yeah I don't think I'll get resonated test pipes after hearing my car on the dyno. It's loud enough. Just enough before it starts getting obnoxious



I can now start flooring the gas as long as I don't go above 5000-5500 rpms which seems to be about 6-7.5 lbs of boost.

It feels nice. So far my impression is that it feels like star wars when they go into light speed - as in how you see the stars start to streak a little, then eventually you go vrooom. It's like a gradual getting sucked back in your seat, but it seems to pick up a lot around 4k rpms - probably because the tq seems to suddenly start going above what it was NA.

I'm pretty sure it's not as jolting and sudden as a turbo. This is more of a gradual push back. I can't drive to redline though, so I can't yet get the full effect, but it obviously feels quite a bit faster than it was NA when you floor it at 4000 rpms and WOT is louder too

 

I'm a little irritated that Dynocomp sent off my headers to be polished ceramic coated without asking me what type of coating I wanted - I wanted Jethot 2000. That was half the reason for pulling the headers and engine out in the first place.

So now my understanding is this polished ceramic coating is going to basically melt off with the high EGT temps where the Jethot 2000 would stand up to it and perform better. Good thing I have all the thermowrapping on everything and getting a vented hood. Guess I'll get the Jethot 2000 someday when I build up the engine if I decide to stick with the vortech at that point


Otherwise I'm on hold until I can get some money together for 550 injectors - actually I have plenty of money, but my wife is bugging me about getting her jeep fixed first as a priority. I'm trying to sell a few parts to come up with the money

My A/F gauge is still spasmatic - they never did get around to fixing it and calibrating it, but I know my A/F should be safe from what the dyno was showing. I'm being careful to not get on the gas too much late at night when it's probably 30 degrees colder than when the car was dynoing.

I installed a Hawker Odessey PC925 battery in place of my 680. I managed to get it to fit - kinda an odd size. Car starts up MUCH nicer now

 

which coating did they put on the headers? you'd think they'd ask, lol.

 

some local company that does polished ceramic coatings. My guess is it's just like Jet-hot sterling 1300 - aluminum which starts to melt off at 1300 degrees

 

well I'm all scheduled this friday for some handling stuff:


350EVO front A camber arms
SPC rear camber arms and toe bolts
Hawk HP+ brake pads with front titanium cooling plates
heim joints for rear sway bar
alignment


My 350EVO shifter has had something come loose and is rattling really bad. I can stand a lot of stuff, but it's pretty bad - sounds literally like a small nut rattling in a small metal box at high speed. So I'm going to have that looked into


I did replace my Hawker Odyssey 680 battery with a 925. I somehow got it to fit and it worked out - had to build some brackets etc. Next time I'll probably go with another type since the 925 is such a wacky size - like 2.5 inches not as tall as normal and about the same less in width. The car has been starting up better with it though.


I have the 550 injectors ordered and also the Emanage Ultimate pressure sensor and harnesses. I also figured out how to "unlock" the target A/F mapping on the Emanage Ultimate with the software and now just need the sensors etc to connect to my A/F gauge to get the feature to actually work.

Probably will get the car up on the dyno and everything installed at the end of next week or sometime on the following week. I think it looks like the car will hit 450-460 dynojet whp.



Another comment about the car that I've noticed is when driving on the highway at 80mph at 3300 rpms just cruising in 6th gear, if you stab the throttle just in 6th gear, the car moves pretty good for not being tuned

 

I got the stuff installed. My impression is the car handles even better now. The front is crisper and the rear seems to handle/slide in a more predicable way.

Not much to really say about it otherwise. It's a noticable difference, but not a "HOLY CRAP!!!!" difference or anything - not that I was expecting it to be. Jon freaked out when he saw the 350EVO arms with how nice they are

My car still starts like crap. I tried putting a redtop optima battery in my car on the off chance that my new bigger hawker 925 battery wasn't quite enough. Car still limps over and barely starts up. I'm really thinking I might pull the trigger on the ignition amplifier and get the spark plugs regapped

I've notice that with the 350EVO shifter you have to get your shifts DEAD ON. Any amount of slop or not staying focused on shifting precisly results in a gear grind. It's still rattling. Jon messed with it a little today and will try a couple more things out next time I go back.

