A Long Journey For More...

[Z3speed4me]

So anyone that knows me is aware that I like hard data, and always ask for more definitive evidence of modifications as this community has historically done a poor job of providing A:B testing. Even the few time people post results from a change it's typically more than one thing altered at once so identifying what actually provided the gains is mostly assumed. Be forewarned.... LONG post incoming.

I have however completed a few items recently to which I can showcase some actual changes over time. (all images are linked for larger file size)

• So for those that aren’t aware, after my last coupe was an unfortunate loss, after some time in a S54 variant, I eventually acquired this car from Rukman and have updated/upgraded and personalized a multitude of things since. So, these original runs below were on ICS' dyno, unfortunately not a pure apples to apples with everything below which are all at MaxPSI, but close enough baseline for comparison sake. 572@18 psi, 595@20psi, and 604@21psi using SAE, there was a mix of 100 in the car at the time to keep any possible knock from happening (the dyno didn’t log PSI so the car's gauge and extremely repeatable AMS-500 boost controller were all we had for confirmation).
  
  
  
  

When I first got the car, we strapped it on the dyno for a health check. I had a bottle of boostane we threw in like half, which is something I have occasionally leveraged ever since when I run it all the way up… mixture was basically exactly that of a few gallons of 100 that were dumped in last time.
Granted STD vs SAE prior, but numbers directly lined up which was great for my future comparison purposes as every run going forward will be on the same dyno. 580@~18psi, 600@~20psi, and 622 at ~21.5psi. Extremely comparable and in-line like I said to prior.




So I reached out and got a hold of the original runfiles and converted to STD just to see, then overlaid the car a few years back which those runs were ~2013 from before I bought it, until now at the time (which was late 2019). Glad to see she's just as healthy...in this time the 2.93 was swapped back in from the 3.23 so either that or the boostane contributed to the earlier and harder tq hit, but can't say definitively. All that matters is that I had baselined numbers that were inline and can use these going forward for future tests that will all be on the same exact dyno at Max PSI.

• All was great and fun when I received the car, but it wasn’t "really" mine at this point, rather it was an acquired build someone else completed (although one I closely mirrored in many aspects on my last setup) and truly I wanted to turn it up a little more and improve the vehicle’s efficiency a bit as well. So next on the list in the power department I swapped to a slightly larger 3.5" DP (not a very long section on these cars by the way, maybe a 2.5' section so not much expected there) and added some mild 264/256 schrick cams (long story short, that was an endeavor that was more effort than it was ever worth). Furthermore, to play it safe upgraded the fuel pump a bit larger and then 60's were changed to 80's since they were definitely going to run out of flow with anymore asked of them at this point...CHRA was also rebuilt by Forced Performance as it saw some better days over the years, but nothing with the actual wheels were changed. Additionally, although the car was running flawless at this point, I had the guys at Max PSI throw a cutring gasket in in expectations of turning it up past where it was prior just for added sense of security. The MLS lasted without any issue for 15+ years, tons of dyno pulls and plenty of time being driven decently hard on the street, a testament to Nick's absolutely exceptional tuning!!
  

So here we go…
Let’s start with WG – making a tiny bit more power, also tiny tq hit but not really as this is on a bit less boost since backpressure appears to have dropped.



Moving on to some higher boost settings.



Old peak of 21.7 (621 and 579) vs new peak of 22.0. (639 and 589). Nothing monumental here, kinda actually a bit upset thus far with the results. A different 22 psi pull is below, basically same results. Boost didn’t get captured on a few runs the 2nd day, as we didn't hook up the lines due to being a bit in a rush bc it was just a few quick "let's see" pulls squeezing me some time on the rollers and we knew the car's hardware was solid and repeatable.



This is when we finally started using the methanol and decided to turn it up a bit. Back in the day under prior ownership, the car was running a simple wiper fluid solution to mostly leverage the cooling properties but was rarely even used, but now we threw some good M1 pure meth in to actually move more towards the power side of things and see what was left on the table using the existing aquamist hardware. Apologies as these runs did not have boost logged as above, but the settings were as follows: 23, 24.5 and 26.5.



701 was the final number if we did smoothing at 0, because you know its just nicer to look at than 697. However AFR was beginning to move a bit towards a level of discomfort a foreshadowing of things to come, and it was a 1 run and done type of thing, the car would not be run on the street at this level.



OK so… numbers went up, but not a ton gains were mostly due to the pressure being turned up more than before more so than gains per lb of boost. So what was going on, well I thought maybe the car was still corked so about a year later I had an idea that we would try next.

