Progress Thread New To Me 1988 GT - trying to set up vacuum lines for upper intake question

[pindude80]

If I go two tone again, which I'm leaning towards, or at least I am today I think I am going to do the same thing you did and go a little darker on the bottom.

Did you like it darker on the bottom than the factory color? Do you remember what color you painted the bottom I.E. what was the paint code or paint color called?

 

[BlakeusMaximus]

I just used whatever we had on the paint bench at the time, don’t remember what kind of car it went to. That was in 2000-2001. If I were to do it again, I would have went with the factory silver or body color on the bottom to eliminate the two tone.

 

[General karthief]

Mild street car with 'bolt on' stuff just get a set of shorties and a X pipe and the mufflers of your choosing, it's not gonna matter a hill of beans on a 300+- horse engine.
A good gear, a set of cheap rear tires and have some fun.........legally of course.

 

[General karthief]

Let me put my 'old guy' hat on and what I want out of a hot rod I drive, it needs to gittyup, get away from the 'packriding' most people do, torque is key, in my opinion of course, happens in the first two shifts so a rear gear is important for getting out of the hole just by rolling into the go peddle. Most of the street work is done between idle and 4k RPMs, I run a stock 5.0, long tube headers (its a torque thing), real gt40 tubular intake with 76(?) TB smooth intake tubing and a (sort of) cold air setup, 355 gear, typical T5 stock black ponys and a smidge wider tire, stock suspension, really good shocks, aftermarket rear lower control arms, stock style uppers,
My job required surveillance including following people around, I was known for doing those 'difficult ' jobs. Nobody ever 'drove away' from me, the (re)build was dependable, fairly econ and , if I do say so myself, a ton of fun to drive,
I am experimenting with a few things this time around but it will still center around a nice long flat torque curve, I measure torque by the length of the burn outs.

 

[Mindseye007]

Stock thermostat is 195 deg. The ECU is expecting that so don’t run a 180.

Running a 180 no good? that's what I use with my

Flex-A-Lite Black Magic X-Treme Electric Fan Kit 3300 CFM​

185 fan.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Unless you tune the ECU the stock tables were built around the stock temp thermostat. The ECU can adapt but only so much and when you start out with making it adapt then any other things that get out of parameter it cannot adapt to.

 

[pindude80]

Let me put my 'old guy' hat on and what I want out of a hot rod I drive, it needs to gittyup, get away from the 'packriding' most people do, torque is key, in my opinion of course, happens in the first two shifts so a rear gear is important for getting out of the hole just by rolling into the go peddle. Most of the street work is done between idle and 4k RPMs, I run a stock 5.0, long tube headers (its a torque thing), real gt40 tubular intake with 76(?) TB smooth intake tubing and a (sort of) cold air setup, 355 gear, typical T5 stock black ponys and a smidge wider tire, stock suspension, really good shocks, aftermarket rear lower control arms, stock style uppers,
My job required surveillance including following people around, I was known for doing those 'difficult ' jobs. Nobody ever 'drove away' from me, the (re)build was dependable, fairly econ and , if I do say so myself, a ton of fun to drive,
I am experimenting with a few things this time around but it will still center around a nice long flat torque curve, I measure torque by the length of the burn outs.

Does your car have the stock cylinder heads? I think I am going to do shorty headers. I agree, on a street car, a majority of the work is done in the idle to 4k rpm range. From the little research I have done on short tube vs long tube headers, it sounds like short tubes make more power down low than long tubes but the tradeoff is shorties aren't as efficient as long tubes in the mid to upper RPM range.

I like torque and burnouts so the more the better!

 

[pindude80]

Mild street car with 'bolt on' stuff just get a set of shorties and a X pipe and the mufflers of your choosing, it's not gonna matter a hill of beans on a 300+- horse engine.
A good gear, a set of cheap rear tires and have some fun.........legally of course.

At this point, it's definitelty looking like it's going to be a mild street car. Eventually it might get some budget alumium cylinder heads and a cam but doubtful I will go much if any farther than that.

 

[AeroCoupe]

I put shorties on the 331 in my Coupe and it made 360ish to the rear wheels. I am absolutely sure the combo would make more with long tubes but for me they are more trouble than they are worth to install and work around on a street car.

 

[General karthief]

On the dyno long tubes will give more lowend grunt (torque) than shorties, now the difference is small enough on a sub 350 HP engine makes the long tubes not worth the effort alone, there have been a few conversations about headers around here, and other forums I'm sure,
After a couple long conversations with a custom header builder that is no longer with us I believe, we agreed the only thing wrong with 'short' headers are the ball type sockets that is used, if you want that 'low end grunt' like long tubes, cut the ball socket off and extend the collector as much as you can and slip fit the head pipe, BAMN your in long tube torque territory..again the gains are small, but you can make them add up..

