Mafless part 1

Thanks to Michael Clark for helping fit the Pacemaker last week.

After fitting the exhaust I was logging fuelling and spark. No issues with spark. But I noted O2 was running lean around 2000rpm then from 4000rpm on.

Hmm, so to adjust the maf flow air model, or do things properly and tune the virtual ve polynomials first.

Well it didnt take me long to decide to go straight to mafless. I know I need to remove the maf due to the potential restriction it represents. But stage 1 was to leave it in place and just fail the maf in the ECU.

This basically entails telling the ECU that any response from the maf signals a failure, rather than the default extreme values etc.

Still losing 5kpa air pressure somewhere, but at least now the tune is in place to allow maf removal without issue.

So first logging showed fuelling to be out by 7% over around 3500rpm and much the same at lower RPM.

Fuel variation from VVE

This makes sense that most gains are at the upper RPM range. So next is to check throttle is opening properly under throttle and remove the MAF..

..Yay, mafless, BUT!

kpa still reads off 4kpa! Well I was told that would be the case. But seeing is believing.

So maf can go back in, though now its tuned mafless, maybe it will remain out to allow for future changes.

Geway, a fellow Kiwi, who has a ported LS3 and throttle said he was running 100kpa at WOT with a large cam. Given the MAP sensor is located right behind the throttle Im going to need to look at that. Indicated throttle is only 83% the VXR8 shows 88% so Im now wondering if the throttle is fully opening.

I would not have thought the throttle or intake were a restriction stock. Logic says the throttle is not opening 100% so thats the next port of call.

So in summary now mafless, but no new gains other than from the exhaust and adjusting the base tune to take the exhaust changes into consideration.

Also because I have now thrown a spanner in the airflow model, all future calculated torque numbers will only be relevant to this new baseline. So Ill have to go to Surrey Rolling Road for a proper comparison.

Quick update with results..

So some improvement. Logged 450ftlb today compared to 400ftlb on the original dyno pull. Now Im not losing any timing so thats good.

However I am losing 4 or so kpa still despite the new intake. Thats a bit sad. However as the intake pipe is 90mm and a certain piece of junk is 85mm with a mesh and air blade stuck in the middle of it. I think Ill be fitting this piece of equipment pretty quickly!

I actually have a black piece which in theory should fit exactly where the MAF is at present. That will be going in ASAP to help look into the missing air pressure.

I cant imagine its the intake as they are supposed to flow around 320cfm much the same as the heads. In theory that should be good for around 600fwhp. Stock; the engine is nowhere near that. I suspect Ill gain a couple of kpa from removing the MAF. We will see.

So anyway here is the latest Dyno Log run.

Spark timing was recovered via some gentle ECU tweaks. Thats a 12% torque gain tune only in effect. BHP is also up about 8% over the original pull. But I think there is another few percent of easy gains from sorting out the missing intake air pressure.

Once thats found I might try some 97 octane or even shell 99 as Im running on standard 95 RON at present. I actually had to take about 3 degrees or so out of the midrange as the OEM tune was knocking constantly at cruise believe it or not! 

I guess HSV think that running up against the knock limit and pulling timing constantly is a good idea. Not sure why! Near on 10% gains to be had by avoiding knock and reducing timing! It was the same story with the LS2. I made more power with less timing. Perhaps part of the problem is getting 1*C intake air at load on open roads in Australia!

Forgot to also mention gains were also had from changing fueling a tad. 

A fellow VXR8 owner with ported intake and throttle said he gets near 100kpa with the MAF. So thats very sad. Suggests the issue lies with the intake or throttle. Thats a bit harder to cure. Ill see what happens swapping the MAF out. It might give me one or two kpa. I can then console myself that all is not lost.

Managing data to track progress

So after some messing about with the new air intake I decided it was time to think about tracking changes over time. The Rotofab intake took about 1hr to fit. Note the nice large cone.

Sounds much nicer with a bit of intake roar now. Some may note the crusty MAF hiding out there. I was hoping this model had the newer LS7 blade maf. But its still the old 2005 85mm LS2 type maf. Of course it must eventually die. But I'm going to use the MAF to give me a bit of info first.

