Exhausting

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
While the converter is out getting tweaked, my surgeon said, "we really need to re-do your exhaust". Every time my car has came off of his lift, the car has gotten faster, so I obliged.

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Fun fact, I just found out a week ago that not only is my exhaust crush-bent garbage(knew this already) but this car has had 2-1/4" exhaust on it since I bought it in 2012. :eek: Also, the x-pipe which was put on later by the exhaust shop that destroyed my header is also going away since the inner chamber only feeds thru with a hole the size of a half-dollar. :eek: He didn't like that either. I agreed.

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This is the crap that came off. :err-what?:

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Fun fact, we are installing v-bands and the backhalf of the exhaust will be removed for the track this year. I don't anticipate there being any choking on the exhaust side. It's going to be bloody murder loud. :laugh:

My hopes is that between the exhaust modifications, converter tweak, and weight tweaks at the nose this will be a 10 second car before we even touch the tune. That way I can be assured that this car will STILL run 10s even with a rollbar just in case a certain someone wants to gripe about it. My ultimate goal is to beat Burbank LSCs time on the 1/4 mile list. Numero uno.
 
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driller

El Presidente
My hopes is that between the exhaust modifications, converter tweak, and weight tweaks at the nose this will be a 10 second car before we even touch the tune.
Hmmm... call me cynical, but let's examine this.

So you hope to be a 10 second car without touching the tune?

To go from 11.31 to 10.99 requires a nominal 30 HP or a nominal weight loss of 300 lbs or an equivalent combination of both. For argument's sake, let's say you manage 100 lbs of weight reduction. I've never seen any magical exhaust worth 20 HP (or 2 tenths), even if you drop it at the track and run open headers. :eek:

Having said all that, the wild card is the torque converter.

The question is: just how much was your old converter costing you in ET? My guess is only you and your tuner will know. :tongue-pink:

I wish you luck, seriously... there's a severe lack of track talk around here anymore. If that converter comes back and puts you in the 10's, I'll be seriously considering a 5K stall unit myself.
 

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
Going from the crush-bent 2-1/4" with the half-dollar x-pipe thru mufflers to open header dumps 2.5" I do not doubt for a split second will be worth 15hp. My surgeon agrees. He did surface area calculations of my existing exhaust and found it flowed very similar to dual 2". I will be about 100# lighter this year. I really have no idea what the converter was costimg me but the str was very high down low and ran out of tq mulitplying much quicker than it will now with the str spread out. We intend on locking up the converter this year. That will make it too easy. We will see how accurate John Mihovetz statement was on the converter. With his suggested converter tweaks he told me on the phone the car will go 11.0s without changing a single thing (even though we are). It's all about average power throughout the curve and a nastier footbrake with the bump in stall. I would estimate that as opposed to 6k rpms on gear shift fallback it will be closer to 6500 this year with the looser setup. 500 rpms is 2 psi difference on the gear change. 2 psi is a conservative 25hp more going into the next gear.....twice. All of this we discussed and it made perfect sense to me.

50-60hp will not be necessary....although once we see 22° or so I do think it just might touch 500whp anyways.

The whole tuning process is going to be nervewracking but we are going to tread lightly at first and let the car do the talking. We will be doing some street logs as well in addition to the dyno just to be as "safely dangerous" as possible. I'm not as concerned right now with us rattling the motor on E85 as much as I am the massive amount of torque increase I will likely see.
 
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KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
The converter should be back on Monday. I'm hoping to have the car on all fours next weekend and ready for the dyno. I will be setting up an appointment as soon as the car is running. This signature is getting kind of old....
 

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=yMb32flPmxQ

Getting 2 "turned up" open header dump tunes on Thursday night. The car doesn't know how to act on a throttle crack with all of this new air flow. Lol. Planning to hit the track this Saturday and break a record. :cool:

The car is 68# lighter than last year. So just a mini diet this round. Ran out of time and never ordered my light battery. Oh well.
 
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