Igor, it's alive!!

[treynor]

Re: Igor, it\'s alive!!

Here is a graph of the current power levels compared with the previous best run using the stock heads & Belanger headers:

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And here's what happens when you add a very rich-running 100-shot of NOS:

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<FONT size="5">Woo Hoo!</FONT s>

I should take a moment here to mention everyone who's made this possible:
Hennessey, for a pair of kick-*** heads, as well as a bunch of technical advice and other phone support;
BTR Viper, for a great NOS system I can use on my '01 car, half shafts which take my abuse, and a great header&exhaust combo for the street;
Parts Rack & Roe Racing, for excellent parts, customer support, prices, and quick delivery;
Caldwell / Archer, for headers which look gorgeous and flow better (even if they make my car sound like a rice rocket);
and last but certainly not least,
APEX Motorsports, for fitting me into their very busy schedule, and for a first-rate job of making a serious performance car out of all the parts I keep having shipped to them

Next up: Autoform rollbar, Team Tech 5-point harnesses, AL flywheel, tranny blanket, and then off to the racetrack!

 

[Ron]

Re: Igor, it\'s alive!!

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Ben,

Very impressive. Looking forward to seeing the 1/4 mile times....

What was the cause of the cooling system problems?</FONT f>

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

Re: Igor, it\'s alive!!

Ben, results look very good! Bring your car to the Western Zone event 6/22-6/24 in Monterey. Your car would be a good car to show at the Tuner display Sat evening and autocross car show all day Sat. Good chance to practice taming all those ponies.

 

[2charmed]

Re: Igor, it\'s alive!!

Ben,

How does your car feel compared to stock? With out the NOS
Is the differance to stock a major differance? How pricy were
the heads?

Thanks,

Steve

 

[treynor]

Re: Igor, it\'s alive!!

To answer a couple questions:
(a) the cooling gremlins were subdued but not vanquished. The car ran cool enough to drive to APEX and do the dyno runs, but a single 6-sec burst on the freeway was enough to send the temp gauge up to 240, where it stayed for minutes, so I left the car with APEX to further chase down the problem. They needed the car anyway to install the rollbar, 5-points and flywheel...

(b) Up to 3,500 RPM, the car feels about the same as it did with just exhaust and headers -- that is to say, a bit quicker than stock but not startlingly so. Above 3,500 RPM there is no comparison: it feels like someone just hit a 100-shot NOS button, and the car snarls and leaps forward, then keeps pulling up to 5,700 RPM. The stock car starts to slow down above 4,500 RPM and feels like it's running out of breath; this one just wants to rev.

(c) Comparing Belanger to CDI headers: there are several subjective differences: (1) the CDI headers are considerably louder than the Belangers; (2) the Belangers seemed to make better low-midrange power (2,500 - 3,500 RPM) while the CDIs seem to come "on pipe" at around 4,000 RPM. It's impossible for me to separate the effect of the headers from that of the heads, so some of this may be the heads' behavior, but from comparing my dyno graphs to that of other Venom 550 cars, the power spike at 4000 is more pronounced in my car. (3) I like the sound of the Belangers better -- they have a great deep roaring sound you can hear on some of my dragstrip runs (in particular, the one vs. the mustang) while the CDIs have a raspy note which sounds for all the world like God's own Honda Civic revving to 15,000 RPM. That said, you can't argue with the power the CDI headers are making.
Wayne is going to put a set of CDI headers on his otherwise largely-stock 2001 ACR, so we'll have an interesting data point from his dyno runs in a few weeks.

(d) Price is something to negotiate with your tuner of choice. The head & rockers install cost about $1,200, and conservatively added 60 RWHP to my car, so you have a starting point for figuring out $/HP.

(e) My fearless predictions for 1/4 performance:

On street tires -- 11.6 @ 124
On slicks -- 11.1 @ 125
On slicks with #40 NOS: 10.6 @ 130

 

[JonB]

Re: Igor, it\'s alive!!

BEN........Thanks for taking the time to share the comparisons. You are an asset to this board.

Looking forward to the "special" photos of the Team-Tech "Family-Plan" harnesses!

JonB

 

[treynor]

Igor, it\'s alive!!

With some phone help from Hennessey & co, I exorcised enough of my cooling system gremlins last night to get the FrankenViper down to APEX this morning for some dyno runs. My last runs were with Belanger headers & exhaust, high-flow cats & MOPAR ECU, and netted 438 RWHP and 485 ft/lbs. For these runs, we added Hennessey's Venom heads, T&D 1.7 roller rockers, and CDI headers. I had my hopes set on 500 RWHP / 500 ft/lbs...

... and I was not disappointed: Our first run was 515 SAE RWHP, 525 ft/lbs! Actual HP was 539, so this is no correction factor anomaly. We did a second run, and it was +/-2HP identical to the first.

I was making enough power at this point that I chickened out and swapped my 150 NOS jets for a pair making 100 HP. This still netted 586 RWHP and 649 ft/lbs on juice, with more torque on tap down low if I ran the system continuously for longer (the NOS takes a second to switch from gas to liquid since only have a propane purge).

Dyno graphs to follow shortly.