Upgrade Performance on 3.8

[rahim072591]

Hi currently I am Spraying the car with a dry 50 shot. It was a pretty good improvement I went from running on the 1/8 mile 74.6mph to 80.5mph. but that's only a 50 I usually like to spray a 75 dry but don't really know what these cars can handle. Does any one know what is safe to spray on this car? How much power can the bottom end hold on the 3.8? Also if there are any hand held tuners out there, I only find them for the coups. What have others done to increase the power on their 3.8's?

 

[zielritter]

Hi currently I am Spraying the car with a dry 50 shot. It was a pretty good improvement I went from running on the 1/8 mile 74.6mph to 80.5mph. but that's only a 50 I usually like to spray a 75 dry but don't really know what these cars can handle. Does any one know what is safe to spray on this car? How much power can the bottom end hold on the 3.8? Also if there are any hand held tuners out there, I only find them for the coups. What have others done to increase the power on their 3.8's?

Standard bolt-ons for me: Intake, cat-delete, and Magnaflow cat-back. No idea what the power ceiling is, but consider that the original 3.3l Lambda was only putting out 234 and now the same block is putting out 100hp more bored out to 3.8l.

No hand held tuners for the Sedan. Just not the tuner market that the coupe is.

 

[rahim072591]

Standard bolt-ons for me: Intake, cat-delete, and Magnaflow cat-back. No idea what the power ceiling is, but consider that the original 3.3l Lambda was only putting out 234 and now the same block is putting out 100hp more bored out to 3.8l.

No hand held tuners for the Sedan. Just not the tuner market that the coupe is.

Hey when you deleted the cats did a code come up ? I haven't deleted mine yet because I'm afraid of the check engin light coming on.

 

[zielritter]

Hey when you deleted the cats did a code come up ? I haven't deleted mine yet because I'm afraid of the check engin light coming on.

CEL would only come on if you delete the primary cats which are before the O2 sensor. I removed the secondary cats.

 

[Epiphany]

CEL would only come on if you delete the primary cats which are before the O2 sensor. I removed the secondary cats.

How restrictive is the secondary cat in this car? Is there much of a difference without it?

 

[zielritter]

How restrictive is the secondary cat in this car? Is there much of a difference without it?

I'm a proponent of the "10-15%" rule when it comes to horsepower. If a particular mod doesn't increase power by at least that amount then you're not going to "feel" the difference. That's a minimum 33hp increase in the V6, and there's no way in hell you're getting that with cat deletes.

Anyone that says otherwise is falling victim to placebo and confirmation bias. That being said, I measured an ~3 tenths of a second decrease in my 0-60 time with the cat deletes, Magnaflow catback, and my homemade intake.

The cats themselves look like standard OEM cc's. Probably fairly restrictive compared to a tube, but most likely no more than a 5-10 hp gain by deleting them. Sound wise, removing them and keeping the stock mufflers will sound like ass on the v6 - this is what I tried first and didn't like the sound.

 

[Fast55]

Hi currently I am Spraying the car with a dry 50 shot. It was a pretty good improvement I went from running on the 1/8 mile 74.6mph to 80.5mph. but that's only a 50 I usually like to spray a 75 dry but don't really know what these cars can handle. Does any one know what is safe to spray on this car? How much power can the bottom end hold on the 3.8? Also if there are any hand held tuners out there, I only find them for the coups. What have others done to increase the power on their 3.8's?

333 HP out of 3.8 liters is over 87 HP/liter. Actually getting another 50 HP out of this engine puts you over 100 HP/liter. My guess is you are already at the limit if you use the 50 shot much and want the motor to last very long. Typically, NO hits suddenly and produces shock loads that are not friendly to bearings, rods, pistons, and cranks. Based on my experience, and without actually looking at the A/F while "on the button", my advice is to tread lightly.

 

[brfatal]

Hey when you deleted the cats did a code come up ? I haven't deleted mine yet because I'm afraid of the check engin light coming on.

LOL, if you're afraid of a CEL, automobile modification is not for you.

There are no real viable ways to increase power on these cars available. There is simply no market for mods that would justify any company doing any kind of product development for anything aside from simple exhaust bits. Nobody knows what the block holds because nobody mods these cars and those that do don't have any options to take it far enough that they would gain enough power for their butt dyno to actually register.

 

[zielritter]

And like I said in another thread, this engine began its life as a 3.3l liter MPI putting out 234hp. I'd say we're pushing against the upper bounds already in stock form.