Yesterday I took the car to Church Automotive Testing for tuning of the car since the addition of the Vortech kit. I have to say that I was quite impressed with Shawn and his tuning skills. I highly recommend Church's for tuning.

Now, for the numbers. My mods are in my sig. Church's uses a Dynapack dyno setup to read the vehicle. I made 390whp/328lbft. Power is smooth and expected. Not breaking any records here, but a nice tune nevertheless.

 

nice numbers man, what pulley are you using?

 

Using the stock 3.33 pulley.

 

Nice, I am hoping my numbers are close to yours when complete!

 

Nice Numbers!

 

Yeah agreed nice numbers. I need to take mine for tuning also. Did you just do a baseline dyno or actual tune your Z? I think my Vortech setup maybe running on the rich side, which I've been told is the way the Split Second box is setup. If you did do a full tune, what else did they have to adjust? Timing? Maps? etc.

My setup, engine wise, is very similar to yours with the exception of the cats. I am hoping that a full tune will get me at or a little over 500whp for now. I am planning on adding a fuel return system with bigger injectors, fuel pump, eManage, etc. later and want to baseline my car after a complete tune before upgrading the fuel system.

Oh BTW, nice setup!

 

kr8z, i'm not so sure you'll hit 500whp without a lot more work done to your car

I think to hit 500whp, you'll need a T-trim blower or a 2.87 pulley at the very least on the stock blower, cams, water injection, HF cats if not test pipes, headers, and obviously 650cc injectors and return fuel kit added to your setup

the other thing to keep in mind is that THE TECH's dyno was done on a dynapack dyno which probably reads a little higher than dynojet since the wheels are removed

 

sentry65, you are correct. My bad, I meant 400whp without the fuel upgrade. My plan is to do a baseline dyno and tune with just my current setup. Then only upgrade the fuel system and again dyno and tune afterwards. I am still debating about the pulley, how that will fit into my "phased" modifications. And then my last planned modifications would be to build the engine bottom end completely and add DC sport headers and do a final dyno and tune. After this last modifcation, I am expecting to be at 500whp or very close. I want to stay CARB or close to CARB legal, so atm, TT or T's out there ar out of the question. Of course, if they can get CARB legal, I'm going CARB legal TT and my planned modifications will have to be re-planned out.

DO you guys know any good dynojet tuners in the SoCal area?

Thanks.

 

sounds like a plan, but keep in mind that a built engine will actually produce less power - assuming you get stronger rods and pistons with a lower than stock compression ratio. You'll end up needing an extra lb of boost or so to get back to the power running on the stock engine.

I really think you're going to have a hard time hitting 500whp without upgrading the blower itself. My car isn't finished but I'm hitting around 445ish whp right now with a lot of pulled timing and am thinking with water injection and more timing I'll reach 460whp.

If I wanted to go for even more power, my options would be to switch to test pipes and a dual exhaust, upgrade to a T-trim blower, or build the engine up to a 3.8 liter with bored out darton sleeves, but since I'd lower the compression ratio to 9.5 or so, some power would be lost and would need to be compensated for

There's a member (kevinapex) who has almost my exact setup except he has test pipes and a dual exhaust with a built engine and is hitting 482whp. For him to reach 500whp he'd probably have to either upgrade the blower or run some race gas or water injection and increase the timing by a few degrees, unless he has some margine for more timing on pump gas.

Just upgrading headers, stronger pistons and rods and a fuel system won't move you from 400whp to 500whp

I'm not sure you'll be able to technically remain CARB legal if you upgrade your injectors, and you're pretty much going to have to once you get much above 400whp. I don't think anyone will find out you've changed your injectors though, and you'd probably pass smog fine anyway - but I can't say for sure

 

The Dynapack only reads on average 5-9hp difference from a Dynojet. It does give a better idea of what the car is doing since there is no wheel slippage like you could find on a Dynojet.

I had a full tune done. He tuned the entire map as well as timing.

 

What is your boost/PSI set at? I am getting my Vortech installed next month and have almost the same engine mods as you do.

 

Peak boost was about 7.8psi

 

Church is known for huge numbers also

 

you mean that they can somehow get more power out of cars than most tuners or that their dyno reads higher than normal?

 

The Dyno . Havent you read any thing about thier high reading dyno ?

 

well that's what I was saying, but THE TECH said it reads only 5-9hp higher than a dynojet. Maybe your average dynapak dyno is 5-9hp higher, but the one at Church Automotive is even higher?

To me it seems like a car with the 3.12 pulley, plenum spacer, HF cats, and exhaust would normally net in around 375whp on a dynojet

 

What Did You Use For Tuning? E-manage Etc...?

 

My car was tuned with the SS box.

 

I don't know about huge numbers or anything, but Shawn is very knowledgeable about the R4 prog and says that with these mods, he generally sees anywhere from 375-405.

 

Where you able to tune all the way through the RPM range? How was your fuel mix? I was under the impression that the SS box is hard to tune above 5500rpm. Good luck with you numbers Tech.