Project Casper AU / G&D – A New Evolution

[DOC]

Casper last we heard you were down n out for the drags waiting on some parts, any updates on this latest mod/s and have you been able to get any feel / predictions of the results as yet ?

[Casper]

Havent asked or heard anything since last Wednesday but last I heard then was that one item was in transit and the second was about to be sent. From that I assume I'm just waiting for one thing now before it is back on the road.

[LG]

Bump

So you didn't end up going to Heathcote on the 20th? When are you going to hit the strip?

Before with JMM you managed a 15.024? And 135rwkw.

I dont use dyno figures much, but just as a guide, as you have no times.

But from G&D you have gained ~16rwkw. So have you really gained much at all? You had a non-custom tuned ChipTorque. Which you could say is worth around 8 kws. So, if you had the chip connected, you would of had roughly 127kws. Then your own intake setup was costing you a little bit, compared to G&Ds (say 2 kws).

What i'm trying to say, is why didn't you just remove the ChipTorque and install the Edit? The Custom tune on the Edit, would have given you the ~140rwkw, you practically have now.

I read a funny post today. Something along the lines, that you would never take JMMs stuff off.

I'm trying to plan out my mods for the end of the year, not sure which direction to go at the moment.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by LG

Bump

So you didn't end up going to Heathcote on the 20th? When are you going to hit the strip?

Before with JMM you managed a 15.024? And 135rwkw.

I dont use dyno figures much, but just as a guide, as you have no times.

But from G&D you have gained ~16rwkw. So have you really gained much at all? You had a non-custom tuned ChipTorque. Which you could say is worth around 8 kws. So, if you had the chip connected, you would of had roughly 127kws. Then your own intake setup was costing you a little bit, compared to G&Ds (say 2 kws).

What i'm trying to say, is why didn't you just remove the ChipTorque and install the Edit? The Custom tune on the Edit, would have given you the ~140rwkw, you practically have now.

I'm trying to plan out my mods for the end of the year, not sure which direction to go at the moment.

All fair questions and I'll try to answer them.
Firstly.. lets take all the JMM dyno runs and throw them in the bin. They are simply rubbish, end of story.
Next, the only run I did after the exhaust was done on another dyno was at Hallam. That was also before the histall was fitted. It pulled 135rwkw at the time. Very similar to what I supposedly have now. Seat of the pants has another story. I am going to go and do a "Hallam run" on their dyno when I get the car back just to do my own comparison. This is with the blessing of G&D who are also interested to see the difference in dyno runs if any. Personally I think the G&D dyno reads low (based on other cars I have seen results for that have run in the exact same config at JMM, Hallam and G&D). Either way, the 136rwkw reading I have now is so superior in feel to the 136rwkw reading I had at Hallam (remember JMM's dyno read 150 for the same mods) that it cant be compared.

I will also be taking the car to the 1/4 the first oppertunity I have to see what the blacktop dyno says. Personally I think a 14.8 is certainly on the cards, possibly a 14.7. This is still with stock diff and unopened engine too. We'll see how it goes.

As for just removing the chiptorque and adding the edit, we did that at the start as that was always the plan. I'll say now that the old exhaust system, on the G&D dyno, simply would not get into the 130+rwkw readings at all. It was a restriction, plain and simple. Even with the Pacemaker 4480's and redback exhaust it was just breaking the 130rwkw mark. With the custom G&D built exhaust that immediatly stopped the restiction and it climbed to 136rwkw and, more importantly, torque also climbed. Plain and simple, the new Pacemaker headers were superior (top end and mid range) to the JMM race headers (remember I have the 4480s too, these are built for "midrange" so are a fair comparison. The 4499s are the top end beasts) and of course the custom cat back is far superior to any off the shelf item. The end result was that the car started with 119rwkw (125rwkw if you add the CT chip as it was a peak 6rwkw gain max on the JMM dyno). The missing 10rwkw can be easily explained as "dyno variance" between Hallam and G&D and the known losses a hi stall converter is known to have.

Finally, I havent actually started "modding" again yet. Everything I have done at G&D is simply replacing existing mods which, at the time, were considered the best avaliable but had been outdated over time. Nothing new is actually done to the car, its all been updating exisiting mods. Comparing this over a virtually stock car would see huge changes rather than the 10% or so increase gained (which in itself is actually more than a lot of people have gained from mods anyhow) over the exisiting mods.

In the end dyno figures mean nothing anyhow. Its too easy to "fake" them for public consumption. Simply running the dyno in shoot8 rather than shoot6 will gain close to 10rwkw. Strapping the car to the front roller rather than both rollers will see another 10rwkw. Then you have dyno differences day to day and place to place. Without people actually being there and seeing a baseline run its all just a lot of numbers. Claims are easy to make but I have not said a lot lately as, until I have the car at the drag strip, its all meaningless to me anyhow. I'm sure I could go to a few different dynos and run all sorts of impressive numbers.. but who really would believe it? Apart from Hallams dyno which is well known and trusted the rest are just tuning tools.


I personally have every confidence in the G&D mods and believe that running the car on the Hallam dyno (a well known dyno than many, many Vic cars have run on and accepted) will show a clearer picture of the cars potential and that racing as soon as possible to get a real 1/4 time will be the final proof.
After that, with AFF Nats in September, I'll start looking at Hamo's 14.30 time as the target and aim for that.


(note: June 17th is thsecond Victorian aufalcon.com dyno day. My car should be good to run by then so a direct "dyno to dyno, day to day" comparison is certainly going to happen with my car and a number of other AU I6's. This should at least give a good reference point)

[LG]

Thanks Casper.

Would you want to change from the 3.45 gears any way? They are practically near the perfect street/track combo?

I'll have to get cracking and decide what I want to do.

PS: Are you also running JMM's ignition parts? Plugs & Leads?

[Casper]

Originally Posted by LG

Thanks Casper.

Would you want to change from the 3.45 gears any way? They are practically near the perfect street/track combo?

3.45's are the ideal diff gears for street/strip compromise. Problem is nothing on my car is a compromise.. diff gears will most certainly be changed.

Originally Posted by LG

Are you also running JMM's ignition parts? Plugs & Leads?

no. In fact nothing from JMM is left on my car, not one single item.

[NeishaXR8_347]

why would you get rid of jmm ign leads and plugs, their leads are made by ngk one of the best. unless it wasn't up to scratch then thats diff.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by neishaxr8

why would you get rid of jmm ign leads and plugs, their leads are made by ngk one of the best. unless it wasn't up to scratch then thats diff.

Never had the JMM leads fitted.
The autolite plugs were fine.. but we found better.

[NeishaXR8_347]

cool just as long as you didnt discard good items

[Casper]

Originally Posted by neishaxr8

cool just as long as you didnt discard good items

none of the JMM gear (with the exception of the pod in the box) would be described as "bad". At the time I got them and even now I still think their exhaust system was very good. As for the chiptorque, it was the best option right up till the edit was released. All have or are going to good homes. Nothing was wasted. The main reason I changed was I want the absolute very best I can get on the car. Basically an AU I6 engineering showpiece. If its not the best it doesnt belong. In the following months and years this will become more obvious as the new mods go on.

[JC]

Originally Posted by Casper

Never had the JMM leads fitted.
The autolite plugs were fine.. but we found better.

Care to share what the better plugs are? And do they match up with useless' plug comparo from a while ago?

[LG]

What plugs are you running now? Before you were running the 985s, which in the Autolite range, is the cheapest product available. The APP63s are apparantly much better.

It was a good move to give the ChipTorque the boot. Shame the edit wasn't released earlier.

Don't forget to update us, with times & recent power levels.

Make it a date for a race, at the end of the year. Hopefully I'll be joining you with a 14 sec time.

[Casper]

Originally Posted by JC

Care to share what the better plugs are? And do they match up with useless' plug comparo from a while ago?

