Re: [DML] Dyno Run (Re: Bolt On Performance)

[Peter Lucas <lucas@xxxxxxxx>]

On Oct 26, 2007, at 8:22 AM, content22207 wrote:

> Don't forget to increase plug gap as part of your test. IMHO that's
> one of the biggest advantages of high voltage ignition. I'm running
> .041" with good effect, on standard Delco single electrode spark  
> plugs.

This kind of thing illustrates the real problem with empirical  
tests:  They are hard to do properly. Even assuming a lack of malice  
or overt bias, there are 100 ways that the experimenter could screw  
up such a test without even knowing it.  And don't forget: you can't  
prove a negative.   If the dyno test were to reveal a large enough  
positive or negative effect, then maybe we'd learn something.  But,  
in the more likely case in which the difference were small or  
apparently absent, we could never know for sure that a positive  
effect wasn't just measurement error or that a negative result wasn't  
due to some unknown interaction with something else, be it spark gap,  
battery condition, phase of the moon or whatever.  And, of course, it  
goes without saying that any such experiment must be done "blind" --  
the guy running the dyno is not allowed to know which condition is  
being tested on a given trial.

I am not saying that good science is impossible--just that it is hard  
and expensive.  Probably more expensive than a community our size can  
support.

Maybe we should all just spend our money according to our favorite  
theories and be satisfied just *believing* it helped.   Or, maybe we  
should just wash our cars more often...    :-)

--Pete Lucas
   VIN #06703




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