69 slowmaro

[H B]

Jamie, that right there is why pretty much every car I have owned has stayed mostly stock. I think all of that is cool as shit, but I don't have the time, patience, or organization to stay on top of all that and I have done most of my own maintenance and repairs for years. Up to and including a short block engine re-build.

We bought our first Subaru last October. An Ascent. I keep seeing all of the mods people are doing to them. Engine tunes, replacement hoods with scoops, body lifts, larger tires, etc... and I want to do all that too, but it just seems like too much of a process and at what point do I start voiding warranties. I think it will stay stock. Hell, I even bought the pre-paid maintenance package on this one...

One of the 'interesting' things I found on FB was a Civic Si owners group. I think there is one other dude on there near 50, and I am probably the only one with a totally stock Si. I've done things like upgrade all the running lights to LED, and I have a K & N filter element, if those are considered mods. Part of the LED upgrade was that I did change the tail light housings out to a later model..In 2009 or so , they changed from a red turn signal in rear to a clear turn signal lens and amber light, so yeah, I've done some mods...lol. - A lot of those kids are getting on there "I just got a new 2020 Si, what is the first mod I should get for 300 HP??" - It is not limited to generation, so on occasion there is a 4th gen Si or CRX Si (88-91) that comes along so I can chat old school Civics with them. Technically the ZC motor I put in my '91 is the JDM Si motor, so I own two! But about 90% of the garbage in that group I ignore.

Andy, I am with you on the maintenance too..I've always done my own work when I can..I did the engine swap in the '91 almost by myself in my garage (took 2+ years working on it whenever I wasn't busy with something else), and I just spent this Sunday sweating my ass off under both cars doing oil/filters which were overdue. I think these will probably be the last cars I wrench on. They are getting complicated & time consuming, and I might rather go sailing, especially without a climate controlled garage. However, I do have the VSA (stability control) light that just popped on in my car, I think that means I need to replace the fuse..that has happened once before.

[TheOffice]

I switch from Eco to Standard to Sport to Custom. I set Custom to be the sport suspension and steering without the sport acceleration and electronic exhaust noise.
I don't even use the paddle shifters.

I just wish I could disable the start/stop permanently.

[Audrey]

Update. As expected down on power. These are rear wheel numbers obvious so assume a 20% drivetrain loss. This was with a 150hp shot of nitrous. Spun on the dyno so I believe the initial tq numbers were probably north of 800 at the crank.

https://youtu.be/57yY71YWNIM

[Jamie]

Update. As expected down on power. These are rear wheel numbers obvious so assume a 20% drivetrain loss. This was with a 150hp shot of nitrous. Spun on the dyno so I believe the initial tq numbers were probably north of 800 at the crank.

https://youtu.be/57yY71YWNIM

Yikes! That was a shot.

[H B]

Whoa...nice.
So...if you are doing a 1/4 pass, when do you hit the button on the NOS????

[Audrey]

In the video they bring it up into 3rd gear and the n2o activates at WOT. A little puff of black smoke, spinning, and you can hear the dyno catch up after a second or more. No real distance or top speed, just a sweep through an RPM range.

After more research, the cam is way too small. I'll be doing some work to the carburetor and intake manifold over the winter. I'm going to try and keep up with the videos but will probably just refer to the channel so I can update all in one place.

[BeauV]

Audrey,

By "cam is too small" do you mean the lift or the duration (or both)? With my tiny Ford 1600cc pushrod motor, I have played with cams a _LOT_ in my youth and found it to be one of the most fascinating problems I've ever pondered. I'd love how you're going about it.

[Jamie]

In most modern engines timing and duration are ecu controlled, but few systems are able to vary lift. On a couple applications I had to switch out the exhaust cams for greater lift to increase volumetric efficiency at high loads.

I think is this engine there is no variable valve timing and everything is fixed?

[BeauV]

If it's the engine I think it is, then there is no variability in anything other than grinding a new cam shaft.

It's a fascinating problem when seeing max performance as overlap, lift, and timing of the valves has to be balanced to the various airflows of the intake and exhaust manifolds, standing waves of pressure in the manifolds (if they exist), and fuel injection timing (if it exists). My Morgan cam worked great until I change the intake manifold. Extractor headers changed everything all over again. Getting a high-overlap high-lift cam changed it all again. At one point, the engine simply wouldn't run below 1,500 RPM, but had heaps more power at 7,000 RPM.

What you probably already know, without variable-valve-control of some sort, you're left to choose an RPM range and tune everything for that. My current engine setup is optimized around 5,000 to 6,500 RPM, but still idle (albeit badly) at 1,000 RPM. It was a real joy working on my old BMW M3 with their variable valve timing. It was so much easier to get the engine to perform nicely at a variety of RPM.

[Jamie]

These older engines are much, much harder to get power out of, so people who can get good power out of them definitely have my respect.

