Today I lost a stoplight race to a kia rio. I spooled up and took him off the line but he caught and passed me near the top of second gear - very embarassing. I noticed that my car seems to bog a bit at high rpms and from 4-5K there is a significant amount of black smoke. After each full-throttle shift it's back to no smoke until the RPMs come back up. I think this means there is an air restriction at high RPM, maybe the factory exhaust is partially plugged? The car still makes decent power (for what it is).
How much boost can these cars handle without a head gasket upgrade? I am already making the stock 11psi. Is there an easy way to make a manual boost controller? I know my wastegate is vacuum-operated and I can't think of an easy way to increase the boost to, say 14psi with a simple mechanical device. All I know how to do is hook constant vacuum to it for max boost, which I don't want to do for fear of blowing up the motor.
Also how much can this particular car benefit from larger exhaust? I have the factory muffler and resonator in the rear - can one or both be eliminated or replace with high-flow versions? How about 2.5" pipe? Should I disconnect the exhaust and go for a test drive?
07-04-2007, 11:54 PM
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