Work Underway; EDIT: DONE!

[SSEiMan01]

Nice work!

LOL, that's just the crappy camera on my Bionic, it was glowing red, lol.

This is kind of like when you take a picture of the faceplate of a stock 00+ radio when it's lit...It shows up purple while everything around it is red.

[nos4blood70]

They look really cool purple! If only it wasn't an illusion.

[Z-type]

The engine looks awesome so far, Ed! You've certainly inspired me to make a list of mods and appearance mods for the Spring time!

[00Beast]

Well, good news and bad news.

Good news: Car is back together and started up, and ran great once I switched the front two plug wires around. I honestly think it runs better than before, at idle and low throttle.

Bad: For some reason, it seems my S/C belt is slipping under load and I'm not getting full power over 3500 RPM. It sounds exactly like a slipping belt, so I'm praying that's what it is. If a new belt doesn't fix it, I may have to look at the tensioner. Otherwise I'm at a loss...

[wake]

keep pushin Ed! youll figure it out

[BonneMe]

How new are your tensioners? I'm sure a nosedrive or something is just a little different than the OEM one, and maybe it just worked with the worn out tensioners?

This should be a nice upgrade I still want to drive it!

[Bing]

Once you get your tension problems figured out post some photos up.
The anticipation is killing me.

[00Beast]

Yeah, I'm thinking it's the tensioner/belt. It's probably more the new bearings in the S/C, as my nosedrive and rotors are swapped from my stock S/C.

Pics will come soon!

[00Beast]

Got a brand new belt from NAPA and it fixed the slipping!!!

Couple of teaser pics:



I'll get the rest of the car cleaned up and some more pics later this week I hope.

Final mod list is the same as before, minus the ceramic coated crossover.

Overall, the car runs spectacularly. Starts and idles like I've never seen it do, and the power, especially in the mid-range, is fantastic. You can now get on it at any speed. Traction is non-existant at WOT till 25-30, and pickup is amazing like I've never felt from any speed. Take note: This is all on the stock PCM, with a max of 3° of KR (For a milisecond) and 5.4 LTFT (Running lean) on a 3.6 pulley. I'll swap the tuned PCM in and report back. All-in-all, this was worth every bit of work and every penny. I will also throw up another thread on chamfering the heads and cleaning up the LIM, most likely.

[BonneMe]

So a tune and a 3.4 and you'll have even more fun!

I don't see where you mentioned the first new belt was the wrong size causing your slipping...

[Bing]

Looks good Ed, ported front exhaust manifold for the CHEAP win! Glad to see you took this route at least for now.

[00Beast]

So a tune and a 3.4 and you'll have even more fun!

I don't see where you mentioned the first new belt was the wrong size causing your slipping...

No, the old belt was what was caused the slipping. The first new belt from NAPA was way too short, and didn't even fit over the pulleys. Took it back and got the right size belt and a new ribbed idler for peace of mind, and it solved the problem.

[Z-type]

I think I know where my tax refund is going to end up this year, and it's all your fault, Ed.

[willwren]

The ported supercharger gained you mostly midrange, and that's primarily due to the inlet being matched and smoothed. Some high end on extended runs as the outlet won't run as hot after porting and smoothing. It flows more, but only when you're really getting on it.

You SHOULD notice a little boost in gear at idle with your foot on the brake, and it's not uncommon for your idle to have to re-learn. Overall, the biggest difference will be in the summer and at the track. The blower will run cooler now.

[00Beast]

Yep, the midrange is much better now, and I can definitely see why things would be cooler.

The chamfering of the heads and cleaning up of the LIM I think was less important than I originally thought, but if anyone has the LIM off, it's essentially a free mod. The PEM is definitely helping throughout the range, and was also free. For how much these mods cost, I HIGHLY recommend them.

[00Beast]

Final post:

Got a new AC Delco tensioner on ($53 from Amazon, v. $85 from Rock Auto or $100+ for NAPA Brand) yesterday, and other than breaking the ground wire off and having to goof with that it went fine. The new tensioner even uses 16 mm bolts instead of torx heads for the pulleys, which looks nicer and should work a lot better.

Took it out for the first real test drive, and holy crap. WOT from a dead stop is all but worthless, and probably gonna nuke my diff, lol, and even launching from 15-20 MPH garners tire spin on the account of what it had stock. I'm more than pleased with how these mods turned out, and now that the kinks are worked out, there are no downsides. Better mileage, more power, a cool under-hood accent from Bill's work on the S/C and something I can say I did myself.

[underpressure03]

May I ask what your total investment in this round of work has been, sir? If you've posted it, I've missed it. Skimming is always FML. Sounds like output changed significantly but was the cost to gain worth it is what I'm after. Just from reading it seems like power and track ET per dollar invested on the these cars isn't as high as I'm used to or hoping for. Not talking smack, I love these cars now. It's just an uneducated observation based on what lil bit of reading I've done. Obviously its always worth it if a man's happy with the end result.

[00Beast]

For what I have invested in what's listed in this thread:

$150 for ported/coated/laser engraved S/C housing + $20 for bearings + $40 for coupler/sealant/oil
$100 for gaskets (Exhaust manifold, LIM, S/C, TB)
$15 worth of ceramic paint ($30 for 4 ounces, used around half)
$8 can of Wrinkle Coating
$16 carbide burr
$5 dremel sanding rolls
$10 thermostat

So I have around $350 in this round, but it's also building off of my current mods, which are:
$200 FWI + cleaning kit
$85 MPS
$250 Downpipe & High Flow cat
$60 Tune
$250 Aeroforce Interceptor
$100 Shift Kit
$15 solid front mount

So I have around $1200 in maybe 40-45 HP worth of mods, at best. It's not the best $/HP, but there isn't really much you can do about it. These costs have been spread out over 3 years of ownership, and I don't really mind them. There are cars which have a much cheaper input per output cost, but this is the car I want to spend money on, so it doesn't really bother me.

Side note: Tensioner fixed the belt slip problem, but brought a new problem: The plastic pulley squeals. Tried lubing it with WD-40 and it helped for 10 minutes. Most annoying sound ever, and it's driving me nuts. I may have to go buy another plastic pulley and replace the *dang* thing....

[SSEiMan01]

I may have to go buy another plastic pulley and replace the *dang* thing....

My tensioner and idler pullies have been replaced (by me) with metal ones, check to see if they are available. They should be...

[00Beast]

It's the ribbed one, that's not available in metal...