big bore twin) locked up just before we began the test, at 12/1 A/F...a disappointing mystery but that can happen...then sled 2 made one pass loaded with fuel, then locked up like sled 1...autopsied that sled on the dyno, the bottom end was bone dry totally devoid of any sign of oil! Sled 1 was autopsied back home, bone dry like sled 2. Moral of this unhappy story is, whenever an engine is removed, then reinstalled, the first one or two tanks of gas should be premixed. They will be back, with slippery fuel in the tanks next time!

12/27-12/29 Pro race team testing, dynocams off

1/2 Todd Dewind PCV tuning a 2012 ProR 800 w/ DynoPort pipe.

1/3 Josh Bender Boondocker tuning a trail mod Cat 800

1/6 Jesse Bradley, (Bradley Performance) PCV tuning a trail mod Cat 1200 (cancelled, waiting for parts)

1/7 Gus Bohne dyno tuning Art Bash's turbo Polaris 1000 triple, and another turbo MachZ twin (cancelled)

1/11 Cat F7 for Boondocker tuning

1/12 Dave Behuniak, Vmax 4 FPP lakeracer mod, turning new MSD

1/14 Gus Bohne dyno tuning Art Bash's turbo Polaris 1000 triple, and another turbo MachZ twin (results posted soon)

1/15 Wayne Tessier boondocker tuning early (moderate port timing) 800/901 Cat

1/16 Jake Lehnen making even more HP on his FPP SkiDoo RS600 hilldrag mod engine

1/17 Tony Koz tuning his XF800 single pipe improver Hilldrag sled

1/17 Mike Koz tuning his XF800 stocker Hilldrag sled

1/22 Jesse Bradley, (Bradley Performance) PCV tuning Jeff Sills' trail mod Cat 1200 (215hp 147 lb/ft on pump gas)

1/24 Crossfire 1000 boondocker tune

1/25 RJ Quell mystery tune

1/30 Pat Kitchen/ Cat 1500 triple w/ Boyd McGarry tig welding pipes

1/31 Kelly & Sandy O'Dell dyno tweaking SkiDoo 800 (one twin, one triple) promod hilldrag sleds

2/1 Adam Glick two big twin Cats for carb/ EFI tuning

2/1 & 2/2 Kevin Freeman (Sled Shop SkiDoo in Presque Isle, ME) dyno verifying the tune on his FPP turbo Etec 800 (190+ click-free on ME 93 octane, will post the numbers)

2/5 Brian MacLaren PCV tuning a strangely deto-prone 2010 F8

2/8 Marty Rainville from Quebec, PCV tuning a stock F1000 for dragracing/ trail riding

2/11 Dynamo Jim testing stock turbo Cat w/ TD stage 5 w/ larger injectors cancelled, engine issues to address, will come another day

2/14 Jeremy Wilder, two SkiDoo 800s (one R, one HO) for hilldragging

2/19 Jake Lehnen- one more time with his FPP ported SkiDoo 600R hilldragger, this time with a late model "stuffed" crankcase--trying to match the Hentges Polaris 600 HP. Started months ago with 137 HP, last time here we were close to 160hp. Will post our step by step improvents, and how each improvement was accomplished on this website.

2/20 James Moore, tuning NA and N2O F7

2/21 Dan Brownell Crankshop 1500 triple

2/22 David Kirchhoff, FINALLY a Dragon 800 with FIX cylinders and pistons to create a proper PCV/ PC3 map! cancelled due to scuffed piston, will try again...

2/23 Brian MacFarlane F8 PCV tuning w/ BMP exhaust

3/2 Mark Fisher dyno tuning 800 triple and 600 twin improved stock engines

3/3 Jake Lehnen SkiDoo 600RS Full Power mod, one more time!

3/13 Renegade Rich Myers SkiDoo 800R mod hilldragger

3/15 Larry Audette ported Etec 800 looking for 170+ on pump gas

Winter dyno schedule

11/4 Dead one Dave tuning his new stock engine 2012 Procross 800 for max power for hilldrags.

11/7 WakPak Joe tuning a 1000 twin for hilldrags.