Rotofab installed

A piece of straight 4 inch silicon hose has been ordered to sit where the MAF is now. I want to get all the airflow and torque tables right first before removing the MAF though so I will be failing/moving between Speed Density and MAF airflow models to identify any changes in calculated torque values etc. The summary is in Speed Density the tables are not right. This is because the OEM Speed Density values and tables are not right. I guess its easier to get one column in one table right rather than tables like this one right! There are 450 cells in this table and there are 4 tables like this!

E38 VE Polynomial factors

Also make any modification to Speed Density airflow and the tables all need redoing! Thats because they are static and map engine efficiency based on RPM, Intake pressure, temperature etc. This is also why lazy types just tune MAF airflow models. Thats if they arnt even lazier and just tune the PE table like one tune I saw this week!

All the UK tuner tunes I have seen have been guilty of this at least historically anyway. I suspect some of this is driven by the fact that people think they can get a good tune in 1hr for £250! Ask GM how long it takes them to build a tune for a new application. Im certain its months.

Anyway there is a very good forum post on EFILive regarding the engine torque tables which are crucial in managing communications with the TCM.
See here https://forum.efilive.com/showthread.php?18710-Improving-shifts-via-the-ECM

E38 Torque Model Tables

The table above is the one mentioned in the article and allows the engine to calculate torque output based on a number of factors similar in concept to how Speed Density airflows are calculated.

The plan is to visit Mr Wright at Surrey Rolling Road after most mods to get a good view of things. But rather than relying on a trip there every week to guage progress its possible to use EFILive logging to get information which is just as good depending on how accurate airflow models are. (Hence the discussion above about keeping the MAF in place until the Speed Density airflows match the data from the MAF).

So what data can we use? Well basically we can use measured and calculated grams of air per cylinder for a torque proxy and grams of air per second for a bhp proxy.

We can also use calculated torque values from the MAF and/or Speed Density (The topic of the torque table above) This is the main reason to keep the MAF for now. So I can get good torque calculations. Once Speed Density is giving me similar/same values I will retire the MAF.

As a plus EFILive Scan Tool allows me to export the data to CSV and therefore Excel or Access. This should allow me to do conditional evaluations of the data and tell me what spark timing at what RPM and load point gives the best calculated torque value. I was going to do the same thing but with g/cyl to proxy torque, but Jessie Bubb said he uses calculated torque while we were chatting at PRI this year. (He mentioned he even has some sort of Calc PID, Ill try and pry it off him to see how its supposed to work)

So anyway, what does one of these CSV files look like in chart form? Ok this is from the first Dyno day at SRR.

Log generated Dyno Graph (fwhp)

Does it look even remotely like the Dyno chat from SRR in the previous post? Yep. The data set at the bottom is not synced nicely. So cleaning that up would help. Also just querying the data is going to be more helpful and accurate. If I can figure out Microsoft Access I can upload each log as a CSV with different timing values in it and query out the highest calculated torque at each load point vs spark timing. Worse case picking out points and looking through each CSV import in Excel should allow a manual way of doing this.

So that basically is how I will be monitoring and tracking changes of modifications and ensuring spark timing is optimal. If these values increase, power should also increase by the same amount. So I can look at percentage gains to get the relative merits of each change. First up will be to log the Rotofab intake and see what that achieved. Hopefully that will be the next topic in this Blog.

Maloo Baseline and some dyno lessons for me

Thanks to Charley at Surrey Rolling Road I have a baseline.

This is in line with Oz numbers for a stock standard LS3 Auto, but pretty woeful none the less.

Maloo R8 SV A6 Baseline

Fuelling was consistently about 0.5 AFR out, so if I was braindead I could just add 4% to the commanded PE table and it would be about right.

But I try to avoid braindeath and instead will go the long way round, which should result in more accurate logging as well as better performance and correct tune values in the long run.

Afterall, if the airflow model is wrong from GM, then its going to mean timing values are out, not just fuelling.

Here is the log file from 2 runs on the dyno. See anything interesting?

Dyno runs

So a few things spring to my mind. First; 16.5* of timing seems very low. Sure there was a tick of KR (Knock Retard) but so little its not worth mentioning. Also max timing is only 18* in any case. So I need to check the tune and see what is being commanded.

