Someone please shoot my car, or maybe i deserve it???
03-22-2008, 08:05 PM
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Someone please shoot my car, or maybe i deserve it??? So, this is gonna be a long story...
Let me start by saying I decided after pretty much doing every damn bolt on you could possibly do. Headers, pullies, suspension, ect, ect, ect. Car ran AMAZINGLY. Then i decided to put true dual exhaust instead of my flowmaster cat back because i felt the flowmaster SUCKED (as do 99% of us). I went with the TSP kit. I didnt feel like putting it on myself and didnt have the time (unfortunatly, it would have saved me the money). So, when i had the TD on in thought man this is amazing! Now... i wanna go faster... BAM with the CAM! I bought 232/234 .595/.598 112lsa cam from Vengeance Racing. Also did the springs/pushrods.
The first start up... OMG was it LOUD. I was really not liking how loud it was. Dont get me wrong, it sounded nasty and loved it. But, i knew the cops around the area would crucify me. A less choppy idle (after it started learning it) would be a little less unnoticable. But, when you set off a house alarm... sometimes, you do reach a point to where you have to consider your neighbor's. The first clue to that was people were coming out of their homes to see what the hell that sound was. So, im looking at my friends and they are like, dude no way, the TD's sound awsome... please dont change it. Needless to say, they recognized the same problems i did (noise is noise no matter how much you love the noise, if that makes sense). So, back on the Flowmaster it goes. By the way, the guy who threw on my flowmaster severly disected the piping to it. So we had to weld all the pipes back together to make it work to fit, except for the y pipe. That part was ok.
So, i needed a tune and sent my PCM to vengeance to see if i could get a baseline tune to just drive it up there (300 miles away at the time) then get it refined. So, now i have got my great tune done and pulled a 395rwhp and 382rwtq WITH FLOWMASTER!! With a bum clutch that was giving out on me to begin with (stock). Ron at vengeance was even pleased with the cam, as well as myself because the high numbers. It seemed very easy to drive around with. So my trip home begins with the 300 mile drive. Every thing is going great, im piping people that are next to me so proud of the new found glory under the hood. Even the gas milage was fairly decent. So i make it home alright. I drove the car for about 2 days. The only thing i really didnt like about the whole setup (for reasons i really cant explain except preference), was the surgy kind of start up. After an idle settled in, it was awsome.
So, now i have a car that i am very pleased with. I also noticed that my actual speedometer was off. They didnt change it for the 3.73's. No biggie, ill just have to do the math in my head to know what the speed was for the offical speed. But, you can guess the speed pretty accuratly with a m6. So while i was driving to a friends house a code pop's up. Needless to say i was fairly upset to see something pop up. So when i get to my friends house i got his scanner and looked at the car. Now, my memory fails me at this point i dont remember what code had popped up. Regardless, i just deleted the code (not too smart i know).
After a week or so i noticed some pretty major things going wrong with the car. (now here's where i get stupid....) I was having all kinds of surging issues at start up, after a while it would smooth out, soon as i pressed the gas and got off it, back to surging it would go. On the turns, on slowing down with no gas on, bumper to bumper traffic ect. So i was getting furious with the CAM (why, i dont know, i was retarded and hadnt done my homework when it all boils down to it.) So i call up Vengeance and start chewing *** (when i really shouldnt have). I called up Ron saying, man wtf, the car was running fine now its practically dieing on me like a lame duck. So i started doing a little homework, reading on the internet and such (not always the best source of information...((yet another dumb move)) ). So, after reading all this information i come to the conclusion that the cam that i got is not a good cam at all. It is a cookie cut cam from Comp Cam that i got through a mom and pop ls1 store in GA. Basically saying, it is not a good cam and that people were always having problems with the cam.