11/11 Sean Weir with a SnowCross 600 mod SkiDoo. Also Tom Bachly with a new 2012 bone stock SkiDoo 600RS, tuned for max HP dyno test and tuning info posted on members' section now.

11/12 Bill Gregory, SkiDoo 800 triple mod, dialed in a dandy timing curve on his MSD.

11/19 Don Zuzze PCV tuning two seemingly identical F6's (required totally different maps) and one F1000.

11/20 Rob Lathrop fine tuning for max HP on a full mod SkiDoo Trigstad 600 twin. Also Dave Lathrop with an improved stock SkiDoo 800 twin also getting ready for hilldrags. our new data acquisition system gives us a "Density Altitude" reading while we test. DA is a combination of baro pressure, temperature, and humidity (water grains per pound of air). With max power carb dyno jetting created here at a given DA, we can then use a Kestrel 4500 Racing Weather Station wherever you're racing to get accurate DA. Then using just the altitude half of a Mikuni Pocket Tune sliderule, perfect jetting can be maintained. Pro racers tune at DTR then with this system perfect max HP jetting can be maintained froom sea level subzero to mountain racing out west.

11/21 D&D Dale & Glenn tuning for high safe pump gas HP with production F1100T. Muffler testing, HiJacker testing, all with stock turbo outlet pipe.

11/26 anonymous tuner, top secret today.

11/27 Mark Fisher getting ready to hilldrag with a Sherlock Crossfire 800/ Jaws race pipes.

11/28 TurboDynamics Ben with his production F1100T, testing his various ECU tunes all with high flow turbine outlet pipe and stainless steel fairly quiet muffler. to be posted soon

11/29 greedy Bill Swoyer looking for even more HP out of his CrankShop 1500 hilldragsled. Larry-this sled needs to run in the AmSnow Adirondack Shootout on 12/9! We have an all-motor class in the Lakeracer division!

11/29 WakPak Joe with his 1000 twin again, looking for more HP.

11/30 Vintage oval racers Brandon Hadley and Al Young tuning two race sleds--a SkiDoo 340RV and a Polaris TX440 for Eagle River.

12/1 Mad Canadian Gerry Prosser (Bender Canada) PCV tuning an EXUP Apex with Yamacharger, and trying out stock vs MBRP vs Bender vs D&D mufflers. this data may be posted on members' pages in later December.

12/1 D&D Dale testing stock 2012 Apex then upgrading HP with PCV, D&D Stainless muffler, and high flow airbox cover and high RPM carb inlet boots. will post this after the 12/9 Adirondack Shootout

12/1 PM Dale demonstrating big HP on their trail ported/ single pipe 2012 ProCross 800. will post this after the 12/9 Adirondack Shootout

12/4 Gary Foster tuning his 07 crossfire 800 with D&D shim kit and porting by Dale Fredericks. the dyno cold intake air refrigeration was necessary to get accurate winter tune today. outside air was 55 deg F, so intake air was chilled to 25 degrees.

12/4 through 12/7 certification dyno testing all of the Adirondack Shootout stockers--new Polaris dealer this year Bill Lutz of Fun Unlimited in Gouvernor NY. Also Tuesday we're doing all the Cats, plus hilldrag sleds the Michael Koz and Jeff Cerio need to sneak in for a quick tune.

12/11 Gary Berwind testing his Z1 w/ large intercooler, water methanol inj, Turbo Dynamics 4 stage tune on real pump gas. results posted on members' pages

12/13 Michael Kozlowski getting ready for hilldrag season

12/16 Allen Young, tuning Polaris TX440 freeair vintage oval racer

12/18 FPP Justin testing a Yamaha RX1 with 44 Megatron carbs replacing the stock CV carbs. significant gains in airflow and HP

12/19 Tim Huber getting it spot-on with his Crossfire 1200, Boondocker N2O

12/19 Jake Lehnen using his gift certificate to test and tune his Crankshop 600 hilldrag mod sled

12/22 Dave Patrick dials in his BMP piped Crossfire 1000--one tune for Oneida lakeracing at .55 and another tune for trail riding with Tug Hill mystery gas at .60

12/26 Zach Brown getting the most tunable HP out of his Merc 440 SnoTwister vintage racer.