• So very recently in the search for anything else left on the table I changed my .82 turbine housing to a 1.06 just to see what would actually happen. This car still has a T4 open manifold, not divided, so this would be an interested change. I had ideas and expectations but not exactly any of what resulted. Also added a new swappable v-banded section where my existing mid-muffler is which I can swap in my newly acquired unobtanium 100Cell Random Technology cat. I purposely added this for when I prefer a less stinky car on days I want to take it to work while I am dressed decently nice, and furthermore also to see what impact this would have on my setup as I always pondered what would or would not occur with this potential added cat restriction at these power levels. So, results below…

First let's start with WG. Here is the same as above, old setup vs the cams, but now with a third run added for the new 1.06 housing. We can’t even count how many times this car was on and off the rollers a lot in a short period of days, simply due to how overburdened the team at the shop was and has been with an excessive amount of work, so unfortunately no psi logging on every pull, but again trust my integrity here in that I was doing this all for my own sake of comparison and data logging, nothing on the boost controller is changed. So here is WG originally (534) vs wg cammed (546) vs wg with the 1.06 housing and absolutely nothing else on the car changed (560). Note specifically the tq bump that occurred, and yes we know the runs were ended about 150-200 rpm earlier than prior due to a rpm pickup issue.



Next up, 19psi… yea that woke up a bit. Power added everywhere, and wow tq gains…oh and at a nip less boost.



Let's see what else is on tap… Almost 23psi. Forgot to add this before, and finding the files in the list is starting to get difficult… but we did previously perform some Boost Juice vs M1 tests as well. For this result Boost Juice (blue) vs M1 (orange) vs Boost Juice back in again with the larger 1.06 (red). If the car had M1 again I am sure it would eek out closer to 670hp and 650tq. Again look at the tq gains.



Final hit, 24.5ish with the 50/50 meth; we were NOT turning it back up to 26.5 like last time as AFR said bad idea, and we also realized on even this pull that this additional mass flow has introduced the MAF table being maxed out and the car wanting to go a bit lean, so as I said we didn't turn it up any further. One day we may have Nick rescale the table and add the resistor to the MAF, but likely won’t bother. So same boost setting again, but a nice tq pickup…top end is running out of breathe and the fuel mixture just wasn’t there to push it any further for now. Making more tq than hp was noted that she wasn’t totally having it on the top end just falling flat, so this was a one and done run.

• So for comparison sake, my best prior run, to best new run at 2.5 less psi isn’t so bad to look at. Also noting that M1 was run on the old set and the 50/50 Boost Juice on the newer run so that will definitely have a small impact but something none the less, seems a ~10hp difference may be on the table between the two which I could care less about with the 50/50 being way safer to run. Also we did not specifically do any tuning for the difference but rather just throwing it in and letting adaptation handle anything. So they aren’t that far off after all, and honestly the car feels faster with the newly found tq for the settings I typically drive around on which is all I care about. The ~23 setting is basically what it gets driven around on all day, and so far the best I’ve managed is a modest 5.84 for 60-130. Not bad all things considered for an aerodynamic paperweight with a coefficient of drag equal to that of a minivan. I also don't necessarily care if I am the fastest or most powerful or whatever, someone always is better, I just want to enjoy the car and have it be as reliable as possible when I take it out. Do we always want more, yes but I think I am pretty happy where it sits for a dedicated street driven car that maybe moves once every 2 weeks or so when the weather is nice.

One last item I almost forgot, the 100 cell cat. Swapped out the mid-muffler, dropped the cat in since the piping is v-banded and ran basically back to back pulls. You tell me which is cat and muffler… you’d be surprised the blue run is catted. So at this level, basically nothing happens there is enough flow to handle this power.



Turned it up a bit more, since I am not going to run methanol or any octane additive with the cat in the car. Here is at almost ~19psi pure 93 pump gas. Blue is muffler, and green is cat, top end can keep up but the midrange can’t handle the air volume hit apparently, still a pretty respectable outcome for a catted exhaust.



For comparative fun…older 19 psi with the .82 vs new 1.06 muffler and cat. The car is making more power and even tq catted than it did previously with open muffler but now at a lower boost threshold (again likely due to backpressure decrease).



