Modular Engine Dyno Stand
As the team's former Powertrain Team Lead (2021), and current Chief Engineer (2022), I knew how much a quick to setup dyno would benefit the engine development program. The team's previous dyno (hacked together) took at least 30 mins to setup. I designed built this compact dyno cart to help bring down setup time to 5 mins.
​​​
Throughout the season, we ran the dyno dozens of times. We were able to tune for cold start reliability, hot start reliability, plenum size, and several other engine parameters.
​
The dyno housed 2 internal water systems, one to cool the engine, and one to reject heat energy from the waterbrake. 8020 rails were used to keep the platform modular. The engine sat on a plate with vibration dampeners underneath. MoTeC ECU and PDM (power distribution) modules were used for data acquisition. The pins were individually routed to din rail terminal blocks to keep it extremely modular. It took about 2 months to go from a napkin sktch to a fully working setup. (I was still working on leading the vehicle design as well.)
It didn't matter if it was raining, snowing, or hailing. We ran the dyno in all sorts of conditions. Intake Air Temps -10C? No problem. Engine needs to start reliably anyways. This dyno allowed the Powertrain team to make a reliable tune.
​
Test cadence and validation are so undeniably important for engine development.
Sim is fake until you validate.
