Disclosure
In the interest of full transparency, I want to state that I have no financial interest in the review of this product, nor was I compensated in any way other than:
1. A free 300 ml bottle of Ran Up
2. Free dyno testing
3. Free lunch at In-N-Out
Background
Ran Up contains a powder that was developed originally as a dry lubricant for the robotic arms that work on the space shuttles while in space. Liquid lubricants do not work because of the extreme temperatures found in outer space. RS-R collaborated with the company that made the powder and created the liquid delivery system that is now Ran Up.
The Test
On Tuesday, October 16, 2012 I drove my 1991 Acura NSX with 53,000 miles down to RS-R’s facility in Santa Ana, CA. I had just changed the oil (Red Line 5w30) the night before. As to my car, here is the modification list:
• Cantrell AIS (air intake scoop), OEM air box, K&N panel-type filter
• Comptech headers
• OEM NA2 (‘97+) exhaust system
• Prospeed RDX injector swap
• Prospeed Stage 3 ECU
After meeting with the staff (Josh, Ben, and Jon) and taking a tour of the shop, we strapped the car on the Superflow chassis dynomameter. After warming up the car, Ben made 3 baseline runs. The 2nd best pull of the 3 “baseline” runs read 251.6 peak wHP and 197.7 peak wTQ. Please refer to the image “Baseline Dyno”.
(As a point of reference, I tested my car at Bisimoto Engineering (Ontario, CA) in January 2012 on a Dynapack dynomameter and the best peak numbers there were 264.0 wHP and 209.2 wTQ.)
We then poured a bottle of the RS-R Ran Up into the engine, and Ben broke in the Ran Up by “driving” the car on the dyno at various speeds for about 30 minutes to simulate a real world break-in process. We then let the car cool down while we went to lunch.
After lunch, we came back and put the car through the same warm up procedure before making our 3 “after” runs. The 2nd best pull of the 3 “after” runs read 256.9 peak wHP and 201.4 peak wTQ. These numbers represent a 5.3 wHP (2.1%) and 3.7 wTQ (1.9%) gains over baseline. In addition, and more importantly, the total area under the curve was greater with the Ran Up. Please refer to the image “Comparison”.
Driving Impressions
Knowing that I was going to test this product, I paid close attention (more so than usual) as to the overall “behavior” of the car on the way to RS-R. The first thing I noticed was that the engine now makes a slight whine at the lower RPMs, similar to a centrifugal-type supercharger. As to the driving the car, the car is now significantly more “rev-happy”, both in speed and quality/smoothness of throttle response. Two other comparisons I can make is that it is like when you upgrade to a lighter flywheel and/or when you significantly lighten the valvetrain. The bottom line is that it is pretty easy to feel that the engine is not working as hard.
Summary
At a retail price of $50, this is an absolutely tremendous value with respect to the dollar cost per horsepower (roughly $10). For those of us that love our cars (and are probably running a high-quality synthetic oil anyways), this is the proverbial icing on the cake. Less friction internally means more power, less wear, and better gas mileage (provided your right foot doesn’t become heavier).
In the interest of full transparency, I want to state that I have no financial interest in the review of this product, nor was I compensated in any way other than:
1. A free 300 ml bottle of Ran Up
2. Free dyno testing
3. Free lunch at In-N-Out
Background
Ran Up contains a powder that was developed originally as a dry lubricant for the robotic arms that work on the space shuttles while in space. Liquid lubricants do not work because of the extreme temperatures found in outer space. RS-R collaborated with the company that made the powder and created the liquid delivery system that is now Ran Up.
The Test
On Tuesday, October 16, 2012 I drove my 1991 Acura NSX with 53,000 miles down to RS-R’s facility in Santa Ana, CA. I had just changed the oil (Red Line 5w30) the night before. As to my car, here is the modification list:
• Cantrell AIS (air intake scoop), OEM air box, K&N panel-type filter
• Comptech headers
• OEM NA2 (‘97+) exhaust system
• Prospeed RDX injector swap
• Prospeed Stage 3 ECU
After meeting with the staff (Josh, Ben, and Jon) and taking a tour of the shop, we strapped the car on the Superflow chassis dynomameter. After warming up the car, Ben made 3 baseline runs. The 2nd best pull of the 3 “baseline” runs read 251.6 peak wHP and 197.7 peak wTQ. Please refer to the image “Baseline Dyno”.
(As a point of reference, I tested my car at Bisimoto Engineering (Ontario, CA) in January 2012 on a Dynapack dynomameter and the best peak numbers there were 264.0 wHP and 209.2 wTQ.)
We then poured a bottle of the RS-R Ran Up into the engine, and Ben broke in the Ran Up by “driving” the car on the dyno at various speeds for about 30 minutes to simulate a real world break-in process. We then let the car cool down while we went to lunch.
After lunch, we came back and put the car through the same warm up procedure before making our 3 “after” runs. The 2nd best pull of the 3 “after” runs read 256.9 peak wHP and 201.4 peak wTQ. These numbers represent a 5.3 wHP (2.1%) and 3.7 wTQ (1.9%) gains over baseline. In addition, and more importantly, the total area under the curve was greater with the Ran Up. Please refer to the image “Comparison”.
Driving Impressions
Knowing that I was going to test this product, I paid close attention (more so than usual) as to the overall “behavior” of the car on the way to RS-R. The first thing I noticed was that the engine now makes a slight whine at the lower RPMs, similar to a centrifugal-type supercharger. As to the driving the car, the car is now significantly more “rev-happy”, both in speed and quality/smoothness of throttle response. Two other comparisons I can make is that it is like when you upgrade to a lighter flywheel and/or when you significantly lighten the valvetrain. The bottom line is that it is pretty easy to feel that the engine is not working as hard.
Summary
At a retail price of $50, this is an absolutely tremendous value with respect to the dollar cost per horsepower (roughly $10). For those of us that love our cars (and are probably running a high-quality synthetic oil anyways), this is the proverbial icing on the cake. Less friction internally means more power, less wear, and better gas mileage (provided your right foot doesn’t become heavier).
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