ECU Upgrade - Test Results

[dynotronics1]

Originally Posted by SmartCarPerformance

1. We did not do an AFR plot.

2. Price for the remap is $575

In truth, the reason for the spikes on these charts is simple; they are a artifact of the dynojet. Roller dynos tend to do this very thing on all cars, however small,light, low tq cars show it lots more. Think of it this way, the roller is a huge flywheel, and the poor little smart car is trying to turn that huge roller, when the car shifts, the roller then takes over and is trying to turn the smart car by the wheels!

Not a good way to dyno test the smart!
Dyno

[SmartCarPerformance]

We have had a number of people with different interpretations on how to read our dyno charts. We appreciate your input.

[gryphon]

I was very happy to see that Cisco over at SmartCarPerformance had done dyno testing on a stock smart to provide a baseline for subsequent testing of equipment and software changes intended to enhance hp/torque. Thanks Cisco! After looking at Cisco’s graphs I was interested in how little the hardware improvements helped, though not terribly surprised as most of the aftermarket claims for hp boosts are at best "overly enthusiastic". I have, on my own smart, invested in exhaust, intake air flow improvements and an ECU upgrade with the hope of getting a bit more performance so, with the "stock" smart dyno information now available, I set out to have my own smart dyno tested.

My vehicle was put on the dyno at the same facility that was used by Cisco, that being Brothers Performance in Corona, CA and the runs were conducted by the same dyno technician, John (a nice guy to work with and very helpful). This should hopefully eliminate the test facility and equipment as a variable.

The first run was made in 3rd gear only as that is where maximum hp is developed, the second run was 4th gear only, the third run was a curiosity run in 5th gear only, and the 4th and last run was 1st thru 5th gears. Runs 1, 2 and 3 are all plotted vs. RPM while Run 4 is plotted vs. MPH. I have annotated all of the graphs to make them easier to understand.

http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/gal...?imageid=10070

http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/gal...?imageid=10071

http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/gal...?imageid=10072

http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/gal...?imageid=10073

Some random comments:
1. My test results compare closely with those obtained on Cisco's modified vehicle, that being a gain of slightly more than 4 HP over Jeremy's stock smart. I believe Cisco’s gain was closer to 5 HP.

2. Looking at the 3rd, 4th and 5th gear plots show that the smart has a pretty flat torque curve up to about 5500-5800 RPM and that horsepower peaks lie mostly around 5600-5800 RPM.

3. The differential in HP between gears 2 thru 5, as shown on Run 4, are relatively small varying from 66.5 HP to 69.5 HP. The lower HP for 1st gear shown on Run 4 is, I believe, due to a short upshift in that gear.

4. When I got the Veloce ECU upgrade I had never been able to find out whether the 90-92 MPH limiter function for the stock ECU had been eliminated. I don’t have roads in my driving area that would allow me to find out by actual road experience. Apparently the limiter was removed as the smart reached 97 MPH in 4th gear and 130 MPH in 5th! Keep in mind that actual road speed would be considerably less in that our "flying brick" aerodynamics would obviously slow things down a significant amount

5. I believe that the biggest HP upgrade for the smart is the turbocharged route. With reported dyno tests showing around 110-115 HP for vehicles running 6-8 lbs boost, this certainly beats all of the other bolt-ons for HP gain. As a very rough calculation, if it costs $5000 to get 50 HP (turbo, installed), you would be paying around $100 for each HP. When I added up my expenditures for ECU upgrade, exhaust system, air filter and intake hose it comes to about $1300...for 4 HP! That's $325 for each HP gained

6. An ECU upgrade is probably your next best buy for HP gain, but don't get too attached to inflated advertising gains. An ECU upgrade can provide a pleasurable change in drivability and it did with my Veloce upgrade. Everything isn't about HP

7. A small investment in a large quantity of salt is probably advisable when reading claims for power boosting hardware/software. The emotional boost is likely to far exceed reality. Will I listen to my own advice...probably not

[pitstopautoinc]

Great Job!!!! and you even got the RPM to read on the dyno jet! We played with it for about 2 hours after we finished Jeremys car and couldnt get it to read the RPM without huge spots missing. Thats totally cool. Did they hook up the sensor to the hot wire on a coil pack again? After we ran, I've been on the phone with dyno jet and they said it is possible to get an accurate reading off of it, but for smarts we would have to put a little pickup on our crank pulley then they have a sensor almost like a timing light that somehow strobes to check the RPM. I'm sure brothers would charge extra $$ to do all of this as they charged me $20 more just to put a freaking probe in my exhaust to measure airfuel. Well all in all good work buddy.

-Chris

[NCC1701]

What causes the waves in the graph lines?

Are they real variations in HP and torque, or anomaly?

NCC1701 - Ignorant, but curious.

[gryphon]

Originally Posted by pitstopautoinc

Great Job!!!! and you even got the RPM to read on the dyno jet! We played with it for about 2 hours after we finished Jeremys car and couldnt get it to read the RPM without huge spots missing. Thats totally cool. Did they hook up the sensor to the hot wire on a coil pack again? After we ran, I've been on the phone with dyno jet and they said it is possible to get an accurate reading off of it, but for smarts we would have to put a little pickup on our crank pulley then they have a sensor almost like a timing light that somehow strobes to check the RPM. I'm sure brothers would charge extra $$ to do all of this as they charged me $20 more just to put a freaking probe in my exhaust to measure airfuel. Well all in all good work buddy.

-Chris

John, at Brothers Performance, did initially have some difficulty getting a stable and relatively smooth RPM reading. He then called DynoJet and the answer he got was that it should work on a smart with the software accomodating a 3 cylinder engine just fine. I believe that he was having a problem when he went to just the hot wire, then he tried the second wire (I think it's a 3 wire bundle) and then ground...nothing worked right. He then put his pickup clamp around the entire bundle right next to the connector, gave it an expert level wiggle and the signal seemed just fine after that. No adapters of any kind required. John is now becoming a smart expert

[gryphon]

Originally Posted by NCC1701

What causes the waves in the graph lines?

Are they real variations in HP and torque, or anomaly?

NCC1701 - Ignorant, but curious.

Explained to me as an anomaly. Other than that, I don't know.

[fastturb]

gryphon,

thanks much for doing this and sharing the results. I'm not surprised to see the 3rd gear run. Third gear has always felt strongest to me. The torque curves look like those published by smart. These little cars are torque monsters with their low end to high end flat graphs.

One thing I haven't heard much about with the engine mods is putting bigger injectors in. When you open up the exhaust and intake, you can then add fuel (make more HP). I can see modifying the ecu for more injector pulse but what if the injectors are too small and running too lean. I know some of the tests included AFR monitoring but I'm just thinking maybe we need some more GAS

[BARNEY O]

I have been following this thead from conception and can truly appreciate the hours and work that goes with it.But, the results are usually about the same, small gains and moderate price tags. For those power hungry mongrels there are 2 outs.(1) Forced induction, ie Turbocharging or Supercharging. (2) Complete rebuild of engine,boring, stroking,cylinder porting, cams,etc. etc. etc. The 2nd approach is probably not an option for most people as this usually weeds out the boys from the men.
on the otherhand the forced induction route will net you the biggest bang for the buc.Would much rather see the performance vendors vere towards this approach.Why settle for gains of 4 to 15 hp when you could have twice the factory rating!!!!

Be prepared however as power will allways find the weakest link.....

Barney O. Previous owner of world's fastest '59 Caddy The "Bad CAD"

[jetfuel]

...and pink...


jetfuel...