the HP+ pads squeel HARDCORE. Man, they squeel - and loud too. At least when you're in the car it's damn loud. It's mainly the rears. I might try Axis Ultimate pads on the rears to kill the squeek. It's THAT bad. I did bed in the brakes pretty good. Jon did a light bed in before I picked up the car too. I dunno I kinda figured out the trick to making the pads squeel less which only happens when you're slowing from 20 and under. Seems like if you just lightly brake sooner by barely touching the brake pedal the squeel doesn't happen - just little squeels which are totally fine. That kinda takes the fun out of it all though. But they do bite really hard. They'll almost throw you thru the windshield if you braked hard enough. We'll see if they get any better, otherwise I'm throwing some axis pads at the rears

I gotta say, my vortech is not making any unusual sounds of any kind. I think the belt has stablized from stretching and should be smooth sailing from here. My wife really likes the sound of the car. She likes the BOV and suprisingly likes the constant low volume BOV sound when not in boost. The car is actually very quiet just cruising on the highway. We drove side by side on the highway tonight and she remarked how you can definetly tell the car has something going on with power because of the BOV air release sounding like a jet ready for take off.


next appointment for the final step with the car fully running is monday may 15. I'll be getting the following done:

550 injectors
fuel pressure dropping issue fixed
idle stablizer kit
A/F guage working right
Emanage and A/F communicating
ignition amplifier
spark plugs regapped
tuning
possibly rear Axis pads



I'm very happy with how the car is turning out so far. Honestly the weakest link I think are my michellin PS2 tires. They feel too squishy in the corners or when you do a pretend slalom with the lines on the road between 2 lanes - the tires feel a little vague IMO

I'm trying to debate between 265 and 295 BFG KD or Pirelli Corsa, or yokohama A048's with the off chance I can get a 315/30/18 to fit in the rear - would be rediculously close though if it worked. The PS2's are so buldgy and the A048's are the opposite. I'm a little concerned about wear though, but I dunno. My PS2's look like the rears will get another 6 months equalling 10-12k miles. The fronts seem to be in better shape. I will NEVER buy PS2's again. For the price you pay for them they should perform better than they do and I was under the impression they'd last 15-20k street miles since they're supposed to wear so well - well that's all BS.

Oh, and launching the car slightly hard I can tell I I'll probably break traction in 1st gear, but I don't think I'll have any problem controlling it.

 

update:

got the 550 injectors in and got tuned, but there was some minor mishaps. The car runs great except the belt is slipping and on the dyno you can see that it's slipping where the big long stretch is as the belt goes over to the supercharger pulley. It does it in two places, on top and on bottom. It looks like a blur where the belt vibrates sorta. However, the belt shows signs of being too tight with wear marks. So the theory is that where the belt is going around the crank pulley and all those other pulleys, it's too tight. But where it goes way over to the supercharger, it's too loose. So we're going to try adding two additional idler pulleys in those areas by drilling thru the pulley plate and adding some small pulleys. We see no reason why this shouldn't work and will hopefully solve the issue - other vortech people might want to look into this sort of thing too.


Anyway back to my dyno. On their dynodynamics dyno I ended the day with 373whp and about 328 tq - note that those numbers should have about 10-11% added to them to get a comparable dynojet number so pretty much 410 whp and 360 tq on a dynojet. However I was losing boost BIG time from 5500 to redline. The boost shot up to 7 psi like the last dyno at around 5500 rpms, then instead of continuing on to 9 psi like it should, it falls to about 6 psi at redline. So that's a pretty big bummer that hopefully can be fixed with the pulley issue. The belt slipping IS the issue with that.

Also last time with the 440 injectors, where the A/F would start leaning out, that leaning out also contributed to my old higher number. Anyway, the plan right now is to fix the belt issue to get my lost PSI back, and also add the 2.87 pulley and water injection. I don't see any reason why I wouldn't hit 410-420whp on their dyno with an additional 5-7 psi at redline compared to my 6 psi that I'm making now. That should be around 460-470 dynojet whp

Rich was saying he's actually pretty impressed that with only 6 psi or so at redline that I'm pulling 373whp. They had a G35 a couple weeks ago with the APS 2.5 exhaust and test pipes with 9 psi of boost make 380whp. I guess cams and all my other crap helps a lot.

