1000bhp C63 Build Update pg25

[George Smooth]

By popular demand here is my build thread. The challenge for readers is to relate the power output to sea level as I live at 5600ft above sea level. The way I will present the modifications and power levels is as follows:
Stock Car
Stock Car and Agency Power Exhaust
Stock Car + Agency Power + LTH
Stock Car + Agency Power + LTH + Software
Stock Car + Agency Power + LTH + Software + Weistec Heads
Finally all the above with their Stage 3 kit.

The vehicle is a 2009 C63 with the P30 Package at 25,000km and RHD.

Below is the baseline of the car which was done with a 32 degrees Celsius ambient and humidity at 70%. The car was relatively lazy starting off with a 298whp reading and on the third run it achieve 306whp. For future reference keep in mind when I run my cars I do not do cool downs or spray the intake to keep it cool, the runs are also done with the hood closed. The three runs done where consecutive.

 

[George Smooth]

Agency Power Valvetronic Exhaust

After having major issues with drone on my 335 system and seeing the excellent video on this product I decided to pull the trigger. I dealt with the vendor that initially had it advertised which was Vivid Racing and my dealings with them where second to none. They where both friendly to my questions and efficient with the whole purchase and shipping procedure.

Below is a picture of the packaging the system came in. Everything was well protected with a double layer packing system of the X Pipe on top with the exhaust tips and the rear boxes and electronics below.

The tips which I selected in powder coated matt black.

Quality welds on rear box showing part of the Valve assembly

Close up of some more welds

The business end of the Valve System

X Pipe

X Pipe Mounting Brace showing great quality throughout the system.

The only place that Agency has failed on this system is the lack on installation instructions. There is no literature available with the shipment except for some install pictures that Rob from Vivid Racing kindly sent me on short notice. I did email Agency and instantly received all literature and pictures needed to make the installation easy for a DIY type. I am sure they will attend to making a booklet for the install.

Next leg will be installation with pics and sound videos.

 

[George Smooth]

Installation of Agency Power Cat Back

The first order of the day was to remove the stock exhaust. Boy it was heavy and two people are needed for the task unless you want to drop it on the ground.
I previously mentioned the lack of install instructions. After emailing Matt at Power Agency I received very good information which was more than ample to tackle the project.

Here is a picture of the stock system removed.

Once the system was on the ground we started to fit the X Pipe. This is where the first problem arose. The LHD stock pipe on the cat side was slightly to long for the system to fit properly. Slight meaning around 10-12mm to long. Now this problem could be unique to RHD cars or South African spec cars. I have notified Agency of this and will update with the response I get from them. In the below pictures you can see where the problem is.

The solution was to get under the car with a hack saw blade and cut away on the stock exhaust. This didn't make me very happy as the car cannot be turned back to stock simply by bolting the oem system back on. These are the leftovers.

And walla perfect fit.

Here is a pic of the tail pipes pre alignment. I always felt the stock tips sat to far out in the openings on both sides. These are perfect.

We then started the vacum system install and electronics for the actuators. It was all relatively simple but the T piece supplied for the front connection was far to small. 4mm T vs a 8mm that goes into the T. It was a disappointment so we decided to use wire to hold the valves in the open position for initial testing.
If someone wants detailed pictures of the install of the various components of the vaccum side of things or electronics let me know.

 

[George Smooth]

Branches are built and fitted.

They are massive and the car has really woken up. The valved exhaust is doing its trick sound wise. With the valves closed the car sounds slightly louder than stock. With them open the sound is deafening. We needed to fit a small resonator in place of the secondary cats. The car has really gained a lot of power. Standby for dynos and videoclips.

Heads have now been shipped to be worked on. Here is a pic of the spare stock head that I shipped.

 

[George Smooth]

HMS Tuning Diffuser


The order from HMS took a bit longer than expected. The first unit they made did not pass quality inspection on their side as they spotted minute bubbles on the surface. Communication was very good with them and they have my trust. The unit arrived very well packaged and I cannot imagine this item ever getting damaged unless a aeroplane drove over the box.
The unit is perfect in regard to flaws and the finishing is excellent. It came with two mounting brackets but none of the four holes in the diffuser align with anything so I had to do a DIY in terms of mounting it. Possible causes could be the fact that my car is SA built or that I have the spare wheel option. We are still investigating this with HMS. On the road the car feels slightly different but I cannot really say 100% as the few times I managed to run high speeds there was quite a bit of cross wind.
In the looks department there is a slight improvement to the untrained eye. I wanted to avoid the pieces that come straight down as seen on many carbon diffusers so I chose the conservative approach.
Below are some pictures:

Here is what it looks from underneath on another car.

