Why is my car a turd?
Why is my car a turd? Ok a couple months ago I had my car dyno'd at speed inc. I only made 360/360. I think that something is wrong with my car and that it still has more power in it. my mods are as follows
98 A4 formula
Pacesetter lt's
ory
hooker catback
ls6 intake
lid
ported tb
g5x3 112lsa
patriot springs
these runs were made with my cutout open and due to the speed limiter in my car were only until 5800rpm. I feel that my car has at least 10 more hp in it. the power seemed to level off at 5400 on. what could be causing this to occur? my car has 84k miles and has stock lifters, could they be pumping up? af ratio went from 13.8:1 at 3750rpm to 12.1 @5800 and looked to get richer. any help is greatly appriciated.
98 A4 formula
Pacesetter lt's
ory
hooker catback
ls6 intake
lid
ported tb
g5x3 112lsa
patriot springs
these runs were made with my cutout open and due to the speed limiter in my car were only until 5800rpm. I feel that my car has at least 10 more hp in it. the power seemed to level off at 5400 on. what could be causing this to occur? my car has 84k miles and has stock lifters, could they be pumping up? af ratio went from 13.8:1 at 3750rpm to 12.1 @5800 and looked to get richer. any help is greatly appriciated.
i was under the assumption that it liked rpm's too. however, looking at my graph i can watch the power level out at about 5400. this makes me think that something bad is happening somewhere. Shouldn't I be able to see my graph ending with the curve still rising not leveling out? also not to sound like a noob but what do you think i should get out of it?
With an automatic and a G5X3, your power peak will be between 6300-6500 rpm. Tune it better and turn it tighter.
__________________
2013 Corvette Grand Sport A6 LME forged 416, Greg Good ported TFS 255 LS3 heads, 222/242 .629"/.604" 121LSA Pat G blower cam, ARH 1 7/8" headers, ESC Novi 1500 Supercharger w/8 rib direct drive conversion, 747rwhp/709rwtq on 93 octane, 801rwhp/735rwtq on race fuel, 10.1 @ 147.25mph 1/4 mile, 174.7mph Half Mile.
2016 Corvette Z51 M7 Magnuson Heartbeat 2300 supercharger, TSP LT headers, Pat G tuned, 667rwhp, 662rwtq, 191mph TX Mile.
2009.5 Pontiac G8 GT 6.0L, A6, AFR 230v2 heads. 506rwhp/442rwtq. 11.413 @ 121.29mph 1/4 mile, 168.7mph TX Mile
2000 Pewter Ram Air Trans Am M6 heads/cam 508 rwhp/445 rwtq SAE, 183.092 TX Mile
2022 Cadillac Escalade 6.2L A10 S&B CAI, Corsa catback.
2023 Corvette 3LT Z51 soon to be modified.
Custom LSX tuning in person or via email press here.
2013 Corvette Grand Sport A6 LME forged 416, Greg Good ported TFS 255 LS3 heads, 222/242 .629"/.604" 121LSA Pat G blower cam, ARH 1 7/8" headers, ESC Novi 1500 Supercharger w/8 rib direct drive conversion, 747rwhp/709rwtq on 93 octane, 801rwhp/735rwtq on race fuel, 10.1 @ 147.25mph 1/4 mile, 174.7mph Half Mile.
2016 Corvette Z51 M7 Magnuson Heartbeat 2300 supercharger, TSP LT headers, Pat G tuned, 667rwhp, 662rwtq, 191mph TX Mile.
2009.5 Pontiac G8 GT 6.0L, A6, AFR 230v2 heads. 506rwhp/442rwtq. 11.413 @ 121.29mph 1/4 mile, 168.7mph TX Mile
2000 Pewter Ram Air Trans Am M6 heads/cam 508 rwhp/445 rwtq SAE, 183.092 TX Mile
2022 Cadillac Escalade 6.2L A10 S&B CAI, Corsa catback.
2023 Corvette 3LT Z51 soon to be modified.
Custom LSX tuning in person or via email press here.
im talking out of my *** here, but what about a new opti (IDK) my friend is having the same problem with his LT1 and a 230/236 cam and its peaking at 5300 rpms, idk what an "opti" is but maybe you can aks some one who knows, good luck
well, opti is for lt1's and I am pretty sure that my coil packs are all good. Patrick g what do you mean by 'turn it tighter"? My car also has troble going into gear. it will idle like **** for about 30 seconds 350-1000 rpm then will jump to about 1100. when I go to put it in gear when it is at 1200 95% of the time it will stall out. it idles at about 950 in gear. I can't turn the idle down at all, my tb set screw is all the way in. (it is upside down from the factory setup for easy tuning.) i'm not sure if this has anything to do with it, but a buddy told me that my lifters may be messed up and that this can cause drivability and power issues.
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Turn it tighter means, rev it higher.
You didn't say if you had an aftermarket torque converter or not (unless I missed it). If you don't have one, you're going to hate that cam, even with tuning. You'll need a 3500-4000 stall converter to take advantage of the juicy mid-range and top-end power that cam has. If you do have one already, that may be why your power appears to flat-line above 5000 rpm. That's pretty common with high stall converters (but not the stock converter).
With proper tuning, your motor should start up clean and idle without hesitation.
You didn't say if you had an aftermarket torque converter or not (unless I missed it). If you don't have one, you're going to hate that cam, even with tuning. You'll need a 3500-4000 stall converter to take advantage of the juicy mid-range and top-end power that cam has. If you do have one already, that may be why your power appears to flat-line above 5000 rpm. That's pretty common with high stall converters (but not the stock converter).
With proper tuning, your motor should start up clean and idle without hesitation.