Second thing I note is that manifold kPa is only 95, earlier in the run it was 99. So thats a definite intake restriction right there. Now considering the SV model has "bi-modal" intake for better airflow, this is particularly woeful. There is pretty much a solid 3-4% lost right there.

Final thing of partial note is long term fuel trims differ between banks. Now looking at the trims over time I can see they are similar but never match, this suggests injectors, engine, exhaust etc differ enough that fuelling needs to vary across banks. Max trims are 4% which is well within the ability of short term trims. So long terms will go as is my practice and short terms will remain. I can use short terms to adjust injectors to give one bank more than the other in closed loop and even adjust the tune to give one side more in open loop too. I did this to slightly richen up cylinder 7 which in the LS series is often slated to run slightly lean. (eg Corvette Foum post)

So with the tune up and the logging tool up at the same time you can enable highlighting. What this does is show you where in the tune you are at that point in the log. From this you can see that below in the graphic the log says I have 18.5* timing, but the tune says I should have 22! 

So where is the missing 3.5!? I did not log all the spark modifiers, but Id suggest that if its not burst knock paying a visit, then its likely to be some torque management playing havoc. Especially as the front wheels were not turning and the ECU/BCM may consider this abuse.

Highlighting logs and tune EFILive

In fact this is quite likely as it threw a few codes to do with the ABS system and a myriad of other things at the time. All of which were reset with a power cycle and scan tool after the dyno.

So there we go a baseline and some lessons for me in where to find more power.

You may ask why GM delivers a vehicle that doesn't achieve full power potential from new.  I would agree, its a bit sad. But then I wouldn't have a hobby! 

A cursory review of Oz forums shows that a common mod in the VF which gains best value is an intake and a tune. Strangely I have an intake (See last couple of posts). I also have EFILive! Popping an exhaust on doesnt seem to be necessary at close to stock power levels. I measured the exhaust and I am pretty sure it sports a 2.5" from the factory. This is far better than the chunderous 2.25" mess that they used to come with and explains why the Oz guys just do intake and tune. Some good results from that are had too.

So my mission will be to address the issues as follows;

1. Gain 4 or so kPa from a new intake (Rotofab Chevy SS 2014 aka VF model)
2. Clean up airflow model so that commanded fuelling equals delivered fuelling
3. Figure out whats taking the timing out and address the cause

What am I expecting to gain? Good question. Id be pleased with 10% which is more than some guys get from fitting a cam! Though of course their baseline was with tune. So that will be my next mission post tune.

The ultimate goal is to deliver more power than a supercharged GTS with a lighter weight and better fuel economy.

On that topic Im surprised that the Maloo drinks far more than the E1 with the LS7 in it. Its reading 17mpg average! Shocking. The E1 says 26, but really its more like 23 due to injector scaling. Still thats almost 50% more. So really my number 4 aim above is to increase fuel efficiency, which by using less fuel under power enrichment as well as freeing up the intake should be a natural consequence.

Time flies

Time flies, it seems like only a few months back I bought the Camaro. Well here we are 3 years later and its sold.

Actually it sold a few months ago to a good keen bloke from up North. It ended up being pretty aggressive. Mainly from the 3600 stall converter. Stab the throttle and you were rewarded with instant wheel spin, this would occur at most road speeds. Except perhaps on the motorway.

Chris the buyer, said it was too violent and aggressive. Id call that "working as designed".

So it was a sad sale. But it had to go to make way for this item.

100% tax deductible commercial vehicle. Which just so happens to have a Corvette LS3 V8 in it. Same basic config as the Camaro, RWD Automatic V8. Its an HSV R8 SV Maloo.

Some fancy features with heads up display etc. I already have a set of Winter tyres as it will be doing loads of miles. It arrived into the county in September, but sadly its now not going to be ready until mid November! A bit frustrating, but at least Im not managing all the to and fro about the place to get it certified and on the road.

So I wonder how long this will remain stock for?

Oh dear, a new camshaft that just coincidentally arrived around the time of the Maloo. Best I keep the two apart for a while. The Maloo has a 3 year warranty, so no point throwing that away too quickly.

Though this part looks a little more mod friendly..

The filter is HUGE, I learnt my lesson with the VXR8 which was that filter area counts as power goes up. Should be no problems with the plans on the table for the Maloo.

