Cargraphic Headers. Whose got em?
06-30-2016, 11:08 AM
#211
Burning Brakes
Did Germany ping you back with any details?
06-30-2016, 11:22 AM
#213
Basic Sponsor
Rennlist
Site Sponsor
Rennlist
Site Sponsor
I wrote them immediately before i updated the thread so it's only been 10 minutes.
UPDATE: The first batch of Sport Manifolds will arrive late next week. I will see if i can get an indication of whose manifolds will ship and who is in what batch but for now, we are on schedule from the prior update.
UPDATE: The first batch of Sport Manifolds will arrive late next week. I will see if i can get an indication of whose manifolds will ship and who is in what batch but for now, we are on schedule from the prior update.
06-30-2016, 11:28 AM
#214
Burning Brakes
thanks
07-02-2016, 05:40 PM
#215
Burning Brakes
No offense to skxf430 for the referral or that shop, but all the research and my own past experience with coatings has lead me to conclude that Swains coating is the best for THERMAL performance and the others are best for looking the best first and marginal thermal performance. I can understand looks being important in a front engine car where you can see the headers when you pop the hood. In the Cayman and 911 there is no reason to care about looks and every reason to care about the best thermal performance from the coating.
John can I assume I am in the first batch given the efforts I put in to make the group buy happen? 
07-03-2016, 02:10 AM
#216
I posted this in the Australian thread, but thought I would repeat here as most should be relevant to other markets.
Ok, so my thoughts on the Cargraphics Sports headers and tune from Fitzgerald Racing (Evolve sister company).
To put it very briefly, almost perfect. I'll get to the almost part, but this is a fantastic mod for the GT4.
I still don't have the electronic dyno pic, so I just took a photo of the paper one so people can get a clearer picture of what these changes have done (apologies for potato quality).
Attachment 1355892
So, bottom line is stock power curve, next one up is headers only, and next one up is headers and tune.
Whilst the headers alone did flatten out the curve somewhat, the headers and tune has completely eliminated that mid range dip. You'll also notice that there is quite a lot of white space between H+T vs stock. You immediately feel this on the road.
Whereas the stock car feels like its strangled down low, the car now just pulls and pulls all the way through the rev range. You might think that a mod like this would make a car less civilised and harder to live with day to day - the complete opposite is the truth. Because you are not navigating up and down the mid torque dip (which you do constantly in street driving) the car is extremely easy and comfortable to idle along slowly. I even find myself running in a higher gear than previously when driving slowly as I dont have to keep the revs super high to avoid this "chokey" range.
So, some might be concerned that its all too tame. No fear of that. Plant the foot and it absolutely screams towards redline. It actually reminds me a little of the pull of my old C63. Of course it doesn't have anywhere near that amount of torque, but because you don't have the traction issues of the C63, it actually feels like you are applying similar levels of torque to the road. I'm probably overstating it there as I'm sure if you drove them back to back it wouldn't be as impressive, but it is an amazing feeling nonetheless.
What about the sound? Its really hard to estimate how much louder the car is now at full noise. My best guess is somewhere between 25 and 50%, but that is purely a guess. The good news again is that you have choices. With the sports exhaust button off, you can rev through the range and it doesn't sound significantly different to stock. Reasonably civilised, but still a bit noisy if you have the right foot into the carpet. Sports exhaust button on, and just taking it easy and again, the car is a bit noisy but not over the top. WOT in the high rev ranges, however, and it sounds like a motorsports car. It has a really rich sound (not at all spoilt compared to the stock sound), which really resonates under overpasses and bridges. You'll like it.
One thing that I didn't really understand before this mod was the claims by some tuning houses about the gains to be had by replacing the stock exhaust/mufflers with their own. If you have sports or race headers I totally get it now, and here we get to the 'almost' part of 'almost perfect' that I mentioned at the beginning. The stock exhaust, even with the sports exhaust button activated, does not actually keep the valve open all the time. It opens it according to the current rpms and throttle position (and maybe other factors?). So whats the problem then? Well because you have so much more exhaust flow due to the headers and tune, when the exhaust valve opens it feels a little like popping a cork. At around 4k rpms with only moderate throttle the exhaust valve opens and you get a blurt from the exhaust and the car literally takes off, there is so much latent power being restricted by the valve. You dont get this at WOT as the valve opens earlier, but at part throttle you get it, which is a little bit of a niggle for me, as at part throttle you want things to be smooth, not 'twitchy' as you navigate forwards and backwards over the 4k rpm range.
