^^Yup. thanks max boost.
The 2.8 is a very nice addition to the stage 2 kit (IMHO). makes boost even quicker, and leans out an already faaaaat GM tune. I'm at ~12 psi almost the second I give her throttle

BTW, we need to have Michigan meet soon here. I know M11 is coming up, but we should try and do something before that. I wanna meet more of MI LSJ owners

Kemble:
I was thinking on the way into work this morning. Another option for you may be to;
-buy the kit.
-install the injectors (~30min job)
-have a local dealer do your reflash (stg 1 and 2 is the same exact flash )
And then you could come to Lansing so we could do your pulley and belt, that way you wouldn't hafta worry about driving home without the flash, or anything. And you get to enjoy that beautiful new 7k redline a little sooner And you get to have some fun with it on the way home,, instead of limping home dumping fuel untuned.

 

Also, max_boost, who did your custom tune?

Do you have HPtuners?

 

No I don't have HPTuners. A local guy tuned my car for me.

 

That's cool. Is that dyno with the 2.8 and the tune?

If so I would expect to see alot more Tq than that. hmmm

 

Yea it was, it was 95 degrees with 40% humidity the day we dynoed though so that hurt my numbers.

 

Got ya, that'd do it. So what did he get into with your tune? Did you bump the redline up a little more?

Or was he just shooting for better gas mileage, or leaning things out a bit? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm morbidly interested in HPTuners and personally believe there is a lot of potential to be tapped into by leaning out GM's excessively fat tunes.

Hopefully I'll have HPTuners by next summer, but I need to worry about pickin up some snow shoes for her first

 

He did a lot with my tune but I don't know everything he changed. He did bump the redline to 7400, added timing, disabled all the torque management stuff.

 

Nice,, do you know how much timing he added? Maybe that and the heat soak would explain those numbers. I've heard mixed opinions on how much timing can be added before you hit the point of diminishing returns. Do you have an interceptor to monitor the timing and KR?

I might be way off, but I would expect close to those numbers before even the 2.8

And with the 2.8, even if it didn't bump the HP, still should have brought that TQ number closer to the HP number I'd think.

Again, sorry for all the Q's, but I'm an engineer it's in my nature, lol

 

I'm running 18 degrees of timing pretty much the whole time I'm wot. Yes I have an Intercetor and at times I get a little bit of tip in knock but nothing when I'm wot. I was dissapointed with my numbers at first, but the same time I dynoed there was an SS there with a 2.5" pulley, 60 lb injectors, and a stage 5 tune that only put down about 5 more whp and 15 more torque, that kind of puts it into prospective for me.

 

Yeah, I guess the Stg 4 doing comparable numbers would help ya feel alittle better.

Was this on a mustang or dynojet? That's probably all a small part of why I havent dyno'd mine yet, don't want to be dissapointed by the #'s The butt dyno tells me I'm happy, lol. I do want to though, and as soon as SSpartan or someone else around the area is up for doing a dyno a day, I'm sure I will.

Any track times on that set-up yet? We are running almost the same modlist, except I'm on the stock clutch still. Do you happen to have the HPTUners file for your before and afters? I'd love to be able to compare them and see what he did when I pick up the software

One last Q, lol. Are you still on stock plugs? If so did you at least re-gap them?

We have definitely ran this topic slightly of course, my bad, lol

But this all great info for anyone thinking about Stg 2, so I'm guessing nobody will complain

 

I felt the same way about dynoing, I didn't really do it for the numbers I did it to check my af ratio since I don't have a wb. I'm really happy with the way my car drives so I'm not really hung up on the dyno numbers. I know it's faster then it was with just the GM stage tune. No track times, I went to Milan once but didn't have long pants with me so I couldn't run. Since I don't have HPTuners, all my stuff is on the tuners computer. I'm not running the stock plugs, I'm using some Zex plugs that were designed for forced induction engines.

 

Cool, I didn't even know they made plugs, lol.

I can't wait to get back to the track. The first time I went I was bone stock, and ran a pathetic 15.2 as my best, I butchered my first run, wheel hop like crazy on launch, and then roasting the hell outta my clutch in second, so I didn't even try to launch hard the rest of the day. But it was crazy F'ng hot and humid that day.

But now I've got the Ingals ETD, the poly transaxle mounts, the new power, and a severe Driver Mod, lol. I can't wait to get a chance to run it again.

 

Getting really excited about getting my GM Stage II. I'm going to order it probably on wed of next week. I'm also going to get the GMPP performace exhaust cat-back, an injen CAI, and an Ingals dampener. I might get the 2.8 pully as well. I'm thinking the weekend after laborday weekend SS33, would that weekend work for you?