So, guess what i did next... thats right, i did another brilliant move by replacing the cam (after about 2-3 months with the other one)because i thought the cam was too large and impractical for what i was actually gonna use it for and it was eatting gas like CRAZY now. I realized after i got the cam, i got the power in the area i really NEVER use. That cam was just too large for a DD that i just wanted to do a little street racing once in a while. I wanted something that hauled *** off the line. So, i talked to Ron about this whole thing. So he said hey i got a great DD/street cam for you. It's not as choppy, but still pulls some sick numbers for what it is. So i got the 226/228 .585/.588 114 lsa. In the install i removed the March pully and put a stocker back on because my battery couldnt hold up the power in my stealth 10" sub i have in the back (or so i thought, it still needs more power). Now, when this cam went in it. MAN i was so much happier. Sounded more tam, but at WOT, this thing would just take off at the lower end. Thats what i really liked. The car to get up and go FAST. I was in nirvana this was after the tune of course, even though it was pretty close to begin with. Which resulted in annhilation of my clutch. SO, the new numbers were a little saddening because i went from 395hp/382trq to 370hp/370trq. But, i was WAY happier with the performance.
I later asked Ron, man... this thing just feels waaaay faster. He said its possible, hp doesnt mean everything. It's the power under the curve (first time i really heard the term and explained it to me and i became an instant believer.)
Problem fixed??? Hell no... This is where things go REAL bad. On the way home a code pops up. This one i write down and thank god, i had my little superchips progammer (bought when i just getting into the whole modding thing). Pulled over and plugged it to find a P1153 (insufficent switching B2S1). Ok, so i do my research and find ALOT of people with this damn problem. I have done EVERYTHING that you can possible imagine with this. I was pissed, i had spent all this money and kept running into problems. So, i do the the usual, look over the car, check for leaks (and found a big one at the header/Ypipe connection, but didnt think it would have effected it.), o2's , check the wires, plugs, EVERYTHING. I was coming up short and running out of ideas. So i had a friend come over and look over everything plus anything i had missed. Now, when in it comes to the inside of the engine, i start to get a little lost. Outside, i am good. So i knew or atleast thought my car knowledge should be able to find the reason why i kept popping this code. Both my friend (friend is a GM mechanic for 8 years that worked on vett's and f-bodies in a specialty shop) and i couldnt find anything. So we decide, lets try and weld the Y pipe and header together cause we could see the exhaust leak suit around the connection. So we decided.... well lets weld it together and see if it goes away. We did the weld and no dice. So now were really stumped and have NO idea where to go at this now. Unfortunatly i was getting the EXACT same gas milage as the other cam and was getting the exact same performance as the other cam, i just didnt sound as mean. So i called up Ron at vengeance again and he said, let me take look at it but unfortunatly couldnt, i ran outta time and had to be deployed to Iraq.
My mother takes the car from GA (Ft. Stewart) to Houston. So i was looking for ANYONE that could help me, while i was in Iraq cause my mother knows nothing about cars. So i did a little research here on the boards and low and behold i find a tuner that everyone seems to like in the houston area. I was recommended G-Force to have a look at my car for multiple issues.
So i get on the phone with Mike at G-Force and explain him what i did. I dont think that i did in this great a deal, so mike if you read this, uh.. yeah here you go. So after mike gets my car, he takes a look at it and says i found your problem. Your hearder has a large exhaust leak where it bolts up, your gasket is toast and your header/ypipe connection has leaks all over it through the weld. At this point i was doing a <insert face to palm motion>. I said, ok how much is this gonna cost me? He politly replies, Well you can do this the right way, or the cheap way. I said, whats the cheap way? He said we re weld it and a new gasket. But, the problem will just happen again the way its currently setup. I said and the right way? He said, a new exhaust setup unfortunatly. I said headers back? He replied, Yep.. So i said ok.... So i am throwing on LT pacesetters (replacing hooker) and a magnaflow cat back (replacing the flowmaster). So, with that being said, i said i also need a clutch replacement he recommended the LS7 Clutch. So i bought that and he is putting that in for me as well. I also got new MSD Wires and plugs. Then looked at with the tune to see if everything is straight. All in all its costing me about 2200+/- a few hundred to get it running right again. So, now im wondering what i will run now on the dyno with a good setup instead of a horrible setup i kept going back to ron with. Anways, thanks for taking the time for reading this, and if you read + wrote something back + wrote an est hp/trq #'s ... you = da shiet!
