Dyno-tuning is a great way to judge your car’s high-performance potential and find ways to tweak it up further. But what is it and how does it work? Well, our “Your Drive” expert Logan McCombs has all the answers.

LOGAN MCCOMBS: You always hear about performance cars being dyno tuned, and they’ve used it to make more power out of their cars. But what is dyno tuning? What is a dyno?

Using a dynamometer, or a dyno, to tune a vehicle helps measure things like engine horsepower, torque, and the mixture of air and fuel in the engine. As changes are made to the vehicle, you can see firsthand how the power of an engine is affected. There are two main types of car dynos: Engine and chassis dynos.

The dyno that we are using today is considered a chassis dyno. This is a mechanical device that uses one or more fixed roller assemblies to simulate different road conditions with a controlled environment. It is used for a wide variety of vehicle testing and development processes.

One of the first things you will do before your car makes it onto the dyno, is a pre-dyno inspection. This is to remedy any issues that your car may have, which is leaks, frayed wire, or anything else that could cause a problem while the car is on. Next, your tuner will connect his computer to your car’s computer so that they can have live data of your car’s engine and what it is doing. This connection will also allow changes to be made on the fly in order to reach a desired performance goal. Your car is then strapped down on the rollers, and then put into gear and driven. At this point the tuner is optimizing the dyno for your car. Once that is complete, the tuner can start to make changes.

While your car is on the dyno, your tuner will begin to accelerate until they reach the top of the RPM range, and then proceed to use the dyno brake to allow the car to come to a stop and cool off in between runs. After the car has stopped, you will be able to see a power graph. This graph will show you the amount of torque and horsepower that your car has made. This graph will be a direct reflection of the changes your tuner has made throughout running your car on the dyno. The process will continue while your tuner makes adjustments to the tune. Once the tuner has deemed the car complete, it will then come off the dyno and it’s ready to go home.

If you have any questions or comments, reach out to us, right here at MotorWeek.