Gen 5 Camaro External Bolt-On Tech - BMR Project TriloG gets a Magnuson, Kooks headers, and 3" Magnaflow exhaust!

Sometimes deciding what direction to go when searching for power mods can be confusing. For those of you looking for more power and want to see documented real world results, we thought you might be interested in seeing what we did. We installed a Magnacharger TVS supercharger, Kooks 1-7/8" headers and 3" Magnaflow exhaust on our Project TriloG 2010 Camaro and were extremely happy with the results. Follow along and enjoy:

From our Project TriloG web blog:
February 12, 2010 - As mentioned earlier, we thoroughly test our products to insure that functionality, compatability, and durability are sound before releasing them. Not only would doing our testing with stock horsepower be boring but it really wouldn't be practical since 50% of you will have some form of power adder. Our history developing parts for the F-body dates back over 12 years and we manufacture suspension for all five generations of this platform. The fastest Third and Fourth Gen racers in the country run BMR products because they have been proven time and time again. There are cars with 2000 horsepower running off-the-shelf BMR suspension components so when it comes to testing this platform we decided to start with at least 500 rear wheel horsepower (roughly 100 more than stock).

There is no simpler bolt-on with "guaranteed-results" then the new Magnacharger TVS2300 supercharger. As shipped, it will give your 2010 492 RWHP right out of the box. This translates to roughly 550 horsepower at the motor, a 30% increase! More power may be necessarry later but at somewhere around 600 hp the stock fuel pump becomes inadequate. Besides that, the bottom end of the motor won't last long beyond 650 hp so we will stay at this level for a while until it becomes necessary to go further. Then maybe rods, pistons, ported heads and a camshaft will follow, who knows!
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Supercharged1_small.jpg

At the heart of Magnusons new blower is the Eaton Twin Vortice Series (TVS) supercharger. This is the reason why these newer superchargers develop so much power from a package half the size of previous roots type blowers.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Eaton.jpg

The kit comes as complete as can be and has very detailed instructions. The image shown to the right shows everything except the heat exchanger.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/TVS1_small.JPG

This is essentially everything involved in the supercharger cooling system. If you are not familiar with this style system, the supercharger manifold has an air-to-water intercooler built into it between the supercharger and the motor. Their is an electric water pump and reservoir that circulates the water to a heat exchanger mounted in front of the radiator. The coolant is self-contained and circulates whenever the key is on.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/TVS2_small.JPG

After about 2 hours of teardown, the motor is ready to receive the supercharger. At this point the front heat exchanger was installed and a few other small parts and hoses.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/TVS3_small.JPG

One of the mods necessary is the need to pin the crank. Because the LS motor uses a press fit balancer, their is the potential for spinning the balancer on the crank snout due to the additional load placed on it by the supercharger. Magnacharger sends everything necessary to perform this mod and it was a very simple process. Simply thread the provided drill guide tool onto the front of the crank, drill to a pre-determined depth, ream the hole with teh provided reamer then tap the pins into the holes. The flanged OE bolt holds them in place.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/TVS4_small.JPG

Placing the 60 lb. blower assembly into the valley isn't a one-person job!
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/TVS5_small.JPG

Rather than order the injectors from Magnacharger we opted to source our own so we could go bigger for future power mods. We pulled the OE injectors and sent them to Fuel Injector Connection to have them re-worked to 72 lbs/hr. They had a great turnaround and we had them back in a week.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/TVS6_small.JPG

Continued....

From Project TriloG web blog:
March 24th, 2010 - Wow, a month and a half since our last update! A lot has happened since then but very little of it is blog-worthy information unfortunately. Being that this project is important from an R&D standpoint, unfortunately business comes first and with a major server crash, the project got put on standby for about 4 weeks. During this time, however, we were able to put some Kooks (http://www.kookscustomheaders.com/) long tube headers and a Magnaflow (http://www.magnaflow.com/) exhaust on the car. Follow along to see the highlights of the installs.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/OEexhaust_small.JPG
Here is the factory behemoth exhaust removed. It is one entire welded assembly and takes two people to remove. We didn't weigh it but I would estimate it weighs somewhere between 60-80 lbs! Overall it doesn't appear to be as restrictive as the G8 exhaust but I am sure there is power to be gained with the Magnaflow system installed, especially since we opted for the 3" system.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/manifolds_small.JPG
The factory manifolds and cats don't appear to be too restrictive but you just can't beat a full length header. With claims of 30 rwhp and 30 rwtq gain untuned and 50 tuned on an NA motor, it should be even better for a boosted application. We'll see....

