Joined
·
4,104 Posts
UPDATED! MTI Delivers!!! Jim G's SSR is now QUICK!!
Well, guys and gals, Reese at MTI Racing finished up his reprogramming of the VCM on my SSR today and dynoed it. It was AWESOME.
To review, when I took the SSR to Reese's shop recently, the baseline mods and numbers at that point were alreayd better than stock:
4.56 rear axle ratio versus stock 3.73
6000 rpm shift points versus 5600 rpm stock
Dyno tune using HP Tuner at a competitor's shop
256 peak hp at the rear wheels
263 peak ft lb of torque at the rear wheels
and per my G-Tech RR solid state onboard accelerometer:
0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds
1/4 mile in 15.07 at 92 mph
Reese installed Dynatech Supermaxx headers, a Rush air filter, and the brand new MTI stainless steel "Dual Shotgun Exhaust" for the SSR. Then, he did his magic tuning the SSR's VCM to bring out all the potential that the mechanical mods make possible.
Today at noon, he couldn't restrain himself. The results on the dyno were so good that he just had to call me to report that we had broken the 300 barrier on torque, with an actual reading of 301.4 ft lb at 4200 rpm! That boys and girls is a 38.4 ft lb gain in peak torque! I couldn't wait to get to the shop after work to see the whole dyno chart!
When I got there, I was immediately VERY impressed. The gap between the "before" and "after" torque and horsepower curves was just unbelievable.
I held off posting until just now, because I wanted to get the dyno chart home and do my "counting the squares" routine under both the "before" and "after" torque and horsepower curves. It was worth waiting to do the calculations.
To be scrupulously fair, I only compared the portions of the curves where we had data for both the before and after runs. The after run covers a narrower rpm range than the before run because with Reese's new EFILive software. he doesn't yet have the dyno control to defeat automatic downshifting, so he couldn't get readings below 3600 rpm that could be viewed as rock solid accurate. In addition, the before run stopped at 5800 rpm because that was around where the tachometer redline is, and Reese had been afraid to go beyond that without first doing some research on the valvetrain. By the time he did the last run today, he knew that my engine was perfectly happy to at least 6500 rpm, so ran the dyno up to 6350. So, I ony used the range from 3600 to 5800 rpm as the valid range for reliably accurate comparison.
The results were staggeringly good, but also illustrate how just "peak" numbers do NOT tell the accurate story of what REALLY happened:
The gain in PEAK horsepower was "only" 276 hp "after" versus 256 hp "before", a gain of 20 hp at the rear wheels.
The gain in peak torque was a truly unbelievable 301.4 ft lb after versus 263 ft lb before, for a gain of 38.4 ft lb at the rear wheels! That's AT LEAST 46 ft lb at the crankshaft, and maybe as much as 49 ft lb. And remember, this is with a vehicle that has been aggressively regeared (22.2%) which reduces the horsepower readings on a dynomometer even though obviously no real power loss occurred via regearing. So, this torque gain is PHENOMINAL.
But, it gets much better.
In that 3600 to 5800 rpm range, the AVERAGE power gain was a full 30.0 horsepower! There are points where the power went up as much as 39 horsepower!!
The torque in that range increased an AVERAGE of 33 ft lb!! You can clearly see points on the dyno chart where the torque gain exceeded 40 ft lb.
Of course, these impressive gains occurred RIGHT where I want them most: spanning that critical 4000 to 5000 rpm range that my regeared SSR spends the majority of its time in when accelerating under full throttle from 0 to 60 mph AND from 0 to the 1/4 mile.
The SSR is still at Reese's shop tonight as he works on correcting a couple of problems created by a competitor, so I obviosuly don't have new actual street performance measurements yet. But, I HAVE entered the new dyno curve into my modeling software, and it has spit out my new projected statisitcs:
The projected 0 to 60 has now broken into the magic 5's: a projected 5.93 seconds.
The 1/4 mile projection is now 14.5 seconds.
