I've been updating the progress of the E-Force install on my LS2 at Livernois Motorsports on two other threads so I decided to start a new post to let everyone know what my first impressions are. I got the car back late this evening so naturally, I didn't get to drive it as much as I would have liked. In addition to the engine mod's which consisted of an E-Force blower, CNC'd L92/LS3 heads, Livernois Stage 2C cam, Kooks long tube headers and a Z06 fuel pump I also had a new GHL Race Series exhaust installed. My first impression is that it's a completely different car. Between the mod's, tune and exhaust it bears no resemblance to the car I dropped off 3 weeks ago. It baselined at 332 RWHP/330 RWTQ when it was dropped. It's now producing 565 RWHP/496 RWTQ. We ended up going with a 3.5" pulley producing 8 lbs. of boost. I currently have BFG KDW2's on it and in the short time I've driven the car it's apparent they're not up to the job. I'm amazed at the amount of power that is immediately available regardless of the RPM range I'm in. I previously had a Magnaflow exhaust on the car and I felt it was too quiet. The GHL exhaust is at the other end of the spectrum. It's going to take a while to get comfortable with it since it's significantly louder than what I've been accustomed to. My wife made the comment that it not only hurts her ears, it also hurts her teeth. Nevertheless, she said she likes it now that it sounds more like my street rod and much more like a muscle car. My only negative observations are that it runs significantly hotter that it did before. The engine mod's also included a 160 degree stat., but even with that it's running at 208 degrees under normal driving conditions. I'm now considering a more efficient radiator and possibly a pusher fan. In addition, the engine light came on tonight, but all of the vitals seem OK so I plan to take it back tomorrow to have them check it out. I hope to post an update along with some pictures and hopefully a video. In the meanwhile, I'm very pleased with the work and the results and feel it was money well spent.

 

Hope the Chk light turns out to be only something minor... Do you think a Ron Davis Rad will fix the heat concerns you have???? I know you will have many miles and years of fun with your new ride...

 

I think the radiator upgrade is a given.

- You've added 60% or more horsepower to the stock engine
- Headers even if coated are going to add underhood heat
- The 70lb chunk of mostly aluminum that now sits where your intake manifold used to be and the fact that it will eventually work it's way up to about the same temp as the engine block
- The s/c heat exchanger that sits directly in front of the stock radiator.

I don't think it would be any surprise that you'll want better cooling than the marginal when stock OEM radiator....Dewitts

As for the sound...I can't say enough about the "Dual Mode/NPP" factory option....loud when you want it and whisper quiet when you want to be stealthy.

 

Ken, did you ever get yours dyno to find out what the RWHP/TQ is?

 

Funny that not 5 minutes before you asked I was talking with "AWARE02" about this very subject. My car has been "down" for about 6 weeks dealing with an insurance claim...idiot left his baby Lexus in neutral and it rolled all the way to the remote end of the parking lot where I park and tagged me right on the driver's side rear wheel/rear quarter....$4,300.00 worth of rear quarter, upper control arm, knuckle and wheel repair/replace. I just got the car back yesterday. When the weather gets right it will go back on the dyno...too hot, wet and muggy right now.

This was a very sad sight to see when I went to lunch back on 20 July!

 

congrats man those are some great numbers, enjoy the car

 

OOOhhhh, its like I park my vette out away from everyone else and there just so happen to be a run away car in the parking lot and it just so happens to hit yours! Sorry bud but at least its an easy looking fix.

 

Ouch... At least you got it back now and everthing is fine I hope... I bet it is Hot, Wet & Muggy?

 

Hey Mike, I would first try and drain some of your antifreeze and add some distilled water and redline water wetter. Water cools whereas antifreeze does not and they may have put too much in when they put your car back together. Guys have reported a 5 -15 degree drop using the water wetter. Being that you are in MI you should not have too many overheating issues, fall is right around the corner.

This is what I am having trouble with, if you look at your setup, minus the eforce, you should be around 475 + rwhp N/A. Going by the rule of thumb of 20 hp per pound of boost the eforce should add about 160 hp. I don't understand why you are not in the low 600 range? I was on the camaro forum this morning and a stock LS3 camaro was making the same numbers as your moded ls2. Do you think they tuned it very conservative?

Once you add the cam and eforce any exhaust is going to get really loud, you may try the magnaflow again, you maybe surprised!

