NJLT1SS

Hey guys, I finally had the car dyno'd last week, but didnt get to post anything cause I have been really busy, not to mention that I have a 396 in the works, but more on that later. Some mods and background on my car: Strange 12 bolt w/3.73's, M6 with Star Stage 3 clutch, stock bottom end, TEA Stage 3 heads (275in./243ex. @ 600), Comp XE230, TEA ported Intake, with some more done by yours truely, and a PCM4LESS OBD1 tune. I drove my car 140+ miles from Northern NJ to Hundington Valley PA, and met Bryan there at J&D's Performance. Bryans reputation preceeds him, and he is probably one of the best guys I have ever dealt with in the business. J&D's shop was also pretty impressive, as the do lots of Hi-Po work, as thats what they specialize in. They were also some of the nicest guys that I have had the pleasure to work with. I did put about 3K miles on the setup before scheduling this dyno session, as to make sure I had any bugs worked out, and plus its summer time, and the weather has been gorgous, so I have been putting it off somewhat. Anyway, I get there, and only had to wait about 15 minutes before they were ready to strap my car to the dyno. Most of the crew there checked out my car and complimented (made fun of ) how clean my car was, and it was very nicely modded, noticing the Baer Brakes, 12 bolt ect...OK, now it was dyno time. On the info sheet I filled out, listing my mods to them, I told them a max RPM of 6500 was good, as thats where about the cam should pull to, and thats where I have been shifting with the new setup. So, the first pull was made with the tune that Bryan e-mailed me, and the result was 378 RWHP @6300, and 345 FPTQ. It made over 310FPTQ from when the pull started at 2500RPM all the way to 6100RPM where it just started to dip under 300FPTQ. Talk about a broad torque band! All of this with a 12.2: AFR. As far as if this was a DynoJet or Mustang Dyno, I completely forgot to ask. Also, the weather was HORRIBLE, about 88 degrees, and 100% humidity, as it POURED just after the first pull. They were proably the worst conditions for making big #'s. So, after the first pull, Bryan made some adjustments, and wanted to lean it out just a bit, bring the AFR to about 12.8:1. Oh, forgot to mention, Bryan's e-mail tune was pretty much on the money, and drivability has been excellent. Also, the guys at the shop complimented me, as well as Bryan, as my car was one of the, if not the highest HP they have seen out of a stock bottem end LT1 on their dyno. So, onto the second pull, the car made 370 RWHP. Bryan shrugged his shoulder and said that it was wierd that the car reacted like that, but maybe this combo likes to run rich. So, back to a richer tune, and the car made 350 RWHP. Also, the car was getting harder and harder to start before each pull. Well, the last pull barely made 300 RWHP. Upon starting the car the last time, you can hear that one of the rod bearings didnt like seeing 6500 RPMS, and it let us know with a nice little squeal. So, it was kind of a bittersweet moment, the car made great HP and TQ, with a very nice and flat TQ band, but the factory crap GM bearings didnt approve Oh well, I wasnt that upset cause if it didnt happen there, it would have happened the next few times I romped on it. They also suspect that the bottom end could have been hurt a little even before driving it there, which would explain the decreasing HP numbers with each pull. We pulled the dipstick and saw some metal shaving at the end of it confirming that something had given up. But, believe it or not, with the bearing squeeling, oil full of metal shaving (thank god for the FilterMag I bought last year) I babied the car home, cruising at 70 MPH on the NJ Turnpike, it made the 140+ mile treck home, which took about 4 hours thanks to getting stuck in bumper to bumper NJ traffic. I pulled the car in my driveway, and other than the slightly lower oil pressure, and light knock you can hear when you just rev the mtor at the throttle body, the car sounded OK. I thought for sure it would have died sitting in traffick that hardly ever moved, and letting the motor get up to 200 or so degrees, but the LT1 kept chugging away! looks like Im going to be putting that 4 bolt LT1 block I have to good use. Once my friend is done inspecting the block to make sure all is well, a 396 rotating assembly will be ordered with a Callies crank, Manley billet rots, and a custom .010 over J&E piston, cause that block has low miles, and I dont want to overbore it .030 if it isnt necessary. Anyway, those are the numbers, and thats the story. Now, i will have to keep you guys posted on the 396 with the TEA heads to see how they do. Im sure they will do great as they did this with the stock shortblock.



Nick

94formulabz

Real sorry to hear that man. SOunds like good things will come of it though.

Perry93TransAm

I had almost the exact thing happen to me, I bought this 97 WS6 last year and it had 59000 hard Highschooler miles (My neighbor bought it new and later gave it to his kid on his 16th in 2000) I knew the dad and he changed the oil regularly but the son drove it like a bat outa hell. Well when he started going to college last aug they needed a better mileage car so I offered to buy the T/A and I got it went through the tune-up , opti and lubes and babied it for a few months until I got all the goodies off of my 93 (afr heads vig converter, CC305 cam , gears etc.) I got my two cars back together (the 93 with the stock 97 stuff and the 97 with the goodies) and sold the 93. I had the 97 running for a month (very strong!!) and was about to put on the S/C kit from Powerdyne I had bought for it. Whne driving home from work my Oil pressure dropped to 0 for about 10 seconds!!!!! I had no idea what was going on I thought for sure it was the gauge until as I drove up into the drive way I head the pitter pat of a piston!!!! . It ran really strong and I was thinking that it could best my 93 best of a 12.29!!! Oh well I just finished putting the stroker in earlier this week (same heads , ported a little and a bigger cam) We'll see if it was worth it....lol.
Sorry to hear your luck as well, A 396 will make the memory go away easier...he he.

RealQuick

Bryan did my mail order tunes as well. I was in the 11.-11.4 A/F range and made 351rwhp and 340rwtq. I had him lean it out to 12.5-13.2 (varied across the rpm range) and I made 349rwhp and 337rwtq. Surprising considering almosr EVRYONE makes more power with their LT1's at high 12 to low 13 A/F. Just not me and maybe not you. Tough to tell if it was the tune or bottom end letting go for you.

97Z-M6

what kinda heads fow 243EX i never heard of that. what kind of head are they.

Fastbird93

Good numbers man. That's where we're dynoing my car to get the 224/230 dialed in. I think something may have been holding you back on that first run though, because with my car lean up top we made 375/363 at the wheels.

BTW, it's a Dynojet. JD's does good work, but they're a tad bit overpriced.

got_hp?

TEA exhaust flow numbers are always whacky cause they test it in an unconventional manner..........tested normally the exhaust would be lower.