Calibration of the gas system is a key process that determines the correct and trouble-free operation of the engine. It is a rather tedious process, which involves checking the behavior of the car in different operating ranges of the power unit for many, often extreme engine loads. The calibration procedure is usually performed during a road test, taking place on public roads, which can sometimes be dangerous, and certainly not in compliance with traffic regulations. An additional complication is the need to observe the installation’s readings on the service laptop and the OBD system on the scanner, making it necessary for two people to perform the calibration during the road test.
To improve this process and, above all, make it safer, it becomes logical to equip the workshop with a chassis dynamometer. The main task of a chassis dynamometer is to simulate the load of a car while driving, that is, under conditions similar to those prevailing when the vehicle is moving on the road. Calibration of the gas supply system with the use of a chassis dynamometer makes it possible to reproduce in workshop conditions the various values of engine load occurring during operation and maintain them for a longer period of time, which makes it possible to make appropriate changes in the controller and record their effect on engine operation. The ability to force specific engine operating conditions greatly facilitates the operation of the gas system, for example, by being able to call up the conditions (load) under which the fault reported by the user occurs.
Simulating road conditions (even extreme engine loads) on-site at the workshop makes it much easier to gather additional precision diagnostic equipment near the car, which is difficult to take with you to a road test, such as an engine diagnostoscope or an exhaust gas analyzer. The person operating the dynamometer can focus on observing the instruments and does not have to divide his attention between driving the car and reading the measurement data (as in the case of a road test).
The most important advantages of having a chassis dynamometer:
- calibration of the gas installation without leaving the workshop
- The ability to simulate road conditions (even the most severe)
- professional engine diagnostics (the fastest way to check the condition of the engine, its power, torque waveform, etc.).
- the possibility of gathering in one place monitoring equipment (diagnoscopes, testers), which would be impossible to take to the car during the road test
- measurement of engine power and torque on both types of fuel, which facilitates such tuning of the gas installation so that the parameters are as close as possible to those obtained on gasoline.
The dynamometer is particularly useful in situations where the test drive tuning process is very time-consuming, and the results may not be entirely satisfactory. Most often, the workshop learns about the problems from a dissatisfied user returning to the service center. At such a time, having a dynamometer allows for efficient correction of the engine map and improvement of the gas system. However, if the calibration immediately after installation had been done using a dynamometer, the user probably would not have returned with a problem. The experience of companies that use chassis dynamometers to calibrate gas systems confirms that the number of cars returning after installation due to tuning errors is practically zero.