12/26 Steve Stasko with another vintage racer--Polaris TX440

12/27 Gus Bohne/ Steve Duetti/ DNE gonzo turbo tuning session with mega-boosted HTG 1080 triple, MachZ1000 twin, DNE1700 quad-- HP records are smashed today, then posted on the members' section of this website

12/31 AMA racer Kenny Coolbeth's 2012 Kaw 450 flatrack race bike, Ron Jewel (RLJ Racing) modified engine tuning for every tenth of a HP on our CycleDyn. Also Ron's brother Randy tuning his HO800 for max power on pump gas. "who'd a thunk" we would need to refrigerate outside air to properly tune a sled on 12/31! But decent air for tuning a race bike!

1/2 Trevor Chadwick's SnoPro600/ SS900 big bore doesn't anyone make a 12 degree offset timing key? Carl McQuillen Race engines, LeRoy NY EDM's offset keyways in Cat flywheels, Trevor needed lots more timing to make max HP on the big bore--first 10 degree keyway they've done.

1/3 Jason Yandricha--SkiDoo 800 triple shoehorned into a rev 440 chassis with a dandy motor mount kit from Bondi. hit the rev limiter way before the HP peak was reached, needs to get ECU reprogrammed to take care of that.

1/3 Jeremy Rataczyk--another F9ss engine--this one in a 440 SnoPro chassis, complete with EFI.

1/5 JD Powersports, getting independent test results of their new F1100T with their 4 stage ECU tune. results will be posted 1/26

1/6 Justin Hulsizer PCV tuning his F6/ 800 Jeff Stinson Big Bore with D&D Monster Twin pipes.

1/11 JJ Elmer getting his stock Mach Z twin w/ CS quiet twin pipes ready for Onieda Lake (if it ever freezes!). needed to refrigerate and dry the dyno intake air on January 11 to get a good 20 degree F boondocker tune!

1/15 Jeff Sills 2009 Crossfire 1000 w/ D&D Ypipe and pipe, creating one good trail map and one lakerace map. finally--we have cold outside air for tuning.

1/18 Andy Stiles testing pipes, and fine tuning his Polaris 600 ex-Hentges Racing hilldrag mod

1/19 George Brown and Wayne Yeardon, back for even more HP with Zach's 440 SnoTwister

1/24 Jason Owens, trying for more HP with HJ Schroeder's Cat PS1000 twin.

1/25 518er Todd Hogan with some sort of HillDrag SkiDoo

1/27 Craig Gabel Cat 500/ 720 Big Bore

2/1 or therabouts turbo maven Gus Bohne with the boosted HTG 1080 triple, looking for lots of HP.

2/4 Hank Yeomans, F7 HillDragger

2/14 Jake Lehnen SkiDoo 600rs improved stock Hilldrag sled

2/19 Dave Behuniak and Al Miller tuning Yamaha lakeracers with Justin Fuller

3/1 Jake Lehnen one more time

3/2 Todd Hogan SkiDoo 800 hilldrag sled

3/8 Matt Boardway Polaris ProR 800 hilldrag stocker

3/10 Tim Wood AC F7 hilldrag stocker

3/17 Heath Lynk HTG 1000 asphalt racer

3/17 Randy Crounse AC F12 with n2o

3/21 Jim Stanley/ Glenn Hall AC Z1 D&D big turbo lakeracer

3/24 Justin Fuller Yam SRX700 prostocker

3/30 Paul Cross Wildcat 700 mod

What we're learning by testing RVP

Now that we have testing equipment I like to test racers' fuel's RVP while we're hooking up the sled/ engine to the dyno. I've caught several samples with no or low RVP, meaning we must have the engine very hot while tuning on the dyno to ensure adequate vaporization. No cool engine tuning can be done with stale fuel, even with excellent vaporizing carbs like properly sized Lectrons. Those "light" or "front" ends of the fuel are critical in ensuring good fuel volatitlity.