 

[George Smooth]

Zeitronix DashDaq

I ordered my data logging tool from Zeitronix's as I wanted the added safety of external O2 sensors. They also supplied a map sensor for boost signal once the car is charged.
The order was very straight forward so the service is good from them including emailing me on a weekend.
The unit works as its suppose to with a million different methods of viewing the data you would want. The nice thing is its always logging so if you ever need to pull up a unexpected hiccup whilst driving it is there. This tool will be the most important item I have bought.
The cool thing is it fits like a glove as pictured with the wire fitting snug around the dash into the obd port. I took the access wire and just tucked it into the side of the dash. I will be fitting the O2 sensor wires soon but they will meet the OBD cable inside the dash and will look rather neat once I get around to doing it.

Some screen shots:

 

[Divio]

Waitin for the Vid's . . :=):

 

[George Smooth]

Some pornography of what's on its way.

Stock vs You cannot break me

 

[George Smooth]

More pornography. Gearbox ships next week.
The next mod is the gearbox upgrade. Knowing the availability of strengthened components in the pipeline this is the main reason I undertook to do this project. Here are some pics:

Gearbox stripped down, quite a few parts internally are replaced with strengthened components as well as the clutches.

The valve body is also modified to allow for different pressure as well as the TCU modified. This will give the car faster and firmer shifts.

2500rpm stall converter. I am on the fence with this. Waiting for some feedback from two owners that have installed this just to see what the affect on daily use is. The last thing I want is for the car to sound like I am constantly "slipping the clutch" :shock:

 

[George Smooth]

In waiting for the components to arrive from the States we found some time to experiment a bit further with the car in Naturally aspirated form. My tuner OB from Chip Logic was expecting slightly more power from the car and the tuning vs the power output did not gel. So off we went on a logging mission to see whats up with the power.
Long story short there was a vacume leak which would not let the exhaust valves open completely at high rpm. This meant the tune was completely off once this was sorted. After a bit of trimming here and there below are the results with pump fuel. The runs are straight of the road with no cool down and only exhaust and chip on stock filters with 29,000km.

Before and after to give a general idea. The before was done after the dyno was re-calibrated and shows 6whp less than the pre-calibration runs.

In conclusion to this NA chapter with the right mods and not opening the motor I reckon one can achieve 430whp-440whp at the reef. You will have to have 3inch exhaust piping all the way to the back (I got 2.75) with no resonators, a intake system and power pulleys with slightly higher octane. These items are all throw away items in terms of the charged project so there is no point doing them. I will go 3inch and accept the drone that comes with it only at track days.

 

[George Smooth]

Here is some head sexiness

SLS Valve Buckets

ARP Head Bolts

Bottom end pics to follow.

 

[osiris]

This is awsome, I am subscribed!! :thumbs:

 

[maximus]

EPIC to say the least :thumbsup:

 

[Karthik]

Pornography :bravo:

 

[MikeR]

:inlove::inlove::inlove:

 

[Twinz]

George, i dont know what to say. This is a wonderfully exciting project raise::inlove::thumbs::joy::joy:

 

[outlaw335]

Another epic build! Really excited too see the end product. On a side note you have my respect and admiration with regard to your builds. You always very open about your mods and always willing to share your knowledge and insight. These days guys are very tight lipped about what they doing,what mods they running,not that anything is wrong with that. I just respect your approach to things a whole lot more.Also it may be useful info to alot of people just as I found your 335 threads very informative.

Anyways best of luck with the rest of the build Mr Smooth :thumbs:raise:

 

[George Smooth]

Another epic build! Really excited too see the end product. On a side note you have my respect and admiration with regard to your builds. You always very open about your mods and always willing to share your knowledge and insight. These days guys are very tight lipped about what they doing,what mods they running,not that anything is wrong with that. I just respect your approach to things a whole lot more.Also it may be useful info to alot of people just as I found your 335 threads very informative.

Anyways best of luck with the rest of the build Mr Smooth :thumbs:raise:

Thanks for the compliments. I have nothing to prove and neither does my tuner for that matter. He taught me to be open and not "cheat" to get my results. End of the day you only fooling yourself.
We like being systematic with our approach especially when it comes to dyno figures. The car must always be as it is driven on the road, no ice on the airbox and things you wouldnt do at a set of robots. Its a type of a get results in the worst conditions approach.

 

[Andy1GP]

Fantastic Thread George raise: Loving the pics and the progress :bravo: Just a pity some of the pics are frogs :fencelook:

 

[Jakkals_F30]

raise:raise:raise: