Supercharged!

[romemmy]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post my experience.. Out of the blue I got an excellent deal on a lightly used VT2-585 kit from Alekshop (who have been great to deal with - they did my alignment too!)

I took the day off the day after I got it and installed it - start to finish took less than 12 hours, and ESS got me the proper tune within just a few hours (props to them for getting it to me after hours!)

Everything went pretty smoothly, the kit is very well made (I found changing the bloody spark plugs on this engine harder!! ) After install I had some hesitation at about 5500rpm, and thought changing the spark plugs would help - which it did!

Anyway, that was a week ago, and I finally got it on a dyno today for full WOT testing. The dyno was a Dynapack, operated by Mike from RoadRaceEngineering (fantastic guys - they've helped me out with my Evo before). Multiple runs later, and everything went great - all three pulls were within 5HP of each other so very consistent. Final result was 511HP at the wheels, with a power "curve" that was straight as an arrow! Based on the 15% standard for drivetrain losses, that puts flywheel output at precisely 600HP (and I still have all four cats in the exhaust, running on 91 pump gas!) Here's the plot:



On Friday I'll be at Buttonwillow putting it through its paces on the track. Should be fun! The car feels awsome, pulls like a train and is extremely quick right now, although I'm already thinking about the 625 upgrade... or maybe more. Depends how it goes on Friday!

Incidentally, I also did the DIY mod to the rear exhaust muffler. I covered the perforated pipes, and it's much louder! It does sound better, but my only issue is the drone at 80mph in 6th! Right around 3100rpm it drives me a bit nuts, but otherwise it's great. I might crack it open again and expose the smaller sets of perforated pipes again to see if it helps eliminate that drone (I covered all the perforations when I did it).

Thanks!

S.

[L4ces]

Originally Posted by romemmy

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post my experience.. Out of the blue I got an excellent deal on a lightly used VT2-585 kit from Alekshop (who have been great to deal with - they did my alignment too!)

I took the day off the day after I got it and installed it - start to finish took less than 12 hours, and ESS got me the proper tune within just a few hours (props to them for getting it to me after hours!)

Everything went pretty smoothly, the kit is very well made (I found changing the bloody spark plugs on this engine harder!! ) After install I had some hesitation at about 5500rpm, and thought changing the spark plugs would help - which it did!

Anyway, that was a week ago, and I finally got it on a dyno today for full WOT testing. The dyno was a Dynapack, operated by Mike from RoadRaceEngineering (fantastic guys - they've helped me out with my Evo before). Multiple runs later, and everything went great - all three pulls were within 5HP of each other so very consistent. Final result was 511HP at the wheels, with a power "curve" that was straight as an arrow! Based on the 15% standard for drivetrain losses, that puts flywheel output at precisely 600HP (and I still have all four cats in the exhaust, running on 91 pump gas!) Here's the plot:



On Friday I'll be at Buttonwillow putting it through its paces on the Big Willow track. Should be fun! The car feels awsome, pulls like a train and is extremely quick right now, although I'm already thinking about the 625 upgrade... or maybe more. Depends how it goes on Friday!

Incidentally, I also did the DIY mod to the rear exhaust muffler. I covered the perforated pipes, and it's much louder! It does sound better, but my only issue is the drone at 80mph in 6th! Right around 3100rpm it drives me a bit nuts, but otherwise it's great. I might crack it open again and expose the smaller sets of perforated pipes again to see if it helps eliminate that drone (I covered all the perforations when I did it).

Thanks!

S.

Good read!

[SYT_Shadow]

I also had that drone at 3100 rpm. I suspect doing test pipes will remove it.

In my case I moved to a ess hfx xpipe and my exhaust is much louder now but the drone is at 2k rpm instead of 3.1k, so it doesn't bother me anymore

[Jobe.]

Very cool!

Thank you for sharing.

[romemmy]

Originally Posted by SYT_Shadow

I also had that drone at 3100 rpm. I suspect doing test pipes will remove it.

In my case I moved to a ess hfx xpipe and my exhaust is much louder now but the drone is at 2k rpm instead of 3.1k, so it doesn't bother me anymore

Good to know, thanks! Don't know if my wife (or Laguna Seca sound limit) could stand it getting louder though I do want to go catless, but the smell becomes a big issue then (wife and kids are super sensitive to strong gasoline smells).. On my Evo I went catless by also going to E85 (doesn't smell strong/bad at all!). I could do that here too, but I do like the convenience of regular gasoline... I have a few E85 stations near me, but the nearest stations are not :/

Anyway, I did hear that removing the 400 cell primary cats but leaving the 200 cell secondaries could be a compromise on smell.. I'll probably try that first! Could also look at Supertrapp discs to tune the sound to the level I want too..

Thanks!

S.

[W Cole]

Originally Posted by romemmy

Good to know, thanks! Don't know if my wife (or Laguna Seca sound limit) could stand it getting louder though I do want to go catless, but the smell becomes a big issue then (wife and kids are super sensitive to strong gasoline smells).. On my Evo I went catless by also going to E85 (doesn't smell strong/bad at all!). I could do that here too, but I do like the convenience of regular gasoline... I have a few E85 stations near me, but the nearest stations are not :/

Anyway, I did hear that removing the 400 cell primary cats but leaving the 200 cell secondaries could be a compromise on smell.. I'll probably try that first! Could also look at Supertrapp discs to tune the sound to the level I want too..

Thanks!

S.

I have test pipes and kept the secondaries. I don't smell anything at all..

I did notice with the first tune ESS gave me the car ran really rich and smelled a bit but I've since gotten another tune that I think leaned the car out. I complained the car was loading up at idle so I think the fix was to run a bit leaner.

[SYT_Shadow]

Originally Posted by romemmy

Good to know, thanks! Don't know if my wife (or Laguna Seca sound limit) could stand it getting louder though I do want to go catless, but the smell becomes a big issue then (wife and kids are super sensitive to strong gasoline smells).. On my Evo I went catless by also going to E85 (doesn't smell strong/bad at all!). I could do that here too, but I do like the convenience of regular gasoline... I have a few E85 stations near me, but the nearest stations are not :/

Anyway, I did hear that removing the 400 cell primary cats but leaving the 200 cell secondaries could be a compromise on smell.. I'll probably try that first! Could also look at Supertrapp discs to tune the sound to the level I want too..

Thanks!

S.

If you go to the ess hfc xpipe or the test pipes you will still have cats and the car won't smell