Since I have no dyno at my house to check performance, and my butt-dyno is
usually a very poor judge of performance, I am going to use MPG to measure
"performance". I'm going to divide the cost of the item into how much MPG I
gained and rank them best ratio to worst:
1) Fram "Extra Guard" Filter: (.5 MPG increase, $5) (only used after 10k mi)
2) Mobil 1 Synth oil (.5 MPG increase, $20) (used at 2K mi, and ever since)
3) Quick D Intake (1.2 MPG increase, ~$140)
4) 30x9.5 Tires (.1 decrease city, 2 MPG increase hwy, $225)
Butt Dyno rankings:
1) Quick D Intake
2) Oil & Filter
The tires were a drop in acceleration, but made a huge improvement in the
looks and handling of the truck, especially in poor traction conditions.
I know many of you are going "gimme a break" about the oil and filter
changes, but on dino oil, my engine was a noisy beast, you could hear every
lifter and valve clattering away. I put in the Mobil 1, started the engine
and... near silence, the motor purred and all the valve-train noise was
dramatically lessened. After 10K when I added the teflon filter to the
system, the noise went totally away and hasn't been heard from since. I could
feel the power difference in the engine response to throttle position. It
gained RPM's much faster than before. I can't explain it, I only know it
worked so I'm sticking with it. All you skeptics can say what you will, you
can't disprove it to me because the proof is under the hood for me!
I would also caution belief that a cat-back system adds to preformance. I
have yet to see any proof of a cat-back increasing HP or Torque. By
definition, your biggest preformance restrictor in your exhaust system is at
your Y-Pipe and your Catalytic converter. Since a cat-back doesn't affect
either of these two systems, I doubt there will be much HP improvement found
in such a system. By the time the exhaust hits the post Cat stage, it's
already at it's nominal velocity, and the stock muffler doesn't change it
much. These are mostly acoustic, cosmetic and "feel good" improvements and
I'd really take butt-dyno measurements from them with a grain of salt. I can
get testimonials from exhaust tech after exhaust tech if you don't believe
me... ^_^ But I know all of the Cat-Back crowd will pounce on me... Ce'st La
Vie. In their defense, I'm having a custom Cat-Back system researched for me
right now. It won't really improve preformance, but it'll sure sound cool...
-_^
Shaun H.
---original message---
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1999 09:53:34 -0400
From: "Greig, Doug" <douggr@hazelett.com>
Subject: DML: If you had to pick......
I read about all kinds of mods people do to their trucks. It seems many
will work for both two and four wheel drive and some are proprietary. My
question to all of you is this...I you could only do one modification to
your truck, keeping in mind it's a daily driver, what would it be? I'm
not talking cosmetics. I'm talking about seat of your pants difference
in performance.
Yes, I am using for ideas for my truck, and I don't have wheel barrels
of cash. Just a small plastic spoon. ;-)
Doug Greig
98 CC 4X4 V6 Sport
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