As some of you may have noticed, I have been hinting here and on Facebook that we recently purchased a dyno so we can accurately test some of the parts we sell. I have always thought this would be neat since we only sell parts, and don't have a shop/tune business. Since our dyno does not have to make us money and is not open to the public, it really allows us to have some fun and be methodical. Obviously, when you buy a new piece of equipment like this, there is a leaning curve, and it has taken us a few months to get to where we can put together good, reliable results.
For the first test, I wanted something simple, but could be helpful to a lot of people. After some thought, I decided to answer a question a few times a week it seems, which is "How much power will I get from a Diablo Predator canned tune". This question never really gets answered because if you put the car on the dyno, odds are, you are going to also dyno tune it. I have seen a few Predator tunes dyno tested over the years, but it has always been tuners doing a "Look how much better we can be" comparison to their own tune.
DISCLAIMER- Yes..I know I sell the Predator. Yes, I know some will say I have an agenda, the test is BS, or whatever. The way I see it is, a.) there is data now, where there is none before, and b.) if the Predator did not perform, I would have simply not posted this and pretended it never happened (which would have taken a lot less work). That being said, take the data for what it is.
Test Car- My wife's RJT 2010 Camaro 2SS/RS A6. Car is daily driven with 3K miles on it. Only mod is a SLP Loudmouth II axleback.
Test Procedure-
The test was done over two days in the late afternoon before closing. The First day we did two runs stock, and then loaded the Predator performance tune and did one run with their tune. We then shut down the car on the dyno and call it a day.
Then the second day, we started by doing two runs with the Predator tune we installed on day one. Then we loaded the stock tune back on, and did one last run. So basically Day 2 was a mirror image of Day 1.
When installing the Predator, we literally pulled it out the box, and installed the tune. We did no adjusting or updating. The runs were done with the hood closed, and a standard industrial fan on it. We did not pay a ton of attention trying to create like a freeway situation. Rather than shooting for the higher power numbers we could have gotten with paying attention to keeping the car cool for each run, I wanted something that was a closer simulation to real driving or drag racing. So basically, each day we did runs, they were done 15-20 minutes apart. I only did 3 runs per day with this pace because in past testing, that seemed to be the point where the car got heat soaked enough that the runs would not be accurate comparisons. Basically, the car would have to sit for 1-2 hours to be itself again. Also, since this is my car, I did not want to beat on it too bad.
On another note, the Predator does not tune the TCM of the A6 cars, so no changes were made to the transmission calibration for this run. I know Diablo *supposedly* is working to bring transmission support to some of their tools.
The results are below, and the numbers kind of tell the story. We did 6 total runs, and the charts below all present them different ways. The Diablo seemed to be good in most cases for 10-15 HP and ft/lb of TQ across the band, even if the peaks did not always show it. The car was running on the rich side from the factory, and the Predator seemed to correct that a bit and lean the car out to a nice place. By leaning the car out in a save manner the Diablo made more power, and will also get better gas mileage. The Diablo tune does require 93 octane because it does advance the timing a bit and bad gas could make it knock and pull timing. The numbers were *fairly* repeatable, however I would say this shows that there is about 5-7 HP play between dyno runs.
While the results are good, a Predator is not for everyone. If you have headers, or internal engine mods, you should get a dyno tune. However if you are stock, and have very basic bolt ons, I think based on these results, the Predator is a solid choice. I know I have had a lot of customers over the years, by Predators, kind of as a starter mod, and then when they modded more seriously, they ended up selling the Predator and using the money to pay for a really dyno tune. Either way, the choice is yours, you just now have some data to look at.
I am also including a video of the car on the dyno (once youtube processes it). Does not really show anything but a car on the dyno, but it is in HD and 5.1 surround sound.
