Money2536
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2016
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 106
- Reaction score
- 126
- Location
- The Villages
- Vehicle(s)
- 2017 Magnetic Metallic GT350
- Thread starter
- #1
I've done a bunch of these types write ups on my previous cars, so I figured why would it be any different for this one. In the past, I'd done mostly photo journals, but this one has been all video. I started journaling/documenting the process of modifying/playing with my cars as a form of therapy. Putting this stuff down in the way I would want to see it has connected me with so many people and brought me so many places that it's hard to explain. It's changed my life.
I've never been one to care much about dyno results, but it always make for more interesting modifying. If you haven't done the dyno thing, keep in mind that they tend to break often, provide sketchy results, and certainly aren't useful unless you stick with the same one. The positive (when the dyno works properly) is the ability to validate or invalidate the inevitable placebo effect you get in the seat of your pants when doing something that changes the car. For instance, on my AP1 S2000 I put on a fancy Spoon Header/Exhaust with a VTEC controller and lost 10 horsepower. Step one of any comparison write-up would be to get a baseline. This is a DynoJet with the car driving the rear wheels only at Titan Motorsports in Orlando.
[ame]
Results seem pretty typical for a stock GT350.
STD
SAE
Specifics:
To be honest, I tried contacting some of these manufacturers to see if they wanted me to do something like this for them. You know the, wink...wink... I'll test and actually take a decent photo/video for you. Just send me the stuff, and I'll show people how it works. I know they get hit up all the time for free stuff, but I like to think I'm a bit different. I know for a fact there is value in a 3rd party providing data like this. It drives me crazy that company after company make these great products and provide virtually no information about them. Just take some decent photos and maybe make a few videos. Is that too much to ask? Well...ARH thought I was nuts and Lund doesn't answer emails or phone calls, so I was on my own. I never actually ask for product, I just explain what I'm planning to do in the form of video, audio, and write-up format. I'm not holding my breath for a check back after they sell bunch of this stuff. I was going to buy it anyway, so maybe they are smart to just let me do this. At least, JLT saved me a few bucks offering dealer pricing. Anyway here are the products in question.
American Racing Headers Full Exhaust
http://www.lethalperformance.com/am...m-with-pure-thunder-mufflers-full-system.html
I chose this for a few reasons. I want the rasp and cracking gone. I know the argument about retaining the "unique" sound of the flat plane Voodoo 5.2L, but I just can't handle the rasp, especially after deleting the resonators on the stock exhaust. I hated the sound that made. This system has long-tube headers that I had no idea how much of a pain the install would be. It also has cats that I decided to retain to help with the rasp and just make my life less smelly and easier. Resonators were important to me too. The Kooks full system will be much louder due to lack of resonators. This was the deciding factor. Also no valves on the mufflers. I don't like valves. Having to open them every time I get in the car annoys me. I never end up using them. This comes with a plug and play resistor to make sure we don't have any error codes. You just lose valve operation. You could choose 2" primaries, but I think that's for forced induction or bigger cams which I won't be doing.
JLT Intake
https://www.jlttruecoldair.com/ZenC...ducts_id=863&zenid=9htgns5i3dpir7cetgg4v0p315
I took a risk here in choosing hydrocarbon rather than black plastic. I've never been a fan of painted stuff under the hood and certainly not in the interior, so that wasn't an option. I'll tell you, the "fake" carbon fiber from JLT looks really, really good. Call it what you want, but it looks great and is super high quality. I chose the blue oiled filter option. The fit is good, but the my filter is hitting the hood. I can't get it to sit lower, but it hasn't caused any issues other than putting a line in the filter. The throttle body opening up is much more audible, but the induction sound hasn't changed.
