Progress Thread 1998 Gt Procharger Build--dyno And Track Numbers Inside

[squeak93]

1998 GT
Trick flow 1 cams
pi intake. Pro products plenum and tb
4r70 with shift kit
3.90 gears
O/R x pipe and slp lm1 cat back
Sct 3 tuner
Other various items. Lots of suspension pieces.

Anyway I went to the track Friday night. 3500ish d/a (950 actual elevation) so real bad air and it went a best if [email protected]. Very easy to drive in fact it has more traction issues in second then first. Lol

But it was still slow and in need of more. I was already wanting to do a blower but being stuck in the 14s when my 03 Mach ran 12.6 all motor wasn't going to cut it.

So I have a Procharger p1sc. 3 core inter cooler and race blow off valve with all the supporting mods to go on. All the little stuff will be here this week and I'll go pick up the blower tomorrow.

I'm excited and nervous. I've used n2o a lot on a pi swapped 98 and it runs 11.90s. I'm hoping for similar results. The n2o car only runs 13.70s all motor. Fairly comparable.

Anyway I'll start getting pics of the goodies and supporting mods.

 

[squeak93]

Just a teaser.

 

[squeak93]

The tear down has commenced.

 

[squeak93]

Gauge install is complete. I need new bulb covers to match the blueish dash lights. I still need to tap a line for a boost reference and run the trans temp wire down (plus install that pan).

I'm open for suggestion on the best boost reference spot.

 

[squeak93]

The hulks are installed as well.

I also got the mrt hood struts installed. I hate hood props.

 

[squeak93]

All is done. Waiting on a startup tune and dyno appt.

 

[squeak93]

Here is a startup tune idle vid.

 

[Mattstang04]

Didn't see your video come thru.

I tapped the vacuum line off the top of the fuel pressure rail sensor for my boost gauge. Never had a problem. Routed the house thru the big rubber grommet that's low on the driver's side of the firewall. Mine was an 04 but I assume the early sn95s have the same grommet.

 

[squeak93]

I have no clue why the vid didn't work. I'm sure some iphone hate is going on.

Anyway, my dyno tune went as I expected. First pull it decided to puke oil out the front seal (that was previously not leaking lol). So that ended the day. Since then at the advice of the tuner I deleted the pcv system and added filters to help with crank case pressure.

The issue is we still can't get it to build any sort of boost. 3.85 blower pulley with a stock 6.81 crank and I see maybe 3-4lbs driving around and a spike of 6psi just at redline as it shifted.

I'm thinking the big red race valve is stuck or not functioning properly due to sitting for about 4 years. I'm going to take it apart tonight and see if it functions correctly or if the diaphragm is bad. if so I'll regroup and go from there. I'm hoping that's why it won't make boost. I want to make 10-12lbs which means a pulley change is likely in order but I need to make sure it makes something now. 3-4lbs at 4500-5k rpm really isn't fun to drive lol.

 

[Mattstang04]

Have you done a compression check on the engine. Just to make sure it's not leaking compression on a cylinder.

 

[squeak93]

I have not yet. It's my last resort as I have my doubts of it being anything but a procharger kit issue. The car ran flawlessly before and only has 58k mile on it. No reason to think it's anything but a kit problem at this point. However, if I can't find anything wrong then we'll start to dig into the engine and see what's up.

Just for chits and giggles I ordered a 3.2 pulley, i'll spin this biatch hard enough to make boost one way or another.

 

[DSG_Mach]

Nice build definitely subscribing.

 

[squeak93]

I took apart the valve apart and its all clean and definitely working perfectly now. It was a bit gummed up and likely could have been bleeding a bit of boost off. The car still only makes 6psi max but it does get to 3-4lbs quicker now.

I'm impatiently waiting for House of Boost to mail my pulley I ordered three days ago. It would have been quicker to make the 300 mile round trip to procharger myself (Live in SW mo and they are in KC). I just want to make some boost.

I'm hoping the 3.2 from my current 3.85 will spin the blower hard enough to get me to that 10-12 lbs we are shooting for to make the 400rwhp we are hoping for.

