Originally Posted by
stevieturbo
Have you ever tried ?
Yes, I did, and it was horrible. Have you ever tried a fully soundproofed dyno cell, with vacuum double-door? I did, too, and it was perfect
Proper mapping implies getting within ONE degree of the onset of knock, at all possible load/speed operating points of the engine. You need to stay 10-20s steady on
every cell on the map to set the base fuel, ignition and wastegate duty. At some point - when mapping mid and high loads - the engine stays near or at WOT for 2-3min uninterrupted (the time it takes to map an entire row - a certain load level - over the useable RPM range), while the oil, coolant, EGT and most importantly intake air temp must be kept in check at all time.
It takes two to three people to do this properly, one driving the bench (engine throttle and hydraulic brake), one on the laptop - mapping - and the third with his eyes on the dyno gauges - blow-by pressure, oil pressure and temp, per-cylinder EGT's - and one hand on the Big Red Stop Button. It gets very tense when the turbo is glowing yellow-orange behind the double bullet-proof window, in perfect silence. This is very remote from a rolling dyno power pull.
Originally Posted by
stevieturbo
It's actually pretty easy to hear on any engine with the correct equipment in almost any environment
What correct equipment have you in mind?
NGK gasket-type pressure sensors?
Kistler cylinder pressure sensors? I'm all ears but nothing beats a good old copper pipe strategically bolted to the head and crossing the soundproofed wall, ending in a funnel

- believe it or not this is still how base maps are made on every engine, including F1 - in addition to piezo sensors.
Rolling dynos are maybe OK to make small brush-ups (like make minor adjustments to the fueling on an otherwise well-sorted and safe map) but for engine development access to a proper dyno is a must.