Questionss on Mild Mods

[yourgrandma]

I'm planning on getting an intense FWI, smaller pulley and probably will have to get a tune to make it work. My question is whether deleting the MAF screen is worthwhile. I've heard that the inconsitant readings the maf could give will undercut the reduction in restriction, but whats the verdict? Seems like a no brainer to me, but figured I'd ask. I took it out of my 92 SSE when I made an abs cold air intake. That leads me to another question: With Intense's use of flexible tubing, is the intake noise quieter than other types of intake systems?

I'm very interested in what real, dyno proven gains from this first tier set of upgrades have been for others. If I were to find a used set for cheap, I'd consider a rocker set as well, so that would be a helpful thing to know about, too.

I'd suspect that between the FWI, 3.4" pulley and remap I'd be adding 25 or so WHP, is this reasonable?

I'm not looking to make a monster out of it or anything. I ride a sportbike, so I know the car will never compare in performance, but I can't turn down easy gains.

Thanks.

[willwren]

With a FWI and 3.5" pulley, you won't need a tune. I wouldn't go 3.4" until you have a scanner or scangauge.

From my testing, I put my MAF screen back in. I got more consistent and repeatable results with it. The initial gain seems to fade over time as the PCM tries to figure out what's going on.

The INTENSE FWI is perhaps the loudest of all intake options, especially on cold start. You will hear more whine than you did, but not necessarily IN the car. It broadcasts the sound out the front left to the outside.

[2000Silverbullet]

Whatever you do to decrease the intake restriction...and an Intense FWI is the way to go.......you need to decrease the exhaust restriction equally.
You also need to increase your fuel flow slightly and cool down the coolant to 180F.

Running a 3.4 should be no problem as long as you are a responsible Granny and don't thrash it hard. A scanner like the Aeroforce is very useful.

Expect the 3.4 pulley with supporting mods to intake and exhaust to bump you up about 40 hp for very noticeable kick in the arse.

......and so it begins. As soon as you hear that whine and feel that torque you'll be hooked.

[yourgrandma]

Thanks for the input guys. The exhaust is something I havent really thought about much. I've never heard a 3800 that sounded good to me, so I guess I've avoided thinking about the exhaust. I have a 2.5" magnaflow cat that's been sittining in my shop for years, but to be quite honest, I'd probably end up getting a dummy sensor for the rear o2 and deleting the cat. That and a pair of mild mufflers and maybe an aftermarket resonator would be as far as I could see going.

I ride a sportbike, and am a track junkie, so no amount of money is going to make this car compare with that, so that's not what I'm going for. I want to get it to where I can somewhat surprise the four blond babes in the Mustang, or the a hole who tries to cut me off on the right in my morning commute.

Both of you seem to think a 3.4 might be on the smaller side of where I should be. I assume this will mandate the lower temp stat? I still want to get reasonable mileage, too, would meth injection be a good substitute for when its needed, rather than killing the mileage all the time?

[2000Silverbullet]

No, the meth injection is for more advanced knock control when using 2.9" and smaller pulleys.

You car stock will run 0-60 in 7.3 sec and the quarter in 15.5 sec @ 89 mph

With the 3.4" pulley and off road pipe, CAI and 180 stat with a PCM standard performance tune you can expect to shave a second off those times and trip the quarter at 95 mph.

[yourgrandma]

Vroom. That's not a bad boost to performance. With the meth, I would be using it as knock control rather than a low temp stat to preserve efficiancy during normal driving. Not worth the effort, I'm sure, but I'm always looking at tricky little stuff like that.

So, it looks like I'll get the FWI, pulley and stat, then look into a remap and exhaust a little later. I have other motorized obsesions to deal with too.

Oh, and by off road pipe, you mean just a cat delete, right?

[00Beast]

I have the Intense Level 1 L67/L32 kit on my car. It includes an FWI, 3.4 pulley and MPS hub, 180* T-stat, PCM and a set of colder plugs, for $419.99. I also have an Aeroforce scangauge. Both are very good investments. Also, have you changed your LIM gaskets yet? If not, I'd worry more about that than performance, for now.

Link to Level 1: http://intense-racing.com/Merchant2/mer ... de=3800_PP

[yourgrandma]

I saw that kit. I think I'd pass on the plugs, but the rest is nice to have in one shot.

[gigolo]

With a FWI and 3.5" pulley, you won't need a tune. I wouldn't go 3.4" until you have a scanner or scangauge.

From my testing, I put my MAF screen back in. I got more consistent and repeatable results with it. The initial gain seems to fade over time as the PCM tries to figure out what's going on.