So ok, Ill come clean. Current plans are:

1. Rotofab 2014 SS Intake
2. Pacemaker 1-7/8 long tubes with ceramic coating into dual 3" exhaust
3. Comp custom LXL lobe Cam for durability
4. Comp conical valve springs

That will be it at that point, not looking to go too crazy. Though crazy if it does happen may consist of;

1. LS7 Ported intake
2. RHS Small bore LS7 Pro Elite heads 
3. 1.8 ratio Shaft rockers

Not planning on FIsting the engine. Too much aggravation. Solution would be to start afresh and do it properly, not the knock limited bolt on kits most use.

Alternately I can put the engine from the VXR8 into the Maloo. To be honest that's probably the most "sensible" longer term plan.

Diversion

Well its not its not a Holden, but it has the right running gear. LSD solid axle, Torsen diff, LS1 engine, 1999+ model ECU, A4 4L60e (said to be somewhat weak as stock)

The plan is to get the VXR8 to a daily driver state, (ie) Reliable! The cam and the rest of the setup in the Holden is designed to be driveable. ACT T1S Twin Plate works as stock and is very good. The 227/243-113 LSR cam also pulls from idle. The setup is otherwise basically stock with no fancy aftermarket parts to maintain, replace, repair.

That means the Camaro can be a little more leary, though the plan is to also make it nice to drive on a trip etc. So Stevie from PH set me up with a set of old LS1 853 casting heads he had done by a now defunct US firm. The heads got good feedback when they were still around. 62cc Chamber, 227cc intake ports, 2.02" intake, 1.57" exhaust with 297cfm intake.
I also had an LSR 219/227-112 Cam which when I ran the setup through Camquest came out as the number 1 recommendation for performance street use, though I had already purchased it prior on the basis that it would be a good LS1 cam.
Im also in the process of selecting a stall converter to wrap up the system. The CircleD 278mm 3200 stall converter looks the go. Not as beefy or track worthy as their billet stuff, but much better than stock in any case.
http://www.circledspecialties.com/p-6-gm-278mm-hp-4l60e-ls-torque-converter.aspx

The price is right and at around 30Lbs should fit in the suitcase on one of my USA trips.
Ill add the BBK Full length headers and Y pipe to the mix as well as a second hand LS6 Holden intake and it should be a pretty well balanced budget build. The stock 245 tires and 3200 stall should make traction fun if/when required. Stock they put down around 270rwhp with the auto, which is a bit Ill, but Im hoping to get that up to 350rwhp at least. Ill drive down to Surrey Rolling Road http://www.surreyrollingroad.co.uk/ and run the car up with the stock tune, as well as much quick and dirty COS5 efilive tune to get a baseline.

The car already has a 3" cat back Borla exhaust. It really needs a dual 2.5, but I think the dual 2.5 into 3" BBK Y Pipe without cat should be fine. Im expecting some pretty good gains from each of the mods. I also have a 25% underdrive ATI Pulley to go on. Maybe 370rwhp is possible. We shall see.

The BBK exhaust is a pretty good price about $360 USD for full length headers, y-pipe and install kit. http://www.bbkperformance.com/products/98-02-ls1-f-body-long-tube-exhaust-headers-and-25inch-y-pipe.html Ill post the next VXR8 dyno results up, Im definately expecting to exceed 500rwhp by quite a margin.

The Camaro will follow as parts arrive etc. But hopefully get some baseline results in the next month or two, with final results Q1 2012 in time for the Olympics ;)

Phoenix

Well, after putting down 500rwhp I went through a series of issues with clutches resulting in a number of trailers and repairs down to bad workmanship.
That being said the company sorted out the problems, but not without financial pain to myself from lost, time and disrupted holidays, rental cars etc.

So after that being put right the next problem was a lifter that took a dump, roller seized taking out the cam and bearings along the way. A massive bill later (would have been cheaper to buy a US short block) and its back to working albeit somewhat knock limited. That being said Id rather it be a little on the high compression side than low as you can always pull timing a tad. So after some messing around and about 17-18* on the dyno it pulled 499.5RWHP. There should be well over 20rwhp more there with a bit more timing.

So another read of the good old "power squeeze" article by David Vizard.

