When we first saw one of these gizmos, we immediately thought of the question the Joker once asked of Batman: “Where did he get all those wonderful toys?” Now have a look at GM’s magical g-loading engine dyno.
Here’s one thing a conventional engine dyno can’t do at all. It can’t duplicate the g-loadings of a car travelling through high-speed corners, where the engine oil is flung in all kinds of unhappy directions, starving critical surfaces for lubrication and drowning others—which, in turn, can produce sudden and catastrophic engine failures that are often nearly impossible to diagnose.
One old-school method for studying this phenomenon in a crude, non-dynamic fashion is to hang the engine on the dyno on an angle. For example, tilting the engine 45 degrees on the dyno stand will roughly approximate the “oil climb” of one g of acceleration in that direction. It’s not a terribly robust or scientific approach, but it works… sort of. Meh.
Well, look at what MCG got to see on a visit to the General Motors Powertrain Development Center in Pontiac, Michigan this week (while working the LT1 V8 story you can read here). This dyno (one of 120-plus dynos in the facility of every conceivable type) takes that old trick and improves upon it by orders of magnitude.
This dyno mounts the engine in a set of trunnions that, with the aid of powerful electric servo motors, can swing the engine in three different planes at once in infinite combination. The rig’s controller can then be programmed to replicate the timing and loading of specific road courses, for example the Nürburgring. Meanwhile, the rig continues to monitor engine output and other data just like any dyno setup.
In the short clip below, the race track being duplicated in real time is the Milford Race Course at GM’s Milford, Michigan Proving Grounds, otherwise known as the Lutz Ring, with a 1.2 g cornering load programmed into the controller. The GM-supplied video is a bit lurchy but you’ll get the idea. Watch this.
I guess they do not show the engines that have exploded all over the dyno room. Though a very good idea, still not real life but a big step forward in oiling design.
These types of articulated engine test rigs have been common in the aircraft industry for years. How else would you validate the ability of an aircraft engine or gearbox lube system to function effectively at various attitudes or +/- G forces.