IT RUNS!!! - My 500whp build - Element motor and Moore Performance Twin Scroll Kit! by dexterous

5 minute(s) of a 312 minute read

Sorry for the lack of updates, I had other things on my mind. To make a long story short, today was filled with little more than disaster.

Here's a very very quick story (nearly 24 hours condensed into a few sentences):

Last night we loaded the car on the trailer without and I towed it to Element today without any issues whatsoever. Phil spent about 45 minutes dialing in the base settings so that the car would start, idle and move. It looked like everything was going pretty well so we loaded it on the dyno at 1:15PM. It didn't take trouble long to rear its head because on the very first pull I watched as one of the straps holding down the car broke. Thankfully, Phil was already on the slowdown part of the pull and immediately saw my hand signals to shut it down. We got the strap replaced and Phil started tuning again.

About two pulls later Phil told me that my boost control system was not functioning correctly so I frantically started to work on the car without any success. The symptom was very little boost (it wouldn't go beyond 10PSI). I swapped out the hybrid boost control system for just the manual and cranked the actuator arm of the wastegate solenoid all the way down. Phil started to make another pull immediately after I got the car back together and the bearing on one of the rear rollers blew out of the dyno (it actually flew off)! Since it was going to be a while before the dyno was running again Phil and I decided to go to lunch.

Once we got back to AMS to continue tuning we discovered that boost onset was extremely slow and the car still would not generate boost. At this point we decided to try totally disconnecting the hose from the wastegate actuator which should have resulted as much boost as the turbo could flow (40+ PSI). Again, no boost! It was about this time we realized that there was a serious issue with the wastegate actuator and that the tune could not be completed. $1000 into the truck, trailer, fuel and dyno time I realized that the day was totally shot. F!

I just got the car home and put it in the garage. At least when I go back I will be able to drive it instead of towning it. F! Any way, I have been in touch with Ryan Moore and they are working getting it right ASAP.

4-30-2011

Since I cut the tune short I had Phil do a few quick pulls to be 100% sure that the car was safe to drive until I returned with whatever fix I needed for the boost issue. I told him that it had to be safe enough to drive the wheels off of it and he said "go for it".

I haven't had a chance to actually drive the car until this afternoon and all I can say is WOW!!! Even thought its really down on power I just cant get over how amazing the Element Pro Comp motor is. Its just absolutely amazing! Obviously things aren't working the way they are supposed to so the power comes on pretty late in the rev range but that doesn't mean the car isn't fast. It doesn't have that punch effect like my old setup but if I keep it in the 4500-6500 range it feels pretty damn fast.

The thing that I just cant get over is how amazingly smooth the motor is as it revs (and man does it like to rev)! The closest thing I can relate it to is a bike. I actually drove the car for a good bit before I remembered that I could actually go beyond 7,000 RPM (something that I had NEVER done in a car before). I remember the exact moment the thought crossed my mind; I just looked down at the tach, hit the gas, watched the needle cross 7000 and started to smile (and never stopped). I ran the car to 8000 a few times which appeared to be much easier on the street than it was on the dyno and it was really cool.

It was honestly an amazing experience seeing the tach sweep past 7000 for the very first time. It wasn't until the second pull to 8000 that I noticed the noise the car was making! To a normal person I am sure it was just another loud motor/exhaust sound but to me it was a wonderful symphony of amazing mechanical noises! The exhaust note is what I would envision a cross between a Supra and a street bike would sound like. During those high revving pulls the high compression pistons, big cams, EL header and Cobb muffler just played in perfect concert together. During those few moments beyond 7000 all the problems and frustrations with this project just simply melted away and for once everything was "all good".