 

[squeak93]

Well Three power steering pumps later I'm giving up and dropping the car off at the tuners to have that fixed and the tune finished. I spent all weekend taking apart the system, flushing and burping and still couldn't get the brakes or power steering back.

On a side note the 3.2 pulley made 10lbs so that should help the car make some more power.

 

[Mattstang04]

Glad you got your boost up. I made 400 to the wheel on stock internal 04 gt with a p1sc and 3.4 inch pulley. Was putting out around 12 psi.

 

[squeak93]

My cams eat some boost as expected.

Yesterday they got the power steering issues fixed. There was debri in the lines and it took out the third power steering pump. Cost quite a bit and was a good lesson in sometimes it's ok to give up sooner (I spent $150 in pumps and crap only to take it to them to spend another 386 yay lol).

That was the "good news".

The bad news was that as expected we pegged the Lightning maf sensor. Only able to put down 340 hp at 5k rpm with 11:1 afr (fat, really fat) and only 10 degrees total timing. The tuner wants to put on a SCT Ba5000 slot maf sensor and appropriate tubing etc. So that all got ordered, hopefully it all comes in by Friday and he can get me going Sat at the latest. He thinks we'll put down 400-420 through an auto with npi heads. Not a bad deal at all.

I'm excited and anxious to drive this beast and make some jam!

 

[Mattstang04]

The MAF is a hard lesson. My first trip to the tuner, I was using a L meter. It pegged almost immediately. Had to buy a MAFia at the shop to finish the tune. About a year later it, the MAFia bit the dust. I bought a tube, Ba5000, and wiring adapter. Added a smaller pulley and bassani mid length headers. Car made the most power it ever did and the tuner loved how much better the Ba5000 read, measured and tuned. The tube cut down on some of the turbulence that the L meter suffered from. The straighter the flow of air, the better it can measure. Its a very good MAF setup. You won't be disappointed.

 

[squeak93]

I'm excited to see how it all turns out. I've poured a lot of work and money into this thing in a short amount of time.

I just ordered a tubular front bumper support as well. The stock support blocks over 1/3 of the intercooler surface area (large 3 core cooler). This way I'll get better cooling effect and help with iat's.

I may end up doing a rear support as well to help with some lbs added with the procharger kit. This stuff weights quite a bit.

But having almost twice the rwhp that it did stock some extra lbs won't be as noticeable.

 

[squeak93]

340hp 343 tq is what we ended up with. Down considerably from where I wanted to be. The NPI heads and auto really killed it. I imagine with just a better stall alone it'll see 20/30 increase then some more if/when I decide to put a good set of PI heads (ported likely) on it.

We chased a million issues this weekend and broke some more new parts. I shredded a few belts to finally find the cause. The tensioner pulley was spaced too far from the front cover, causing the back rib of the belt to ride on FM( Freaking magic). That rib was ripping off after a while and taking out the belt and other items while it was at it. We got that fixed only to snap the tensioner the very next road test.

Put a new tensioner on and another new belt and then ordered a billet thumper RRR tensioner. No more playing around.

WE see about 9-10lbs of boost at redline. with a 3.2 upper and 6.78 lower. It does have a MASSIVE 3 core intercooler so I think it's eating some boost as well.

My cams were not degreed by the previous owner/installer so that too can hurt some boost.

And the last issue was it kept getting warm on me and the tune pulls timing at 208 coolant temp. We had to replace the t-stat and that helped but then caused it to puke out the coolant from the rad cap. I was (still may be a tad) fearful of a blown HG but I took the cheap route and replaced the cap. So far so good with no more coolant puking. I've put a few street miles on it since and no issues so far. I still get that sweet burning coolant smell but it's still in some nooks and crevices of the engine bay that I didn't get washed very good I guess.

I also got the nitto drag radials put on and if all goes well with daily driving it this week I'll hit the track up this weekend and see if I need to be worried about the lower dyno numbers or if it will run a low 12 in the high 115-120 range. Doubt it but we will see.

 

[Mattstang04]

Get after it. I like dyno numbers but the reality is that they aren't the final word in performance. ET's and speed are the real authority in how strong a car can perform. Just remember PI heads are easy to come by and drastically change the performance of NPI cars. Boost in compression even over the PI cars. Blend in your cams and blower and you got a strong engine.