Heat and agitation cause the light ends to "boil off", or escape and build pressure in a sealed vessel. During the heating only phase of the RVP test, fresh Sunoco Maximal will build about 3psi in the "bomb". Then, the agitation phase of the RVP tests is removing the bomb from the water bath, inverting it which allows the heated gasoline to gurgle into the vapor chamber. Then, the bomb is inverted again so the fuel gurgles back into the small fuel sample container. This agitation causes more light ends to boil off, and raises the pressure by another 2psi (total 5 psi). If we unscrew the sample chamber from the bomb (it's sealed with an Oring) we get a nice whoosh and about half of the light ends are lost to the atmosphere. Then if we take that same sample, reconnect it to the bomb and test it again the RVP will only register about half--2.5psi or therabouts! Let that 2.5psi escape and reheat and agitate the sample again, and now we're down to 1 to 1.5 psi. I consider that dead, lawnmower gas (dead race gas becomes excellent octane booster for hot trail sleds when mixed with pump gas) It's just like shaking up a part full bottle of Pepsi Cola and releasing the CO2 by cracking the bottle cap. You can only do that a few times before it's flat and undrinkable.

A RVP test is very much like trailering a partially full sealed can of formerly fresh race gas to a grass race in August in a black trailer. You get to the track, open the can and kawoosh goes most of the good smelling light ends and your fuel is half dead. Because of the buildup of pressure some of the light ends remain dissolved in the fuel. But if you reseal the can and drive home again, if you open the cap you don't get much of a woosh. But what about the fuel that's in the sled's fuel tank? There's no pressure seal there, and I would submit that whatever fuel is in the tank is DOA (dead on arrival).

Typical testing results from sealed 5 gallon "pails" of race gas show RVP about 1psi lower than published by the refiner. I suspect that the lower pressure is the result of the severe agitation of the fuel when the pail is transfilled from a larger container by the dealer. Sunoco tells me that they only sell race fuel to distributors in bulk--railcars and trailers only. They fill no drums or small containers themselves!

What's a racer to do to keep fuel fresh while transporting? First, have no fuel in the sled's tank (or carbs for that matter). And only transport FULL cans or jugs of fuel to minimize headspace that allows the escaping of the light ends. Small drums of race fuel (ie: 30 gallon size) can be used for transportation even for small quantities of fuel as long as 6 psi of nitrogen head pressure (with one of Carl McQuillen's N2 bung systems) is used to prevent loss of light ends and to prevent moisture contamination from humid air and to dispense the fuel while still under pressure. Also, military-style 5 gallon "jerry cans" appear to have the same bung threads as race fuel drums, and could be fitted with a nitrogen system for storage and transporting using a small 20 or 40 cu. ft. N2 cylinder.

When it comes to gassing up your high dollar race sled, those light ends are your friend. The refiners spend huge bucks putting those light ends in the fuel to make it volatile. Handling/ transporting/ storing the fuel in a cavalier manner can cost you horsepower and engines.

weeks of 3/5 and 3/12

Monday 3/6 AM more testing on yamaha motoctross bike w/ aftermarket silencer.

Mon 3/13 nothing scheduled from here on out. Jimmy Cooper planning to stage tune a sdi600 this time with lower compression and added timimg plus we can dial in the Skidoo sdi600 shootout sled box.

Monday 3/13 dyno tuned F7 and F6--extensive tweaking multiple keys multiple heads multiple ECUs fine tuning fuel flow with restrictors. Cameras off because 1) sled owner didn't want his competitors watching. and 2) something's amiss with building phone/ internet service. Sleds were from the twin city area of Minnesota.

Wednesday 3/15 9am a Big Moose lakeracer coming down for late season tuning, no cameras again (option of dyno customer). got this one dialed in, fixed an awful lean midrange, fattened a lean overrev A/F ratio, determined HP peak at 3, 6 and 12 seconds to enable proper clutching for the lake Saturday. 11am hoping cameras are fixed by then, Greg Bennett back with his turbo Polaris twin lakeracer, model 66 Aerodyne turbo with very custom mountain motor cast cylinders from HTG (Rob Schooping created a gonzo HP low port XLT 10 years ago, applying that experience to these 990cc cylinders). 116 octane gas, unlimited boost pressure. My armpits are beginning to moisten. rightfully so, nearly 200 lb/ft torque on my standard 1.25" OD driveshaft (my more correct large shaft would not fit bellypan) 296 CHP but EGTs are moon-high with safe mixture, indicating this engine may need more advanced timing, left it on the dyno, THURSDAY AM try an ECU with added advance, must have 300+ to try to keep up with the Big Moose Lake madmen this Saturday, hoping to have morning 300 champagne.