By the way, the above nubers are with ME (235 lb) plus 14 gallons of fuel in the tank.
With a 160 b test driver, and 2 gallons of fuel at a dragstrip, the software says my SSR will run:
0 to 60 in 5.75 seconds
1/4 mile in 14.4 seconds
Understandably, I can't wait to actually DRIVE the "reborn" SSR. Can you imagine what 33 ft lb AVERAGE gain in torque is going to feel like? This baby now packs performance consistent with its appearance!
And, Reese says we have only just begun. Both of us have noted that the huge gains occurred in the 5100 rpm and under range. Above that, there are gains, but they are smaller than the gains below 5100. (The averages above INCLUDE those "smaller" gains in the averages, so imagine what the averages for the under 5100 rpm range would look like!!). This led both of us to exactly the same thought: We now have exhaust flow that GREATLY exceeds the intake flow capacity. In fact, Reese has assured me that the combination of headers and MTI Dual Shotgun exhaust will not limit our flow until we exceed at LEAST 525 horsepower. He is suddenly VERY unhappy with the stock air intake, bridge, MAF, intake manifold, heads, and cam, and wants to know if I am game for some further experimentation. I am, subject to the limits of my bank account!
He's especially interested in learning more about how easy or hard it would be to adapt an LS6 intake manifold to the SSR's 5.3 Liter engine. Does anyone know what intake Chevrilet used on the 05 SSR? Is it the Corvette intake, or a different variant?
I think at this point we have to conclude that Reese has successfully started to apply his vast C5 and C6 knowledge to the SSR, and that he and his team at MTI really know what they are doing. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting more done on MY SSR at MTI before the long lines start forming.
Oh, and by the way, we just clean blew past my first *analytical and scientific" target as expressed in an earlier post here just a few short weeks ago. I think we need a new target. How about let's us 03 and 04 SSR owners blow past those 05 SSR owners 0 to 60 times (5.5 seconds approximately) before they realize what we've done to them!
Jim G
Well, guys and gals, Reese at MTI Racing finished up his reprogramming of the VCM on my SSR today and dynoed it. It was AWESOME.
To review, when I took the SSR to Reese's shop recently, the baseline mods and numbers at that point were alreayd better than stock:
4.56 rear axle ratio versus stock 3.73
6000 rpm shift points versus 5600 rpm stock
Dyno tune using HP Tuner at a competitor's shop
256 peak hp at the rear wheels
263 peak ft lb of torque at the rear wheels
and per my G-Tech RR solid state onboard accelerometer:
0 to 60 in 6.5 seconds
1/4 mile in 15.07 at 92 mph
Reese installed Dynatech Supermaxx headers, a Rush air filter, and the brand new MTI stainless steel "Dual Shotgun Exhaust" for the SSR. Then, he did his magic tuning the SSR's VCM to bring out all the potential that the mechanical mods make possible.
Today at noon, he couldn't restrain himself. The results on the dyno were so good that he just had to call me to report that we had broken the 300 barrier on torque, with an actual reading of 301.4 ft lb at 4200 rpm! That boys and girls is a 38.4 ft lb gain in peak torque! I couldn't wait to get to the shop after work to see the whole dyno chart!
When I got there, I was immediately VERY impressed. The gap between the "before" and "after" torque and horsepower curves was just unbelievable.
I held off posting until just now, because I wanted to get the dyno chart home and do my "counting the squares" routine under both the "before" and "after" torque and horsepower curves. It was worth waiting to do the calculations.
To be scrupulously fair, I only compared the portions of the curves where we had data for both the before and after runs. The after run covers a narrower rpm range than the before run because with Reese's new EFILive software. he doesn't yet have the dyno control to defeat automatic downshifting, so he couldn't get readings below 3600 rpm that could be viewed as rock solid accurate. In addition, the before run stopped at 5800 rpm because that was around where the tachometer redline is, and Reese had been afraid to go beyond that without first doing some research on the valvetrain. By the time he did the last run today, he knew that my engine was perfectly happy to at least 6500 rpm, so ran the dyno up to 6350. So, I ony used the range from 3600 to 5800 rpm as the valid range for reliably accurate comparison.
