I finally was able to speak to my tuner today. Have 3 questions to ask here, I asked him also but didn’t get detailed answers honestly. He known locally by ton of people around New England and recommended by high hp guys. He doesn’t seem worried about potential issues and has a couple rules if he does the tune.

these are his rules:
meth has to be full Alq. Not mixed snow.
he won’t tune over 15psi on 93oct.

he said he will tune the car with efilive because he can change fuel and timing for multiple boost levels. So I can run 15lbs on 93 with my full catback exhaust on and run high boost with cutouts open and meth, without having to swap tunes and still get best potential on pump as well as the high boost meth run.

so here is my setup:

5.3 Lm7, 3200lb car

Twin Turbos:
http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBa...=0&cspheader=1
Dual 40mm precision wastegates
Truck manifolds 2.5” to 1.25’ long Pipe connected to each turbo(T4)
Full 2.5” piping with large SMICs (fits car)
full 3” exhaust with catback, also cutouts
deka 80lb injectors and aero fpr with 525pump
ls1 intake
92mm TB
706 heads
btr steel retainers and valve seats
btr dual titanium valve springs
btr harden push rods
btr stage 2 cam (card in picture)
ls9 headgaskets
.030 bored block with factory resized Rods with ARP hardware
ARP head and main studs
Meth injection (not purchased yet)
3.37 rear end
5spd trans (300zx, car swap is installed on)

my questions are:
He wants me to run a 2.5bar map sensor which maxes out at 20psi because he de-tunes afew psi after that Incase of overboost. It’s only capable of 23psi he said. What boost should I be prepared for with meth and cutouts, is it worth running the 3 bar instead and losing alittle on the daily smoothness?

i forgot to ask him what I should rev this engine to.
Any thoughts to that?

finally, what should I do to get prepared for tune?
car will be checked for boost leaks, no overheating, sensors all reading.

 

i mean he sounds like he has a bunch of rules because he knows what works for him. you have plenty enough goodies there to make 600+ wheel. i'm told those hellcat pumps arent much better than a normal 450.

1) if the turbos or fuel system are done at 2.5 bar there aint much to gain. that said i've never felt like the resolution between a 2.5 bar sensor, and a 3 bar sensor made them harder to tune. i just get the same 3 bar sensor from efi source so I dont have to dick around looking for data...he might be like that with his 2.5bar sensor?

2) rev it until it doesnt go faster or power falls off. I wanted to spin my 4.8 to 8 grand, the cam said "nah im done" around 6700

3) bring your AAA card in case something on the car breaks
bring good beers for if you car breaks a dyno record
bring some Malort in case it makes **** power and breaks your heart

just go into it with a good attitude and an open mind. I learn so much every time I go to the dyno, it's really a fun experience IMO

 

Your not the first person to question the 525 capability. I’m a month away from tuning so wonder if I should get another one or a second smaller one.

also, hoping for positive things that night haha. At end of day the 5.3 are cheap and can swap my heads to a new block if need be lol.

really hoping for 7-800 with meth/93 and open cutouts. He said his dyno is not forgiving though. If I make 700 then I’ll make 800+ somewhere else.

 

i personally have no experience with that much power on pump + meth so i'll defer to someone else on power estimates

we have a little e85 here so once youre up past 500 wheel or so it just makes a lot of sense, the tuning window is much larger

 

1 525 pump on 93 is plenty . But I'd put it on e85 and add a 2nd pump .

Tuner seems to know what hes talking about 💪

 

E85 is 30min drive for me. Unless I tune with flexfuel setup , it’ll be a headache cause I’ll never have empty on 93 to fill with e85. So really hoping the meth can make the difference and I’ll only be needing it when cutouts are open. So won’t be used all the time at all.

as for power estimates, above 600 I’ll be happy but I just wanna break that 700 mark on high boost. The setup is what it is at this point and leaving e85 out, time will tell what happens.

 

E85 too far for me for now. Next year I bet I’ll have some in my state.

The tuner does a ton of high hp NA cars and not so many boosted. However he has a fair share of boosted cars done so I’m not nervous about it. I’m more nervous he might not wanna push it. This is why I was wondering if the 3 bar map over the 2.5 just in case the turbos need the higher boost to put out power. They are eBay lol.