Lund Racing Tune
http://www.lundracing.com/lund-racing-ngauge-with-2016-17-shelby-gt350-custom-tuning/
I chose to pay the extra $150 for the FlexFuel option just in case I wanted to run E85. I chose this flash tune rather than a custom just, for simplicity and convenience. I've already voice the issues dynos tend to have, but the main reason I don't like them is having my car do 150mph standing still. It scares the crap out of me and really isn't good for the car. Having it tuned on a dyno takes dozens of runs. Lund seems like the Dinan of American Cars, so I gave it a whirl. Hasn't let me down yet.
Install:
Intake and Tune were a breeze to install. The headers were a different story. Titan and I decided it would be cool to do it live at their open house, but that didn't work out so well. The plan was to to do the install life, then throw it on the dyno live at the open house with 5,000 people there. It took about 9 hours to install the exhaust and headers, so that didn't happen. It's a brutal process that I would pay someone to do next time.
[ame]
[ame]
Sound:
Let's be honest, horsepower increases are always secondary to sound improvement from an exhaust. At least they are for me. Lord knows I'm obsessed with the note a car makes. I always have a vision for what I think the car should sound like. Unlike my GT3 where I had 13 different exhaust variants to get it right, I'm pretty sure I got this one nailed on the first try. I guess you can be the judge from the videos below. I'm using a Rode Stereo VideoMic X, so the sound is pretty accurate if you play with decent speakers. Some complain about it sounding like a cross plane 5.0, but I think it still retains all of the flutter from the flat plane but without the rasp. So mission accomplished.
[ame]
[ame]
[ame]
Power:
The car felt like it was making more power. Throttle response is a bit better, and I thought the rear end was breaking loose more easily in 2nd and 3rd gear. It took me about a month to get back down to Titan and get it done. They are about an hour and twenty minutes from me. But...I finally got comparison dyno done. The results were as expected.
STD
SAE
STD Stock vs. Modified
SAE Stock vs. Modified
Conditions
2 Baseline Runs vs. 2 Modified Runs STD
Conclusion:
So the conclusion is pretty simple. Everyone works and sounds like I'd hope. No more rasp, still tons of nasty, but exhaust note is much more organized. The intake is a non-event other than a slightly more audible throttle body. Tune seems to be doing it's job, no CEL or errors. The only issue seems to be the studder/stumble I get for about 2 minutes as the car warms up.
So I'd call it a success, more horsepower, better sound. It checks the boxes.
[ame]
I've never been one to care much about dyno results, but it always make for more interesting modifying. If you haven't done the dyno thing, keep in mind that they tend to break often, provide sketchy results, and certainly aren't useful unless you stick with the same one. The positive (when the dyno works properly) is the ability to validate or invalidate the inevitable placebo effect you get in the seat of your pants when doing something that changes the car. For instance, on my AP1 S2000 I put on a fancy Spoon Header/Exhaust with a VTEC controller and lost 10 horsepower. Step one of any comparison write-up would be to get a baseline. This is a DynoJet with the car driving the rear wheels only at Titan Motorsports in Orlando.
[ame]
Results seem pretty typical for a stock GT350.
STD
SAE
Specifics:
To be honest, I tried contacting some of these manufacturers to see if they wanted me to do something like this for them. You know the, wink...wink... I'll test and actually take a decent photo/video for you. Just send me the stuff, and I'll show people how it works. I know they get hit up all the time for free stuff, but I like to think I'm a bit different. I know for a fact there is value in a 3rd party providing data like this. It drives me crazy that company after company make these great products and provide virtually no information about them. Just take some decent photos and maybe make a few videos. Is that too much to ask? Well...ARH thought I was nuts and Lund doesn't answer emails or phone calls, so I was on my own. I never actually ask for product, I just explain what I'm planning to do in the form of video, audio, and write-up format. I'm not holding my breath for a check back after they sell bunch of this stuff. I was going to buy it anyway, so maybe they are smart to just let me do this. At least, JLT saved me a few bucks offering dealer pricing. Anyway here are the products in question.
