Simple & Cheap Upgrades.. What works, what doesn't?
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while hunting down an alternator bracket or contemplating building one myself with all the mess of tools I have I've began looking at other ways for cheap gains.
I've gutted the car like a big trout as best as I can but that's just weight now i'm considering intake and what would you reccomend?
There's this "Hurricane resistor sensor modification" i've stumbled across and I'm not sure whether or not I should even buy into what it says.. it guranteed 15-20 hp gains, and added torque.. 100% guranteed. I'd be tempted to engine dyno my car before/after it's put on to dis-prove this so-called.. gurantee
you can find this here and read up on it
and here's a blurb "The Hurricane allows your computer to run a bit richer than the factory Air/Fuel setting. Factory settings are generally leaner (closer to the green bar) than ideal for torque and horsepower (red bar in graph) to meet the CAFE requirements in the US.
In addition to running a bit more rich your ECU will advance the timing to improve performance. The F5 is the "ultimate" version- you can flip it "off" for everyday driving and just flip it "on" at the track or off-road." I get a kick out of the question "will my car accelerate faster with this device" and of course the answer is yes. Perhaps 1/200 faster
so there's this option for a chip which is about 8 times more expensive BUT what sort of gains have you seen from a chip? Is there any real fear in running richer though?
and what sort of "cold air intake" is available for these cars? what about just a cone and some piping?
what about headers, what sort of gains are we talking?
In reality I'd like to keep this car N/A, i'm building it up for track use and I've been told by many avid racers that in the n/a class it seems less competitive and in all honesty I find a built-up N/A motor to be more amazing then a turbo'ed one (this isn't 951 envy here at all, I love the cars)
I've gutted the car like a big trout as best as I can but that's just weight now i'm considering intake and what would you reccomend?
There's this "Hurricane resistor sensor modification" i've stumbled across and I'm not sure whether or not I should even buy into what it says.. it guranteed 15-20 hp gains, and added torque.. 100% guranteed. I'd be tempted to engine dyno my car before/after it's put on to dis-prove this so-called.. gurantee
you can find this here and read up on it
and here's a blurb "The Hurricane allows your computer to run a bit richer than the factory Air/Fuel setting. Factory settings are generally leaner (closer to the green bar) than ideal for torque and horsepower (red bar in graph) to meet the CAFE requirements in the US.
In addition to running a bit more rich your ECU will advance the timing to improve performance. The F5 is the "ultimate" version- you can flip it "off" for everyday driving and just flip it "on" at the track or off-road." I get a kick out of the question "will my car accelerate faster with this device" and of course the answer is yes. Perhaps 1/200 faster
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so there's this option for a chip which is about 8 times more expensive BUT what sort of gains have you seen from a chip? Is there any real fear in running richer though?
and what sort of "cold air intake" is available for these cars? what about just a cone and some piping?
what about headers, what sort of gains are we talking?
In reality I'd like to keep this car N/A, i'm building it up for track use and I've been told by many avid racers that in the n/a class it seems less competitive and in all honesty I find a built-up N/A motor to be more amazing then a turbo'ed one (this isn't 951 envy here at all, I love the cars)
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So .....what model year are we talking about, what has been done so far, what is the intended application ? Street, autocross, DE, SCCA, Club Racing ?
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it's an '84 944 N/A intended application is street/club racing/autocross
i've done springs, shocks, tie rods, re-finished and built up the control arms, ball joints, re-built claipers with performance brakes, re-worked rotors, fully stripped interior
and i'm ready to go into actual performance to see some gains now
i've done springs, shocks, tie rods, re-finished and built up the control arms, ball joints, re-built claipers with performance brakes, re-worked rotors, fully stripped interior
and i'm ready to go into actual performance to see some gains now
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i've read up on the archives about cold air intakes and such and i've seen suggestions or k&n with the stock intake, now you can only push so much air into that little airbox.
would there be ANY advantage to increasing the hole in the fender and the size of the piping? what about using a piping that resists hear more readily. what about a "puller" fan down there with a filter on it or am I getting extreme?
would there be ANY advantage to increasing the hole in the fender and the size of the piping? what about using a piping that resists hear more readily. what about a "puller" fan down there with a filter on it or am I getting extreme?
