Sudden power gain?!?!

[chicaboo]

Hey kiddies,

When I was installing BKS's shifter bearings on Saturday, I was inspired to remove the intake snorkle to the stock airbox. My initial impression was that it was a waste of time, and that the car had lost some power at the expensive of some nice induction noise. I couldn't feel the lift transition so much any more either.

However! Yesterday on the drive home from the BNE XMS cruise I noticed that the car had some real herbs. This was strange given that it was about 34-35C yesterday and I had the AC running non stop. And then this morning (on my private road ;)) the car was a real monster (in relative terms...). The lift engagement was quite pronounced, and I think the tyres even scampered slightly in 1st gear. The car feels like it generally has more torque too.

Without entering into the CAI vs SRI vs panel filter debate (AND WE WILL NOT!), this has me wondering how well the car would feel with a panel filter as a basis of comparison. I generally delight in a bit of investigation into such things for my own better understanding of my car. But I didn't bring this up to hear how bad SRI and stock airboxes with panel filters are. I just thought I would share the results for those who share my curiosity. I will keep a check on how the car performs throughout the remainder of the week, with the changes in heat and humidity. Afterall, it may be just a good batch of V*Power fuel I put in on Friday?

Cheers, Gav.

[Blind Kid Seeks]

Gav,

How was the cruise? Spirited?? Reason i ask is... the ECU learns your driving behaviour and will adjust AFR's and timing points around your driving style to achieve the best fit for your driving style.

Also ... the air may have been colder this morning in comparison to yesterday.. hence giving your engine a crisper response, with its newly learned ECU map.

Not uncommon for people to reset their ECU's before a cruise or spirited drive as the majority of the learning is done in the first 300kms since the reset.

Hope that made sense.

Andy.

[chicaboo]

Hi Andy,

I understand what you are saying. I wouldn't say the cruise was that spiritied, perhaps less than 1% of the driving may have been I guess. It was just lots of 60-80kph cruising really.

It picked up power yesterday afternoon too, but not as much as this morning. And I know that the Stivo power suffers in heat dramatically. The only other thing out of the ordinary was that the humidity was down yesterday and this morning. It was still 22-26C on my trip to work this morning too, so only just cooler than normal for me (24-30C on the way to work).

Cheers, Gav.

[Guni]

BP fuel truck got hijacked and stuck with Shell stickers, that's what ... :P :P :P :P :P :P :P :P

On a serious note, the stock intake on the stivos I find quite restrictive for an engine capable of such power output on NA and coming from a POV of a person who has tried everything from panel -> SRI -> CAI, I would find CAI works best for Stivos as the power is felt more throughout the power band.

What you are doing might be more comparable to an SRI or ICEBOX perhaps. Been there, done that :D

:clap: :clap: :clap:

P.S. No dyno sheets or crap proof that says "they" are out there ......... Just my word so believe what you will ....

[chicaboo]

Interesting, I usually put BP Ultimate in the car, except for the 1st 3 or 4 weeks when I tried Shell V*Power for a comparison. I seem to get margainally better economy out of Ultimate anyway.

But the car hasn't had power like this since I picked it up 2 months ago when the nights were cool.

Thanks for the input Guni. I always appreciate an informed POV on such things.

Cheers, Gav.

[ELEGNT]

yeh smoking it in 2nd lift all the way up the motorway onramp yesterday supprised me very much the little powerhouse

[chicaboo]

Yes, well, it felt like it had some get-up-and-go this morning.

[spillige]

Gav,

How was the cruise? Spirited?? Reason i ask is... the ECU learns your driving behaviour and will adjust AFR's and timing points around your driving style to achieve the best fit for your driving style.

Also ... the air may have been colder this morning in comparison to yesterday.. hence giving your engine a crisper response, with its newly learned ECU map.

Not uncommon for people to reset their ECU's before a cruise or spirited drive as the majority of the learning is done in the first 300kms since the reset.

Hope that made sense.