Nowadays If I know the fuel scaling, I just look a g/sec of airflow from the MAF to see if I'm getting better output. The fancy systems allow you to tune on the go as opposed to having to repeat pulls and keep reloading the ECU with each change. Same process, but much easier to find the bottleneck when you have all the data.

[Audrey]

Audrey
By "cam is too small" do you mean the lift or the duration (or both)? .... I'd love how you're going about it.

Yes, both lift int/exh and duration on both are too small and the LSA lobe separation angle is too wide. In theory it should make around 500 ish at the crank given VE, so there's certainly something else going on (jetting, or in desperate need of more air). I've put in a request from 3 different manufacturers for custom grinds to see what they come up with. Long story short it'll be on a 106 or 108 LSA compared to the 114 I have now.

Beau, this is my starting point. https://youtu.be/JPAeepqrY-0
Sorry I always have trouble embedding things on this site.

[Audrey]

In most modern engines timing and duration are ecu controlled, but few systems are able to vary lift. On a couple applications I had to switch out the exhaust cams for greater lift to increase volumetric efficiency at high loads.
I think is this engine there is no variable valve timing and everything is fixed?

Correct, this is an old small block chevy pushrod motor. Carb, mech secondaries, mechanical timing advance, pretty basic. I'll be going with fuel injection on the future motor but don't want to drop the coin yet w/ covid, and my income determined on whether or not people want to continue to play with boats.

The rocker arms I'm using aren't marked so I'll need to measure lift at the valve and work backwards (1.5 or 1.6) in either case valve lift is less than .600. The worst is getting a new cam ground and it runs into P to V clearance issues or the big end of the rod doesn't clear the base circle on the cam. $500 down the drain.

The car made good TQ. Time for TQ, jet for HP. So I'm thinking there is a jetting issue, the HP numbers are low, even for this cam. I'll bring a vacuum gauge and check it at WOT for restrictions. Already have a port and polish kit coming in the mail, little work to the carb and intake. Not sure if I want to throw more money at a cam swap. That could turn into new springs or pushrods, or.....$$$

[Jamie]

In most modern engines timing and duration are ecu controlled, but few systems are able to vary lift. On a couple applications I had to switch out the exhaust cams for greater lift to increase volumetric efficiency at high loads.
I think is this engine there is no variable valve timing and everything is fixed?

Correct, this is an old small block chevy pushrod motor. Carb, mech secondaries, mechanical timing advance, pretty basic. I'll be going with fuel injection on the future motor but don't want to drop the coin yet w/ covid, and my income determined on whether or not people want to continue to play with boats.

The rocker arms I'm using aren't marked so I'll need to measure lift at the valve and work backwards (1.5 or 1.6) in either case valve lift is less than .600. The worst is getting a new cam ground and it runs into P to V clearance issues or the big end of the rod doesn't clear the base circle on the cam. $500 down the drain.

The car made good TQ. Time for TQ, jet for HP. So I'm thinking there is a jetting issue, the HP numbers are low, even for this cam. I'll bring a vacuum gauge and check it at WOT for restrictions. Already have a port and polish kit coming in the mail, little work to the carb and intake. Not sure if I want to throw more money at a cam swap. That could turn into new springs or pushrods, or.....$$$

Do you know your real time AFRs? I'm curious about the 388, vs typical 383 - is that your bigger bore?

[LarryHoward]

Audrey,

Sure this isn't a simple (but not cheap) way to burn up the tires?

https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-new-crate-motor-by-ev-west-and-revolt-fits-just-like-a-small-block-chevy/?utm_source=Taboola&utm_medium=native&utm_campaign=6475106&utm_content=_2938227086&utm_term=nbcnews.com&campaign_code=__Desktop&tblci=GiDSvDVXXb_xCVrgiWLgruobUosWk1fpx0rZb1oobQ8p7iDuq08oyPvh9NeTnIDeAQ#tblciGiDSvDVXXb_xCVrgiWLgruobUosWk1fpx0rZb1oobQ8p7iDuq08oyPvh9NeTnIDeAQ

[Audrey]

Do you know your real time AFRs? I'm curious about the 388, vs typical 383 - is that your bigger bore?

No real time AFRs at the moment. Next time at the dyno I'm bringing carb jets and having them hook up a sniffer to the tailpipe. The 383 is a 3.75 stroke and 4.030 bore. The 388 just bores it out to 4.060".

[Audrey]

Audrey,
Sure this isn't a simple (but not cheap) way to burn up the tires?

On a 150 shot the current "dinosaur burner" makes around 625hp and 777tq at the crank. The black n' decker in the link is only "533 hp and more than 800 lb-ft of torque" for $25-35k. The future 10.3 liter will make 1100hp on pump gas and I'll spray another 500hp on top of that for $17k. However, it would be unique.