The results were staggeringly good, but also illustrate how just "peak" numbers do NOT tell the accurate story of what REALLY happened:
The gain in PEAK horsepower was "only" 276 hp "after" versus 256 hp "before", a gain of 20 hp at the rear wheels.
The gain in peak torque was a truly unbelievable 301.4 ft lb after versus 263 ft lb before, for a gain of 38.4 ft lb at the rear wheels! That's AT LEAST 46 ft lb at the crankshaft, and maybe as much as 49 ft lb. And remember, this is with a vehicle that has been aggressively regeared (22.2%) which reduces the horsepower readings on a dynomometer even though obviously no real power loss occurred via regearing. So, this torque gain is PHENOMINAL.
But, it gets much better.
In that 3600 to 5800 rpm range, the AVERAGE power gain was a full 30.0 horsepower! There are points where the power went up as much as 39 horsepower!!
The torque in that range increased an AVERAGE of 33 ft lb!! You can clearly see points on the dyno chart where the torque gain exceeded 40 ft lb.
Of course, these impressive gains occurred RIGHT where I want them most: spanning that critical 4000 to 5000 rpm range that my regeared SSR spends the majority of its time in when accelerating under full throttle from 0 to 60 mph AND from 0 to the 1/4 mile.
The SSR is still at Reese's shop tonight as he works on correcting a couple of problems created by a competitor, so I obviosuly don't have new actual street performance measurements yet. But, I HAVE entered the new dyno curve into my modeling software, and it has spit out my new projected statisitcs:
The projected 0 to 60 has now broken into the magic 5's: a projected 5.93 seconds.
The 1/4 mile projection is now 14.5 seconds.
By the way, the above nubers are with ME (235 lb) plus 14 gallons of fuel in the tank.
With a 160 b test driver, and 2 gallons of fuel at a dragstrip, the software says my SSR will run:
0 to 60 in 5.75 seconds
1/4 mile in 14.4 seconds
Understandably, I can't wait to actually DRIVE the "reborn" SSR. Can you imagine what 33 ft lb AVERAGE gain in torque is going to feel like? This baby now packs performance consistent with its appearance!
And, Reese says we have only just begun. Both of us have noted that the huge gains occurred in the 5100 rpm and under range. Above that, there are gains, but they are smaller than the gains below 5100. (The averages above INCLUDE those "smaller" gains in the averages, so imagine what the averages for the under 5100 rpm range would look like!!). This led both of us to exactly the same thought: We now have exhaust flow that GREATLY exceeds the intake flow capacity. In fact, Reese has assured me that the combination of headers and MTI Dual Shotgun exhaust will not limit our flow until we exceed at LEAST 525 horsepower. He is suddenly VERY unhappy with the stock air intake, bridge, MAF, intake manifold, heads, and cam, and wants to know if I am game for some further experimentation. I am, subject to the limits of my bank account!
He's especially interested in learning more about how easy or hard it would be to adapt an LS6 intake manifold to the SSR's 5.3 Liter engine. Does anyone know what intake Chevrilet used on the 05 SSR? Is it the Corvette intake, or a different variant?
I think at this point we have to conclude that Reese has successfully started to apply his vast C5 and C6 knowledge to the SSR, and that he and his team at MTI really know what they are doing. I don't know about you guys, but I'm getting more done on MY SSR at MTI before the long lines start forming.
Oh, and by the way, we just clean blew past my first *analytical and scientific" target as expressed in an earlier post here just a few short weeks ago. I think we need a new target. How about let's us 03 and 04 SSR owners blow past those 05 SSR owners 0 to 60 times (5.5 seconds approximately) before they realize what we've done to them!
Jim G