Thursday cameras will be rolling again, expecting something to observe soon.Thurs AM my armpits are still wet, 1.25" tube shaft held 204.7 lb/ft of torque EGTs are comfortably low thanks to custom Wahl Bros ECU for turbo, will try to post dyno numbers this weekend.

weeks of 2/5 and 2/12

2/6 AM HTG trail port XCR800/ Edge 600 chassis The HTG pump gas XCR800 trail port with HTG pipes made 180 at .70 and 192 at .58 lb/hphr, HP peak from 8200 to 8500 depending on fuel flow.
2/7 AM Charlie Primmer with a troublesome Hooper 1365 triple.Charlie and I struggled with this, HP peak was not smooth-- humps and valleys, while changing main jets noticed only a drizzle of gas in float bowls after 10 second dyno runs, found 1.5mm needle and seats fouled a bit with corrosion/ debris, switched to new 2.0mm n&s and had to jet down to achieve same lb/hr fuel flow. No more humps and valleys, Charlie's radar run sled is still a bit low on HP with 270 (considering displacement) but should not surge and gurgle anymore like it did with undersize partially obstructed n&s's.
2/8 AM Larry Frasier ZR900 with full D&D trail package porting/ pipes/ Boondocker we tweaked Larry's sled to safety with 170HP, high .60s BSFC but the EVs opened way too early for twin pipes, early EV opening = airflow drop causing rich condition that we had to go negative with boondocker to partially correct
2/9 AM Vince and Bill Logan, 518ers (518 area code HP madmen) Vince' juiced/ piped Mach Z tickled 250 HP, Bill's all-motor MachZ out-HP'd Chuckaroo by a few tenths of a HP, will post Bill's dyno sheet.
2/10 a HTG ported CS twin pipe MachZ, also with juice to boot made 198 on mostly last season's pump gas left in tank, but never got chance to shoot N2O since we frosted a plug in midrange trying for 200--that makes two frosted MachZ 2-pipe plugs on two sleds (caught before seizure could occur) in midrange with seemingly safe A/F ratio and BSFC. Need to boondocker these twin pipers heavy in middle WOT to make them safe.
2/11 AM thru 2/12 noon Marathon session, 5 [Massachusets] sleds to dyno tune (maybe we'll begin Friday PM).Ed Derby and pals; spent most time with a troublesome Pol 800 twin w/ billet 900 cylinders, made way less airflow CFM and HP than a different brand billet 900 Pol twin topend tuned here two weeks ago. Will investigate cause. Had better luck with same brand billet 860 cylinders. But that sled had boondocker carb N2O kit that was impossible to dynotune (as opposed to EFI boondocker N2O which are a delight to dyno). I don't think the boondocker system of pressurizing floatbowls to add fuel can possibly work reliably with any sort of HP--I will post those results. Anyone who is making good HP with that kit please email me. Ed dyno tuned two Carl's Cycles built Polaris twins--a low comp 660 that made mid 140's and a 800 twin trailport that made 155 with a quiet single pipe (nearly as much CFM and HP as the troublesome billet 900 created with twin pipes). Finally a previously often-seized F7 carb 780 big bore, now tuned to mid 150's HP at .70 lb/hphr and similar very safe BSFC in cruise mode at all midrange part throttle positions on the dyno. All tuning done with 120 degree F coolant temp. Sled is now fitted with coolant temp gauge.
2/14 late PM, Sam Verduce Boondocker tuning on Bikeman F8 single pipe trail sled Sam's F8 dyno session was four hours, added 2.5 degrees of timing, dialed in 160+ Hp at .65 BSFC and a second boondocker map 157 HP at .70x lb/hphr BSFC from 7300 to 8000 RPM. one hour of the test session was devoted to creating optimum cruise A/F ratio to obtain safe fuel flow without drowning engine, expect now an extra 3 mpg?
2/16 AM a tweaked F7 non-Boondocker will dial in with fuel pressure if necessary Five Star Ken had 04 stocker with reprogrammed ECU, Bikeman mod stock pipe, 2.5deg key, only 98 lb/hr fuel flow at 44 psi gave him 154 HP @.low .60s lb/hphr NO FUEL CHOKE ALLOWED also tried his MBRP can, lost 5 HP you will see that on Ebay. PM John T Cowie's infamous Ultra now 1080cc HTG mod, now a bit more compression and stock can removed in favor of higher flowing individual silencers/ stingers.JohnT's HTG Ultra made 261 HP this time, with ice cold water in the engine like he does dragracing--with fresh fuel and good vaporizing carbs like Lectrons there are no cold seizures.

