Ok well here goes, i'm trying to figure out what is going on with my current setup and why it wont make the power that I believe it should. Here is some information.

As Purchased Mods: TPIS Airfoil, K&N filter, TPIS / Edelbrock high flow intake base for Vortec heads, GMPP Vortec heads, SLP 1-3/4" jet hot coated headers, MSD coil / wires, Accel ignition / plugs, HolleyAFPR, Crane 2032 Powermax 214/220 112LSA cam, 1.6 Crane Magnum RR (.482/.495) lift, 2.5" exhaust w/ ypipe, TCI 2200 stall converter, LCAs, SFCs.

As Purchased Dyno Run: 11/2008 UNTUNED MAF car, 220hp@4800/280tq@3700rpm, (stock tpi, TB and intake. (Mustang Dyno)

New Mods installed this winter: Lingenfelter Super Ram Plenum / runners, Holley 58MM TB, SLP CAI, Flowmaster American Thunder 3" Y back exhaust, Moates emulator. I got the car running with these mods by just adjusting the fuel pressure 43psi and TB idle adjustment and it seemed to run fine at idle at 700rpm.

So I couldnt get the car to idle correctly with my emulator. Therefore I broke down and bought a custom PROM from PCM for less. Not that big of a deal, only 150 bucks so i thought i'd give that a shot. (If you couldnt tell the weather is getting nice and I want this baby on the road). I installed the chip, same shitty inconsistent idle that i was getting with the emulator and the stock chip before hand.

It turns out that i found a vacuum leak between the plenum and runners of my super ram. Thus I RTVd the **** of of the thing on thursday and it fixed the vacuum leak. The car ran great at idle at the specified 800rpm with the PCM for less chip and settled down really quickly after a cold start so I figued we'd give it a shot on the dyno.

I was only able to make one dyno run due to the nylon straps hitting my exhaust and thus heating up and stretching. We werent too comfortable with the car moving 4 inches one way or the other. (Hopefully i am losing power here . Anyway, on the first and only dyno run I made a lousy 233rwhp and 283 rwtq. The curves were pretty nice and smooth but Max occurred at 4900rpm. With the super ram and the cam I was hoping that max power would be up around 5500rpm.

At this point the only major thing I believe may be holding me back is the fact that i did not get full WOT on the dyno. The new Holley 58mm TB has some slack in the cable and does not open up fully. Being that it was the first run i was more worried about watching my data logger and speedo and most likely did not grind the pedal to the floor which still dosent open the TB all the way. Throughout this run the block learn mode looked good and the A/F ratio was a consistent downward slope from 14:1 at 3000rpm to 12.8 at max horsepower.

Anyway, hopefully we will get some J hooks for the dyno this week to ensure that the car is safely strapped down and give it another shot including starting to mess with my emulator to tune.




Does anyone have any ideas here on the weak link in my setup? Maybe I am just expecting too much much? I am starting to doubt my cam and valve springs although float was not observable on the dyno because i didnt even rev past 5000rpm.

I'm getting long winded, this should get things started, thanks in advance.

Dane

 

If you are using the crap manifold from Edelcrock for Vortec heads, you now know the weak link.

That thing doesn't even flow as good as a stock GM manifold, I flowed one..... 226-237cfm

An Edelcrock #3860 flows about 250 out of the box.

 

Thanks Don, I guess i just need to invest in a new lower intake aswell. I'm also considering the LT4 hot cam as I have spoken with some other people who have had crappy results from the Crane 2032 and heard praises for the LT4. What cam do you run? Do you have any experience with the LT4?

 

damn then i spent almost 400 for something i didnt need huh? can i modify it to flow more or will i be better off with a different intake> any ideas?

 

So the SDPC is $400 aswell but flows considerably better than the Edelbrock Don? Did you bench test the SDPC intake base? I need to find out what part number i have as i dont believe that the reciept for the intake base was included in the packet from the previous owner.

 

I found out that apparently I have the TPIS intake base but i will have to call the previous owner to confirm as I did not observe the cast in "TPIS" near the firing order as shown in the picture on the TPIS website.

 

OK, here's the deal...there is only one TPI based intake for Vortec heads.

It's made by Edelcrock and sold by several others. (SDPC, TPIS & Edelbrock)
SDPC was the first one out with it but commissioned Edlebrock to build it, now they make it and sell it to all the others to market under their own name.

I believe FIRST is making one now, but you have to use their whole setup.

If you want to know how to fix it go here:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...pi-intake.html

This work was done by JerryWho, it now flows 280-290 cfm. (previously 226-237)

The LT4 hot cam is an excellent choice but requires extensive tuning.

I did the basic porting to the manifold originally and got decent results.
I never flowed it after basic porting, but it must have worked ok, my 327 RWHP wasn't too bad. (it ran 12.80-107.xx)

I have the E-tec 200 heads, and Crower cam 225-232/114 LSA

 

Hey Don I had heard that about the base mfg. but never got a definite answer, thanks for the info. Well do you want to hook me up with Jerry who so i can commission him to do a good port job on my intake base?

Or should I just say **** it and sell the damn vortec and "Edel-broke" base, buy a super ram base and bolt on AFR 195s? Combined with the LT4 Hot cam that would be a sweet setup. But if i go changing all that I would want to at least get a forged 11:1 383 stroker kit in the process. I'm sure that my 63K original engine as plenty of useful miles left in it without being too heavily modified so i'm not ready to do that yet.

Here i go again, all it takes is money right...

 

Jerry isnt going to do any more Vortec TPI intakes. It took him about 80 hours of porting to do that one. There isnt enough money in the world to do another.

If you dont mind spending the money, sell the Vortec stuff to someone else and get the AFR heads and the regular Edelbrock TPI intake.

It takes a lot of porting to fix the Vortec TPI intake.