Hot start and very black exhaust tip

[OrdnanceMarine]

this seems really weird your numbers are almost as high as bboy burst and he is running the ips k2 and you have stock cams making about the same power. not only that you guys are tuned by the same person on the same dyno seems kinda funny.

I was quite pleased. This shows that the combination of parts on my car are performing quite well.

[NitrousG35]

not sure if this is of any help. previously I had the vibrant header with HFC on my SI, and my tuner told me it was holding me back. doing a full tune, he found the lowest he could get my vtec engagement was 3900 before it lost power (a sign of how well or poor the motor breaths). I switched to the kiddracing header and that alone allowed him to lower my vtec to 3400. so 500 rpm earlier engagement of vtec with a simple header swap. header was really cheap as well, and performs exceptionally

I think your tuner must have a bias against the Vibrant because my Vibrant header with HFC couldn't have been holding me back (knowing I'm losing a little bit to the HFC). 242 HP and 177 lbft at Church Automotive with Daniel Butler tuning it. My best VTEC crossover was at 2900 RPM. AEM "V2" CAI, TBS, IMG, Vibrant Header and Exhaust. 100% stock internals on Costco 91 octane California winter gasoline. I have found that tuners tend to favor certain parts over others without a whole lot of experience with various parts and perhaps this is the case here.

Dave, those numbers are the highest I have ever seen for an Si sans cam upgrade. As was mentioned, those numbers almost equal that of bboy_burst.

I do know for a fact that the Vibrant HFC version header makes about 8hp less than a regular Vibrant. So, I am even more surprised that you could make so much power with the catted version.

I am beginning to wonder if my issues have more to do with the tune than with the parts I am using. My tuner took the car out and drove it with a laptop, checking cruise and part throttle response. He actually spent about 8 hours on the car between driving it and doing dyno runs. On one run, he actually went to 9500 rpm. He said that with the IPS cams and Supertech valvetrain, it could easily go to 10k. A little more than I feel safe with, but good to know that there is potential there if my bottom end gets built up.

When the car was first driven, knock was soooo bad, he could barely drive the car. Once the knock issue was addressed, he began to work on cam angles and A/F ratios. Perhaps it was at this time that the fuel was rich enough to have damaged the cat. I don't know. My car was in storage for 5 months and I did notice that the car wasn't performing or sounding the same back in November when I put the car away for the winter. Perhaps the cat was beginning to go out then and an enriched fuel situation just finished it off.

I have a Go-Power custom header on order with a 3" collector. I will use a 3" exhaust too and plan to upgrade my intake manifold with a Go-Power port job. I am also waiting on Hytech to finish their 70mm TB unless the TL 80mm TB works out well. In speaking to Jeff Giovino, Jeff feels that the design of the Vibrant is holding back power. Several other people I have spoken to on K20a.org have also said this. In looking at the header, I do notice that the primaries do not have the length and design of say a Hytech, SSR or Skunk2.

I appreciate everyone's feedback on my tune. Once the header and cat-back is installed, the car is going back for a retune. I will keep you posted.

[taylorsSI]

Nitrous, if you're interested, email me your cruise and WOT logs to eye_my_si@hotmail.com.

my tuner checks over datalogs for free and I can show them to him. i was having all sorts of issues with tuning on my car for months. finally took it to this guy after hearing how graet he was.. long story short, gas mileage is at an all time high (31 MPG with full bolt ons), no knocks EVER, even if i slam the gas in 6th gear, very powerful, perfectly flat AFR lines. let me know

[all-black]

hey nitrous have u had vit or rulo take a look at ur tune yet. they may be able to help. also the ips cams come with some tuning tips where cam angles should be around and timing? just some things to compair

[taylorsSI]

i may have found your problem Nitrous. recently I upgraded to 1000 CC injectors because i was maxing out my stock ones and figured I might as well buy the biggest ones I can since they cost the same in each size.

my car was having a lot of problems running correctly, poor gas mileage and rough idling and whatnot. finally my tuner decided that my injectors might just be too big for what i need, bought them back from me and sold me some 370 CC injectors and it works a TON better now. if I recall correctly, your si is just a simple bolt-on with cams, right? if so, I believe you might have overdone it with 1000 CC injectors, as that is what people boosting 400+ WHP use.

[mattsbobo]

I know this thread has been dead for a long, long time, but I now own Bill's Si. The car is still "blowing soot". when you turn the car on there will be a black streak on the ground behind the car. I'm dying to get the car retuned, but I'm still having issues getting the Flashpro/FP manager fully functional on my laptop (FTL).

The car has the IPS K2's/Supertech valvetrain, 1000cc injectors, Go Power 3.5" intake, Go Power header, 3" Full Race exhaust, Skunk 2 IM, and a Skunk 2 TB (which I've had a number of problems with).