weeks of 2/19 and 2/26

I forgot to mention on 2/14 we spent four hours boondockering (and installing a key) with Sam from South of Detroit, a Bikeman F8 with BM single and stock muffler came up with four beautiful Boondocker fuel curves, HP from 155 to 161, posted power/ fuel curves on DTR.

Feb 20 HTG will be back again with ported MachZ with Boondocker and Crankshop twin pipes. Also blasting some N2O (don't call it noss) after NA tuning is done.boondockered from 192 to 197, stock compression (this included making a reed change and picking up 10 cfm and 4HP). Tuned conventional N2O kit to 268HP on good gas.

Feb 21 John Z bringing an 1100 big bore MachZ and a Cutler F10.F10 cancelled. John Z's 1100 easily made 200 on pump gas low .60's with 137 lb/ft NA, this time we got excellent HP out of John's Boondocker EFI N2O which added 42 HP with two five hole foggers in the outer airbox...at only 500 psi cylinder pressure.

Feb 23, JR bringing troublesome F7 w/ SLP twins, modified to fit stock muffler, Boondocker to tune in. added a bunch of part throttle fuel, took away various amounts of top end fuel to try to obtain decent mileage and safe .70 lb/hphr WOT BSFC on JRs bone stock F7. These twins into the stock muffler were quiet but unruly at 7200 rpm valve opening I think because at about 6700 the HP begins to tail off as revs climb, then jumps about 30 HP as soon as valves open. This would be less noticable in the field on 05 and 06 models since valves open in the field as soon as throttle is whacked. 2/27 update JRs dad called sled runs poorly in the field, plugs scary gray, I'm concerned since we dialed in fuel flow at .70 then dropped numbers that should have created .65 and more HP on the dyno but it dropped HP. Was the stock muffler choking airflow CFM and creating deto? JR may come back in a week to try the real SLP can.

Feb 27, Intimidator Jim bringing his F7 stocker to try some fine tuning prior to going to Phatman Shootout. Phatman Shootout cancelled, we learned a lot today about Intimidator's HP peak RPM depending on pipe temp. He and Fast Eddy will be at Big Moose this weekend with an all-new helix to match dyno RPM.

Feb 28 and/ or March 1, more CycleDyn (SuperFlow eddy current roller dyno) endurance testing on packing material on motocross race muffler. Also one or more of those days, a local performance company will be boosting performance of Cat 660 turbo.Today 2/28, local automotive performance shop savvy w/ car turbo/ supercharging came with bone stock T660 with their own electronic upgrades (boost/ fuel/ timing/ parameter protection overrides), would you believe on their pump gas 165 CHP hot engine/ cool intercooler stab? Long pull hot intercooler still well over 150 on pump gas. They are planning to sell a plug-in deal that has these overrides.

March 1 PM going to Batavia Holiday Inn Yamaha show to look at the new Phazer. Will offer to barter coctails for use of a Phazer for a few hours on the dyno after show. No barter deal would work here, these truck guys just wanted to go down the road to next stop.

