Cracked 340WHP
 

So this has been an elusive number for a lot of Z owners. Some have every bolt on in the book, tune, etc, and they're stuck between 320-330whp. I remember my baseline dyno with short tails on this car hitting 305whp and thinking I should hit it NP. As I posted before, I made 327/270 with testpipes, exhaust, intakes, and an uprev tune.

I took it up a notch and swapped all my exhaust components for Fast Intentions, added Z1 headers, upgraded to their race filters, and an Ecutek tune. To my mild disappointment, I gained 5WHP and lost 9lbft of tq. I started questioning whether the tune was okay as over time, it felt sluggish. I called Martin a couple months ago after I verified I was only making 312 hp after several pulls; originally starting at 294. So Martin stopped by, changing how Ecutek handles timing and picked back up to 326/260 on a hit day.

Fast forward to this past week. I just added a Specialty Z 6 puck, RJM clutch pedal and CMC (I recommend the $hit out all of it). The car felt like it ran on energy drinks. Quick to rev, perfect clutch engagement, great locking, I was like "hell yeah". Then I noticed I can just spin first rolling into it and full throttle shifts into 2nd broke it loose for more than a couple seconds. Now this raised my eye brow higher than Dwayne Johnson's. This thing felt healthy. Maybe the tune was truly fixed?

I took her to the drag strip, I couldn't hook. I sucked all night. I was not used to the clutch. It'd grab second so hard, I'ds wheelhop. Even spinning through two gears and terrible 2.3 60', I was trapping 106 with 80% humidity and 78 degree weather at night. Then a cold front came in. I sold my old clutch plate for a few dyno passes and took her in.

It was mid 60's outside, 35-40% humidity I'd guess, and about 72-75 in the garage. Martin just finished tuning a turbo 350 putting down 405/370 before mine and I wasn't planning on tuning. We strapped her down, I'm in the driver seat, and we lay down the first pull, 4th gear. 325/268. Not bad... I noted more torque than before. The car is idling for a few min and they tell me to do a 5th gear pull. I row through the gears, mash on the gas and then a 332/271 pops off. Now I'm feeling this $hit. All my torque returned and hp is there. Everyone thinks the car has more. We let her cool off, oil temps staying stable at 180, but water temps would jump to 220 on the long pulls and needed to cool back down to under 190.

Fast forward a few minutes, I turn the car back on, we get the car rolling again and I start shifting through the gears. Temps look good, and just waiting for the signal to put my foot to the floor. I see it and I start. Car is definitely pulling strong, screaming her beautiful voice all the way to 8,000rpm. Then I hear cheering and I knew it put down something strong. I look at the screen and see 342whp and 274wtq. 0 tune changes that night, just mild weather and half the humidity. I do attribute a mild increase to the new flywheel; it weighs nearly 20lbs less than stock.

In the near future, I'm swapping my pumpkin for a wavetrack diff, Z1 cover, new bushings, and 4.08 gears. I already have JWT C2 cams ready to build on a second set of heads, oil pump gears, cam sprockets, and an ATI damper to add. I'm not going to throw out any hopeful numbers, only that I hope they work as advertised. See the mod list below and pic of the dyno. I'll get ahold of the DRF's and add a video tomorrow. It's an in car video from my dash cam, but it should still sound great :).

Z1 Cold Air Intakes with the Race Filter Upgrade
Z1 Headers with ceramic coating
Fast Intentions DE Resonated Testpipes
Fast Intentions 12" CF exhaust
Specialty Z Clutch and Flywheel
Synolimit Ported throttle bodies
Synolimit Ported lower manifold
Synolimit Ported upper manifold
AE Performance 72 row oil cooler (for those frosty oil temps)
Ecutek tune by Martin (RS-Enthalpy)

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Are you planning on eventually going FI with this car? Just curious why you went with a 6-puck clutch.

NICE! Glad to see you got your missing hp/tq mystery solved -- and then some!!!!!

nice numbers dude

Down the road, yes. Hence the cam sprocket as well to tune the cam a bit if need be. The 6 puck also just takes abuse better.

Cant wait to see what the cams do. is your intake 3"?

No, 2.5". It hasn't been a limitation so far.

Nice write up. :tup:

Added video to the OP. Sorry I couldn't get any other angles. I was in the drivers seat

Nice work, OG :driving:

SS Firehawk,
Be gentle on my diff...lol

Nice.

Sadly I'm that guy with every bolt on haha yet hitting 310hp. Granted I only do SAE, not STD. But still that's 317 if I'm lucky. To many parts, to many veritables.

What about trying a different tuner?

Do you have a base dyno? That particular dyno could just be a heartbraker.

He's done all of my local porting customers and Columbus etc. I'm the lowest by far. The average is around 325 maybe SAE so 333ish STD.

I've been on 4 here in the city. All operated by same people and my tuner worked at or he's owned all 4. All have read the same. That's the beauty of dynojet. All use the same algorithm and everyone here uses same correction factors.

Added latest results to the OP. 347/276. Has new wavetrac diff, Z1 bushings, collars, diff cover, and 18" wheels instead of 19". Temps were the same.

I'm putting this out here because this setup works people. The drivetrain is more efficient with the new differential and clutch/flywheel. The intake side is port matched from filter to throttle body, the upper, and lower manifold. The Z1 Headers are super smooth with a proper merge collector. The Fast Intentions exhaust welds and sands their flanges from the inside. It's super smooth all the way through. Nothing is sized inappropriately. There's no extra large TB's or 3" intakes. I just added Z1's filters and Fast Intentions crash bar. The crash bar gave me clearance for the filters, oil cooler, and a much larger opening to pull air from.

With a bad tune, I was only making 315whp. After Martin fixed the issue, it jumped to 326. Then to 342 with the new clutch when it wasn't balls hot and humid outside. And finally 346 in the same conditions with the new diff and gears.

Ecutek allowed me to fix SRM and the speedo. Maybe she has 350whp in her if the humidity drops under 50%.

I think if you dyno on the coldest day of our central florida winter, you will hit 350.

I love how your car went from "Something is wrong and it is worrisome" to making a ton of NA power. =)

What was your break in process when you bought the car (assuming you bought new)?

I drove it hard

I assume you've probably put a few miles on it since the 4.08's. What's your impression of the lower gearing?

I wonder if you where to add a water/meth injection kit just to lower the intake temps if it would make a difference.

I know of another product that definitely would put it past 400whp; if injected....

I really want to see the results of that twin bumpstick installation!
;)

Martin tuned my car as well. Good guy and tuner.

I'm having my pinion adjusted right now. Hopefully Dyno later today. I haven't drove it much as I recognized some symptoms that needed checked out before it caused damage

Diff needs adjustment. Pinion is too deep in the ring gear. Luckily there wasn't any damage. I won't have the car back for a few days

Damn you eddie, talked me into ported upper and lower

You should see those huge air filters he has!

I just missed you that day you came down

I hung around about 2hrs,,,,had to get back up the road.