American Racing Headers Full Exhaust
http://www.lethalperformance.com/am...m-with-pure-thunder-mufflers-full-system.html
I chose this for a few reasons. I want the rasp and cracking gone. I know the argument about retaining the "unique" sound of the flat plane Voodoo 5.2L, but I just can't handle the rasp, especially after deleting the resonators on the stock exhaust. I hated the sound that made. This system has long-tube headers that I had no idea how much of a pain the install would be. It also has cats that I decided to retain to help with the rasp and just make my life less smelly and easier. Resonators were important to me too. The Kooks full system will be much louder due to lack of resonators. This was the deciding factor. Also no valves on the mufflers. I don't like valves. Having to open them every time I get in the car annoys me. I never end up using them. This comes with a plug and play resistor to make sure we don't have any error codes. You just lose valve operation. You could choose 2" primaries, but I think that's for forced induction or bigger cams which I won't be doing.
JLT Intake
https://www.jlttruecoldair.com/ZenC...ducts_id=863&zenid=9htgns5i3dpir7cetgg4v0p315
I took a risk here in choosing hydrocarbon rather than black plastic. I've never been a fan of painted stuff under the hood and certainly not in the interior, so that wasn't an option. I'll tell you, the "fake" carbon fiber from JLT looks really, really good. Call it what you want, but it looks great and is super high quality. I chose the blue oiled filter option. The fit is good, but the my filter is hitting the hood. I can't get it to sit lower, but it hasn't caused any issues other than putting a line in the filter. The throttle body opening up is much more audible, but the induction sound hasn't changed.
Lund Racing Tune
http://www.lundracing.com/lund-racing-ngauge-with-2016-17-shelby-gt350-custom-tuning/
I chose to pay the extra $150 for the FlexFuel option just in case I wanted to run E85. I chose this flash tune rather than a custom just, for simplicity and convenience. I've already voice the issues dynos tend to have, but the main reason I don't like them is having my car do 150mph standing still. It scares the crap out of me and really isn't good for the car. Having it tuned on a dyno takes dozens of runs. Lund seems like the Dinan of American Cars, so I gave it a whirl. Hasn't let me down yet.
Install:
Intake and Tune were a breeze to install. The headers were a different story. Titan and I decided it would be cool to do it live at their open house, but that didn't work out so well. The plan was to to do the install life, then throw it on the dyno live at the open house with 5,000 people there. It took about 9 hours to install the exhaust and headers, so that didn't happen. It's a brutal process that I would pay someone to do next time.
[ame]
[ame]
Sound:
Let's be honest, horsepower increases are always secondary to sound improvement from an exhaust. At least they are for me. Lord knows I'm obsessed with the note a car makes. I always have a vision for what I think the car should sound like. Unlike my GT3 where I had 13 different exhaust variants to get it right, I'm pretty sure I got this one nailed on the first try. I guess you can be the judge from the videos below. I'm using a Rode Stereo VideoMic X, so the sound is pretty accurate if you play with decent speakers. Some complain about it sounding like a cross plane 5.0, but I think it still retains all of the flutter from the flat plane but without the rasp. So mission accomplished.
[ame]
[ame]
[ame]
Power:
The car felt like it was making more power. Throttle response is a bit better, and I thought the rear end was breaking loose more easily in 2nd and 3rd gear. It took me about a month to get back down to Titan and get it done. They are about an hour and twenty minutes from me. But...I finally got comparison dyno done. The results were as expected.
STD
SAE
STD Stock vs. Modified
SAE Stock vs. Modified
Conditions
2 Baseline Runs vs. 2 Modified Runs STD
Conclusion:
So the conclusion is pretty simple. Everyone works and sounds like I'd hope. No more rasp, still tons of nasty, but exhaust note is much more organized. The intake is a non-event other than a slightly more audible throttle body. Tune seems to be doing it's job, no CEL or errors. The only issue seems to be the studder/stumble I get for about 2 minutes as the car warms up.
So I'd call it a success, more horsepower, better sound. It checks the boxes.
[ame]
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