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/enginemasters/articles/hardcore/0311em_power_squeeze/index.html

Ill drop engine temps, run cooler plugs and use v-power (99 Octane) currently it was tuned on Sainsburys 97 octane fuel. So with all that I hope to add 2-3 more degrees and free up perhaps 10-20bhp we shall see.

Dyno Day (Part 3)

Finally after a good few months of tuning and an initial untuned 452rwhp dyno Ive arrived at the target. 500rwhp.

There was 96kpa of pressure at WOT and I was running 95 octane.
Im hoping to touch 520rwhp with some more airflow and 98 octane. There should be 3 or 4kpa more pressure to be found somewhere.

Next step is to port the throttlebody and check for restriction at full throttle. I will also move onto 97 octane fuel and retune.

Finally some more minor alterations for cold start and the tune will be complete. I hope to put away all my modification tools and just drive the car.

There are no future plans at this stage, although some thoughts around larger camshafts and possibly a migration of engines between an LS2 or LS3 C6 exists in the back of my mind. But that will have to wait for an economic turn around.

Mystery package

Right in the middle of an economic maelstrom the package below has arrived. Its at Mr Monkfish's establishment waiting a final check over prior to installation.


Spec is a Race Engine Developments Darton dry sleeved LS2 block with Callies and Mahle rotating assembly. Top end is OEM GM LS7, so nothing too exotic. Goal is reliable power with a wide torque curve and daily drivability naturally aspirated.

Replacement engine.

Well with the stock engine looking a bit feeble, its time to revisit the replacement.
Things seem to be coming along nicely. A 2 piece timing cover will be used to allow quick and easy cam swaps. The idea being that some experimentation can be done to find a good emissions freindly cam with good power.

Hopefully the next post will be of the new engine on these shores, though I have a holiday right at the middle of things!

Dyno day (part 2)

Well, it was off to the dyno last week. Not a bad result, I made over 20rwhp more than the next NA LS2 setup, plus they had exhaust done too! Mine was OTRCAI, 1.8 Rockers and Tune with the stock exhaust. Im pretty sure the stock exhaust isnt a restriction at this stage, though going forward it will be. These numbers are of course RWHP. Flywheel numbers are pointless, so I wont use them :)

Also of note was that the top 2 NA engines were running mafless/speed density tunes and came out a good 10bhp more than the next in line. Im not sure why this is too many variables. However suffice to say SD tuning is certainly not going to lose you power and is my preferred method due to its ability to use highly optimised cold air intakes.
To be honest, other than taking timing OUT and messing with commanded fueling a little, not much has been done to the tune. The rockers and CAI required some extra air to be placed into the E38 factors and constants via the "virtual ve" table of efilive, thats where most of the extra power came from. I think had I messed around with WOT PE and Timing values on the dyno I might have picked a little more up, but it feels pretty good as is.

I did get some knock still possibly accounting for the little dip in torque around 2500rpm. This is normally a small peak much like the one at 5000rpm.

Next stop will be the replacement "LS2" darton engine.

Roller rockers.. the return

A previous attempt at installing these rockers ended with the engine running totally crap. I fathomed that as I hadnt installed the shims the valves were being held off their seats. This is dispite me trying to check preload. I noted that other guys had installed with shims, so a few weeks later I tried again, this time with the shims.


I was lazy today and didnt take a picture, this is another earlier model holden with the same Yella Terra 1.8:1 rockers. I left the stock springs in for now as the stock cam will remain and stock RPM limit.
I had the rockers left over from a previous transaction so as they say "waste not, want not".

In pulling off the plug leads one disintegrated, not good. I tried to get another from the local Vauxhall dealer but "Is that the 2L turbo" response to my request for a VXR8 plug lead wasnt promising.. it didnt get any better, so I tripped off to Halfords and bought an 8mm Coil Lead and reconnected the old connections to it. It seems to work fine, so hopefully that will hold until I get a proper replacement.

Anyway after reading some other posts on the installation, like this one (where the pic above comes from) http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=83194 I suspected I might need to relieve the rocker cover. A fireup to check clearances validated this as there was a bit of knocking going on under the covers.

Basically there is a baffle underneath the covers which is rivetted on, some of these pins/rivets are too long and catch the rockers. They need grinding down flatter. I used a dremel.
In addition a couple of the coil pack bolt bosses were being nicked by the rocker tips. Again some dremel action on the bosses sorted that out.