 

That is some jacked up stuff right there (parking lot)!

RE: Coolant temps, What were you seeing before? Without a custom OS the fan tables only go as low as 192 degrees and you can't command anything in that cell unless you want the fans to be on all the time. So you can only command more fan from 196 and up. I recommend 90% from 199 on up but you will have to watch out for cooking the wiring harness behind the raridator fan. So you can see that even with a 160 t-stat it's going to be near impossible for you to stay under 200.

 

Congrats on the car.. I bet it's a blast.


I had a Go Home Loud exhaust on my VW GTI and couldn't stand it longer than a week. It was obnoxiously loud. I wound up buying a muffler from Cherry Bomb and having it welded in. Things are much more civilized now. (note, the quality of the GHL was excellent, it was just way, way too loud)

 

Wow that sucks!

 

Guys I think my post/misfortune is starting to hijack this thread. Let's keep the conversation focused on the OP's outstanding results.

 

I'm very interested in this as I am contemplating going the E-Force route with my 07.

 

All, thanks for the comments and interest.

Motorhead47, don't worry about hijacking my thread. Your posts have been a big help to me in deciding which system I went with. I feel for you. I almost got nailed this morning after having the CEL corrected. They forgot to turn off the rear O2 sensors, but all is well now. As for the cooling concerns, I'm already in the process of addressing that. I got a price on a Dewitts and a BeCool radiator. Surprisingly they were in the same price range so I'm open to suggestions on that. I've considered draining some of the coolant and replacing it with Water Wetter. I've done that on my street rod and it made an appreciable difference - especially when sitting in traffic (cruises). I know I live in Michigan, but we've had more 90+ degree days here this Summer than we've had in the past 15 years put together. Maybe I should have been listening to Al Gore on those "ozone action days" instead of filling my tank. As for the exhaust, I'd say the jury is still out. The car sounds great on the outside and in drive by's, but it sure reminds me of my age when I'm accelerating through the gears in traffic. Oh well, at the rate I'm going I'll be able to say I've tried most of the major brands of aftermarket exhaust systems by the time I'm done.

vertC6, I would think the tune leans in the conserative direction. I haven't specifically addressed this with them, but I honestly don't think they would start with an over the top tune unless they knew that was what I wanted. I didn't have any preconceived horsepower expectations, but the results were very close to what Livernois had predicted. My guess is there's still more power available, but I'm sure it would come with a trade off in terms of long-term dependability and increased parts failure. Right now, the results are far more than I expected and enough to keep me happy - at least, for a little while.

Romulus, my business is located in Romulus, MI (DTW Airport)

 

Mike,

I was going to make a post, but didn't realize you already did.

I based my HP "guess" off similar Camaro's we've done with a Magnacharger and similar parts and your car made slightly more than they do.

A Camaro that makes 550 RWHP and weighs 4000 lbs. will run 10.90/11.0 at this power level, so you definitely have a 10-second car if it hooked.

Here is a video I got of it on the dyno

Dyno Video

and a better shot of the before/after dyno sheet.

(click for larger view)



Have fun and be safe

Regards,

Rick LeBlanc
Livernois Motorsports

 

Rick, thanks very much for the info. and the video. It sounds almost like it's whispering with the Magnaflow's on it. Please thank Dan, Andy and all the guys in the shop for the great job they did. Thanks also for the "drive by" today. I could never get my wife to do that! I'll see you next month for that radiator install.

 

No problem!

It was definitely much quieter with the Magnaflow system, but for some reason still freaked out the microphone in the camera. It sounds funny in the video, but didn't sound that way in person.

We should have video taped the "drive by"!

Talk to you soon,

Rick

 

Well the one thing I keep having to remember is that this is an auto which in a manual would make close to 590 so you really are not that far off of what would be expected. So what do you think of the cam now that you have had some driving time with it? Do you need a stall converter?

 

So far, so good. I've only put about 80 miles since I got the car back, but I don't feel the need for a higher stall converter. There's a faint amount of off idle surge if you're creeping in traffic, but it's just enough to remind you there's a high performance cam there. If you look for it there's a tiny amount of bucking on deceleration but again, I attribute this to the cam. The new exhaust really emphasizes the lumpy idle. I'll try to get a good video clip of it as soon as possible.