So the car was tuned the best it could be for now and in a couple weeks I'll go back to get the issues fixed. I'm still losing fuel pressure as the car climbs to redline. If anyone with the CJM fuel return system has any ideas of what could be causing the fuel pressure to drop let me know. I'm going to have Charles himself talk with the dynocomp guys to hopefully solve the issue or at least make me sleep better at night about it. Rich seemed pretty sure the pressure fuel pressure loss isn't that big of a deal at my current power levels



So anyway, I FINALLY got to drive my car to redline tonight with the power it's making and I know it isn't a huge high hp turbo setup, but I'm pretty happy with the car. I actually think 410 (dynojet) whp is plenty, but I'm stupid and am going to have more added. 1st gear for sure doesn't maintain grip right now with my 3.9 final drive and 295 michellin PS2's. I had a feeling it wouldn't. I'm pretty sure 2nd gear might keep traction for now with 410whp, but it's hard to tell cause I could feel the belt slip at high rpm so it gets jerky and just hard to tell. 3rd-4th gear drive great down the highway.

I had so many close calls with cops tonight it wasn't even funny. They'd come out of nowhere and follow me for a bit until I turned off. I'm sure they heard me 3 miles away. Or I'd ALMOST gun it and decide not to only to see a cop car sitting off to the side hidden if I did stomp on it. My wife apparently is bad luck - whenever I get pulled over, she's in the car with me. She actually was a little scared of how much power the car has. I know 410whp isn't much compared to the big turbo guys, but with all the other crap I have on it, it goes to redline pretty quick with the 3.9 FD, ATS clutch, and KVR pulley etc.

I really want to do something about my tire/wheel setup. I want more traction. I'm pretty sure with 50 more whp 2nd gear isn't going to maintain traction and maybe 3rd even. I really want to get some 315 tires. I'm never getting PS2's again. Sidewall is too squishy and the inside of the tire being designed for wet traction is what mostly touches the road. And the sidewall is too bulgy. It slightly rubs my zeal coilovers in hard cornering on my rear wheels (10.5 +43mm offset SSR GT2) I just had my car realligned to. I've really been looking at the nismo/roto wheels with 285 front and 315 rear, but going to have to wait until my current tires die off and I'm running low on cash for car stuff right now anyway. I just can't stand the feeling of spinning out tires and losing traction.

For those curious about the 3.9 with the vortech. IMO it works great. I wasn't expecting to maintain traction in 1st gear with normal street tires - even 295 PS2's. They're not all THAT sticky IMO. I probably wouldn't recommend the 3.9 to people running smaller/lesser tires, but I can say that at 410whp and all the other stuff on my car and some decent tires, I think it drives fine with the 3.9 FD. I don't think shifts come on too fast at all, but that's just my view on it. If I was driving an auto, I'd probably think about getting a 3.5 FD for the vortech unless you're making 500+whp and don't like the idea of using competition tires or drag radials for grip

Driving with the vortech, I can honestly say that I can see why driving a turbo would be so much fun with having high boost at low/mid rpms. With the vortech, you HAVE to downshift to get any of the major power - which at high rpms is loud as hell. My wife drove in her jeep on the highway with me and I was gunning it and bedding in my rear brakes a bunch. She was warning me to not gun it when in people's blind spots cause it'll scare the crap out of them with how loud it is. Still despite everything though, I feel like my car has more than enough power as is. Getting the 2.87 pulley will help a lot with the midrange/low end anyway with 1-2 more psi.

So for now I'm pretty happy. Hopefully the belt kinks get ironed out and some more power and we'll see where things go.

I'll update again in a couple weeks when I get more boost

 

Sentry

Glad your up and running . You really shouldnt have any belt slipping issues with the stock blower and 3.12 pulley . You can have it tighter than you have it , so it doesnt slip . There are plenty of guys running that way .

Also ..I read in another thread you had the 440 injectors in and they werent enough . What was your fuel preasure when it started to lean out ?

 

the fuel pressure was dropping and dropping until it gets to like 15 or something at redline - yeah not so great. The return kit is basically not working for some reason. Starting pressure is like 50 or something - I don't exactly remember

 

a fuel pressure drop doesnt say that the return system isnt working. either your fuel pump is too small for what your doing, or you have a pressure leak, possibly the top o-ring on the fuel pump outlet - some guys with walbros have had a problem with that.

15 psi by redline is horrible fuel pressure, i wouldnt even run the car until the problem is worked out.