Andy.

x2 ive used both sri and cai and i notice the cars behavior changes over the 1st 200-500k of driving after intake mods

[chicken]

funny you say that because just yesterday i removed the resonator (1zz) and rerouted the snorkel from the headlight down to the foglight area and i think it reduced performance. didnt reset ecu though and it was 38 degrees yesterday in perth. i ll drive it abit more till i notice a difference or remove the snorkel.

[Kenneth]

funny you say that because just yesterday i removed the resonator (1zz) and rerouted the snorkel from the headlight down to the foglight area and i think it reduced performance. didnt reset ecu though and it was 38 degrees yesterday in perth. i ll drive it abit more till i notice a difference or remove the snorkel.

tried that before and no doubt you get that nice induction noise but other then that couldnt feel much.. maybe its just me but i guess cool air is better then warm air at the end of the day :)

[chicken]

funny you say that because just yesterday i removed the resonator (1zz) and rerouted the snorkel from the headlight down to the foglight area and i think it reduced performance. didnt reset ecu though and it was 38 degrees yesterday in perth. i ll drive it abit more till i notice a difference or remove the snorkel.

tried that before and no doubt you get that nice induction noise but other then that couldnt feel much.. maybe its just me but i guess cool air is better then warm air at the end of the day :)

is that when you removed the snorkel? i left the snorkel on but rerouted it and i think the car was less responsive after that and i didnt hear a difference in induction noise

[Kenneth]

funny you say that because just yesterday i removed the resonator (1zz) and rerouted the snorkel from the headlight down to the foglight area and i think it reduced performance. didnt reset ecu though and it was 38 degrees yesterday in perth. i ll drive it abit more till i notice a difference or remove the snorkel.

tried that before and no doubt you get that nice induction noise but other then that couldnt feel much.. maybe its just me but i guess cool air is better then warm air at the end of the day :)

is that when you removed the snorkel? i left the snorkel on but rerouted it and i think the car was less responsive after that and i didnt hear a difference in induction noise

i took two different approach

1. i took the snorkle out and the induction noise was def louder then before but changes in responsiveness was pretty negligible

2. decided to duct it to the foggies area but again, this time the induction noise wasnt as loud but i guess there was more cool air to the engine, nothing major i guess..

Edit: Oh now that you mentioned, i did re route the snorkle to start with but i guess its almost as restrictive as before so no diff would be felt perhaps?

[chicaboo]

I have a suspicion that intake changes are more noticeable (atleast once the ECU has learned) with 11.7mm of lift, over 8.7mm of lift. That's prolly why you don't notice much change with the 1ZZ, and truth be told, I don't notice a great deal before lift either. Although the VVTi is more agressive (I think) in the 2ZZ, and I'm sure my car has my guts in the 4500rpm+ bracket too, but I'm not certain.

Gav.

[whitestivo]

Your car is faster as it's now lighter as I stole your towbar on the sunday cruise

whitestivo

[chicaboo]

Stop, thief!

[SILVABULLIT]

Didn't you have a toilet stop just before heading home?? Must have been a "big" cable you laid hence the extra performance due to weight loss

[chicaboo]

You ought to talk curry bum! :P

But you're right, they use a good high performance synthetic oil at that fish and ship shop. Nothing but the best!

Gav.

[Evo7]

You ought to talk curry bum! :P

But you're right, they use a good high performance synthetic oil at that fish and ship shop. Nothing but the best!

Gav.

Don't ya just love high performance cooking oil :P

Evo

[chicaboo]

Update: The humidity is up today, and inversely the power is down... <_<

Question: Do the ACT peeps get bigger power down their way? Since you're the dry heat capital and all. :)

Gav.

[MT]

Update: The humidity is up today, and inversely the power is down... <_<

Question: Do the ACT peeps get bigger power down their way? Since you're the dry heat capital and all. :)

Gav.

Interesting question.

Hitting lift early in the morning in the ACT when its a crisp minus 5 outside is the most awesome experience ever, the car is an animal. I'm sure the lack of humidity helps as well.

At the dyno day here both rolla sportivo's pulled 120kw atw +