Thread: Convo about certain upgrades

So im having a convo about certain mods. Two of them being P&P s/c & heads and also a CAI.

1. Im a fan of P&P and i've been thru my share of bits, LOL. My argument is that P&P is only beneficial if your sucking more air in and need to get it out. Like having a s/c with a smaller pully or a big Turbo. Porting isnt always the best, it depends more on your mod needs. I personally think that any setup could benefit from Polishing. Smoothing surfaces for a better flow is something any motor would love.

What do you guys think? Always P&P or is polishing alone efficient enough(unless your pulling in a bunch of air with a Cam, smaller pulley, etc)?

2. Now, this one is about a CAI. This is probably one of the most controversy topics on any forum. This is usually the main and first Mod any driver would do. Now in my opinion, unless your stock intake is configured in a retarted restricted way, than your stock intake would be great once gutted and fitted with a K&N filter. Look at our cars, the stock intake pretty much sits in the same place where we spend so much money for a FWI(unless u made your own) but our stock intake is practically already sitting in that spot and if you never noticed, the stock box is well insulated from heat and the filter is completely housed. Honestly the only thing i would change about the stock intake is the tubing. I would put a piece of aluminum straight tubing/pipe in place of the stock tubing to smooth and maximize the airflow.

What do you guys think of the stock intake being efficient enough? Yeah, on some cars the intake is really restrictive but on our 3800s the air intake is hardly restrictive compared to others

1. you dont need to port or polish headers, buy some SSACs and you be good to go on most setups
Pontiac Performance Racing Products for International Sales from SSAutochrome Inc.

2. YES are airboxes are very restrictive its one od the worst most restrictive airboxes ive ever seen, just go to you local parts store buy a cone filter and put it right on the end of your TB and youll be all set in that department too

i just want to make a comment on your sig as well, why do you mix 100 oct in your gas tank? your car is factory tuned for 91 oct puttinganything more in there with out retuning is wasting your money

sticking the cone filter directly to the throttle body with no tubing to smooth air as it enters maf cant be good. am i wrong? i know we have the honey come on the opening of the throttlebody but still. not to mention the filter would be directly above the crossover, sucking in massive heat

it has been mentioned tons of times that sticking the cone filter directly on the TB cause poor maf readings, it needs a few inches of straight tubing so it will read correctly.

Some people have successfully ran a cone right on the end of the Throttle Body without any problems.

cone on the end of the TB is fine and it doesnt matter if its sucking up heat because the S/C making 100X that much heat

Originally Posted by asite57

i just want to make a comment on your sig as well, why do you mix 100 oct in your gas tank? your car is factory tuned for 91 oct puttinganything more in there with out retuning is wasting your money

That is just silly... You can run race gas in a stock tune car... It lowers knock.

Originally Posted by TEK310

sticking the cone filter directly to the throttle body with no tubing to smooth air as it enters maf cant be good. am i wrong? i know we have the honey come on the opening of the throttlebody but still. not to mention the filter would be directly above the crossover, sucking in massive heat

The TB screen smooths air flow air good enough. Plus like already said, the heat don't matter anyway since the air gets pulled through that HEATIN supercharger and heated anyway.

Well our PCMs are electronic so they would self adust to a certain extent. 2-3 gallons of mixed 100octane with Cali premium fuel which is 91octane gives me around 92 or 93 octane on the average when mixed with the remaining 14gallons of 91 premium. i mean in some states 93octane is the premium, so if they could run it im sure i can. now using straight 100octane is when u need a tune to get the full benefit of pure 100octane.

Again, no tune is needed to run race gas. It will just cause less KR.

a retune is the only way to see any benefit IMO

Ok... Explain to me HOW you re-tune for race gas to see the benefit.

you can run more timing which gives you more power on a higher octane gas

I really dont think that race gas in a stock car will get rid of ALL knock AND allow you to tune for more timing....

now that depends on the car specifically

I guess... But my point was that you dont have to re-tune to run race gas.... I guess I will concede that there is the possibility that you are leaving something on the table if you dont check to see if you can bump timing....

Running a higher octane kills knock.

Running MORE octane than you need, say 100 octane in my ***king Cobalt is worthless and can't burn efficiently enough and will net just as much gains as if I ran 87. THAT IS pointless. Also, if you can bump the timing on race gas then it's time for a smaller pulley, not more timing. Timing bump is gonna help cars that are maximizing pulley size on a certain setup...like people that don't want to go lower than a 3.4" that are knock free on 91+ octane. A timing bump would help them.

Intakes are meh on these cars because basically regardless of the setup, they'll work. Just make a monster 4" short ram and live with it.

right all im saying is that he is wasting his time and its all in his head that mixing 100 oct in his tank of gass is really gonna do anything

It'd do something if he had knock.

Which is actually a VERY common way to kill KR without tuning.