I found a variable that increases the damage of all weapons and can be seen ingame with weapon damage value. This applies it to all weapons.

Now I would like to do the same for armor, making all armor ratings 4 times higher than vanilla. Anyone know what variable to use or if one even exists? I used the mod Requiem and saw some variables farmorbase set to 4.xx and tried using it in my game but the armor was still at vanilla. Checking the mod showed that the armor was not modified so it must be done through a variable is my assumption.

Anyone have any ideas?

You can always use SkyTweak for these things you know,
I do pretty thorough testing, and I provide equations for various GMST's when applicable.
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33395/

fArmorBaseFactor = 0.03

This is the bonus armor rating given to each piece of armor.
Notice that it's in units of damage reduction, not Armor Rating.

Each piece of armor gains 3% damage reduction, which is equivalent to 25 armor rating in vanilla.
fArmorScalingFactor = 0.12

This is the amount of damage reduction given by each unit of Armor Rating.
3 / 0.12 = 25, which is how you calculate that each piece of armor normally gives an invisible +25 armor rating.

alternatively you can also just make a perk that edits the player's armor rating.
That's better for compatibility, and the change would be visible, which I think is a plus.

Thanks Morionic, I will give that a look.