So finally with no knocking and things all quiet again I went for a drive, all was well and it seemed that there was a little more power. But I will log airflow and fueling and see if that is the case or not.

Also as a side note an owner with a supercharged vxr8 posted 440fwhp, or 385rwhp. (ie) Hardly anything gained, 25bhp! total rubbish. Cam only would beat that easy! I dont think any UK tuner does a proper supercharged setup, Ill attend the next dyno day and see what else turns up :)

Bolt on mod number 1 for the VE HSV

Well here is the results of what started off as a minor mod.
I ended up having to take the whole front off. Also a small piece of radiator surrounded needed to be sawn off as the VE has a solid little "roll" cage around the E38 EU which is located under the fusebox on the left in the picture below. This got in the way.

Ive also made note of where you need to remove bolts and clips to get the front off. The main bits are at the outer edges, you can only get to them by removing the black clips inside the front of the guards. You then use a straight handled 10mm socket to unscrew them from underneath. The long part under the headlights, just pulls forward and unclips. With 2 bolts and 2 more clips located in the middle top of the bumper by the bonnet catch.

Actually I pulled the bonnet catch apart too because I thought Id broken it. I think it just needed to be moved up a little. It worked fine.

Anyway, I got the Russo OTRCAI installed. Im missing the 2 wire IAT sensor, so just temporarily cabletied the old MAF into the inner guard and ran 2 wires to the IAT circuit on it. Hopefully the IAT sensor from Chris at Russo arrives before too long and I can get it sitting in the intake, just in front of the throttle body.

I cant say Ive noticed more power, I think the old one was pretty good anyway. The idea is colder air rather than more air. I was logging 99kpa at WOT with the old intake so I dont think it was too restrictive. Mind you the heads and cam are stock so they probably didnt want much more than that either.

Im working on a difilippo exhaust, which hopefully will be on its way very soon. Though I have a short throw shifter waiting for me to fit, so that will probably be next.

A stroker is also on the way.. Which if you had read all my previous posts, you would know that that event was a near certainty.

A bit later on...

Well its done, I now own build number 1 of the HSV VXR8 UK spec R8 Clubsport.
Im glad I had the first off the production line, though I didnt find out until I was checking things out in more detail after the purchase.

Interestingly it seems to have been the press hack and the gearbox was very sad, noisy, loose and hard to shift into some gears. Anyway a few visits to Picadors near Southampton and a new gearbox was fitted. Its Nickel silver the same as below.

As was suggested below the plan is for more power, but in an efficient manner. Given superchargers can eat 150bhp just through mechanical losses due to the pump, let alone increased intake temps etc I decided to stay Naturally Aspirated. The BSFC (fuel used per bhp) is around 30% more than a naturally aspirated engine. Sure total output is increased, but you sure pay for it.

Therefore I have started collecting the required components. Of course efilive will work fine and Ive sucked out the tune and done some logging and minor bits and pieces. But its basically the stock tune at present. Which actually works quite well. Id suggest guys with earlier LS2 maps check out the spark timing for the E Series R8 as it seems pretty good to me, roughly around 2* additional timing across the range.

Anyway the list of mods will be something like this;

• GMM Rip Shifter (In hand)
• Russo OTRCAI (In hand)
• DiFilippo 1-7/8 into dual 3" stainless exhaust + 700cfm cats (In progress)
• Darton 427 Sleeved LS2 block with LS7 top end (In progress)
• LS7 Clutch, or possibly twin disk Ram clutch or equiv (Still researching)

Expected output will be around 650fwhp or say 520rwhp.. but who knows as yet.

Pics of the Russo being fitted will probably be next up.

Sold! and treachery

Well the R8 is sold. Its always the way, come to the end of a project and its time to start another one. Im not sure why that is. I think I wanted something with a newer setup.
Anyway the bloke who bought it loves it, so thats good. I was going to buy a Jaguar XJR but after driving one decided it could not happen. A new E Series HSV was my destiny!

