OP
Thread Starter
#41
Thread Starter
#41
Today was a good day:
Test drove the upcoming Lotus Evora 400. Woah it's really good. Finally a legit supercar from Lotus. Not thrilled about the price though, because it's a lot.
IMG_8209.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
IMG_8207.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
Then I went and installed the Airtec FMIC. No wonder the stock intercooler causes skyrocketing CAT's; it weighs basically nothing.
IMG_8214.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
IMG_8215.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
IMG_8219.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
IMG_8220.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
I managed to re-install the middle front undertray mount, even though the Airtec instructions claimed I couldn't. It's true, you can't install the intercooler with it there, but once the IC is installed, you can put it back on with some persistence and creative tool use. This is good; I didn't like the idea of losing 20% of the fasteners holding on the undertray.
IMG_8224.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
IMG_8228.jpg by Ryephile, on Flickr
Then, I flashed the car with the Cobb OTS Stage 2 93 map. ...and then a test drive. Ok, the CAT's are now proper, and the pull at higher RPM feels less lethargic. During a 2nd, 3rd, 4th gear pull, the CAT's rose a scant 3 degrees C over ambient. Doing a single 3rd gear pull with the stock IC resulted in about a 20 deg C rise. It's painfully clear this Airtec works great. Just as awesome, the post-pull recovery is fantastic, taking mere seconds to snap back to ambient. For so much more thermal inertia due to the much heavier design, I'm impressed how quickly it dissipates the heat injected into it. As a bonus, the Stage 2 tune doesn't close ETC at WOT like the Stage 1 did. So all around there are improvements.
Finally, I changed the break-in factory oil with 4.3 quarts of Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W-20 and a new Motorcraft FL-910S filter. The only snag there is the factory filter was F-ing dry-installed by a gorilla to about 100 LbFt of torque. Idiot factory workers! Thankfully I was able to use my huge Chan-nel-locks and Hulk it off without damaging anything but the filter, which went promptly in the trash.
Test drove the upcoming Lotus Evora 400. Woah it's really good. Finally a legit supercar from Lotus. Not thrilled about the price though, because it's a lot.
Then I went and installed the Airtec FMIC. No wonder the stock intercooler causes skyrocketing CAT's; it weighs basically nothing.
I managed to re-install the middle front undertray mount, even though the Airtec instructions claimed I couldn't. It's true, you can't install the intercooler with it there, but once the IC is installed, you can put it back on with some persistence and creative tool use. This is good; I didn't like the idea of losing 20% of the fasteners holding on the undertray.
Then, I flashed the car with the Cobb OTS Stage 2 93 map. ...and then a test drive. Ok, the CAT's are now proper, and the pull at higher RPM feels less lethargic. During a 2nd, 3rd, 4th gear pull, the CAT's rose a scant 3 degrees C over ambient. Doing a single 3rd gear pull with the stock IC resulted in about a 20 deg C rise. It's painfully clear this Airtec works great. Just as awesome, the post-pull recovery is fantastic, taking mere seconds to snap back to ambient. For so much more thermal inertia due to the much heavier design, I'm impressed how quickly it dissipates the heat injected into it. As a bonus, the Stage 2 tune doesn't close ETC at WOT like the Stage 1 did. So all around there are improvements.
Finally, I changed the break-in factory oil with 4.3 quarts of Pennzoil Ultra Platinum 5W-20 and a new Motorcraft FL-910S filter. The only snag there is the factory filter was F-ing dry-installed by a gorilla to about 100 LbFt of torque. Idiot factory workers! Thankfully I was able to use my huge Chan-nel-locks and Hulk it off without damaging anything but the filter, which went promptly in the trash.
