Getting an Auto into the 13s

[SteveR6]

Ok, what the hell do I need to do to my car to get it into the 13s. I currently have hard upper and lower IC pipes w/ a 1G BOV, no boost leaks btw, 14B, running 15 pounds of boost, Apex downpipe, no cat, N1 exhaust. My best time so far has been a 15 flat which I feel is pretty slow.

 

[chetvram]

Look into some fuel mods:fuel pump, injectors, regulator if you get a 255. Might also look into getting a larger intercooler. Its fairly easy to come by a supra sidemount on ebay or xs power has a descent front mount that goest for around 300.

 

[Bmxr152]

the nice thing about automatice turbo cars is, it will keep boost while the car shifts since your foot inst letting off. Gets some fuel injectors and a bigger intercooler, then turn the boost up to 17 psi and youll hopefully be in the 13's

 

[blackbyrd]

Your car should be doig 15seconds stock, on stock boost.. You need to figure out why yours isn't. Have you checked compression? Have you done a tune-up? Have you checked for intake/air leaks? Do you know how to shift in an automatic? haha.
Definitely do some fuel mods, walbro fuel pump, maybe injectors, some tuning device(dsmlink, safc, keydriver)
Some good auto upgrades are, a modified valve body and shift kit, from IPT.

 

[SteveR6]

What about a slightly higher RPM stall torque converter and a shift kit? Do you think I'd see any gains from that? Also forgot to mention I have an APEX power intake, but am still using the stock intake tube. Also I have a blown motor mount, do you think that's hurting my et?

 

[blackbyrd]

blown motor mount- i dont think itd affect it greatly.
high stall torque convertor- not really necessary at your stage.
I recomend the modified valve body, and shift kit.
Switching from stock intake pipe might yeld you a couple hp.

You should do the tests I mentioned above. With a 14b on my automatic I was running 14's with few supporting mods.

 

[SteveR6]

I manual shift the automatic, and I know how to boost launch, new NGK plugs. I boost leak tested it and it seemed ok. I need to compression check it again but I haven't gotten the time, the last time I checked it was still alright, not the greatest, but still way witihin spec. Plus I'm not smoking so I'm not seeing it being a ring problem. The only smoke I ever get is a nice big puff of black running rich smoke. Consequently I just replaced my 02 sensor last night and am hoping that fixed that problem but it doesn't seem any faster on the butt o meter.

 

[SteveR6]

I cut that stupid snorkel thing out of the intake pipe so I'm not really thinking spending money on another intake pipe is really neccessary right now being as the stock pipe isn't "too" restrictive.

 

[SteveR6]

Also I was under the impression most stock automatics are in the mid to upper 15's

 

[blackbyrd]

Yeah its not that restrictive. When you say your boost leak test seemed "ok" what's that mean? If there is any leak at all it will be devistating on ET.
What was your compression results? Have you replaced your fuel filter/air filter? Spark plug wires? What are you spark plugs gapped at?
And shifting an auto by the shifter, is very questionable and debatable... I don't recommend it. I dont think most people would. IPT sells a manual shifter, although it's rediculously expensive. I could build one for about 50bucks. So if your really hellbent on shifting it manualy you might want to look into something like that, and take it easy on the shifter shifting.

I thought it was 15.3, but I could be wrong, every stock car can vary a couple tenths.
But at stock boost, which is what 8psi? Your pushing nearly twice that... It should be a phenominal difference.

 

[SteveR6]

This is why I have a love hate relationship with my car, so many things it could be. The plugs are gapped properly I made sure of it, the plug wires appear to be the stock ones but I'm not misifiring so why replace them? I keep forgetting I have this damn fuel filter laying here that I do need to put on, but I doubt that's the problem. I can't remember the compression results, but I know they were withing spec like 160ish I'll check again this week. As for the boost leak test I tested from the IC inlet and it built up to 10-12 easily and slowly leaked down over a good 30-45 secs and I couldn't hear any leaks anywhere. Onto shifter shifting, it's easier to just describe how I launch. After I stage I brake boost up until the car starts pushing through the brakes then back off just enough that it will sit there and not move, the car is in L (1) at this point. Light turns green brake comes off I run it till it touches the red and shift 2, then the same for 3. I've found that if you let it do it on it's own it has a tendency to short shift and I definitely ran better times doing it myself. I then kick on the a/c right after the finish turn the O/D back on proceed back to the staging lanes and let it sit and cool for a few minutes.

 

[blackbyrd]

You dont have to replace your wires, but it's always good to do a full tune-up on a car you just got. Plugs should be gapped 28ish.
A clogged fuel filter can be very restrictive. What about air filter?
160ish sounds good as long as one or two wasnt significantly lower then the rest.
Congradulations! you have boost leaks!
You should hook up the boost leak tester to your air inlet on your turbo(from filter). Pressurize it to 15psi at least, I'd say 20. If you can't pinpoint a leak by sound get some soap and water in a spray bottle and start spraying. You'll find it.
About the shifting, I'm not going to touch that anymore. I've heard from people it could be damaging, and I dont want to go into why. If you think you can shift faster, and better then your auto then go for it. Although I dont see the point in an automatic then.
I can redline my automatic out everytime if I want to.