 

Thats what I was about to say . Your fuel preasure should be rising . 1psi for every 1psi in boost . Your 440's should have been enough for your whp if the fuel preasure was good

 

actually now that i think of it, its not a pressure leak if at lower RPM its maintaining regular pressure.

however, you can test for a pressure leak very simply. Send 12 volts to the fuel pump while the engine is not running, and play with the regulator and bring the pressure up and down and check to see if there are any leaks.

take the pressure up high when the engine isnt running.

if you dont have some type of terrible kink in one of the fuel lines restricting flow, you will most likely find that you have a bad or incorrect fuel pump. have the shop swap out the fuel pump really quick for a known good one, that will probably fix your problems

 

thanks Charles, yeah I'm not comfortable with it either like that. I think it hit 15 psi only one time when we were adjusting fuel pressure. I think it's been adjusted to be higher. I'll take a look at what it is when I get in my car next time.

Anyway though, it'll be looked into and when they get the car up on the lift, they'll give you a call. We did take some video of the fuel pressure on the dyno for you. All the lifts were tied up when we were dynoing. Whatever the final fuel pressure was, they said it'd be ok enough to drive on for now.

 

Any chance of getting a video of your bad boy? I am really wanting to do the same blower kit and I would really like to see a video of it starting up and be able to hear the whine of the blower with the hood popped. I hear the sound is addicting, not to mention the added power of course.

P.S. Your write up and progress of this project is well thought out. Two thumbs up.

 

Charles, I looked at my fuel pressure at redline and it was looking like it was about 32 psi or so give or take.



Thanks Luscious Luke, I'm not sure how soon or if I will make a video. My idle isn't all that bad sounding at 950 rpms.

I'm still having weird start up issues and there's several factors that could be the reason. Bigger injectors, takes more effort to crank over a SC, my spark plugs are gapped to .028 right now and I'll probably keep them there at least for now because I'll be running water injection and don't want the spark blown out. It could partly be my JWT cams. I've been told if I were to drill a small hole in the throttle plate that the car will start up way easier too. Who knows what other reasons there are, but sometimes it starts up great and other times it doesn't or not in any sort of impressive way. When it's being moody, it always starts up by the 3rd or 4th try though. My guess is it's a combination of everything. Hopefully I can iron out the issue in time.

Something to note though is when you first do a cold start up, I sometimes get a belt squeel for about 3-4 seconds, then suddenly stops. Honestly my ATS twin clutch makes a LOT more noise at idle than my vortech does, and it doesn't make all that much noise at 950 rpms.

the BOV at redline on the vortech is incredible. Right now I'm not even making half the boost as I will be making and it already sounds awesome when shifting

 

Sentry
If your belt squeels at start up . It's for sure to loose and that is why you are getting boost fall off or leveling off up top . Trust me on that , its happened to me plenty . I run that belt super tight now just to get me to 13-13.9psi up top .

 

thanks booger, good to know. Yeah it's for sure too loose

it won't matter too much longer though as I'm going to be moving into the 2.87 pulley

I'm tempted to have dynocomp try adding the extra pulleys in anyway just to see how it turns out. I can always take them back off. The procedure sounded fairly simple. They were sure they could do it all in not much time at all.

 

if you got that route , let us see it with a pic . Wondering if it would help me ????

 

yeah the idea was giving the belt right there some extra tension to keep the tension more consistent with the rest of the pulleys.

I'll update when there's any news on it and the results - just now ordered the 2.87 pulley.



on another note, I take back all my comments about not sure I was satisfied with my header coating. My headers were coated by HPC. As I understand it, Jethot was started by a could ex-exmployees from HPC who came up with a knock off header coating to mimic HPC. It's not quite as good as HPC. The polished ceramic coating on my headers are used on pro drag racing cars, turbo exhaust manifolds, etc where there's really high temps and high hp.

When dynocomp called HPC and asked them what they recommend coating wise for my headers, they said their polished coating would be more than enough for my needs. They do offer 2 extra stages in coating. The next higher is the same coating except it's not polished (black). Then they have their extreme coating that is extra thick and also black. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that now that I'm more educated on the matter.


I'm scheduled for June 1st to get the pulley stuff and water injection put on. I'm also going to have a CAI and oil cooler installed, then tuning of course. The car probably won't be done until a week or so later after Jon takes some measurements and orders the needed parts and puts everything together so it'll be about 2 and a half weeks from now before I have any real results with anything

 

oh btw for anyone interested, I had my rear hawk hp+ pads changed out to Axis ultimates and the squeeking went down like 90-95%. Now the front HP+ pads squeek just barely a tad at under 15mph - very acceptable, and the fronts still bite as hard as ever.

and as I stated in another thread, the HKS ignition amplifier does not seem to work with the greddy emanage ultimate. The car won't start when they're both connected, but disconnect either one and it'll start right up