The INTENSE FWI is perhaps the loudest of all intake options, especially on cold start. You will hear more whine than you did, but not necessarily IN the car. It broadcasts the sound out the front left to the outside.

I dissagree, I scanned jamie's 01 ssei with plog, fwi, and 3 in dp and stock cat back and also had a tune and he had a fairly consistent 5*of kr. so you can say that a 3.5 is "safe" well I will not back you on this if you want safe stay on a stock pulley till you have a way to continuously scan then if only if you are kr free maybe consider a 3.6 or 3.5. when you have a way to scan then ONLY then drop pulley sizes.

[01bonneSC]

No, the meth injection is for more advanced knock control when using 2.9" and smaller pulleys.

You car stock will run 0-60 in 7.3 sec and the quarter in 15.5 sec @ 89 mph

With the 3.4" pulley and off road pipe, CAI and 180 stat with a PCM standard performance tune you can expect to shave a second off those times and trip the quarter at 95 mph.

Ive run 14.9 at 91 stock! hehe

[2000Silverbullet]

Ive run 14.9 at 91 stock!

Freak!


I do agree with Gigilo, scan to see where you are. If you mod blindly, because every engine is a little different in how it reacts to mods, bad things can happen.
If you have an extra $4000 kicking around for a new long block, then don't worry.

[swampthing]

he might have valid points but thats no reason to be insulting to anybody or rude

[willwren]

With a FWI and 3.5" pulley, you won't need a tune. I wouldn't go 3.4" until you have a scanner or scangauge.

From my testing, I put my MAF screen back in. I got more consistent and repeatable results with it. The initial gain seems to fade over time as the PCM tries to figure out what's going on.

The INTENSE FWI is perhaps the loudest of all intake options, especially on cold start. You will hear more whine than you did, but not necessarily IN the car. It broadcasts the sound out the front left to the outside.

I dissagree, I scanned jamie's 01 ssei with plog, fwi, and 3 in dp and stock cat back and also had a tune and he had a fairly consistent 5*of kr. so you can say that a 3.5 is "safe" well I will not back you on this if you want safe stay on a stock pulley till you have a way to continuously scan then if only if you are kr free maybe consider a 3.6 or 3.5. when you have a way to scan then ONLY then drop pulley sizes. If you want to know why I am so adidment about this pm me and i will give you the full story

Gigilo, you need to tone it down a notch. If you read the replies in this topic, MOST cars respond favorably to a 3.5" pulley unless there is something else inherently wrong with the car. We always encourage L67's to have a scanner or scangauge for those types of situations.

There are always risks of KR on the L67, but they TYPICALLY don't surface on a car with a 3.5" pulley as long as they run premium fuel. You obviously found one of the odballs, or found a car with alot of false KR, which isn't really very uncommon. It's also important to determine under what conditions KR can come, and when it can be dangerous. At low rpm's under load, many cars here have KR, but it's not as dangerous as full-throttle high-rpm KR.

The purpose of a Forum is to discuss and debate an issue. Putting insults (which have been edited out) is against the very definition of 'forum'.

[yourgrandma]

Well then.

I originally wanted to take an all at once approach, but given the risks and contention involved, I think it way be more wise to just do the FWI for the time being. A motor going kapoot would be lame. Not $4000, but it would suck anyway. I've been thinking about a rebuild a little anyway though. It seems to use oil, so taking it easy would make sense.

[01bonneSC]

Well then.

I originally wanted to take an all at once approach, but given the risks and contention involved, I think it way be more wise to just do the FWI for the time being. A motor going kapoot would be lame. Not $4000, but it would suck anyway. I've been thinking about a rebuild a little anyway though. It seems to use oil, so taking it easy would make sense.

All engines(any) do use a lil oil, just nature of the beast. On average about a quart every 3000. How many miles on car? Is it using/leaking coolant?

[00Beast]

Woah, back the oil train up. My car burns a few drops of oil every 3k miles. I never need to add any. That's a VERY broad generalization if you say that all engines burn 1qt/3k miles. In fact, the only cars I've ever see burn that much oil or more are cars that have over 200k, and will probably need to be rebuilt in the next 50-100k.

[willwren]

A quart every 3k? That's NOT normal.

And nobody toasted a motor by running a 3.5" pulley unless they put low octane fuel in it.

[01bonneSC]

Sorry stuck in my old school tech with my 64 merc, as i was informed on my FordMuscle Magazine forum.... my bad!

[00Beast]

Basically the rule of thumb I've heard is when your car gets to 1 qt/1k miles, it's time for an overhaul (rings, bearings, gaskets, hone, etc).

[2000Silverbullet]

x2

Start with the FWI and a 180 stat. That will give you a good safe start.