Let me start by saying I decided after pretty much doing every damn bolt on you could possibly do. Headers, pullies, suspension, ect, ect, ect. Car ran AMAZINGLY. Then i decided to put true dual exhaust instead of my flowmaster cat back because i felt the flowmaster SUCKED (as do 99% of us). I went with the TSP kit. I didnt feel like putting it on myself and didnt have the time (unfortunatly, it would have saved me the money). So, when i had the TD on in thought man this is amazing! Now... i wanna go faster... BAM with the CAM! I bought 232/234 .595/.598 112lsa cam from Vengeance Racing. Also did the springs/pushrods.
The first start up... OMG was it LOUD. I was really not liking how loud it was. Dont get me wrong, it sounded nasty and loved it. But, i knew the cops around the area would crucify me. A less choppy idle (after it started learning it) would be a little less unnoticable. But, when you set off a house alarm... sometimes, you do reach a point to where you have to consider your neighbor's. The first clue to that was people were coming out of their homes to see what the hell that sound was. So, im looking at my friends and they are like, dude no way, the TD's sound awsome... please dont change it. Needless to say, they recognized the same problems i did (noise is noise no matter how much you love the noise, if that makes sense). So, back on the Flowmaster it goes. By the way, the guy who threw on my flowmaster severly disected the piping to it. So we had to weld all the pipes back together to make it work to fit, except for the y pipe. That part was ok.
So, i needed a tune and sent my PCM to vengeance to see if i could get a baseline tune to just drive it up there (300 miles away at the time) then get it refined. So, now i have got my great tune done and pulled a 395rwhp and 382rwtq WITH FLOWMASTER!! With a bum clutch that was giving out on me to begin with (stock). Ron at vengeance was even pleased with the cam, as well as myself because the high numbers. It seemed very easy to drive around with. So my trip home begins with the 300 mile drive. Every thing is going great, im piping people that are next to me so proud of the new found glory under the hood. Even the gas milage was fairly decent. So i make it home alright. I drove the car for about 2 days. The only thing i really didnt like about the whole setup (for reasons i really cant explain except preference), was the surgy kind of start up. After an idle settled in, it was awsome.
So, now i have a car that i am very pleased with. I also noticed that my actual speedometer was off. They didnt change it for the 3.73's. No biggie, ill just have to do the math in my head to know what the speed was for the offical speed. But, you can guess the speed pretty accuratly with a m6. So while i was driving to a friends house a code pop's up. Needless to say i was fairly upset to see something pop up. So when i get to my friends house i got his scanner and looked at the car. Now, my memory fails me at this point i dont remember what code had popped up. Regardless, i just deleted the code (not too smart i know).
After a week or so i noticed some pretty major things going wrong with the car. (now here's where i get stupid....) I was having all kinds of surging issues at start up, after a while it would smooth out, soon as i pressed the gas and got off it, back to surging it would go. On the turns, on slowing down with no gas on, bumper to bumper traffic ect. So i was getting furious with the CAM (why, i dont know, i was retarded and hadnt done my homework when it all boils down to it.) So i call up Vengeance and start chewing *** (when i really shouldnt have). I called up Ron saying, man wtf, the car was running fine now its practically dieing on me like a lame duck. So i started doing a little homework, reading on the internet and such (not always the best source of information...((yet another dumb move)) ). So, after reading all this information i come to the conclusion that the cam that i got is not a good cam at all. It is a cookie cut cam from Comp Cam that i got through a mom and pop ls1 store in GA. Basically saying, it is not a good cam and that people were always having problems with the cam.
So, guess what i did next... thats right, i did another brilliant move by replacing the cam (after about 2-3 months with the other one)because i thought the cam was too large and impractical for what i was actually gonna use it for and it was eatting gas like CRAZY now. I realized after i got the cam, i got the power in the area i really NEVER use. That cam was just too large for a DD that i just wanted to do a little street racing once in a while. I wanted something that hauled *** off the line. So, i talked to Ron about this whole thing. So he said hey i got a great DD/street cam for you. It's not as choppy, but still pulls some sick numbers for what it is. So i got the 226/228 .585/.588 114 lsa. In the install i removed the March pully and put a stocker back on because my battery couldnt hold up the power in my stealth 10" sub i have in the back (or so i thought, it still needs more power). Now, when this cam went in it. MAN i was so much happier. Sounded more tam, but at WOT, this thing would just take off at the lower end. Thats what i really liked. The car to get up and go FAST. I was in nirvana this was after the tune of course, even though it was pretty close to begin with. Which resulted in annhilation of my clutch. SO, the new numbers were a little saddening because i went from 395hp/382trq to 370hp/370trq. But, i was WAY happier with the performance.