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extreme, that kind of stuff may add about 1 hp, really not worht all the hassle. It's an NA, I mean, you have intake, exhaust, headers and whatnot, prolly the biggest gain you will see it to ditch the cat... unless you want to dump some coin, an contact milleage (or what ever his name is) about his cams and whatnot, you have to face the fact that its an na motor... Its good though, you get to be proud of your driver skill when you do better. I pass someone, and i have to wonder, was it me, or my car.
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so there's no sense in going with 1.75" or w/e it is that you can get from hop-up racing? what are the stock sizes?
I know physics and there's no sense in going any bigger with exhaust if the exit from the header is say 2" then 2" of exhaust piping is good enough
I'm dumping the cat tomorrow and welding in some stainless steel there
any other good suggestion for an N/A? i've considered cams and I will definately check out the price. perhaps the cams will get rid of my lifter racket haha
I know physics and there's no sense in going any bigger with exhaust if the exit from the header is say 2" then 2" of exhaust piping is good enough
I'm dumping the cat tomorrow and welding in some stainless steel there
any other good suggestion for an N/A? i've considered cams and I will definately check out the price. perhaps the cams will get rid of my lifter racket haha
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" There's this "Hurricane resistor sensor modification" i've stumbled across and I'm not sure whether or not I should even buy into what it says.. it guranteed 15-20 hp gains, and added torque.. 100% guranteed. I'd be tempted to engine dyno my car before/after it's put on to dis-prove this so-called.. gurantee"
Bunch of BS!!! Go down to your local Radio Shack and pick up variable-pot for $1.99 and do the same exact thing. Here's the catch with adjusting your AFM's output voltage to trick the stock computer. With inserting a resistor in series with the AFM, you will always decrease its output voltage and trick the computer into thinking less airflow is moving than actual. The result will be less fuel injected, which is the opposite of their claims.. That resistor trick may work if you have a 5v -> 0v AFM, like some of the Mazdas, but not for our cars.
The other fallacy is that more fuel means more power. False! The fuel amount should match the actual air ingested to make the most power. In stock trim, the USA fuel-maps tend to be a little on the rich side (about 5-25% richer than the Euro maps). The USA cars then rely on the O2-sensor feedback to lean out the mixture back to stoichiometric. Remember that hot-rod saying from the '60s???
" would there be ANY advantage to increasing the hole in the fender and the size of the piping? what about using a piping that resists hear more readily. what about a "puller" fan down there with a filter on it or am I getting extreme?"
No benefit here. The harmonic induction pulses go between the intake-valves to the AFM. Anything in front of the AFM is irrelevant because the primary restriction is the AFM itself. You can see some high-RPM gains by shortening the distance between the AFM and the intake-valves, but it'll be so miniscule that it'll fall within the variations between dyno-runs.
The trick with increasing power on NA engines is to improve the VE, which can only be done in certain RPM-ranges. You can hog out bigger holes in all the intake- and exhaust-tract components and see an actual 10-20hp increase above 4000rpm, but you'll lose just about as much below 4000rpm. To get the best of both, then you need to upgrade the technology used in the engine. You'll need to go to 4-valve heads with continuously variable valve/cam-duration, lift and timing. Variable-length & volume intake-manifolds as well as variable exhausts. Basically you are retrofitting and re-engineering your engine to modern levels.
If you want to maintain the same technology but just push it further with old tried & true hot-rodding techniques, then you have to start from the inside out on the engine. Nothing is a replacement for displacement, so you can start with a 3.0L 104mm block. Then install higher-compression pistons and larger, narrow-stem valves with fully-contoured radiused valve seats. Then port & polish the head and intake-manifold. Long-tube 4-1 headers will give you more high-end RPM HP at the expense of low-RPm torque. Custom-ground cams with higher lift and longer, later intake-duration will shift the torque-peak higher into the upper-RPMs and give you more high-RPM HP...
So no, there's no simple & cheap upgrades. The amount of power-increase you get is directly proportional to the square-root of the amount of money you spent. So the first 30hp you get from the larger 3.0L displacement will cost you a certain amount. The next 30hp after that will cost you 4 times as much. The next 30hp will cost you 9 times as much, etc....
![bigbye](https://rennlist.com/forums/graemlins/xyxwave.gif)
So it IS possible to build a 220rwhp 3.0L NA engine, but it's gonna cost you at least $5k.
Bunch of BS!!! Go down to your local Radio Shack and pick up variable-pot for $1.99 and do the same exact thing. Here's the catch with adjusting your AFM's output voltage to trick the stock computer. With inserting a resistor in series with the AFM, you will always decrease its output voltage and trick the computer into thinking less airflow is moving than actual. The result will be less fuel injected, which is the opposite of their claims.. That resistor trick may work if you have a 5v -> 0v AFM, like some of the Mazdas, but not for our cars.