March 2 AM more dyno endurance testing of aftermarket motocross bike muffler packing. One muffler user is Ricky Carmichael who eats packing in one race, but last weekend was bounced for fuel violation after winning race. Could nasty gas eat packing?

March 2 PM three sleds to dyno: #1 a HO800 SkiDoo (dynod stock a few weeks ago) with custom low dome pistons to alter port timing w/ custom head dropped into cylinder more on this situation later. #2 Dan Forte's XC700 stock cylinders w/ HTG twin pipes, cut head, timing cranked, 147 HP at .60 lb/hphr. #3 John T Cowie's XC600 looking for more HP on his twin pipe trail mod sled cut 1/2" from center section cut 1/2" from header pipe, should have gained a few hundred revs, and gained 5 or more HP? lost 10 HP.

Weeks of 1/22 and 1/29

Monday, Kevin Freeman driving in from The Sled Shop in Presque Isle ME. Mach Z trail ported. CS twin pipes, Boondocker to dial in. Boondockered this Sled Shop trail sled to a safe 192 CHP at close to .70 lb/hphr, 125 lb/hr fuel flow on top end. also Boondockered out a vicious midrange .45-.47 lean spot at 50-70mph cruise. now it's dandily safe everywhere.

Tuesday Randy Haulman back again with revised nitrous oxide plumbing on his SkiDoo, new plumbing = good HP easily made 200 plus before cylinder ran low of liquid in his Boss Noss setup-- and that F7/F8 should be here for tuning this time this F8 was done by Racin Station and has excellent airflow and HP, picked up 8 HP with Bikeman pipe mod to boot. Also in PM a Canadian lakeracer F7 for tuning Craig's F7 trail port was done by Iantamassi (sorry about spelling) made dandy CFM and HP, also picked up 8 HP with Bikeman pipe mod, could have used Boondocker but we were able to get by with tweaking fuel pressure.

Wedneday Tim Ellis with a lake racer mod 1000cc TCat.150 psi compression, 44megatrons, D&D trail pipes = 218 CHP, Tim had a dynosheet on this engine from Anoka-Ramsey's SF901 dyno 220 CHP close enough.

Thurs-Tues off on ill-timed vacation to FL.

Wednesday 2/1 am Bikeman trail port single pipe F7.SnapOn Dick's F7 was surely one of the best, with BM pipe mod DDY and BM trail port, Boondockered on pump gas three Horsepower settings 161, 157, 154 (the last = Canadian trail setting .70+ lb/hphr)

Thursday 2/2 9am a stock Mach Z and CS pipes to be Boondocker tuned Mike's bone stocker w/ 05 map, CS domes wound up with three Boondocker HP settings, 192, 188, and 185. 11am a MXZ700 w/ mcDizzy ultra midrange package. we jetted, tweaked different reeds/ boost bottle combos made nearly 140hp, about 20 more than stock. 2PM a Union Bay Polaris 900 billet cylinder twin with SLP twin pipes, plan on testing pump gas and race gas domes (tentative--confirm on Wed) Rescheduled for Sat AM 2/ 4/06... dyno'd Sat AM, on race gas 182 HP with timing and jetting optimized, pump gas made 178 HP, Friday 2/3 AM Jeff J's homebrew trailport F7, 010" off head, 2.5 deg key, Boondocker, new Bikeman stamped pipe (clone of modded stock pipe?).Jeff's was another good one, but it took our BM mod stock single to reach potential of 158 HP, 154HP and 151HP (three Boondocker pump gas settings). Jeff's first Bikeman stamped clone pipe split the difference between bone stock single and BM mod single. Also a new DDYpipe added zero to this particular combo.

Week of 4/9/06 and beyond

4/9 Sunday AM Jimmy and Lynn Cooper dyno tuning a HTG prostock 1000 That was John Cleveland's Price stock stroke 990ish XCR triple w/ Jaws pipes, those of you who watched saw a classic tuning session jockying MSD timing, Lectron jetting wound up with 253 HP.

