My car is putting down 186.9 HP and 211.6 ft-lbs. of torque to the tires. Not a bad place to start given that my total motor upgrade bill is still under $500. People have said that baseline for the cars is supposed to be around 170-175, so I'd say I'm doing alright. If anyone wants to see the chart (3 runs) I'll run down to Kinko's and scan it. (I need a new scanner)
Next week I'm having the car tuned up with a twin piggyback ECU upgrade, so hang on for more dyno runs.
For reference, a year 2000 GS400 with exhaust and intake pulls off 230 HP.

 

MadMax:
Thanks for sharing that info with us. This data brings a nagging question up that I have been wondering about for a while now.

Can the SC400, when at idle, at a dead stop.... Burn Rubber when you stand on the gas pedal?

Mine does not UNLESS there is some sort of friction reduction agent on the road (sand, water, etc). I have a fairly stock 1993 SC400. Just wondering if my lack of rubber smoke ability is also shared by others?

 

hey man........that's with just the cold air intake right? Do you mind taking it off next time you dyno?.......Adam

 

I'm not sure if I can get the old intake in anymore or not. I'll have to see... however I'm leaving my car with Leo for a couple of days while he tunes the chip, so it may be that we won't know the true difference. As for tire burning, that's a problem for me now... I get wheelspin more often than I'd like. The powerband for the motor is WIDE... it's pulling max torque at less than 3000 rpm. I don't know if I'm responsible for that for sure or not... I think I am because the thing's a lot more powerful than before, and it rips at any engine speed. I can burn out from a stop, but it depends on the pavement, the newer it is, the easier it is to light em up. It's pretty easy to do when the gas tank is nearly empty.

 

Hi guys. Ive always had a soft spot for the sc400 and just decided to do some web browsing and research on the car. May get one some day. I currently have an Porsche 87 928s4 (www.members.rennlist.com/v1uhoh) so the mechanical aspects of the car should be a snap if i have to do some work...Also, I find it amusing that you guys talk about all the same things we do on our web boards..HP..MODS...lazy trannys and wheel spin..LOL

One thing...what is the HP potential for the 98 MY motors.... What are some max numbers you guys have seen and what mods did it take to get there? Are there super charger kits available?

the 32v v8 in my 928 currently puts 281hp to the ground and 291ftlbs. Which is right in line with the book values for 87..316hp and 317fltbs at the flywheel. The car weighs 3680 with me an 1/2 tank of gas.
What is the weight on the Sc400 and are they easy to lighten, since power to weight is the name of the game. I know they had some pretty nice interiors that im sure add a few pounds to the car.

Any of you guys autocross with SCCA...how does it handle?

thanks for any replies
Tony....owner to be some day

 

MadMax:
On the way to work today I did a test of the ability to burn rubber.
Before going any further, I need to tell you I have Bridgestone Blizzack's on the wheels which are very very sticky snow tires. I suspect my normal summer treads which are Dunlop Sport 9000s would act differently. In all cases, car at idle, in drive, at a dead stop...

Well here was the test 1:

Power Setting, overdrive off, TRAC on...
Stand On gas pedal.... No rubber burn

Power Setting, overdrive off, TRAC off...
Stand On gas pedal.... Severe rubber burn

So it seems that the TRACtion control buffers the rear end behavior a great deal.

Interesting stuff...

 

I was expecting at least 205rwhp with your intake plus you have exhaust mods too...

***After your tune up(plugs, wire, cap, rotor) are you going to post times, then add the ecu then post times? To know the true rwhp of the ecu you have to have a dyno run with the car tuned up properly before the ecu. You can gain 10 - 15 rwhp from the tune up if it is not right and think it was from the ecu...

That's how they do it in the "power pages" in Import Tuner to make sure you are not getting a false reading from the ECU mod...
Also they once got more rwhp in a car just changing to fresh fluids in the tranny, rear end, oil change, so it really makes a difference. Especially when they are marketing it to the public... It is worth the extra time and $$ money spent to get an accurate RWHP reading... JMO

Also email me your dyno sheet, I'll compare it to mine once I have a dyno... thanks in advance...

The_Ikon1911@yahoo.com

Thomas

 

If you can manage to stay on the seat

 

By the sounds of it MadMax you didn't get a disk with the raw data on it.
When you get a scan can you post it here it or even send me a copy?
Was the bottom scale in revs or mph?(2nd gear?)
Also could you list the modifications to your car. I have got photos of the filter (is it a K&N pod or something else?), the heat shield and intake duct and part of exhaust (was that a y-piece you had made?).
What else have you done to the exhaust?
Do you have any other pics of your car and stuff on a webpage anywhere?

Good luck with the ECU and keep up the good work!

thanks
Pete

 

I should have gotten the images on disk... I just didn't think about it because I had to get out of there, going 50 some miles north through San Francisco and Marin is a ***** and 3/4 during rush hour. I'll go scan the thing now, and post the pics tomorrow.

 

This was done at DynoSpot Racing in Mountain View, CA. Ryan Smith from www.Streetracing.org stopped in with his 944 and we chatted while watching the dyno runs... all in all a worthwhile trip.

 

The exhaust doesn't flow well with the stock cat, so I replaced it with this big cat and better coupling. I also put on Magnaflow straight through mufflers.

 

The scale is in RPM as you can see. The run was done in 2nd gear- also of note, the guys at the race shop say that the car loses power in the drivetrain if you drive it with overdrive off. The filter is purely Weapon-R's design, called the V2 filter. It's a foam filter in steel mesh wire, designed with an open top and much like a K&N, except it flows better (6hp gain over a K&N cone on the dyno). It's part of the cold air intake available from WR. I'm also going to install the ramair kit, and probably tune the car up a bit with new plugs, wires etc like Ikon's been doing.

 

Platinum plugs last 60 000 miles (NGK BKRGEP-11 pre gapped at 1.1 mm).
Spark plug leads you can check yourself.
Take off the plastic plug covers.
Start engine in middle of night when it is pitch black, get a friend to give it a rev. You should see nothing but blackness, no corona, no sparking no nothing.
Second thing is get out the multimeter, a brand new Toyota/Lexus plug lead has a resistance of about 20 ohms per mm. So each plug lead should have a resistance of about 5 000 - 15 000 ohms depending on which one and how long it is. Any lead above 25 000 ohms should be replaced.
So if there is no sparking etc, no corrosion evidence, and the ohms check out then no need to get new leads.
Genuine Lexus ones are spiral core 5 mm.
I would get genuine Magnacore 7mm with 5 mm rotor boots before the genuine articles. (cheaper and probably better quality).

Two of my leads broke taking the plugs out for a compression test - the inside of the lead stayed connected to the plug - bit of a pain to remove the bits down the tube before taking the plug out. Compression test results down the bottom. While you have the plugs out might as well do one too. Engine should be warm, all plugs out, battery fully charged, EFI fuse removed, throttle wide open. Cylinders should pump up real quick (4 to 5 compression strokes) and all cylinders should be within 10 psi.

When you take the plugs out look carefully at the steel tubes for evidence of corrosion, have a look at the end of the lead where it clips onto the plug for corrosion too.

Rotors rarely wear out, caps may crack - if they look ok then they probably are.

Did you get an air/fuel ratio readout at the same time? They usually stick a probe up the exhaust pipe to see if it is running rich or lean - any info like that around?

Initially I though your dyno graph had a different shape to Aaron's - but the range of the axes is slightly different - will have to have a closer look.

 

compression test in psi