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/headers_small.JPG
We had used Kooks headers in the past with great results so we decided to use a set of their 1-7/8" stainless long tube headers and mini-cats. As always, they never fail to impress. It's ashame they have to be buried in the engine compartment tucked away where you can't see them.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Header_Install1_small.JPG
Of course it would have been easier to install the headers if we hadn't already installed the supercharger but that's just the way things go sometimes. They went in pretty easily from the bottom but the supercharger coolant lines and reservoir had to be removed to access the passenger side bolts.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Header_Install2_small.JPG
The headers fit perfectly with plenty of clearance in every direction.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Header_Install3_small.JPG
Kooks High-flow cats bolt on to the OE style ball flange using new stainless heavy duty 1/2" thick flanges. Nice!

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/MagnaflowRig_small.JPG
When it comes to exhaust, very few people will argue with you about the quality of Magnaflow's product. Not only is their product awesome but they are a great company to work with. We had the opportunity to work with them recently on their company project car so when they just happened to be in town for the NMCA opening race, they dropped by with their display rig and project car for some new suspension products.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/MagCar1_small.JPGhttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/MagCar2_small.JPGhttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/MagCar3_small.JPG

Magnaflow's car had the 2.5" system (#16579) with cats. They actually have 8 different systems available for the V8 Camaros, something for everyone. This system is similar in design to the OE exhaust with a front resonator and rear mufflers but has a much deeper tone and far less back pressure. Their car already had our Subframe Connectors (SFC015), Toe Rods (TR002), and Trailing Arms (TCA026) and we installed the Driveshaft Safety Loop (DSL014) and 2 Point Strut Tower Brace (STB013). It was on it's way back to California for another event.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/16579Magnaflow_small.jpghttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/KyleSTB_small.JPGhttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/KyleDSL_small.JPG

Continued....

From the Project TriloG web blog:

Since we are planning to make big power down the road we decided to go with Magnaflow's 3" system (#16483). This system has a crossover in place of the resonator and two high flow mufflers out back.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Magnaflow_small.jpg

The system is easy to install and while we had a lift for the installation, it could easily be done in the driveway with common hand tools. Unlike the OE one-piece system, part #16483 is composed of 3 basic parts: front x-pipes, intermediary pipes, and mufflers/tailpipes. They all connect with high quality band clamps. Here you can see the rear mufflers/tailpipes going in. Due to the easy OE design of the exhaust, you simply "hang" the rear mufflers in place using existing hangers then connect the intermediary pipes to them. This makes it easy for a one-person install.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Exhaust_install1_small.JPG

Once the intermediary pipes are installed, the front X-pipe goes in. We used a floor stand to hold everything in place while we verified clearances and lined everything up. A floor jack could easily accomplish the same thing if you were doing this in your driveway. Initially we were a little concerned about compatability issues with the exhaust and headers since they were made from two different manufacturers but the way they fit together it almost seemed like they were designed that way! We thought we were going to have to fabricate a union connection but ended up removing the OE band clamps from the stock exhaust and used them to connect the Kooks cats to the Magnaflow X-pipe. Everything worked out perfectly, no cutting or fabrication required! We leveled the intermediary pipes, tightened all the band clamps and installed the O2 sensors.
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Exhaust_install2_small.JPG

Check out the installed pics below:
As you can see by the pics below, everything fits perfectly. Ground clearance wasn't compromised at all and when it was all said and done, I wouldn't doubt if we picked up 30-50 horsepower and dropped 30-40 pounds!
http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Exhaust1_small.JPGhttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Exhaust2_small.JPGhttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Exhaust3_small.JPGhttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Exhaust4_small.JPGhttp://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Exhaust5_small.JPG


Now that the car was finally back together, it was time to see what kind of power it would make. Since the car still had the OE tune in it, it was towed over to Precision Motorsports to be dyno tuned. Just from a quick web scan, it looked like we should make anywhere from 425-450RWHP with the mods we performed so we were anxious to see where we were.

http://www.bmrfabrication.com/Project%20TriloG/Dyno.jpg
551.5 rear wheel horsepower with 577.2 rear wheel torque! We'll take that. The tune is very safe and we are only running the factory blower pulley with 6 psi of boost. Look how flat that torque curve is. Their is over 500 ft/lbs. of torque from 3300 rpm all the way up to 5700 rpm! That means it's going to be a blast to drive and there will be power on tap whenever you want it. This is a great power adder for a street car and except for the weight penalty, there seems to be no downsides.

Magnuson claims 492 rwhp and 455 ft/lbs of torque on a stock 2010. While these figures may be conservative any way you look at it we made a ton more power by having the headers and exhaust installed along with the supercharger. We picked up an additional 59.2 rear wheel horsepower and 122.2 ft/lbs of torque with the headers and exhaust!
Next week we have another track day planned in Gainesville so stay tuned to see what this power increase did for our track times!

Pix don't work!