I have discussed this with the tuner, and they are going to look into a change that just keeps the valves open all the time with the sports exhaust button on. I think this will be the perfect solution, as you can still have the car tame if you want by switching the button off.
In any case, I'm confident they will sort this out. For some it may not be a problem, but for me this car is so close to perfect that it would be a shame not to address this little niggle.
In short a magnificent addition to an already amazing car.
Happy to try and answer any questions people might have.
Ok, so my thoughts on the Cargraphics Sports headers and tune from Fitzgerald Racing (Evolve sister company).
To put it very briefly, almost perfect. I'll get to the almost part, but this is a fantastic mod for the GT4.
I still don't have the electronic dyno pic, so I just took a photo of the paper one so people can get a clearer picture of what these changes have done (apologies for potato quality).
Attachment 1355892
So, bottom line is stock power curve, next one up is headers only, and next one up is headers and tune.
Whilst the headers alone did flatten out the curve somewhat, the headers and tune has completely eliminated that mid range dip. You'll also notice that there is quite a lot of white space between H+T vs stock. You immediately feel this on the road.
Whereas the stock car feels like its strangled down low, the car now just pulls and pulls all the way through the rev range. You might think that a mod like this would make a car less civilised and harder to live with day to day - the complete opposite is the truth. Because you are not navigating up and down the mid torque dip (which you do constantly in street driving) the car is extremely easy and comfortable to idle along slowly. I even find myself running in a higher gear than previously when driving slowly as I dont have to keep the revs super high to avoid this "chokey" range.
So, some might be concerned that its all too tame. No fear of that. Plant the foot and it absolutely screams towards redline. It actually reminds me a little of the pull of my old C63. Of course it doesn't have anywhere near that amount of torque, but because you don't have the traction issues of the C63, it actually feels like you are applying similar levels of torque to the road. I'm probably overstating it there as I'm sure if you drove them back to back it wouldn't be as impressive, but it is an amazing feeling nonetheless.
What about the sound? Its really hard to estimate how much louder the car is now at full noise. My best guess is somewhere between 25 and 50%, but that is purely a guess. The good news again is that you have choices. With the sports exhaust button off, you can rev through the range and it doesn't sound significantly different to stock. Reasonably civilised, but still a bit noisy if you have the right foot into the carpet. Sports exhaust button on, and just taking it easy and again, the car is a bit noisy but not over the top. WOT in the high rev ranges, however, and it sounds like a motorsports car. It has a really rich sound (not at all spoilt compared to the stock sound), which really resonates under overpasses and bridges. You'll like it.
One thing that I didn't really understand before this mod was the claims by some tuning houses about the gains to be had by replacing the stock exhaust/mufflers with their own. If you have sports or race headers I totally get it now, and here we get to the 'almost' part of 'almost perfect' that I mentioned at the beginning. The stock exhaust, even with the sports exhaust button activated, does not actually keep the valve open all the time. It opens it according to the current rpms and throttle position (and maybe other factors?). So whats the problem then? Well because you have so much more exhaust flow due to the headers and tune, when the exhaust valve opens it feels a little like popping a cork. At around 4k rpms with only moderate throttle the exhaust valve opens and you get a blurt from the exhaust and the car literally takes off, there is so much latent power being restricted by the valve. You dont get this at WOT as the valve opens earlier, but at part throttle you get it, which is a little bit of a niggle for me, as at part throttle you want things to be smooth, not 'twitchy' as you navigate forwards and backwards over the 4k rpm range.
I have discussed this with the tuner, and they are going to look into a change that just keeps the valves open all the time with the sports exhaust button on. I think this will be the perfect solution, as you can still have the car tame if you want by switching the button off.
In any case, I'm confident they will sort this out. For some it may not be a problem, but for me this car is so close to perfect that it would be a shame not to address this little niggle.
In short a magnificent addition to an already amazing car.
Happy to try and answer any questions people might have.
07-03-2016, 02:12 AM
#217
BTW - interested if anyone else has headers and a tune and whether they have experienced this PSE valve issue. Maybe different tunes are fixing this by altering when the valves are opened?
07-03-2016, 02:43 AM
#218
07-03-2016, 07:02 AM
#219
just unplug the vacuum lines to those bitches https://rennlist.com/forums/gt4/9318...-noises-2.html
07-03-2016, 09:31 AM
#220
Burning Brakes
Nice job Bardman. Thank you for posting. Very impressive results!