 

[Noobz347]

I will say though...

That the HP and TQ benefit from long tubes is generally across the entire power band and not just at the top.

Furthermore, if you have a cam and exhaust that takes good advantage of long tubes, you can get a little more out of them.

You need to be certain of the entire exhaust system for it to matter.

If you're thinking supercharger... Meh. The boost will push it through.

 

[pindude80]

I put shorties on the 331 in my Coupe and it made 360ish to the rear wheels. I am absolutely sure the combo would make more with long tubes but for me they are more trouble than they are worth to install and work around on a street car.

And that's where I'm at, I don't think I want to deal with long tubes and my combo will be more tame than yours. It would be interesting to know how much hp difference there would be between longtube and shorttube headers on your combo. In my eyes, for a street car, if it's 10 hp going to LTs it isn't worth it on a street car.

 

[pindude80]

On the dyno long tubes will give more lowend grunt (torque) than shorties, now the difference is small enough on a sub 350 HP engine makes the long tubes not worth the effort alone, there have been a few conversations about headers around here, and other forums I'm sure,
After a couple long conversations with a custom header builder that is no longer with us I believe, we agreed the only thing wrong with 'short' headers are the ball type sockets that is used, if you want that 'low end grunt' like long tubes, cut the ball socket off and extend the collector as much as you can and slip fit the head pipe, BAMN your in long tube torque territory..again the gains are small, but you can make them add up..

My other '88 has LT headers, not sure of the brand but they have ball and socket collectors so they might not even make more than shorty headers due to both having ball and socket collectors.

 

[pindude80]

I will say though...

That the HP and TQ benefit from long tubes is generally across the entire power band and not just at the top.

Furthermore, if you have a cam and exhaust that takes good advantage of long tubes, you can get a little more out of them.

You need to be certain of the entire exhaust system for it to matter.

If you're thinking supercharger... Meh. The boost will push it through.

At this point, it is very unlikely I will go supercharged on this car. I am thinking it will get a Ford Motorsport letter cam, Anderson cam or maybe a Trickflow cam that will work with stock pistons / stock bottom end. Probably do 2.5 inch off-road h-pipe or x-pipe and maybe two chamber Flowmasters with tailpipes.

Have you guys ever heard of Big Dogs Porting? I follow them on YouTube. Recently I caught a video of them doing work on a customer's car and they said Flowmaster mufflers don't flow that good and they swapped them out to something else. Sooooo, I might not be set on Flowmasters but wanted to see if you guys heard that about Flowmasters. I guess the best flowing would be straight-through bullet style muffs but I don't want that on a street car.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Again if you are looking to eke out every last bit of hp then sure try a different muffler. I have the two chambers on my Coupe and will not be changing them.

Also, TMoss is a far better porter than BigDog.

 

[pindude80]

Nope, definitley not worried about squeezing out every last hp. As long as they aren't a big bottle neck costing me 20 hp or something stupid like that I see no reason to change them. I do love the way the two chamber Flowmasters sound. The only thing I don't like about them is the drone on a long road trip; the drone would be the only reason I would consider doing a different brand muffler but not really worried about it now.

I'll have to look up TMoss. I don't plan on getting anything ported at this point but it is a possibility when it comes time to do H/C/I

 

[Noobz347]

Just do the 1 5/8" unequal shorties and press on with pride.

Is the rest of your exhaust, currently stock? Look at doing 2.5" all the way back with maybe a Dr. Gas catted X or something along those lines.

 

[pindude80]

1-5/8" unequal shorties are my plan at this point. I was thinking of finding some used but LMR sells them new for $180, which seems like a pretty good deal. The reviews on the headers are pretty good also.

My current exhaust is kind of a mess lol. It has stock manifolds, stock h-pipe with the rear cats cut out, stock flow tubes, with a lot of pin holes that I smeared red rtv on for a temporary fix (it worked!), 2-1/2 Flowmasters that have been welded to the stock flow tubes, and stock tailpipes. It's not loud enough for my taste. I'm sure shorty headers, mid-pipe, and new catback will sound better and pickup some hp. I like the sound of off-road mid-pipes so I'll see if I can find an off-road h or x pipe.

 

[AeroCoupe]

Watch the welds on the headers. The primary tubes on my BBK’s had sloppy welds on the inside of the tubes at the head flange. I also opened up the fire cone on each for better flow but overall I have no idea how much if any flow they picked up. I just had time over that winter and was building the 331 so it got done. I could see where the X-pipe was contacting the fire cone on the headers so I left about 1/8”. Removed quite a bit so I feel like it had to happen.

 

[pindude80]

Ok, I'll take a good look at the welds. Is the fire cone where all of the individual pipes meet near the collector?