MaverickWH
08-27-2010, 03:01 PM
My car is finally past the emissions nightmare again. As anyone here that knows me or my car, knows many of the headaches and history of this nightmare of a project. I finally did it right and took it Dragon to fix many of the issues that it's been plagued with and this time he got it to pass emissions so much faster. Three times to be exact, and that was before the other two major issues were addressed. If you're dealing with emissions problems, I can attest, these guys are great at it, and best of all, there's a new emissions center opening up less than a 1/2 block from their facility.
The 1st big fix was my oil drain from the turbo. It's gravity drained and was in a very tight fit, so one of the hoses had a slight kink in it, in addition to a small upward bend. The second big issue was from the primaries on the header cracking due to the weight and heat from the front mount. Since the last time they tuned it, the tune has never been right -- not due to Dragon, but due to the header leaks and having oil sprayed into the exhaust throwing off the O2 readings. I still couldn't believe they got it to pass the last time, let alone this time. My 12 bolt was also leaking horribly, so I can't tell you how happy I am today.
Now that the major issues are finally fixed, it was time to give it the tune it deserved -- and man o man... It feels so much better now. The new welds on the header look nice and stout and we added a support bracket to offload the weight of the turbo. The daily driving aspect of it is awesome as the car no longer hestitates under part throttle.
To date, the best time I've ran was a 12.9 @ 114 with most of the runs in the mid 13 range. Anyone that has seen my car run at the track, knows that it's pretty much a joke as it's never ran much faster than a stock one. Hopefully next time I'm out, everything is still running good and I can throw up some better times, however, it'll likely be next year before I invest in some slicks.
Here are some videos I took as they were finishing up yesterday. This first video is boring until around 2:00.
YouTube- Dyno 1
View of the speedo:
YouTube- Dyno 2
under boost - check out how much the red flex tube grows:
YouTube- Dyno 3
Any guesses on the final HP/TQ numbers? This was done on a mustang dyno and after I get the sheet scanned, I'll post it up.
I still have one big exhaust leak to fix between the downpipe and the cat, but at least that leak shouldn't affect the performance.
:)
The 1st big fix was my oil drain from the turbo. It's gravity drained and was in a very tight fit, so one of the hoses had a slight kink in it, in addition to a small upward bend. The second big issue was from the primaries on the header cracking due to the weight and heat from the front mount. Since the last time they tuned it, the tune has never been right -- not due to Dragon, but due to the header leaks and having oil sprayed into the exhaust throwing off the O2 readings. I still couldn't believe they got it to pass the last time, let alone this time. My 12 bolt was also leaking horribly, so I can't tell you how happy I am today.
Now that the major issues are finally fixed, it was time to give it the tune it deserved -- and man o man... It feels so much better now. The new welds on the header look nice and stout and we added a support bracket to offload the weight of the turbo. The daily driving aspect of it is awesome as the car no longer hestitates under part throttle.
To date, the best time I've ran was a 12.9 @ 114 with most of the runs in the mid 13 range. Anyone that has seen my car run at the track, knows that it's pretty much a joke as it's never ran much faster than a stock one. Hopefully next time I'm out, everything is still running good and I can throw up some better times, however, it'll likely be next year before I invest in some slicks.
Here are some videos I took as they were finishing up yesterday. This first video is boring until around 2:00.
YouTube- Dyno 1
View of the speedo:
YouTube- Dyno 2
under boost - check out how much the red flex tube grows:
YouTube- Dyno 3
Any guesses on the final HP/TQ numbers? This was done on a mustang dyno and after I get the sheet scanned, I'll post it up.
I still have one big exhaust leak to fix between the downpipe and the cat, but at least that leak shouldn't affect the performance.
:)