Well, fellow car enthusiast, in regards to Miss Tillie...there were two things I wanted to accomplish this summer... first was finding an automotive shop that would be able / willing to check the wheel alignment, and second, to find a shop with a rear wheel dynamometer to measure her engine torque / horsepower output.
I'm happy to report both tasks have been completed, and what follows are the details with obligatory photos/video.
Starting with the wheel alignment, the shop I use for my daily driver repair work was reluctant to tackle the wheel alignment on a 40 year old British car, so I started asking around for recommendations and was pointed to "Heatherdowns Automotive" just a few miles from my home.
A discussion with the owner confirmed his shop not only could do the alignment, but Dan, the tech who would do the work,also is a TR6 owner !
Tillie on the alignment rack
The alignment machine is an older model, so it has the specs. for a TR6 in it's data base.
I had originally installed Good Parts rear trailing arm brackets on Tillie, which makes adjusting the rear camber much easier and more precise...the rear toe is still adjusted with shims.
Dan told me that my "guesstimate" concerning the number of shims to use when I assembled the suspension wasn't too far off, but I'm happy to know that Tillie has been "on the rack" and is now really tracking straight down the road !
A printout of the final results.
A big thank you goes out to Heatherdowns Automotive and Tech Dan who took extra care with Miss Tillie !
Ok, let's move on to the exciting stuff...Dyno Day !
I had been inquiring the last few months if anyone knew of a shop in Toledo with a rear wheel dynamometer with no luck. Since Google is my friend, a quick search turned up "Pure Tuning" in west Toledo. A phone call later and I had an appointment to put Tillie "on the rollers".
Pure Tuning's dyno is a "Mustang Dynamometer" that can handle 2 or 4 wheel- drive- vehicles with up to 2,000 HP. Tillie wouldn't strain it !
I'd never seen a dyno room before...it's really impressive.
There is quite a bit of preparation that needs to be done prior to the actual pull. The car needs to be strapped down, fans need to be placed to cool the engine and also suck out exhaust fumes, an AFR (air fuel ratio) sniffer must be attached to the exhaust, and finally, a sensor was attached to the ignition coil to record engine RPMs.
All hooked up and ready to rock and roll on the first of three pulls on the dyno.
Another thing I learned during this test was that a dyno run is not just pinning the throttle to the floor, the tech also was very careful to start slowly, making sure everything on the dyno was working correctly and the engine oil pressure, coolant temperature, etc. were ok. Once he was satisfied, the ZS butterflies were opened up, and Tillie sang a pretty cool song...listen in!
Well, I have to admit that at first I was a bit disappointed with the results...the best run was 109 HP and 109 lb. ft. of torque, but several 6-Packers pointed out that this was a rear wheel tire number, and the engine was really cranking out about 125 HP at the flywheel. I was also reminded that 109 HP is about 20 HP more than when the car was new.
The top line on the graph is torque,the middle line is horsepower, and the bottom line is the air fuel ratio.
This ended up being a fun experience, and I plan on another dyno session in the future. I'm confident Tillie has some more HP/Torque hiding under her skirts, so after she is fully broken in, and I get the carbs and timing totally dialed in, I'll report back to you!
Hope every one has a pleasant late summer/fall driving season...get out there and enjoy your collector car !