4/11 Tuesday dyno tuning a Crankshop 1710 triple, owned by a W Virginia asphalt (not ashphalt please) dragracer, Jimmy Cooper is installing MSD ignition on Monday, dyno dialin on Tuesday. Jimmy Cooper installed a new MSD ignition on this formerly troublesome monster (used to pull like a monster to 1000 ft then spit and sputter and die). We spent 7 hours on the dyno getting the 52 CS carbs to flow enough fuel to feed the engine (solid mount engines like this often present challenges to create decent fuel flow into the carbs, but we usually can overcome that), plus optimizing timing curve/ retard now 210 lb/ft and 325 HP on six second cold run, and 205 lb/ft and 321 HP on 13 second hot run (needed the longer run to ensure fuel flow to carbs was more than adequate for 1/4mile drags!)

4/22 AM Jeff and Dave from JD Powersports (who dyno tuned the big HP Cat 660 upgraded turbo) are bringing their new Arctic Cat 2007 four-cycle 1100cc Z1 big bore twin for baseline testing. This one stock is normally apsirated, JD is planning to develop a turbo kit to sell using the same ECU controller they used to make gonzo HP on the 660. Better-than-expected dyno numbers are posted on our website, JD Powersports turbo numbers should be coming this summer.

4/25 and 4/26 Glenn Hall and Jason Stoviac bringing Jason's Apex Boondocker turbo from Wisconsin to fine tune and to show off. Rocky and Dave from Boondocker are flying in for that session (I'm 30 miles from the Buffalo airport on the same road rt 33), Rocky will want to tune to the max on gas, then add a load of Boondocker nitrous oxide injection. Rocky will surely want to go for Bender's 415 HP record here, but Jason's butt is a bit puckered since he has forged turbo pistons but still has stock rods. Also Boondocker Dave took exception to the poor results we got on Ed's Garage's Carb Boondocker N2O systems. Ed sent me a nice used Extra12 suspension for my worn out stock 97 XLT 600, I owe him a dyno session for his new watercraft base big triple. Maybe I can get Ed to time it so he can bring his new triple plus one of his Boondocker N2O carb sleds again, maybe a day before the Boondocker guys arrive, to had Dave and Rocky show us how to get pressure into the floatbowls more quickly. I will call Dave to see if logistics can be worked out.Dave and Rocky won't have time to dial in Ed's N2O system, scheduling to do Apex is tight, maybe Ed could be on standby if we get done with Apex in a timely fashion.

No time for Ed, but we dialed in Jason's Boondocker Apex boost-only to 360+ with hot intercooler, larger-than-stock injectors required some negative Boondocker numbers, but had the custom oversize injectors nearly maxed out. Boondocker EFI controller boxes have surely been my favorite for dyno-tuning dialing in fuel flow on big power EFI Firecats and Mach Z's and the turbo Apex using boost-referenced Boondocker box seems equally adept at providing good A/F ratio from idle to max boost max RPM. I will try to post several Boondocker Apex dyno runs (varying boost levels, varying intercooler temps) this coming week.

week of 3/26

Only dyno scheduled this week is Thursday 3/30 10 AM, ProX800 ported with SLP twin pipes, XC600/660 big bore I think SLP ported, 3 sets of twin pipes to test, several CDIs.Finished both sleds in five hours, 800 made about 170 HP, 660 close to 150 but the 660 pipe comparison was much different from what we saw on John T's 600 with same pipes. I may post results, showing generic changes in HP/ power curve with different pipes/ CDIs.

Internet/ cable/ phone guys are madly thrashing to get us a better line for dynocams. Hoping to have that done by Thursday, please email/ phone me after that if picture speed is noticably improved.Internet guys are still struggling, I'm contracted to have 1 meg whatver that means but I only have less than half of that, they are hooking me to new equipment this week, hoping dynocams will be smoother by week's end.

Also beginning April our webguy will have reprogrammed the webpage for subscribers to allow only original computer used for subscription to use user ID/ password. If another computer uses the same login info, the subscrition will be reduced by some length of time (maybe one month). So if 13 people share a new single password in a week, it will expire the first week. Many unhappy subscribers report that they log on with several in-house and at-work computers, don't want to be penalized because we're trying to thwart large scale sharing of DTR ID/ PW's. Still working on a compromise solution.

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