I think it's the March issue- read it at the library, today. Interesting results.

With exhaust backpressure equal to the on-car exhaust system the LS6 CI manifolds made a few more HP. Headers made a whopping four percent more torque and two percent more power, which conflicts with most of the reports here.

Baseline was 400/422 corrected to SAE net/standard sea level conditions. Standard sea level correction was used for all the other tests. Best power was with a 226/226 cam at 499 but torque was less below 4000 with a dramatic 20 percent reduction at 2000. So you can increase top end power 20 percent at the expense of 20 percent less low end torque (and probaby emissions problems.) There's no free lunch!

Head work had suprisingly little effect.

The tests show that the factory tune is very well optimized over the entire useable rev range - off idle to 6500.

Duke

 

Engines maybe getting like bikes as they got faster there is less for the after market to offer.

 

Mallett is claiming 500 fwhp on his LS2 with just H/C, intake mod and headers. (April Corvette Fever)

 

i just saw that article as well. looked to me that the best results was to use the ls6 intake and the "special" cam that they ran the last test with.

i especially liked the part about the pcm being able to adjust to most mods without reprogramming.

 

With a 226/226 cam on the LS2 and a 20% drop in low rpm torque, I am going to have to say something is very wrong in the test or the parameters used to gage the test. I have seen the results of many LS1s with aftermarket cams up to the 228/228 cam duration at .050" and never seen a loss near 20% in the lower RPM range. While there has been an occasional set up that did loose some of the bottom end, most of the packages had a noticable gain in torque across the board. My own set-up had over 30rwtq gains in most of the lower rpm range and that was with a small 221/221 cam(by the way, it also passed IM240 emissions levels easily in roller testing and idle, with high flow cats and collector mod'd MAC headers ceramic coated) and stage II ported heads(read big ports) from MTI.

Steve Cole did the PCM tune on my car after the installation of the hardware and that made all the difference in the world. Having a good tuner(in this case, it was arguable that Steve Cole was the best tuner available in early 1999 for the LS1s) makes a great deal of difference, as several drivability issues I noted driving from Phoenix to LA where solved by him and the difference in smoothness and power delivery was VERY noticable.

I suspect they did not have the ability to properly tune for the mods in this test. It has been well established by most of our supporting vendors that the LS1/LS6 PCMs where very flexible in mods, but gained greatly from custom tuning for the mods. Two of our vendors are already tuning C6 LS2 pcms and the results are very promising over untuned.

Todd

 

Nothing a twin turbo can't fix...

 

Amen brother!

 

if i read it right they were making 599 hp and high 5's in trq. with just a cam and intake manifold change, no pcm programming. if that's the case just imagine what can be squeezed out of it.

 

If you think those numbers are good look again. They stated the numbers obtained were calculated at STP which is higher than what's normaly read at SAE corrected. If that's the case, 499 Flywheel HP is realy 469 HP SAE corrected. Which would calculate at the rear wheels at 398. Check page 98 of the article it states there rating system. Those number are nothing to write home about. Don't get me wrong Katech is a great company. Believe me there for real. I just didn't think much of the test. My C5 made 425 RWHP and My C-6 is making 386RWHP. As soon as the cam and under drive go on It should be making well over 400 RWHP with no head work.Remember, Katech had LS6 heads that flowed 330 CFM at .600 lift. Those just aren't great numbers guys. I wouldn't copy what they did on my C6.

Andy G.

 

Duke I generally respect your opinions, but not this time. Take a look around and see H/C LSX motors making 500rwhp, cam only cars making 450rwhp, and tell me that the LS2 and LS7 won't have good potential.

 

This info that Duke is refering to is from a untuned session. They where just trying to see what the motor was capable of and the stock PCM was in control the entire time. It is pretty much common knowledge that believing the stock PCM can tune for all mods is BS, so this article is true in this frame of vision, but not reality. We have plenty of programs to tune LS1/LS6 PCMs and the LS2 PCMs are just now seeing tuning to help with mods, making this article a dinasour already.

Todd

 

OPINION???!!! Other than the very last sentence of my original post that started this thread, I am merely REPORTING summary results of the Katech tests published by Hot Rod.

How about if people withhold their comments until they actually READ the article!

I'm beginning to regret that I even bothered to start this thread. Some of you guys have cast iron heads!

Duke

 

And you can also add that the coolant temp was kept at 185 degrees in the initial runs where they stated that GM did not under rate the motor......... I know my car is running between 192 and 194 on the road and over 200 in traffic. Now I know why the guys at LPE insisted that a 160 degree stat would make my C6 run better!

 

for accurate dyno results the water and the oil temp have to be +-2 degrees and the fuel temp +-5 degrees. the 185 is close to what GM wants the engine to run 195.

 

So if I understand what you are saying. GM wants the temp to be + or -
5 percent which is statistically understandable. Thanks

 

I did read the article before you posted this.

 

Last edited by SWCDuke : Yesterday at 05:20 PM

Ah, yes.

 

Keith, he said that it was interesting, not that he agreed with it.