I'll ask Glenn, I actually dont remember what they are at the moment. Nothing to do with Useless's tests though, these were done on the dyno with a number of different sets till Glenn found the ones he was satisfied with.

[NeishaXR8_347]

i think champion are the best avail correct me if im wrong lol.
could be aui6/lawnmower spec

[LG]

Originally Posted by neishaxr8

i think champion are the best avail correct me if im wrong lol.

I didn't know Champion made Spark Plugs?

[Casper]

Originally Posted by LG

What plugs are you running now? Before you were running the 985s, which in the Autolite range, is the cheapest product available. The APP63s are apparantly much better.

I'll find out when I can.. cars not here to go have a look. They are not Autolites and, from memory, were not exactly cheap.

Originally Posted by LG

It was a good move to give the ChipTorque the boot. Shame the edit wasn't released earlier.

Honestly I cant complain at all about the Chiptorque. It served the car well, was tuned very well and ran flawlessly. Overall, in hindsight, I dont think I'd change that decision at all. The edit is, however, in a whole different league.

Originally Posted by LG

Don't forget to update us, with times & recent power levels.

I'll make sure the latest dyno sheets are posted when the car is ready along with the Hallam runs and the 1/4 mile times as soon as I have them.

Originally Posted by LG

Make it a date for a race, at the end of the year. Hopefully I'll be joining you with a 14 sec time.

No worries. I plan to be hunting low, low 14's by the Sept AFF Nats finances permitting. Should be a fun race

[NeishaXR8_347]

yeh champion make plugs for lawnmowers and that, they are exactly that, champions the ign system leader. just kidding they not bad for a lawnmower.

[GK]

Originally Posted by JC

Care to share what the better plugs are? And do they match up with useless' plug comparo from a while ago?

I bet there are many who want this info! LOL!

GK

[janek]

yeah, me too.... im runing iridium IX atm, dont much like them...

mind you the part that gave me the biggest performance jump was the bloody MAP sensor... 1 second down the 1/4, and a whole lot more kick!!!!

[GK]

Originally Posted by janek

yeah, me too.... im runing iridium IX atm, dont much like them...

mind you the part that gave me the biggest performance jump was the bloody MAP sensor... 1 second down the 1/4, and a whole lot more kick!!!!

Was something wrong with it? Why did it need to be replaced?

GK

[FRDGAL]

Originally Posted by GK

Was something wrong with it? Why did it need to be replaced?

GK

I'm curious too. What are the signs of a stuffed MAP sensor?

[janek]

i was getting 280-320 km to a tank
my exhaust was literally melting my bumper
my 1/4 time was absolutely crap
could not feel vct kicking in at all
responsiveness was poor

my biggest issue was using heaps more fuel than any 6 should. i changed it, and ive never felt my car pin me back into my seat!

[FRDGAL]

Originally Posted by janek

i was getting 280-320 km to a tank
my exhaust was literally melting my bumper
my 1/4 time was absolutely crap
could not feel vct kicking in at all
responsiveness was poor

my biggest issue was using heaps more fuel than any 6 should. i changed it, and ive never felt my car pin me back into my seat!

That's interesting because I get about the same to a tank (it's not consistant though - sometimes more) yet the 3 times we hooked the scan tool up to the car, the MAP sensor never reared it's head. But I've been meaning to get it changed still, just to rule it out, even though it doesn't come up. Expensive to change?

[janek]

$108 from ford... hard to get to though. i tried everything... new zrst, 15 different air intake setups, o2 sensor, all to no avail. changed the map, and bingo.

the old one came up within specs on the good ole multimeter, BUT the change is real, and tangible.

give it a go. you may end up saving the 100 bucks in less than a month!

[FS5]

i just changed mine sat arvo, didn't make know difference to power but it idles much much better now.its still only getting 380/400 a tank to

[GK]

Where is the map sensor? Anyone got any pics?

