With two engine dynos test cells, and a chassis dyno, no other engine producer in the aircooled industry is as equipped to evaluate engines as thoroughly as Raby’s Aircooled Technology!
At Aircooled Technology, we like to put engines to the test. There is nothing like a dyno tuned engine, as it allows us to get the highest efficiency from the engine, and make adjustments to make power and control heat for each individual application. We believe that the time spent tuning on the dyno is time is well worth it, as the engine benefits from this careful attention to detail and ensures a precisely tuned piece of machinery, like a Rolex. This rigorous testing allows us to feel confident that once the engine is installed in your vehicle, that you will only see years of enjoyment to come.
Our DYNO testing is not done in a shop atmosphere, we have dedicated over 2,000 Square feet of our shop space to a complete testing facility. All of these test areas we have built 100% ourselves, from scratch as no contractor could ever understand what our goal was for each test area. These areas house our Stuska water brake Dyno Cell, Land, and Sea dyno cell and integrated control room, as well as pre-staging areas. Our Dyno cells are 15×20″ rooms that are sound deadened, and super insulated. We have fabricated intake plenums that allow the engine to breathe from a controlled environment (temperatures are observed and recorded), despite the fact that the temperatures within the cell can rise to over 120 degrees. All Exhaust gases are evacuated from the test cell area, and routed outdoors; chances of “exhaust gas recirculation” are near zero with our custom arrangement. Built for the best accuracy possible, our dyno cells feature several ventilation systems to aid with engine cooling including complete external oil systems, capable of accommodating wet or dry sump applications.
RAT introduced a second dyno proving ground to our R&D department in Summer 2006. This new digitally controlled Dyno with full data acquisition is dedicated solely to our R&D programs and shares the control room with our original Stuska Dyno; making for a very unique and dedicated testing arena. This second Dyno set the bar even higher for our already unparalleled R&D program for both street and race components and engine combinations. In 2008 we added a Dyno-Jet chassis dyno to our R&D lab and effectively tripled our capabilities over “normal” shops. Each engine is evaluated on one of our two engine dynos and then is installed into the vehicle (if we are responsible for engine installation) where it will live its life for a final evaluation and tuning session on our chassis dyno. Unlike mass producers of engines, every engine we assemble is thoroughly tested and hot ran on our in-shop test fixture prior to testing on our dyno. We put the engine through rigorous tests and do a PROPER break-in of cam, valves and cylinder heads. We also allow the engine to cool sufficiently and re-test for proper expansion and leak down.
In 2020 we relocated, and updated our original Stuska Engine Dyno to new software, and gave it a new lease on life at the Raby Engine Development R&D/ Training Facility.
Aircooled Technology engines are fully broken in, tuned and proven for at least 5 hours prior to receiving the Raby seal of approval.
For customers that have their own engine parts, we also offer this service to you, even though we are not assembling your engine.
Each RAT engine gets the following pre-dyno certification:
- Crank engine for oil pressure and bleed air from system
- Baseline compression check (prior to test firing)
- Baseline leak down check (prior to test firing)
- Fire engine, check stable firing of all cylinders
- Oil pressure checks
- Check for air/fuel ratio settings
- Check ignition timing
- Check vacuum signal
- Cylinder head temperatures (baseline)
- Oil temperature check (baseline)
- Run engine at varying RPM (no less than 2000 RPM) for 1 hour, performing numerous procedures.
- Allow engine to idle, check air-fuel ratios for idle settings
- Shut down the engine and perform all tests stated above, compare readings from baseline test.
- Post-certification as well as after extensive dyno testing, each engine gets the following:
- Perform head re-torque and valve adjustment
- Perform oil service and mag plug check, sample oil and send for analysis (if customer desires)
- Perform spark plug readings on all cylinders
- Re-check crankshaft end play
Where our dyno cell was well thought out and engineered to be as accurate as possible and in a controlled environment, some speed shops have their dynos with open chambers with uncontrolled temps present and tons of exhaust gas recirculation- we do not! We control the amount of load on the engine from a safe distance behind Lexan shields and are able to monitor the engine from every angle to ensure the engine is responding safely to the testing. Not only are visual inspections possible, but we run every engine with full instrumentation from oxygen sensors, to intake and exhaust temperature sensors, to knock sensing devices. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a shop devoted to your engine as we are, we couple the best of equipment with common sense and a desire for science and engineering.
Not only does our dyno facilitate testing of customer engines, we do a lot of research work on our engine combinations, and we even have engines that have a sole mission of being “Dyno Mules” for proving ignition, exhaust, and fuel systems that are sometimes sent to us from other establishments/designers for proving, above and beyond our own in-house R&D. Heck, we’ve even carried out advanced testing of engines that some of you may have read about in Popular Science magazine 🙂
Each engine we build is initially test fired in the assembly division of our shop and then after it passes the test procedures is transported to an adjacent building that houses this testing facility. We include multiple pulls on the dyno with the labor of the engine build on every engine we build, amounting to up to 8 hours of testing, standard with every RAT engine built. This ensures a truly “plug ‘n play” installation that promises no guesswork.
Dyno testing is a long and sometimes complicated effort, as it sometimes takes hours to get the best combination of timing, jetting, exhaust and advance curve correct. Due to this intricate process, it is not a cheap or quick process but is an invaluable tool to the performance enthusiast. Any engine without exhaustive dyno tuning left alone to the customer to tune could possibly destroy a huge investment in only a few minutes.
RAT customers no longer need to pay for our extensive dyno tuning option, as every RAT engine comes with this service STANDARD AT NO COST! This is a saving of over $500 and not to mention your peace of mind as well as ours.
Effective 1 Jan 2006 Raby’s Aircooled Technology no longer offers Dyno services for engines that have not originated from our facility.