 

[SteveR6]

Forgot to mention this launching technique usually results in a lot of tire spin, consequently this Friday at the strip I'm going to try launching at lower and lower boost levels until the wheel spin is minimized nd see if my ETs go down any or if they increase from bogging out/ turbo lag/ whatever it is my car does if it doesn't leave the line under boost

 

[98gst14b]

check my mods

 

[SteveR6]

I'm telling you mine short shifts , but I'll run it regular again and see what happens. And I've heard it's damaging if you downshift an auto manaully not upshift it who knows if it blows I'll replace it godd#$% DSM everything else goes wrong why not that too. At any rate it's supposed to rain Friday here so there may be no strip and if that's the case I'll really tear into her again and try and find those boost leaks, btw what PSI do you run on the air tank to pressurize with? Is it alright to have like 40 if you have someone sit in the car and make sure it doesn't go above 20psi? ANyway, if not Friday Saturday definitely, fuel filter boost leaks compression check and we'll see what we've got. You really think boost leaks could have that much of an impact on ET? I mean it leaked down pretty slow so I'm not thinking it could be that major of an issue, but that's why I'm on here because I don't know what I'm doing .

 

[blackbyrd]

Which track do you goto steve? (just curious, I'm new to ohio)

Boost leaks can be devistating. Although it does seem like a small leak, I would still start there. And on the air tank/compressor, hopefully you shuold have a gauge, with a knob style regulator, that you can set the pressure to 20psi.

 

[SteveR6]

98gs14B your car looks almost identical to mine exterior wise . What are you running with those mods?

 

[SteveR6]

www.quakercityraceway.com, a bunch of us are going up Friday weather permitting if you want to go, even if not race just hanging out up there is pretty cool. I plan of going to Norwalk a few times next year as well, the season is pretty much over now. Anyway the tank has a regulator but it seems like it takes FOREVER to build up boost if it's only set to 20, now set it to 40 and I can get boost built up in the system right now.

 

[98gst14b]

Never taken it to the track, but I beat my friends modded evo from a STOP all day. Good thing he cant launch well

 

[blackbyrd]

Yeah, I'll try to make it up there if I can get my new engine all together.
When you say it takes forever to build up pressure, like what twice as long? It's your call, you should be alright, as long as you dont boost your system(more specificaly your headgasket, weakest link) to over 25psi. Id still put it on 20 and wait for it to fill up though.
Also go buy a 5 dollar psi gauge and screw it into your boost leak tester/cap. So you dont have to have someone sitting in the car everytime you want to leak test it

Another thought, can you get a logger from someone, or buy one? to better see what your car is doing.

 

[Smokin80]

First of all a 14b wont make power all the way to 7000 anyway so i wouldnt bother shifting it that high. I shift my small 16g at 6800 and the 14b is a bit smaller than that. I would reccomend getting a logger and something to tune with.(of course dsmlink is probably the best/easiest way but anything that lets you change fuel and timing will work). You are probably knocking a lot right now and that is why you arent running the time you would like. If you can tune some fuel and timing out you will do much better im sure. My stock fuel. stock motor, stock everything but 16g and 3 inch exhaust went 13.7 at 97mph at 16psi without any tuning. I would fix that boost leak and rewire your stock fuel pump and you shoud be able to get deep into the 14's with that and a little tuning. Do a little bit of weight reduction too.(my 2g weighs 2990 w/0 driver and i still have power everything, a/c and p/s)

Hope this helps
smokin80

 

[vaboys2ndgen]

Ok, what the hell do I need to do to my car to get it into the 13s. I currently have hard upper and lower IC pipes w/ a 1G BOV, no boost leaks btw, 14B, running 15 pounds of boost, Apex downpipe, no cat, N1 exhaust. My best time so far has been a 15 flat which I feel is pretty slow.

i havent hit the track yet but im running 14b on my 2g also,(being im awd too). im certain my setup is good for 13s.


i'd say your next move should be safc/data logger. or dsmlink. the ebay fmic is pretty cheap and not that difficult to install(heh i did it...) port the 14b, exhaust manifold, o2housing(seems to help me alot also) only been a few days since port job also.

for the trans go to IPTs website.....translab shift kit, tru-cooler trans cooler will help a huge amount also.

 

[SteveR6]

I did the ghetto weight reduction and took out the spare tire/jack/rear washer reservoir. Seems like alot of people are leaning toward this being a fuel control issue. I don't have a datalogger at present nor do I know anyone who does so I'm kind of screwed on that. But back to this boost leak thing, being as it's not major what kind of ET improvement do you think it will even make? Just out of curiosity.

 

[98gst14b]

I did the ghetto weight reduction and took out the spare tire/jack/rear washer reservoir. Seems like alot of people are leaning toward this being a fuel control issue. I don't have a datalogger at present nor do I know anyone who does so I'm kind of screwed on that. But back to this boost leak thing, being as it's not major what kind of ET improvement do you think it will even make? Just out of curiosity.

Boost leaks definatly make a difference, not only are you loosing boost pressure causing your turbo to work harder for less. But your afr gets thrown off by the computer and causes your engine to run rich, and in extreme cases, can cause it to bog, buck and run like crap. Your spoolup gets slower, you lose gas milage, and will have a hard time brake boosting (if you have an auto.) Hope this helps answer your question.

 

[Smokin80]

a boost leak...even a small one on stock setup can be devastating. The stock ecu map shoots for 10 to 1 afr or less and that alone makes NO power and can even cause rich knock to occur in extreme cases. If you have a boost leak and it runs richer than that...well it amazing the cars even run. haha. With a wideband and some fuel control a small boost leak can be "tuned" around but its still not a good thing especially if your turbo is already close to max. THe turbo will be working overtime even to obtain stock boost let alone 17 or 18 psi on a 14b.