This GTO picks up nine horsepower with a tune and another five with a new cold air intake.
This 2005 Pontiac GTO shows us the importance of picking the right modifications, while also showing the advantages of a simple custom tune. Overall, the mildly-modified LS2 car gains 14 horsepower and 14 lb-ft of torque with a tune and a new intake system.
The Introduction
This video comes to us from the Diablo Formula Racing YouTube channel and it begins with the host explaining the project while the owner drives. The two are taking the GTO to a local dyno shop for a tune and to see which of the two cold air intake setups on hand makes more power.
The car is a 98,000-mile 2005 Pontiac GTO with the LS2 V8 and the manual transmission. When the car first hits the dyno, it has been outfitted with an MSD intake manifold, an axle-back exhaust system with no resonators, aftermarket coil packs and a cold air intake. They don’t want to bash on that cold air intake, so they cover the brand sticker under the hood, but anyone familiar with the CAI kits for an LS2 GTO can likely tell what company made this product.
They also have a second cold air intake setup from the company Cold Air Inductions and their goal is to dyno tune the GTO with the current intake, then switch to the other intake to see if there is any difference in output.
The Dyno Runs
On the first run, the GTO is tested before the tune and it makes 353 horsepower and 347 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. The car is then tuned and tested again, that time making 362 horsepower and 357 lb-ft of torque at the wheels – gaining nine horsepower and 10 lb-ft of torque from the quick tune.
Next, they swap in the Cold Air Inductions intake kit that has a freer-flowing air box and a larger inlet. The team then did another dyno pull and on this last run, the GTO made 367 horsepower and 361 lb-ft of torque at the rear wheels. This is an increase of five horsepower and four lb-ft of torque just from changing intake setups.
While it is not a huge improvement, the video shows that the right cold air intake will allow your LS2-powered GTO to make a little more power.
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