Oh, and yeah, I'll probably get the reflash before I come out to Lansing too. One thing though... In order to get the reflash you said I just have to install the 42# bigger injectors? I thought the reflash increased the redline though to 7000 instead of 6500? But will the car actually redline at 7000 with jsut the new injectors? I thought the whole stage II belt and pully system had to be in place?

 

Whats a spec stage 3 ?

 

A clutch

 

I know I have a company picnic on the 16th of Sept, but I'll only hafta do a cameo at that. And the 10th is my B-day, so I'll probably be getting lit on Sat the 9th, so we could do it the morning/day of the 9th,, I'm sure we'll figure somthing out. The whole install only takes a few hours,, especially if you get the injectors and flash done before hand.

Nope you can have the new redline without installing the pulley and belt. That's actually stage one, just the injectors and the reflash. Goes to show you how rich that tune is. It is safe enough for the stock pulley, the 3" and the 2.8"

I think that's the way to go for you. That way you can enjoy the new redline sooner, and have a much funner drive home from lansing when we finish the install up.

You'll still be at stock boost levels until you do the pulley of course, but you'll def. notice the increase in power. Doing it this way you'll actually get to feel the dif. between stock, Stg 1, Stg2, and then eventually the 2,8 if you go that way.

 

And yeah the Stage 3 is a clutch,, if you haven't had yours slip yet, you will eventually. Mine only ever slips on a hard 1-2 shift. I've slipped through second twice this way, once at stock power, and again just recently.

 

Dunno about slipping clutch. What do you mean by that? I've had another manual transmission car before for 130,000 miles. Replaced the clutch at 80,000 but thats because the engagement point was almost at the top and I ran into some extra money at the time so I figured I'd get it done. What happens when the clutch slips? it stays in neutral or something and it just revs up? or it doesnt go into gear and you grind away? plz explain.


Did you install the clutch yourself?

 

For me anyways, I'll shift into second, the tires will grip a little bit, then the RPM's just run through the roof and the speedo, well doesn't, lol. Best way I can explain it. For some reason GM decided to skimp on a few components for us.

Unfortunately a few important ones are the clutch, axles, and pistons.

Pistons shouldn't be a problem for most of us, just the ones who aim for higher than 300hp, and even that hasn't been throughly tested yet. But they are cast, while the rest of our motor is pretty damn stout. The first weak link in our engines for sure.

The axles are a problem, but I believe most who have lost an axle, were due to wheel hop. So if you do the mounts/dampener this shouldnt be a problem for your power level.

The clutch however, is undermatched for Stg 2 and beyond. Some will say it is even to weak for stock. Like I said, mine first slipped on me at stock power, but during a run at the track, so not normal driving. It is sporadic though. Because I have driven harder than those times without slippage. And it's not the driver. I've driven nothing but manual vehicles for the last decade. So this isn't an issue of riding the clutch to hard and burning it that way

But just this week I had it happen again. Came around a corner, spirited run through 1st, then I dropped to second, and hammered it. The tires caught, chirped a bit, and then I'm redlining and not moving. You'll know when it happens,, and if you're unsure the smell of burning clutch will re-affirm for sure, lol.

Some feel this issue is related to the hydraulic activation system not being fast enough, as opposed to the clutch itself being to weak. This is a topic you'll hear alot about during your stay here.

 

hrmmm, very interesting.

I for one don't take off very hard. Very few and I mean probably less than 5 times have I raced off the line. But I only have 6500 miles. I've only wheel hopped the car once but with the knowing power I'm going to have in the next 2 weeks I figured I'd just get the dampener just because everyone that I've talked to had one with the stage II.

Axels.... What happens to them? they just break or ?? Wouldn't those be warrantied ?

 

If you break them on stg 2 power, yes they should be covered under warranty, but you shouldn't worry too much about them. Especially if you don't launch hard. But the dampener will help with this. I love my tranasaxle mounts, but they do produce some vibes, so it's all on what you're lookin for.

Lol,, I'm bad,, I only have 3500 miles on mine. I don't think my baby was a virgin for more than a couple days, lol. I can't leave things stock for some reason

Now most people breaking axles are pushin a lot more than stg 2 or 2.8" levels. So when they break axles they have no interest in seeing another stock axle. At that point it makes more sense to upgrade to beefier axles.

And yeah they snap right in two. Search for enuffpower's thread on his. He had some good pics of how they break. For some reason GM gave us axles, that taper to a thinner diameter before our spindles. This is where all the ones I've seen have broken.

For your plans this shouldn't be much of a concern,,, more of an FYI to keep in mind once you get bitten by the boost bug and want more