__________________
2013 Corvette Grand Sport A6 LME forged 416, Greg Good ported TFS 255 LS3 heads, 222/242 .629"/.604" 121LSA Pat G blower cam, ARH 1 7/8" headers, ESC Novi 1500 Supercharger w/8 rib direct drive conversion, 747rwhp/709rwtq on 93 octane, 801rwhp/735rwtq on race fuel, 10.1 @ 147.25mph 1/4 mile, 174.7mph Half Mile.
2016 Corvette Z51 M7 Magnuson Heartbeat 2300 supercharger, TSP LT headers, Pat G tuned, 667rwhp, 662rwtq, 191mph TX Mile.
2009.5 Pontiac G8 GT 6.0L, A6, AFR 230v2 heads. 506rwhp/442rwtq. 11.413 @ 121.29mph 1/4 mile, 168.7mph TX Mile
2000 Pewter Ram Air Trans Am M6 heads/cam 508 rwhp/445 rwtq SAE, 183.092 TX Mile
2022 Cadillac Escalade 6.2L A10 S&B CAI, Corsa catback.
2023 Corvette 3LT Z51 soon to be modified.
Custom LSX tuning in person or via email press here.
2013 Corvette Grand Sport A6 LME forged 416, Greg Good ported TFS 255 LS3 heads, 222/242 .629"/.604" 121LSA Pat G blower cam, ARH 1 7/8" headers, ESC Novi 1500 Supercharger w/8 rib direct drive conversion, 747rwhp/709rwtq on 93 octane, 801rwhp/735rwtq on race fuel, 10.1 @ 147.25mph 1/4 mile, 174.7mph Half Mile.
2016 Corvette Z51 M7 Magnuson Heartbeat 2300 supercharger, TSP LT headers, Pat G tuned, 667rwhp, 662rwtq, 191mph TX Mile.
2009.5 Pontiac G8 GT 6.0L, A6, AFR 230v2 heads. 506rwhp/442rwtq. 11.413 @ 121.29mph 1/4 mile, 168.7mph TX Mile
2000 Pewter Ram Air Trans Am M6 heads/cam 508 rwhp/445 rwtq SAE, 183.092 TX Mile
2022 Cadillac Escalade 6.2L A10 S&B CAI, Corsa catback.
2023 Corvette 3LT Z51 soon to be modified.
Custom LSX tuning in person or via email press here.
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Joined: Apr 2004
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From: tampa fla
Patrick is right,this cam will peak around 6500-6600 in an auto.Mine peaks at 6500 and only looses 3-4 hp up to 6700 rpm.You will need a stall with this cam, my 3800 isnt big enough 
,i might be trying a PE4000.My setup pulls like a **** up top,yours should too. 
,i might be trying a PE4000.My setup pulls like a **** up top,yours should too. the pulls were made on the stock stall. my 3800 stall is going in in 2 weeks. how lean can a safely run this setup? i think i can pull more power since it was 12:1 and getting richer. thanks for your help. could I be leaking compression somehow?
Yak- I have the g5x3 cam too and I can tell you it pulls hard as hell up top! I've bumped the rev limiter (set at 6800) on my car a few times and it wants to keep on pulling. You can look at my dyno graph on my thread and see the numbers up top. I just wish I had more torque down low.
J
J
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From: Gateway International Raceway
Originally Posted by BlueSix
Lean it out to around 13:1, spin it to 6500, don't expect high numbers from an a4.
Like said above - get a tune. A complete tune with a wideband! You can't just throw parts at these cars and expect them to make more power like the old days! Without a tune, that cam (and everything else for that matter) is worthless.
Yak i didn't read clear on your first post but you did't get it tuned since your cam swap?Thats a big problem.Get it tuned and them you will see the full gain of the cam swap.
tuff and the others, I did get my car tuned. It's a madz28.com tune. My sfift points are set at 6750 but we hit the speed limiter (160 mph) in third gear. thats why the pulls only went to about 5800rpm since I have 2.73 gears. I have no idea what my timing was but I need to call my tuner to have him work some stuff out this week so I will ask. tuff, I should really just borrow his ls1 edit and swing down to your place. then I know my car will make good powa!! 
he tuned it a bit conservativly at first since it wasn't a dyno tune so i think I will bring him my graph and have him lean it out and adjust my timing. I'm really not expecting some huge number like 400+ I would be quite happy with something around 380-385. I know the 98 heads really suck but I don't thnik they are really causing a power loss.
he tuned it a bit conservativly at first since it wasn't a dyno tune so i think I will bring him my graph and have him lean it out and adjust my timing. I'm really not expecting some huge number like 400+ I would be quite happy with something around 380-385. I know the 98 heads really suck but I don't thnik they are really causing a power loss. 
Like whats been said above. That cam needs higher rpms to see its power. Wrong choice for a DD which it seems that this car is. A better tune will with help with driveability but in order to see the power you need to be at 6500+ rpms with that cam and have a big stall and some gears. Thats why your car is a turd. Poorly matched setup. Did you buy that cam new? I gotta ask why you chose it? Did you see some thread with big numbers in it? or did someone give you that cam or buy it used. Trying to understand your combination.. Cheapest headers but the most expensive cam? What are the specs on your cam, do you even know? You need to set the car up for that cam and it is not even close from the sounds of it.
Beyond your: "Muffler bearings, synthetic blinker fluid, and a flux capacitator." What are your plans for the car, what do you want out of it?
Beyond your: "Muffler bearings, synthetic blinker fluid, and a flux capacitator." What are your plans for the car, what do you want out of it?
Last edited by 99blancoSS; Dec 19, 2005 at 11:43 AM.