My new Grabber Blue 17' - Whipple Stage 2 on 91 Octane??

[evotriox88]

Hey Everyone! I'm new to the forum. This post is to introduce myself, and ask opinion on Whipple Stage 2 Reliability on 91 Octane. I just ordered a Whipple stage 1 from Lethal Performance for a killer price. I was thinking stage 2 might not be worth the risk running 91 octane. I can't find much information about this. Is the stage 2 worth the extra $800 running 91 octane?

So I bought this 2017 GT Premium Pack a few weeks ago. All it had was Catback and H-pipe. I found Brembos from a GT PP with only 500 miles on them. Got them installed along with drilled rotors for front and back. The I got these 20" Downforce Replicas from Lethal Performance in Gloss Black. They're 10" in the rear, and I put Falken Azenis FK510 285/35/20 in the rear, although when the SC gets here, I'm going to switch the rears to 295/35/20's. Hopefully that can handle the power a little bit better. I have to decide if I want to call Lethal Performance back and change my order to Whipple Stage 2. Plus I can't decide whether to get Steeda handling pack or Ford Track handling pack to handle the extra power. Hopefully someone can give me advice about the whipple, and the suspension to go with it. Thank Guys!

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[engineermike]

I would suggest getting stage 2 but dropping to the stage 1 pulley. You get the airflow from the big throttle body but the safety of the bigger pulley. It’s MUCH more expensive to upgrade to the state 2 throttle body later than now.

 

[Meatball]

Welcome! I also have a 17 GT with a Whipple and in California. I went with the Stage 2 because, as others have said, it's a serious bargain compared to upgrading later. Your limiting factor is going to be that choke point at the throttle body. It's still super powerful and if you were satisfied with the power (everyone says you'll never be satisfied in this "hobby"), great, but if you arent sure you'll be much better set up for the future with the 132mm TB and associated intake bits. Honestly I don't know if having to use 91 affects the output on the stage 1 vs 2. I know the TB stays wide open on mine with Shell 91 to high rpm but perhaps the spark is a bit held back compared to a wide open stock TB in the same situation. I don't know but my guess is you'll still make more power at high rpm. Whipple or lethal should be able to advise.

There's no knock on 91 on my car because I have "octane adjust" on. I havent done this yet since I've only had the SC installed for a few months but I plan to use some boostane or race gas (probably boostane) and turn it off for probably 3 degrees more spark advance (= ~45-60 hp). It's very nice to have the choice.

I vote you get the Stage 2.

You should tell us what you plan to do with the car (drag, roll, track, or just street), and people can chime in with suspension advice. If you plan to dig race consider better half shafts and maybe suspension parts. If you think you'll visit 7500 rpm often consider opg+cs.

Moderators should prob move this to the FI section

 

[LGSD]

I’m San Diego and have Whipple GEN5 Stage 2. Get the stage 2 and don’t worry too much about the 91 gas we have, just make sure you go to some place like Shell or Chevron to fell up and forget about the no name places. I have not seen any knock when when doing data logs. I also run boostane ever so often in my car and do see a difference.
I have also done opg and cs when I done the install of the Whipple. I hope to see you round sometime.

 

[AZ18yote]

You are in cali where there is high quality e85. Why not upgrade fuel system, tune for e and enjoy???

 

[Stymee]

Put the Stage 1 pulley on the Stage 2 like Engineer Mike said and no street tire other then a drag radial is gonna hook

Good luck with the build

 

[moffetts]

What the hell is a stage 1 pulley? The stage 1 and 2 kits for 15-17 are 3.875. I bought the stage 1 kit first and eventually got the upgrade kit for stage 2; just get the stage 2 and be done with it. 91 will cause the car to pull timing regardless of the kit you use, and if you give it Boostane or equivalent, it’ll make more power in stage 2 form than stage 1.

The FRPP track kit is well known and it’ll help keep things planted. Make sure your wheels/tires/brakes are up to the task, too.

 

[Stymee]

What the hell is a stage 1 pulley? The stage 1 and 2 kits for 15-17 are 3.875. I bought the stage 1 kit first and eventually got the upgrade kit for stage 2; just get the stage 2 and be done with it. 91 will cause the car to pull timing regardless of the kit you use, and if you give it Boostane or equivalent, it’ll make more power in stage 2 form than stage 1.

The FRPP track kit is well known and it’ll help keep things planted. Make sure your wheels/tires/brakes are up to the task, too.

My bad, 18-20 stage 1 vs stage 2 run different pulley 4.0 vs 3.875

 

[Meatball]

I’m San Diego and have Whipple GEN5 Stage 2. Get the stage 2 and don’t worry too much about the 91 gas we have, just make sure you go to some place like Shell or Chevron to fell up and forget about the no name places. I have not seen any knock when when doing data logs. I also run boostane ever so often in my car and do see a difference.
I have also done opg and cs when I done the install of the Whipple. I hope to see you round sometime.

Do you leave octane adj off on straight 91? I saw a couple of degrees of positive KR when I tried that, but the gas may have been marginal.

 

[LGSD]

I leave it on when I run straight 91 but have turned it off a couple times to test and saw only 1 to 2 degrees of KR. I have turned it off when using 5 oz or more of boostane and did not see any KR.

Do you leave octane adj off on straight 91? I saw a couple of degrees of positive KR when I tried that, but the gas may have been marginal.

 

[Meatball]

I leave it on when I run straight 91 but have turned it off a couple times to test and saw only 1 to 2 degrees of KR. I have turned it off when using 5 oz or more of boostane and did not see any KR.

I’m hoping with a bottle (16 oz?) of Boostane I can get to 20 degrees of advance (-2 KR I think). Each degree is worth about 15-20whp...

 

[evotriox88]

You are in cali where there is high quality e85. Why not upgrade fuel system, tune for e and enjoy???

I found a shop to do the install for $1200, and a dyno tune for only $800 on top on that. He was telling me that an E85 tune wouldn't be practical for a daily driver. Not sure how true that is, it does seem some of the guys here run E85 as daily drivers.

So I ended up changing my Stage 1 to Stage 2. Lethal Performance did the entire complete stage 2 kit, including tax and shipping for $7650. Terry at BeefCake was going to do it for $7595, but since my order was already placed at whipple, I didn't want to jump back down to the bottom of the 4-week waiting list by switching to Beefcake.

What's the most affordable suspension mods that will be good for the whipple just on the street. I'm not planning on tracking the car. Is the FRP Handling pack excessive?

 

[moffetts]

It all depends on how easily you can get e85. Fuel economy will be very poor so you need to have a steady, local supply.

 

[evotriox88]

It all depends on how easily you can get e85. Fuel economy will be very poor so you need to have a steady, local supply.

Oh E85 is extremely accessible here. Is it true that the cost will all even out, since it’s only like $2 a gallon? So it’s practical for daily driving?

 

[LGSD]

It all depends on how easily you can get e85. Fuel economy will be very poor so you need to have a steady, local supply.

Like Moffetts said it depends on how close is a station that has E85 and the fuel economy is poor. My brother runs E85 in his built WRX and need to drive about 10 miles to nearest station that has E85 but he has a flex fuel tune just in case he is not near some place with E85. He does know that he left some power on the table with the flex fuel tune but he does not drag race that car and only road race it.
I would do E85 tune on my Mustang but don’t really feel like spending money with everything that is going on at the moment.

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