Anyway, more to come once we align some time with Nick one day eventually/hopefully in the future.... for the moment it is plenty of fun as a pure street car, but squeaking out a few more ponies with a dedicated race fuel setup may be something I test out later in the year when the fall comes or maybe in early 2023. Also wish there was a way to stop the hard 2-3 psi taper up top, but I think at this point is just the nature of the system and there is no way around how it wants to act, it's repeatable and consistent which matters more. An E-Boost could likely add psi at xyz rpm, but I don't feel like dealing with duty cycle changes and such due to weather variable, the AMS-500 just simply works, and works every single time. Does she have 750 or so in her, probably… will I drive it at that level, probably not as I like the medium case differential I am currently stuck with actually being in one piece and functional - although recently it is making some noise and giving me hints. @das Boot also has his now infamous cam sets that are getting my attention more and more lately as well, since these Schrick's I am convinced have done basically nothing...we shall see. Either way, I'll have comparison data ready to look at some day for when the inevitable next change does occur!

[Da Infammus 1]

As someone who is also data driven, I thoroughly enjoyed this whole post! I'd have never though the results with the catted section added would be so positive, might as well leave it in for the most part and be able to drive it any time! I know we might've spoken about this on IG (@_EV36_), but is there a reason you haven't tried E85 at all yet? It would probably put you in that 700 range pretty safely as opposed to the 50/50 meth.

[Z3speed4me]

I have been thinking more about full E85 but not sold simply based on the reason of simplicity. My reasoning has been straight forward thus far; although I do randomly drive the car around most times with the intention of going maybe 30-40 miles drive around for some fun times and do some pulls and come home...., there are plenty occasions where I am out and need to fill up. I do not want to rely on a fuel resource that is not readily available in my area. Within XYZ miles there is only one station (Newark Airport) that is accessible to go to for ethanol; otherwise as obviously you are aware I will have to have barrels delivered home and fill up before I go anywhere. IF and WHEN I were to drive further than my gas tank can handle in one hit (say to Pocono, or even some other track day) I would not have enough fuel available to even make the trip. I have built this car with the purpose of bring it somewhere and driving it home, it's not meant to be a trailered race car and likely never will be.

Besides that, I just upgraded my injectors and fuel pump recently with a retune to support those changes. I'd have to do a bunch all over again for E85/90. I just enjoy the simplicity of drive it to a gas station, and GO. I am not in the pursuit of the fastest and most powerful M coupe, or else if that truly was my goal I can guarantee you that it WOULD be. What I can say is that the car is likely one of the most reliable built turbo cars out there - I don't hide behind an inflated dyno number then pretend it's never problematic, I am transparent as they come...

So yes, doing E85 on a separate DME may get my attention one day, but as long as that doesn't make drivability total junk due to giant injectors when running on just pump the other 90% of the time. I'd have to have a longer chat with the tuning wizard first to make a properly informed decision. 700 by the way would be far behind me, I think this thing on current hardware would eat up 800 real fast; but then start breaking all sorts of stuff which is not the plan

[pbonsalb]

500 lbs rwtq at 3700 rpm is great! Should be a nice driver. Someguy2800 has custom cam blocks that could help get more out of the cams.

[marc79euro635]

great post!
I'm surprised the t4 isn't laggy on your 3.2L s54. I tried an ebay t4 .82 iirc on my m106 3.4L, it was too laggy. I went to a t3 .63 iirc .
I guess it's in the heads. I'm just using a ported log manifold as well.
keep posting

[Z3speed4me]

500 lbs rwtq at 3700 rpm is great! Should be a nice driver. Someguy2800 has custom cam blocks that could help get more out of the cams.

The ends of the cams seem like they were just machined wrong from the manufacturer, probably should have asked for a replacement set but by that point we were so deep into it and the car was gone for so many months I just wanted it back working again. Installing on center and timed using blocks the shop had initially was WAY wrong and we had all sorts of cam timing errors happening. After fiddling it seems like we got them in a happy place after 4-5 changes, but it's probably still not perfect. Even with other schrick installs I've seen, I have yet to be seriously impressed...although rarely anyone around here does 1:1 testing changing nothing else anyway so saying "it was this" is a bold statement.

[Da Infammus 1]

Sound deduction on that one considering the fuel choices in your area. I wish E85 was as prevalent everywhere as it is in my area, I don't know why there isn't a wider adoption of it.

[PiepPiep]

Thank you very much for all the data.

I can't believe it makes almost the same power with the cat attached to it. What size exactly is it?

[Z3speed4me]

Thank you very much for all the data.

I can't believe it makes almost the same power with the cat attached to it. What size exactly is it?

It's a NLA random tech 100cell 3.5" cat, the center cross section is 4".

[GG///M3]

Much data. Interesting tid bit on the cams not being machined properly.


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