So I found out how fast my new AFR/FTI combo is.....(Long LS1 Encounter)

94DreamGT

Founding Member
Jul 19, 2000
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Indiana
.....and as of right now, it's not quite fast enough to take out this guy:

2002 WS6 T/A 6spd w/Bolt-Ons
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Here's the story:

That car is my best friend's...it has Whisper Lid, Borla Exhaust, 4.10's, Shifter, All Free Mods, Hypertech Programmer, and Nitto Drag Radials. He has taken it to the track a few times with his best of 13.04 @ 107.93 coming at the end of last summer with a 2.0 60'. With a 1.8 or 1.9 60', that car is capable of 12.7's I'm sure. The car has trapped 108mph on quite a few occasions also. He knows how to drive the car as well.

He has been eagerly awaiting my combo to be finished to see where I now stand up against him. Before when I had stock heads and cam and was running 13.6 @ 100's...I would stay within a car of him through 1st and 2nd, but when he hit 3rd, it was all over. By 4th...it would get ugly...6 or 7 car lengths or more.

So I meet up with some friends yesterday and worked on some cars all day. Worked on mine too and finally tore my upper off and valve covers off and meticulously reset all 16 rockers too using Ed's valve adjustment procedue off the FTI website to see if I could get these things from being so loud. Took me awhile (working by myself), but I did them all and buttoned it all back together. Result.......SUCCESS! The valvetrain is at least 50% quieter! Granted...it still makes noise, but I am almost positive that the sound now is "normal" valvetrain from the larger cam and rockers etc...not the racket you could hear from 20 feet away before. Standing outside the car you can barely hear it when running and it is barely noticable inside the car whereas before, it was clearly heard in both circumstances. I am happy I fixed at least one of the problems I was having.

Back to the race :)

We met up at about 10pm and went to our favorite spot...VERY secluded, no traffic, and a very wide, flat, divided 4-lane highway. We each had a friend as a passenger. We ran 3 times...all from between 25mph and 45mph...these were 2nd gear pulls for both of us as neither one of us was going to get traction in 1st due to the cold weather even with our drag radials.

I won't go through all 3 races as each was essentially the same outcome. We'd hit it at the same time and I would jump a fender on him as I pulled top of 2nd. With his 4.10's, he was shifting a little faster. As he would hit 3rd and start to get into the meet of his powerband there, I would be hitting 3rd and climbing into mine. At this point he'd pull 1/2 a car on me. At top of 3rd I'd hold him at his rear fender and by this time he was in 4th. By the time I hit 4th, he was getting into the meat of the "famous" LS1 top-end in his 4th. Here he'd pull another 1/2 to 3/4 of a car on me. By the time he ran out of 4th @ 110mph, I was about 1/2 car off his back bumper (1.5 cars back). Of course I still had more than 800 rpm's left in 4th at this point and would pull by him when he shifted into 5th, but that is not important. The last race I told him to tap his brakes as soon as he ran out of 4th. This was probably our best race and when he did I was about 5 feet off his rear bumper.

Moral: He crosses the traps near redline in 4th at @ 110mph. The last race
shows that if he is trapping 108mph at that point, and I'm within a car length, my car should be making 106-107mph traps.

Now...a few important points:
1) I, better than a lot of people, know that results on the street are essentially a crapshoot and anything can happen. This just gave me an idea of where my car stands and it shows its making some decent power.
2) Not only is my car completely UN-TUNED, but this was my first night ever beating on it and taking it up to redline. I'm still experimenting with shift points and learning the powerband. Not to mention this is a brand new clutch with only 400 miles on it and I'm still getting used to shifting it. No excuses but give me time to learn this and I think I could do better.
3) In two of the races...as I would slam it into the 3rd, the car seemed to fall on its face for a split-second before coming on hard. I wouldn't call it a miss, more of a hesitation on the power. My friend definitely felt it too and we came to the conclusion that this is the stock computer pulling timing on the shifts. Anybody agree with this or have any other ideas???
4) Maybe I need to follow Ed's advice and go with 4.10's, Edlebrock Performer, and a TwEECer :) That'd get me by that pesky LS1 :D

For my Mustang's first time out against his car, I think it did very well. If you told 2 weeks ago that I'd be hanging on the real bumper of a Gears/Bolt-On LS1 through his 4th gear, I'd of been pretty happy. Plus my car still has plenty more left in it, this I'm positive of.