GK

[janek]

its below the throttle body. absolute to get to... you have to pull off the TB, use a 7mm (i think) spanner to undo the sensor, then pop it out. took me a little over an hour.

ill post some photos up tonight, or tomorrow, but will start a new thread so that i dont steal too much of caspers lime light

[MRJUCY]

Ouch I'm getting better fuel ecconomy out of my TE50 in Sydney peak hour traffic & I'm not what you'd call an ecconomical driver.

[janek]

yeah, i rekon aye.. sucks the balls, id much rather have a ts or te50 and have a reason to use that much fuel...

on the plus side, when i get my cam done, the fuel econo wont sting as much

[Casper]

Well, the car finally returned home after an unplanned extended holiday from driving duties. Such is the life of car modifications I guess but it’s been worth the wait.

So what kept it off the road so long? Simple, the transmission went for a long journey. It all started during the last round of mods where we found that the 3000rpm histall just wasn’t doing its job correctly. While accepting that a histall is a compromise I didn’t accept that the transmission would fry the fluid and cause slippage all the way to redline. In a word the trans was being “toasted” and something needed to be done or it would eventually die. So we made the decision to rip it out and reco it. Well, that was the original decision anyhow, it kind of got the G&D treatment in the process.

To stop the damage reoccurring the old histall was no longer an option for me, I simply didn’t trust it anymore. Going back to a standard stall, also not an option. I wanted the best of both worlds.. a histall and one that wouldn’t harm the BTR in the long run. There’s only one way to do that, rebuild the entire BTR trans to suit the application…. And while they are at it make me another histall, even bigger this time. So it was sent away for some major work. Even I didn’t realize the amount of work it would get though. Instead of a clean up and reco it was basically stripped down and started from scratch to be strong, dependable and handle some serious abuse. How much abuse? Let’s just say that I now have a transmission that is capable of handling power outputs seen in HEAVILY modified Boss 290’s. I somehow don’t think I have to worry about having to “future proof” the transmission again. Anyhow, it finally arrived back with an (approx) 3500rpm hi stall designed for the new transmission build and a tune that is stunning.

So now the new evolution can really start. I’ve finally replaced all the old mods with new, top of the line, mods and I can now get on with the new mods (after a trip to the track). I don’t expect to see magic numbers for ET’s just yet, the car is basically modded the same as it was late last year, just with better items. Nothing in the engine has been touched (pure, 100% unopened still) and it is still running the factory diff at the moment.

This is a long and precise process of selecting the best mods and the best items to do the job. Not too much will be spared in the end and rushing through will no doubt cause something to be missed. I’ve been involved and a huge advocate of the AU I6 for many, many years now and I’m in no rush to come out, do a few mods, and then move on to something else. 100% focus, 100% commitment and 100% research into this build up is the only way I know. From that the times will come.

As soon as time and conditions allow I’ll take it to the track and get an idea of what it can do. After that, well, its going to have to wait a little while for the next mod (end of year) so I’ll let you know when it happens. Until then I’ll just keep driving it day to day and enjoying it. On the road it’s a bit of an eyeopener admittedly. Nothing like a regular transmission. It is, as expected, a very revvy proposition to get moving and drive.. such is the price of performance. It just begs to be given a bootful though. If you are sitting at the lights and they go green there is no toddling off the line (yes, you can if you want but why?). Its foot down, watch the revs jump, off the line with rear wheels squirming for traction., speed limit in a matter of seconds, lift and cruise. The Camry’s only try ONCE….. then they just drop in behind and follow like good toasters on wheels should.
Its no longer just another hotted up HAD, it’s a car that needs to be respected by both driver (you can toast the rears at will and even when you don’t want to) and “traffic light competitor” alike. I honestly have no issue lining up pretty much anything for the 0-60kph dash if needed although I generally choose not to.
Overall, this is not a mod for the “cool bling cruiser” but, if like me you are out to feel how much punch an I6 can give, this is one mod that is going to put a smile on your face so wide your cheeks will hurt :