550 performance upgrade

Ever since purchasing my 550, I have always wanted to see how many ponies are under the bonnet. The other day I took her to a garage that had a dyno, unfortunately the result was not as good as I thought, being 445hp. Yes, I then quickly made my way to the closest bar for a strong drink. Obviously I was expecting that the figure from the factory wasn't to be trusted, however, the result that I got was a lot lower than any of the articles in the magazines. A week later after recovering from the shock I decided to send my ecu for an upgrade in the UK. They did some remapping, went for the dyno test, and they failed to my surprise. If any of you have successfully managed to remap your ecu please share your information.

 

The factory figure is 515 bhp on the engine and it is measured at the crank. When you dyno the car hp measurement is taken at the wheel. There are lots of transient hp loss through the drive-train and usually estimated around 15%. If you work it backwards the factory number is pretty darn close. In some cases you can increase hp at the wheel by just changing the transmission and differential oils. There is one outfit that I have checked, feel good about but have not used yet. They are in LA area and are called powerchip. I am not sure what they have available for 550: http://www.powerchipgroup.com/products/products.asp

 

485 hp for the 550 and 515 hp for the 575 - so he is 40 hp off at the wheels which is <10% driveline loss - very good!

 

For your information, the mechanic did tell me that the dyno's program already took into consideration all possibilities of transient hp loss through the drive-train, hence the mentioned 445hp was the actual amount of power that the engine was producing, and not the power from the rear wheels.

 

theera:

A dyno always measures power at the rear wheel or hub, not at the crank. The dyno will take out other measurements to create a non biased power figure at the wheels. There will always be a driveline loss and more power at the crank. Before you go tuning software which changes ecu mapping and timing, etc, why don't you look into improiving air flow to the engine throught he use of air intakes, exhaust, headers, etc. While it will not produce amazing gains, it will help the engine breathe better providing higher efficiency and more power. Hope this helps.

 

Many thanks for your comment. Hence, should the hp from the engine then be around 5 - 10% up from the 445hp that was recorded, making it between 468hp and 490hp?. For your information, the car already has a Tubi exhaust system and a K&N airfilters. I agree with you, the ecu shouldn't be remapped unless it's really necessary.

 

The driveline loss for a manual car is on average about 15-18%. So your 445rwhp would equate to 512bhp at the crank. Not too bad of a number. Hope this helps.

 

He said this was already corrected for.

 

My dyno at 45.000 miles read 503 to 505 bhp. Sorry, yours did not.

 

What modifications does yours have to get that amount of hp?.

 

I was getting about ~480 if I remember correctly on the 99. Costa at FX told me that a proper offset of the timing with a good 'tune up' can find an extra 20 or so hp the the 550. He was stuffing his face with Pizza Hut at the time so maybe I only got part of it. lol

Some random thoughts maybe you thought of, maybe not.

I would avoud ECU remapping as opposed to complete replacement by say... Koenig. The Tubi installation may have messed with any (for lack of a better term) o2 sensors/mixture settings if for what ever reason the car is leaning out. So remapping with a bad injector or something is not going to help.

Worst case scenario, get a second opinion, make sure that you are running the proper octane, and go to another dyno. 3 hot runs are like $100 and if the results are the same, also worry about traction control. Let a few psi out of the tires to get a better grip on it.

 

Converting from rwhp to crank hp using 15% lose (which is probably right, my 308 would be 18% with its drop gears and such), the calculation is 445rwhp/.85 = 524 crank hp. That is a great number....unless the the shop did already convert it for you and we are double dipping know.

Do you know what kind of dyno you used and do you have the actualy graph they should have made?

Here's a link to another 550 dyno sheet, the car made 368rwhp, so 430 crank. About the same as what you are seeing.
http://ktrperformance.com/gallery/Events/Ferrari_Dyno/99_550_maranello.htm

The 355/360 guys have been getting low number too if it makes you feel any better. Only the '95 355 makes it's numbers, all the others are low by 20-30 hp.

If you really want the hp up a supercharger makes a big difference. My 308 with the makes 425rwhp, so about 520 crank...that's with the boost up to 18 psi.

 

Forget about absolute dyno numbers it is impossible to compare. Only rely on before and after on the same dyno with the same car under the same conditions with an allowance of +/-2.5% for variations between runs.There is a great article in the August edition of Sport Compact car entitled "Do chassis dynos lie?", on this very subject.
The ECU on the 550 isn't overly sophisticated and adding K&N/BMC filters seems to lean out the AFR mix from mid to low 12 upto mid to low 13's which is pretty much ideal for power. You may get an extra 10-15hp individually tuning timing on your car for 98 octane (Euro) fuels, but a generic chip will not really work, from experience. Lastly, I defy anyone to notice a 10hp increase in a 500hp car!

 

Since my car is the only 550 in the Big Mango, there's no comparison availabe around here. So, the ecu was sent to the UK a week ago and the results are just back. Oops, the 550 with the standard ecu that was used for the test also got the same hp as mine. It's necessary to note that the conditions that the test was carried out was actually more favourable considering the temp, humidity, octane, etc.

 

The purists will kill me for asking this, but has anyone supercharged a 550?

 

Only 445 bhp?
Good god man, how can you live with only that?
(tongue firmly in cheek, chuckle!)

Perhaps it was dodgy fuel left over from Thaksin's coup?


PS - Jai yen yen na ja p'Theera
I've enjoyed my trips to the Big Mango and read Jake Needham when his new books come out!

 

Individual throttles over here. Have alot of stuff in the works contact at [email protected] for details.

 

This is a question for my 550 "mentor" Stephens - I have the opportunity of buying a low mileage '01 F550 with Tubi rear mufflers. If I buy it I intend to fit Ferrarifixer's excellent central X-pipe and the BMC air filters from my current 550, which increased performance very noticeably.

Question for Stephens: in your experience, for best performance should I stick to my car (BMC filters, Ferrarifixer X-pipe and standard rear mufflers, 515 BHP at the crank) or should I go for the Tubi car (plus X-pipe and BMCs?)? Is it true that I may actually lose power with the Tubi rear mufflers?

 

It's been done to a 456 which is basically the same engine. Vortech supercharger I believe. From what I've read, it takes 75hp from the engine to turn the supercharger so I'm not sure what the net result it.

 

Digi-Tec makes a very popular (in Europe) ECU upgrade that a lot of 360 owners take advantage of. I'm not sure what they have available for the 550, but you could look into it if you want:

http://www.esmotorsport.com/Digi-TecHome.htm

 

Agree completely with you Stephens.
For one thing, on cars with the engine in the front, you have what amounts to dynamic air intakes that at speed create a ram air charging effect.
This is obviously lost on the dyno, where you barely have enough air flow for cooling, hence the effect is lost and with it some HP.
Dynos are good to measure the "before and after" effect of modifications and improvements, but in absolute terms, their figures must be taken with a grain of salt, or even two.
Saluti,

 

Interesting.....

 

Thanks, was it a custom job?

 

I found a few of 'stephens' threads. I'd prefer to stay NA if possible but I did not think I would see many gains.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47640

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103721

 

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