As promised, I decided to throw together a review of my recent Dinantronics install. I posted this in my Journal, but I thought more might be interested here.
First, let me explain why I chose it. I've been down the voided warranty road too many times, and for some reason I feel like my luck is about to run out. The only Turbo car I've ever owned was a 1988 Pontiac Sunfire GT (I know...awesome...right?), so I just got a weird vibe that JB4 or what ever else comes out wasn't going to be right for me. I don't want to press for more HP when I feel like the car has enough already. I just wanted to get a little more out of the car as safely as possible.
Call me a sellout, but I'm a huge Dinan fan. I understand they charge more for their stuff, but I'm a sucker for quality. I know exactly what I'm going to get with a Dinan product. I haven't been let down yet and will continue to support them.
I paid sticker price at $2,500 plus $180 for install.
http://dinancars.com/product/d440-16...ries&mid=1178/
I decided for my own piece of mind to get a baseline dyno done. Add piece of mind to the fact that it's just plain fun to go play with your car on the dyno. I came to find out that BRC racing has a DynoJet, and they are right in my backyard! They were awesome! I was in there messing around with the computer myself and helping get the car set-up. The blue collar in me loves doing stuff like this. I had the baseline done on Monday afternoon.
We discovered that finding the correct wire on the coil pack is not easy. We had to pull the cover off the engine, then disconnect one of the induction tubes to get to the wiring harness. As you can see on Run 1, the tube blew off because we didn't tighten it enough. It scared the crap out of me. You can see the drop off at around 6,500 RPMs. You can also hear it shot off in the video below.
I was happy with the numbers the car put down. It was hot and super sticky as it usually is in Central Florida. We had 89% Humidity and 90 degrees, so I'm sure that stole some power. You can see the power drop off in Run 2 and 3 as the car got hotter. I'm using Run 2 as my baseline.
The next morning I got an early start and took the back roads to Tampa. It was about a two hour drive. I hit 1,200 miles, so I wanted the opportunity to beat on the car a bit. I took the car to redline several times on the trip, so I would be able to compare the performance after my tune was done. I had the 1,200 mile service done at 9:00 AM, and then headed over to Reeves Motorsports at about 10:30 AM.
To my delight, there was a Agate Grey 991 GT3 with an Innotech exhaust on it that I got to see and hear in person. I'm working on getting a GT3, so I killed two birds with one stone.
Install took about and hour and a half. I'm trying to turn over a new leaf where I try not to stress about my cars. I have always done all of the work myself, which usually leads to busted knuckles, bleeding, headaches, and sleepless nights. I'm now in a position in life where I can afford to let the professionals do the work, so I'm not even sure where they put the control until. I just read a book in the waiting room and waited for the car to be done. It was rather refreshing to let go for once in my life.
Since I brought my camera along, I took a few shots of the dirty car in the parking lot. The guys at Reeves Motorsports were super cool.
As I was driving home the 90 miles back home, I decided I had three choices:
1.) Go to the gym.
2.) Wash my super dirty car.
3.) Call the guys and BRC and get a dyno done.
I chose option 3. My day started at 5:30AM, but I wanted to see the results. I calculated in my head that would get about 450 whp and 430 wtq. Those were the numbers I was hoping to see to feel justified in my $2,680 expense.
So I ended up with a little less peak HP than thought I wanted, but got a lot more torque than I assumed I would get. It was in the mid 80s that day, but humidity was still about 80%. I think the numbers look good. The dyno was having a hard time getting a signal from the coilpack, so there is some interference in the run. I think you can fill in the gaps.
Here is the Dyno video:
There really isn't much to say about how the tune performs. As you can see in the dyno graphs it performs exactly like stock just with some more power and torque. You can really feel the difference from 3,000-5,000 RPMs where I spend most of my time. The car will break lose in 3rd gear if I'm not careful, but the power is very manageable.
The car does sound a little different as well. There is a very noticeable audible difference coming from the engine bay. You can hear the turbos in Sport and Sport + modes even with the windows up. It sounds pretty darn cool hearing them spool up. I could hear them before with the windows down, but they are considerably louder now. The car sound angry. I need an exhaust so badly.
So all in all, I am very pleased with what I got. I think you get what is advertised from Dinan. It is a very conservative tune that they stand behind with a warranty. I would highly recommend it to others.
Thanks for reading,
Matt