Prices in the UK are still too high and Ill let Mr Depreciation work his wonders. Until then a replacement needed to be found. Unfortunately in the UK large RWD Sedans are hard to come by unless you like Merc's and BMW's with mega miles on them. I did some trawling around and found a 68,000km Fairmont EL and a 90,000km Falcon Forte AU, both Aussie imports. The Fairmont was £1000 and the Forte £2000. I would have preferred the AU with its more modern equipment and styling, but chose the cheaper option. Mainly because my ebay bid won!


A nice 0550AM start and 12 hours later after a train from London to Scotland I was back in London. The car runs well aside from needing wheel balancing and a couple of rust bubbles dealt with. I will be driving it to Spain and back from London, so hopefully all will be well. Yes I know its a Ford :)

Hopefully my next post will be to show off my new VE HSV R8 aka VXR8 Vauxhall. An almost immediate upgrade with a 427 is planned. Hopefully the old LS2 will fetch enough to pay for the new engine. Fingers crossed.

Track action

Well 2nd day to the track on street tyres saw a 2 sec 60' and 13.2 quarter. One run had a 109mph trap speed, but lots of wheel spin.

Im hoping to get into the 12's. I think there is some slack in the suspension since my last lot of new bushings got fitted. I think Ill be back to the shop to get the front done and sort the backend out.

A new 2009 Camaro is on the cards, the money is changed into US$ and in the bank. Also a possible Holden SS VE Manual trans with the L98 engine similar to the new LS3 corvette but with 6L. But probably nothing for a year or two. So the old R8 must soldier on!

Dyno day. (The end is nigh)

Just about out of things to do now. Rechecked timing and added a little up high resulting in the dyno sheet below. Around 290rwkw, which compares pretty well with Oz numbers with similar spec's. Apparently US Dyno's read higher, so I need to compare with Oz results.

Anyway timing in the low and midrange was still pretty good, fueling on the dyno differed from the street. Now Ill just be driving the beast and trying not to think about getting a magnacharger or anything like that.

My heart is on the new VE Holden so Ill be saving and waiting for depreciation to work its magic until I can afford one.

Just a reminder anyone after Innovate Wideband products or EFILive tuning tools etc please get in touch as I hold rights to resell both brands in Europe. I try to keep prices cost competitive with the US and have stock on hand.

Plus you get to ask me as many questions as you like for free :)

Out of time

The car is running well at present, one broken driveshaft later..
Well I think the mech made a mistake when fitting the clutch and forgot some nuts. But all was resolved in an excellent fashion and things are back on the road.

The car definately pulls harder. Air is 0.96g/cyl. If I can crack 1.0 Ill be pleased. Its all down to the dyno. Peak torque is around 4800rpm. No more mods for me. Drive for a couple of years then either a VE Holden or a 2009 Camaro will be had.

Im still messing about with idle as under some circumstances it can stall mainly doing 3 point turns in carparks when warm. Hot and cold are fine. So Ive moved a few tables around. Follower, base idle speed etc.

Dyno within the next few weeks is the plan. More info then.

All is quiet..

The car is getting the new parts fitted. Including the LS7 clutch, larger diameter primary headers in a 4 into 1 configuration, plus some general messing about with suspension and brakes.

On completion I will have everything fitted to suit the setup. Well maybe better mufflers would be good, but things should pretty well be in balance. Much better to have done it over time, than all at once. It would have been a bank breaking exercise.

I read a collegue in Oz with similar setup recently replaced his 1-5/8 header setup for a 1-3/4 set and gained around 4% airflow, so if I can do the same as that Ill be well pleased and should be well on the way to 1.0g/cyl of air and at or over 400rwhp. If I can match or exceed 405rwhp I would have beaten a stock LS7 C6. I was 55rwhp off that pre fast90 and dyno tune. So I dont think its too far out of reach. All the numbers were from the same dyno to hopefully make comparing apples to apples, though day to day variation may account for a bit.

More updates once I get the car back.

More air please

Well the fast has definitely turned out to be an excellent investment.

I logged a 0.95g/cyl with no other changes. So things are definately on the move.
I need to return to the dyno and do a bit of timing changes.

Im hoping I can beat a stock VXR500. A couple of recent posts and dyno charts showed the VXR500 with hood down putting 359rwhp out. Hood up was closer to 400rwhp.

Ideally Ill break the 400 anyway, we will see.