Fuelstar- dyno tested back to back

[rmf55]

Recently I had the opportunity to have a fuelstar catalyst installed on my ST205 Celica, as Midas in Christchurch are running a promo on the product. The Head Shareholder of Midas and their "technical expert" came and gave a presentation, and supervised the installation. Their website makes fairly outrageous claims, like "6-9% increase in power, up to 10% and more over 5000kms." Apparently the device works best on turbocharged petrol vehicles like mine. So always inquisitive, and having read the bad press and being keen for myself, I was interested to find out.

So I had a dyno done the day of the installation (it was done in the evening), at RE Sinclair (who on a side note have a very low reading dyno compared to NZEFI) and then, upon the advice of the Fuelstar people, waited 2-3 weeks for it to go through the system and see the best result. Both tests were done on BP Ultimate.

The results: well, I expected at at least a 10hp increase, that being 6%, the minimum claimed result. The actual result- a 7hp DECREASE! Hmmm. Maybe the reason they said to wait 2-3 weeks before having the second dyno was so they could get away. After contacting them and supplying the two curves they suggested that well, they didn't know what had happened. Perhaps the installation was wrong. Although if the technical head of the company can't install it properly, I don't know who can, which he conceded. Thankfully we got our money back.

Moral of the story- save your pennies! This product works entirely on the fact that the gains it claims are largely untestable!

[rmf55]

Forgot to say, I am happy to supply copies of the dyno curves to anyone who is interested. I'll try and ree=member to post them on here. I don't have a scanner at home unfortunately.

[snwtoy]

So did you ask for your money back?

What type of car do you drive btw/

[IH8TEC]

he said his st205 celica, and also said he got his money back

[bluemaumau]

good shit, sue them now

[snwtoy]

he said his st205 celica, and also said he got his money back

Heh, my bad. Can't read.

[matt dunn]

would probably also go on the fact that the same car dyno'd on the same dyno two weeks apart,
would never give the same reading anyway, even with no changes to the car, due to differences in the day and reading accuracy etc etc,

so would be 50/50 chance if the power went up or down.

[Lith]

would probably also go on the fact that the same car dyno'd on the same dyno two weeks apart,
would never give the same reading anyway, even with no changes to the car, due to differences in the day and reading accuracy etc etc,

so would be 50/50 chance if the power went up or down.

Depends on the dyno I guess. A 7hp drop is pretty spectacular, my car was reading within 3kw MAX on runs done on different days etc on a Dynapack hub dyno. With one particular one we knew a healthy DA6 Integra was one that put out 101kw @ wheels bog standard, due to how frequently they put that out with no mods. Thats using different cars, different days but the same dyno - testament to the consistancy of both

So the next point, I'm guessing by the "low reading compared to NZEFI" that its not a hub dyno - and was a test probably more accurately run on a hub dyno? The lowest reading dyno doesn't mean the best.

[rmf55]

Both Fuelstar dynos were done on Dyno Dynamics (so at the wheels). I also think that 7hp loss is beyond the variation figure, especially because we're not comparing it to the before figure of course, but the before figure plus the claimed 6% (at least) gain. So really it is more like 20hp down on what they are claiming.

On the dyno point, NZEFI uses Dynapack so that would explain some of why it is a slightly higher reading. RE Sinclairs facilities in general seem a lot older though and from a laymans point of view I wouldn't be suprised if there one was less accurate due to that, and the fact its probably set up for all those massive horsepower GTR's they are always tuning...

[JRS]

are you going to remove the system and do another run?

[method]

How many runs were made to get the figures? Id say you should have done 2 or 3 power runs

[Stealer Of Souls]

Getting a little old now but...

Any luck getting scans of the two dyno charts? I'd be keen to see the results of the before and after runs...

[rmf55]

sorry i'm in the middle of uni exams at the moment so kinda forget about this thread. i'll definately post the graphs some time this coming week- last exam is on tuesday. I don't know how many runs sinclairs did I'm sorry, but I know NZEFI does 2 or 3 per power run to make sure you get an accurate figure- I'd be surprised if Sinclairs didn't do that as well.