 

tuner sounds pretty conservative. thats not necessarily a bad thing considering hes working on other peoples cars and not his.

 

That sounds a hell of a lot better than some keyboard warrior who will run it up until it breaks because you signed a dyno waiver.

 

Do you guys think I’ll NEED flex pipes on my hot side?

have a buddy who think all the welds will crack and without flexpipes I’ll break other ****. He’s really being a hater but I did say I should’ve done flex pipe and the welder didn’t think was necessary.

the turbo is braced to frame.

 

If you have solid mounts, you likely won't have any issues. I put one flex joint in my crossover and haven't had any issues with it. I got it from Stainless Bros. Pretty quality piece.

 

These are my mounts. They pivot in center but stiff as hell.

 

yeah, should be good with that.

 

He wants straight meth because he probably feels it’s more consistent and doesn’t have to worry about mix being off after the car is in your possession.

I’ve heard people have better results with a 50/50 mix though 🤷

It’s just one, of many small reasons... I don’t play with meth injection. You want alcohol? Then run the car solely on alcohol. Again, just my opinion.

 

I built a turbo 5.3 car in 2008 without any flexes in it. Ten plus years later and been through 5 owners and not a single crack or issue. This was with aluminized mild steel. Stainless will be more prone to cracking tho

 

Mine is just mild steel. The vbands might be stainless. However thank you for the confidence boost

 

I’m completely new to meth. The car will be driven 95% of time with cutouts shut and on low boost. So meth should only be used when I really wanna have fun with car and can be loud (cutouts open). A buddy said to use the m1 stuff.

 

SYou ever sit back and ask yourself why someone would spray water into a motor at all? Why is it even a thing? Methanol should be better in every aspect a logical mind would think

But methanol only has something like a 1/3 the cooling capacity of water. So spraying straight meth will not lower your IAT nearly as much as a 50/50 mix. So if your spraying meth for the added fuel and octane, m1 is going to far superior. But if your adding methanol injection to lower IAT, a 50/50 mix is going to be more effective.

I do HVAC/refrigeration for a living. Heat removal from these (injection) system comes from the energy it takes to turn a liquid into a Vapor. Methanol doesn’t take nearly the BTU to boil off, where water takes much much more and will use more of the heat created from the compressing of air through the turbo. This is simple physics and can’t be argued.

that being said, there is lot of evidence showing some systems/setups/cars benefit from m1 over a 50/50 mix. These cars benefit from the added fuel and octane more so than a cooler intake charge.
But there is also evidence on cars with really high IATs, they gain more from the mix because of the cooling properties of water being evaporated. Downside is water doesn’t burn or add octane and your simply spraying it into the intake to remove heat/btus/energy from the charged air.

now I know this all sounds confusing because cars that run on straight methanol stay extremely cool. But you can prove to yourself water takes more btus to turn from a liquid state to Vapor than meth. *Do not try at home unless your ballsy as hell*. You can set two burners to the exact same setting/btu output. Put a gallon of water and a gallon of methanol (both at the same temp) on each burner and see which one boils off faster. Obvious answer is the methanol by A LOT. So it takes more btu/heat to boil off water

it’s the change of state/phase of the liquid that pulls heat from the intake charge. Since it takes much less heat to change methanols state, it removes far less heat.

since your new to it and are not doing your own tuning, go with whatever your tuner is comfortable with or thinks is right for your set up. This was just a long ramble explaining to you the difference between the two and the science behind comparing their cooling properties. Methanol will not cool your intake charge like a 50/50 mix of the two will (you simply can’t argue that). But it will none the less add fuel, octane, and cool the intake charge air. Just depends on what you need more. Much cooler iat, or octane & fuel.

Science lesson over 😅

 

Charge temp and ultimately lower CC temp is key.

 

I actually did understand that , thanks for the post.

in my scenario I have intercoolers that work very well and I’m limited to the 93 oct. so he may want the m1 for the octane boost, hoping my IAT will stay decent. I personally thought the meth would lower the IAT drastically because they tune off the IAT sensor to show I’m spraying the meth.

However , like I said, I didn’t fully understand how it all worked. Now I know 😁