The other fallacy is that more fuel means more power. False! The fuel amount should match the actual air ingested to make the most power. In stock trim, the USA fuel-maps tend to be a little on the rich side (about 5-25% richer than the Euro maps). The USA cars then rely on the O2-sensor feedback to lean out the mixture back to stoichiometric. Remember that hot-rod saying from the '60s???
" would there be ANY advantage to increasing the hole in the fender and the size of the piping? what about using a piping that resists hear more readily. what about a "puller" fan down there with a filter on it or am I getting extreme?"
No benefit here. The harmonic induction pulses go between the intake-valves to the AFM. Anything in front of the AFM is irrelevant because the primary restriction is the AFM itself. You can see some high-RPM gains by shortening the distance between the AFM and the intake-valves, but it'll be so miniscule that it'll fall within the variations between dyno-runs.
The trick with increasing power on NA engines is to improve the VE, which can only be done in certain RPM-ranges. You can hog out bigger holes in all the intake- and exhaust-tract components and see an actual 10-20hp increase above 4000rpm, but you'll lose just about as much below 4000rpm. To get the best of both, then you need to upgrade the technology used in the engine. You'll need to go to 4-valve heads with continuously variable valve/cam-duration, lift and timing. Variable-length & volume intake-manifolds as well as variable exhausts. Basically you are retrofitting and re-engineering your engine to modern levels.
If you want to maintain the same technology but just push it further with old tried & true hot-rodding techniques, then you have to start from the inside out on the engine. Nothing is a replacement for displacement, so you can start with a 3.0L 104mm block. Then install higher-compression pistons and larger, narrow-stem valves with fully-contoured radiused valve seats. Then port & polish the head and intake-manifold. Long-tube 4-1 headers will give you more high-end RPM HP at the expense of low-RPm torque. Custom-ground cams with higher lift and longer, later intake-duration will shift the torque-peak higher into the upper-RPMs and give you more high-RPM HP...
So no, there's no simple & cheap upgrades. The amount of power-increase you get is directly proportional to the square-root of the amount of money you spent. So the first 30hp you get from the larger 3.0L displacement will cost you a certain amount. The next 30hp after that will cost you 4 times as much. The next 30hp will cost you 9 times as much, etc....
![Smilie](https://rennlist.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif)
![bigbye](https://rennlist.com/forums/graemlins/xyxwave.gif)
So it IS possible to build a 220rwhp 3.0L NA engine, but it's gonna cost you at least $5k.
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wow thanks for the detailed response!! i'll see how I do on track days and club days FIRST and see if i do need that kind of upgrade.
is there a true benefit to running a turbo on the track/road coursr? i've heard arguements go back and forth about this topic in the PCA
is there a true benefit to running a turbo on the track/road coursr? i've heard arguements go back and forth about this topic in the PCA
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Total bunch of crap. If you're going to put that on your car, why not get the "vornado" and one of those stupid-*** cone filters too? I'll even give you a complimentary "Type R" sticker to add another 50 horsepower.
*** GRATUITOUS CHEAP-SHOT ***
Well, lately it's got to be you. . . must be in someone else's car though. . .
Just kidding, your car is awesome. When it comes back, it's going to be hella sweet!
*** GRATUITOUS CHEAP-SHOT ***
I pass someone, and i have to wonder, was it me, or my car.
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Just kidding, your car is awesome. When it comes back, it's going to be hella sweet!
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It does not work with the AFM, it adjusts the intake air temperature reading and this changes the computers theory on air charge density. Colder air, more density, more fuel and a little timing advance....that is the theory I see on the Web site.
You probably could make something like the gizmo they advertise - but all of the parts would likely cost around $10 minumum (switches, pots, boxes, wires, etc) and then you need to build it!
Now the resistor mod (just replacing the IAT with a resistor) is not ideal- it would just give a single temperature reading to the computer and would be ideal at exactly one temperature
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As I read their Website, http://hurricane-horsepower.com/guarantee.php , it appears you would not need a dyno to invoke their guarantee....looks like you just need to return it - no questions asked.....If I bought one and it did not work I would just return it. If I return it in less than 30 days I could invoke their guarantee with my credit card company if they did not refund me.