I have no doubt his car is putting down more RWHP than me (this was evident from him pulling on me in 3rd and 4th), but he also is about 350lbs or so heavier, so from a stop I think I"d have a shot. No doubt we will be racing many more times this summer :) Based on this outcome, I should not be scared of stock LS1's at all, especially stock auto's.

As for my other problems though, the car still doesn't want to idle much, so I bumped it up to 900rpm and now at least I can drive it around without dying all the time at stops. Works for me for the time being. Idle still hangs between shifts pretty bad though.
Still need to work on the oil leaks...if it is my rear main or oil pan, I'll just deal with it like I said unless it gets bad.
Calculated my gas mileage over the last tank and mix between highway and town driving I was getting about 16-17mpg. I'm pretty sure its running rich, but I'll wait til I get on the dyno to tweak it out.

Track times and/or Dyno numbers should be coming by May hopefully. I have a track rental through a club I'm a member of scheduling one in May and also a friend is taking his car to the dyno next month and asked me to join him, so one of the two should happen.
 
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I hate to say this but he ONLY ran a 13.04 @ 107.93 with thoes mods? My friend ran a 13.2 in his BONE STOCK 99 Trans AM... wasn't even a WS6. I'm sorry but he should be in the 12's easily with the mods he has.

Anyways, nice runs against him.
 
1105 said:
I hate to say this but he ONLY ran a 13.04 @ 107.93 with thoes mods? My friend ran a 13.2 in his BONE STOCK 99 Trans AM... wasn't even a WS6. I'm sorry but he should be in the 12's easily with the mods he has.

1105: Thanks

Your friend ran his BONE STOCK 99 TA in Florida (I'm assuming) which has a sea level altitude. We run at a track with 700ft elevation and that night it was warm and muggy with 70 degree temps. Altitude makes a huge difference. I know there are tons of factory freaks out there in LS1 land, but between the half or so friends I know in my car club with LS1's, NONE ran even close to 12's with their stock cars, even the C5 guys. My buddy took his car to the track with paper plates bone stock and it ran a 13.6 @ 105mph. Maybe the car has more in it, but to be trapping 108mph in the environement he was in, I think it was on par and respectable.
 
IndyBlk5.0 said:
do you run at IRP or muncie?

Although IRP is closest to me, it is a joke on their Tuesday T&T sessions. Wait in line a combined 4 hours to get 3 runs only to spin half track because their is absolutely no track prep and the 35 ricers that went before you in the Saturns with 3 foot wings dragged all the water from the waterbox through the 60 ft. Sorry but I don't care for running there and had to vent a little. Muncie is better but backwoods IMO.

Anyways...to answer your question...I run at US41 Dragway in Morocco.
 
A couple of thoughts after reading your story

1 The Edel intake would help in the higher rpm range

2 Power is being left on the table with your combo in its untuned condition.
Making adjustments with with fuel & spark tables alone would, IMHO, give 10
to 20 hp and the torque gains would be some what higher.

A final thought about yours vs his

At the 1/4 mile, I think you could take him
As you saw, from a punch, you don't get to take advantage of the weight
difference and he got more of an opportunity to use his cubic inches.

Later
Grady
 
The shift retard alone is killing your car. The first time out with my EEC Tuner I gained 1mph from just the shift retard being gone. Don't fret, I've haven't raced many LS1's on the street, but I did a rolling start against on last summer and it pulled me ~1/2-1 car length. It could have been due to the fact I was being semi-cocky and didn't downshift from 3rd to 2nd, and it was right there that he jumped me, once i got into the power band he didn't pull and inch on me, but by the end of 3rd that was the end of the race as we came upon a redlight. I want to meet up with him again....

At the track, I've smoked more than my share of them though!!!
 
Grady: I agree with your thoughts on the intake. When and If I go with a TwEECer, be looking for some PM's from me on working its magic. I know the secret to tuning lie in the fuel and spark tables.

Paul: Nice to know the almighty "KillerCanary" vert got shown up on the street by a LS1 ;) j/k...but I do know the track is a completely different story. I know I am a better driver than him just because I've been to the track more and can work the DR's to a better potential. That shift retard will now be bugging me in the back of my mind now everytime I shift...that is unless I powershift it :)
 
1105 said:
I hate to say this but he ONLY ran a 13.04 @ 107.93 with thoes mods? My friend ran a 13.2 in his BONE STOCK 99 Trans AM... wasn't even a WS6. I'm sorry but he should be in the 12's easily with the mods he has.

Anyways, nice runs against him.

Its not that good of a time but at 107.93 he is definatly in the 12's. So i'd say his fbody is runnin pretty damn good