That power curve is amazing with 4800 and 6400 RPM show gains of 30-35hp at each RPM and the entire power curve is substantially improved by the header/tune combo showing an average of 20-25hp gain across all RPM. WOW
Your 3 way before/after is also very helpful as it shows the tune has a much bigger impact on the dip around 4800RPM compared to just the headers alone. It also confirms that while the headers allow the car to breath better, the stock programming cannot tap the full potential without the new air/fuel settings with the tune.
Do you have any plans to add TB and IPD plenum? Your car looks very strong bet you'd see 240-245kw (420-425hp) with those additions.
That power curve is amazing with 4800 and 6400 RPM show gains of 30-35hp at each RPM and the entire power curve is substantially improved by the header/tune combo showing an average of 20-25hp gain across all RPM. WOW
Your 3 way before/after is also very helpful as it shows the tune has a much bigger impact on the dip around 4800RPM compared to just the headers alone. It also confirms that while the headers allow the car to breath better, the stock programming cannot tap the full potential without the new air/fuel settings with the tune.
Do you have any plans to add TB and IPD plenum? Your car looks very strong bet you'd see 240-245kw (420-425hp) with those additions.
07-03-2016, 01:59 PM
#221
I wrote them immediately before i updated the thread so it's only been 10 minutes.
UPDATE: The first batch of Sport Manifolds will arrive late next week. I will see if i can get an indication of whose manifolds will ship and who is in what batch but for now, we are on schedule from the prior update.
UPDATE: The first batch of Sport Manifolds will arrive late next week. I will see if i can get an indication of whose manifolds will ship and who is in what batch but for now, we are on schedule from the prior update.
07-03-2016, 06:25 PM
#222
Race Director
Nice job Bardman. Thank you for posting. Very impressive results!
That power curve is amazing with 4800 and 6400 RPM show gains of 30-35hp at each RPM and the entire power curve is substantially improved by the header/tune combo showing an average of 20-25hp gain across all RPM. WOW
Your 3 way before/after is also very helpful as it shows the tune has a much bigger impact on the dip around 4800RPM compared to just the headers alone. It also confirms that while the headers allow the car to breath better, the stock programming cannot tap the full potential without the new air/fuel settings with the tune.
Do you have any plans to add TB and IPD plenum? Your car looks very strong bet you'd see 240-245kw (420-425hp) with those additions.
That power curve is amazing with 4800 and 6400 RPM show gains of 30-35hp at each RPM and the entire power curve is substantially improved by the header/tune combo showing an average of 20-25hp gain across all RPM. WOW
Your 3 way before/after is also very helpful as it shows the tune has a much bigger impact on the dip around 4800RPM compared to just the headers alone. It also confirms that while the headers allow the car to breath better, the stock programming cannot tap the full potential without the new air/fuel settings with the tune.
Do you have any plans to add TB and IPD plenum? Your car looks very strong bet you'd see 240-245kw (420-425hp) with those additions.
07-03-2016, 09:10 PM
#223
Bardman, do you only have headers and a tune? Or do you also have a plenum and TB?
07-04-2016, 04:44 AM
#225
Nice job Bardman. Thank you for posting. Very impressive results!
That power curve is amazing with 4800 and 6400 RPM show gains of 30-35hp at each RPM and the entire power curve is substantially improved by the header/tune combo showing an average of 20-25hp gain across all RPM. WOW
Your 3 way before/after is also very helpful as it shows the tune has a much bigger impact on the dip around 4800RPM compared to just the headers alone. It also confirms that while the headers allow the car to breath better, the stock programming cannot tap the full potential without the new air/fuel settings with the tune.
Do you have any plans to add TB and IPD plenum? Your car looks very strong bet you'd see 240-245kw (420-425hp) with those additions.
That power curve is amazing with 4800 and 6400 RPM show gains of 30-35hp at each RPM and the entire power curve is substantially improved by the header/tune combo showing an average of 20-25hp gain across all RPM. WOW
Your 3 way before/after is also very helpful as it shows the tune has a much bigger impact on the dip around 4800RPM compared to just the headers alone. It also confirms that while the headers allow the car to breath better, the stock programming cannot tap the full potential without the new air/fuel settings with the tune.
Do you have any plans to add TB and IPD plenum? Your car looks very strong bet you'd see 240-245kw (420-425hp) with those additions.
I was quite frustrated that there are so few dynos of mods made to the car, so happy to contribute what I can to the knowledge base.For now I'm not looking to do anything more. I prefer to stagger any enhancements as it helps to keep the car fresh for longer (I've had my car since Sep last year, so have had plenty of time with it stock). In a year or so I might look at doing more - I will see how I feel then.