I later asked Ron, man... this thing just feels waaaay faster. He said its possible, hp doesnt mean everything. It's the power under the curve (first time i really heard the term and explained it to me and i became an instant believer.)
Problem fixed??? Hell no... This is where things go REAL bad. On the way home a code pops up. This one i write down and thank god, i had my little superchips progammer (bought when i just getting into the whole modding thing). Pulled over and plugged it to find a P1153 (insufficent switching B2S1). Ok, so i do my research and find ALOT of people with this damn problem. I have done EVERYTHING that you can possible imagine with this. I was pissed, i had spent all this money and kept running into problems. So, i do the the usual, look over the car, check for leaks (and found a big one at the header/Ypipe connection, but didnt think it would have effected it.), o2's , check the wires, plugs, EVERYTHING. I was coming up short and running out of ideas. So i had a friend come over and look over everything plus anything i had missed. Now, when in it comes to the inside of the engine, i start to get a little lost. Outside, i am good. So i knew or atleast thought my car knowledge should be able to find the reason why i kept popping this code. Both my friend (friend is a GM mechanic for 8 years that worked on vett's and f-bodies in a specialty shop) and i couldnt find anything. So we decide, lets try and weld the Y pipe and header together cause we could see the exhaust leak suit around the connection. So we decided.... well lets weld it together and see if it goes away. We did the weld and no dice. So now were really stumped and have NO idea where to go at this now. Unfortunatly i was getting the EXACT same gas milage as the other cam and was getting the exact same performance as the other cam, i just didnt sound as mean. So i called up Ron at vengeance again and he said, let me take look at it but unfortunatly couldnt, i ran outta time and had to be deployed to Iraq.
My mother takes the car from GA (Ft. Stewart) to Houston. So i was looking for ANYONE that could help me, while i was in Iraq cause my mother knows nothing about cars. So i did a little research here on the boards and low and behold i find a tuner that everyone seems to like in the houston area. I was recommended G-Force to have a look at my car for multiple issues.
So i get on the phone with Mike at G-Force and explain him what i did. I dont think that i did in this great a deal, so mike if you read this, uh.. yeah here you go. So after mike gets my car, he takes a look at it and says i found your problem. Your hearder has a large exhaust leak where it bolts up, your gasket is toast and your header/ypipe connection has leaks all over it through the weld. At this point i was doing a <insert face to palm motion>. I said, ok how much is this gonna cost me? He politly replies, Well you can do this the right way, or the cheap way. I said, whats the cheap way? He said we re weld it and a new gasket. But, the problem will just happen again the way its currently setup. I said and the right way? He said, a new exhaust setup unfortunatly. I said headers back? He replied, Yep.. So i said ok.... So i am throwing on LT pacesetters (replacing hooker) and a magnaflow cat back (replacing the flowmaster). So, with that being said, i said i also need a clutch replacement he recommended the LS7 Clutch. So i bought that and he is putting that in for me as well. I also got new MSD Wires and plugs. Then looked at with the tune to see if everything is straight. All in all its costing me about 2200+/- a few hundred to get it running right again. So, now im wondering what i will run now on the dyno with a good setup instead of a horrible setup i kept going back to ron with. Anways, thanks for taking the time for reading this, and if you read + wrote something back + wrote an est hp/trq #'s ... you = da shiet!
03-23-2008, 01:14 PM
#2
I read the whole thread. That was one of the longest ones I have ever read.
I had the the same codes after header install and I replaced my 02's with rear vett ones and the code went away.
I have a 233/595 112 cam on my DD. I made 401 hp with an A4 unlocked. I think you should be close to 390 to 400hp. I would have kept the pulley on and just change the alt pulley.
Hope everything works out OK.
Bill
I had the the same codes after header install and I replaced my 02's with rear vett ones and the code went away.
I have a 233/595 112 cam on my DD. I made 401 hp with an A4 unlocked. I think you should be close to 390 to 400hp. I would have kept the pulley on and just change the alt pulley.
Hope everything works out OK.
Bill