Scangauge 2: monitoring hp on an Ion
 

It would seem that the Scangauge 2 may or may not support horsepower monitoring depending on the car's sensors. I also don't know if horsepower monitoring is available "out of the box" or if one must pay for a firmware update to get it.

So . . .

1). Can the Scangauge 2 read horsepower off the OBD-II port of an '04 Saturn Ion 1 (auto)?

2). Is this feature included in the base price for a new Scangauge 2?

Please understand that it is primarily my wish to acquire a gauge of some sort to measure changes in fuel economy with and without specific mods to my car, though I would also like to monitor horsepower, even though it is highly probable that the Scangauge 2 only monitors horsepower at the crank rather than at the wheel.

...NO current engine computers actually determine or calculate engine horsepower, that's a derived value that needs to know engine torque vs. rpm. The only exception I know of is the Bugatti Veyron, but I don't know how they do it.

...most add-on devices simply 'estimate' HP from other inputs, and are almost guaranteed to NOT be accurate...close, sometimes, but almost always somewhat in-accurate 100% of the time.

From what I read, the Scangauge 2 runs about 15-20% over whp. Really I'm not all that concerned with accuracy, I just want to see hp deltas when I make changes to the car. So, as long as it remains consistent in its inaccuracy, I'd be cool with that.

So I guess the questions should be, can it read the necessary inputs off an '04 Saturn Ion 1 to make those horsepower estimates, and will it do that out of the box?

Yes, HP is a programmable xgauge option available on the Scangauge II. It works on every OBD-II car I've plugged my SG into. As Tele says, it's an estimated value. I know my xB only makes 108 hp, but the SG has displayed over 140 hp, and I wasn't even flooring it.

Excellent, thank you. I had been looking at a cheaper unit, but it looks like I am going to have to get a Scangauge 2 to measure hp deltas as well. It doesn't look like any of the cheaper models have a similar feature.

Either that or I'll get a Dashhawk for data logging. They're a bit spendy though.

What gear were you in when you saw 140 on the SG?

The reason I ask is because I imagine to get any kind of accurate hp rating on the SG, you would have to be WOT in 4th gear on a 5-speed or in 5th gear on a 6-speed since those gears are typically 1:1 ratio and that's how it's done on a dyno.

If I was to take my Cube and put it on a dyno and floor it in 1st gear, I bet it would read close to 300hp even though my little 1.8 only produces a max of 122hp.