Before You Start Modifying Your Stock DSM [READ]

[greekgodchaos]

The Pitfalls of Modifying Your Car | Technical | Resources | AMS Performance

[In case the link ever is changed or whatever, here is the article verbatim. I give all credit to AMS Performance, I just wanted to put this out there for those who are looking to start modifying their cars to give you an idea of what that all entails.]

Details Written by AMS Performance
There are a number of pitfalls to modifying your car. Pushing your car past the factory limitations can have costly consequences. There is always a compromise when you start pushing for more power. Things like driveability and reliability can suffer the more you modify your car depending on how it is modified and maintained.

The auto manufacturers have teams of thousands of people who design and engineer the engine and driveline. There is a reason that manufacturers don't sell cars with 800 horsepower... because the car would not be reliable! Even factory stock cars can break, that is why they have warranties. Modifying your car only adds more stress on components and the possibility for problems only increases.

If you choose to modify your car you should be prepared for a number of things:

Added Maintenance Costs
Modifying your car for more power adds complexity to your engine and its supporting systems which can mean future costs and headaches. When you modify your car you will have to do more preventive maintenance and closely monitor all systems of your car consistently. When you add stress to your vehicle and its systems they will require more attention. For example racing engines consume more oil than the factory unit and added power output creates more heat.

Additional Costs For Supporting Modifications
Adding power will create more stress on driveline components like the clutch and axles. Also things like added fuel delivery, ignition output may need to be upgraded. Once you start modifying your car further and further it becomes a domino effect as more and more components can break and need to be upgraded.

IRRELEVANT TO US:Voided Factory Warranty
Generally any modification to the engine will void your factory warranty.

More Power = More Stress On The Engine & Drivetrain
When modifying an engine for more power output we are still relying on many factory components even on the most extensive builds. Things like engine blocks, cylinder heads, crankshafts, head gaskets etc... remain the same as in a stock vehicle. These parts were NOT engineered to handle the stress of double and triple horsepower figures. On turbocharged cars the stress is even greater due to the higher cylinder pressure and temperature caused by increased boost levels. Factory and aftermarket parts can fail. It becomes a game of finding the next weak link, upgrading it and finding the next weak link.

Bad Tank Of Gas
As you push your car past the factory limits the things like the quality of gas can cause failures. If you got the wrong type of gas or get water in your tank it can cause detonation. Because we are narrowing the safety margin as we increase power output the probability of failures increases.

MODS: Could we make this a STICKY??

 

[Riceburning101]

you know this is a DSM forum right? reliability and dsm usually dont end up in the same categories

 

[LandSpeed-DSM]

Why would we make this super broad and generalized copy/paste that is only tangentially relevant to our cars a sticky?

Pretty confident no one has a warranty left

 

[1995silvergst]

Wait you mean if its broke I drove it too hard .

 

[Selling4G63TParts]

Make sure you learn about boost controllers first before dicking with the boost! I thought I knew everything about cars but I knew dick about turbo cars and it bit me in the ass. I understand it all now but way back when I had my first GSX I blew up my stock t25 turbo because I pushed it far past its limit. It got so hot that it sucked the compression ring into the turbine and snapped the shaft. When I pulled the turbo apart the hot side turbine was sideways and imbedded into the wall of the turbo hahahaha ahh geez. I was also stuck in the dessert of twenty nine palms in 110 degree heat. Educate yourself, then build your car!

 

[ricktb]

lets get some details on the upgrade paths available, its been done enough times youd think there was a perfect step by step guide how to achive 300hp, 350 hp and so on. I know theres a tech arcticle on here written in stage 1 stage 2 format but it doesnt say the exact order of parts.

One mistake is to add certain parts of a stage one upgrade before others, a lot of us dont have the money to buy them all at once so it ends up going like this...

exhaust.. drive for a while
turbo... drive for a while
BOV.. drive for a while
intake, etc etc

I found myself in a situation where I have fully upgraded my exhaust, certain intake components, a turbo and a 1G BOV and now I have boost creep that allows the boost to rise out of control to unsafe levels for my fuel system. I have to drive carefully to keep the fuel mixture rich. (50% throttle) at all times. Waiting on the other supporting mods to be able to go full tilt again. I know when the mixture is lean and the boost is high, the EGTS skyrocket and engine damage could occur, so next i have a FMIC going on might help keep the intake charge temps down, maybe ill put the stock 2g bov back in to prevent from over boosting until i get the fuel system, and port my wastegate to prevent the creep issue. REwireing the stock fuel pump probably saved my engine so far.

My own fault for not doing the proper research, all the info is available if you know where to look. I guess the proper way is to add all the stage 1 components simulateneously and tune according to your well planned goal. usually low then bump it up slowly while monitoring the systems for irregularities.

Make sure you learn about boost controllers first before dicking with the boost! I thought I knew everything about cars but I knew dick about turbo cars and it bit me in the ass. I understand it all now but way back when I had my first GSX I blew up my stock t25 turbo because I pushed it far past its limit. It got so hot that it sucked the compression ring into the turbine and snapped the shaft. When I pulled the turbo apart the hot side turbine was sideways and imbedded into the wall of the turbo hahahaha ahh geez. I was also stuck in the dessert of twenty nine palms in 110 degree heat. Educate yourself, then build your car!

I too blew my stocker turbo, just with an upgrade exhaust and boost controller I pushed it to the limit and snapped the turbine shaft. Blew a liter of oil into the red hot turbine housing and someone said they though I hit my afterburner there was so much smoke, heh

 

[thatcarchick]

Trick one: Upkeep and general maintenance... I'm still working on getting my car to go more than two weeks without having a major meltdown and then I will worry about doing some mods... Just put in a ll new plugs and checked my wire and all that good jazz about 2 months ago (I haven't put much driving time in due to my car's irritability) and I had to recently replace a fired third cylinder plug wire and have a seriously mangled coil pack... Always the "little" things...