gixxer9

Well, the big day at Great Lakes Dragaway is coming. I will be attending the CponyGO (mustang forum) drag meet to see how the IROC will do. I pulled my trans today and will be getting my new one and 3000 stall on thursday. In the meantime I also need to replace my oil pan gasket (cam change mishap). I will be trying to talk a friend into letting me use his 10" slicks to help get the best time ( Even if I get the slicks, I will still do a couple runs on my eagle F1s). Does anyone here know if 10 inchers will fit on the back?

92 zzz28

They should with the proper wheel. I am running 315s on the rear of mine with no massaging or clearance issues at all. THey are tight, but fit...

GTA91

iTrader: (1)

Good luck at the track. I'm curious to see how your heads/cam/HSR combo runs! As for those 10" slicks, they should fit with the right wheel!

Any pics of your 315s on your car??

92 zzz28

If I remember to take my camera to work tomorrow, I'll get some of it from underneath. And from the normal so you can see up close...

ZFORCE

I see you have used a lot of TPIS equipment, when you chose the
comp cam did you consider the ZZ9. If so what made you go with the cam you chose.

tj

camarojoe

gixxer9, I like the cam you chose to run. A lot of people get too conservative when they pick out a cam, because of fuel milage etc, but that often causes them hp. I'm sure when you get your engine dialed in, it will be quite impressive.

gixxer9

Zforce, I did consider the ZZ9 cam but didn't want to pay that much for it and initially went with the Comp Cams XR282hr. The specs were very similar and it was half the price.

Camarojoe, when I replaced my Dart heads with the AFR's, I knew that I was eventually going to a miniram so I decided to install a cam similar in stature to the ZZ-X. Of course I went with the Stealth Ram (hadn't heard of them until a few months ago), but the powerbands are similar between the two. I have built numerous carbed motors, and know the importance of matching the cam to the heads and intake. With the LTR setup, I knew it would be a dog (and it was, lol!), but knew I was only missing the intake.

92z, What size wheels and backspacing are you using?

GTA91, thank you. I'm very curious myself. The car really feels much stronger but my prom is not right. I am disappointed with my TPIS prom because they didn't burn it how I expected. I ordered the level 6 (for miniram) but at the time still had iron heads and no exhaust, etc. I know my chip wasn't burned for a miniram, because my motor really misses the cold start injector (which is not used by miniram or stealthram). I think they did this so I'd have to pay another $100 to get it right. I know that isn't going to be the difference of more than a few 1/10ths but it couldn't hurt.

My new trans is complete and my Midwest stall will be done thursday morning. I just live 60 miles from Rockford, Ill, so I'm going down there to get it (my trans is just another 30 miles in Schaumburg, Ill). I replaced the pan gasket yesterday, so I'm just waiting on my stall.

BLURR

Im going with a stealthram for my 1991 350 T/A

gixxer9

Blurr, if you have good heads and a cam with a higher powerband, you will be very happy with it. Some people have gone slower in the quarter by putting a stealthram on a mostly stock motor. The stock components (cam, heads,exhaust,etc.) are better suited to a long tube runner setup. You probably already know this, but I wanted to point it out if you didn't.

92 zzz28

gixxer,

I am using Weld 17 x 10 wheels. The backspacing is 5.5 or 6". It has been 3 years since I got the wheels and I can't remember exactly.

And to add to the HSR thing. I have had my newly rebuilt 385 running for over a month now and it rocks with the HSR. I don't even have any upper RPM fuel and spark tuning done. Still working down low. I keep my foot out of it, but at 1/2 throttle, it really pulls. The best part is my engine is low compression; I built it to be a blower motor and so far I am impressed. The tq is down from the LTR, but the mid range and upper are vastly stronger.

So, you will be happy with your HSR...

1987-396-IROC

is the stealth ram smog legal in california?

92 zzz28

It is not emission legal anywhere. No EGR...

camarojoe

It is legal though for those of up who don't have to pass emission tests.

gixxer9

The day is here! I won't have slicks for this weekend but I did get the stall and tranny in. It is a whole new animal now guys. I will post my times and will even have video of my runs.
mike

gixxer9

I only made two runs because I collapsed and launched a lifter plunger! It happened sometime during the first run because it felt like it was running out of fuel towards the end and my MPH was not very high. I was running 43 psi and bumped it up to 49 psi before the second run. I heard some ticking but I thought it was a burnt exhaust gasket. As my times will show, it must have flew apart during the second run.


DO YOURSELVES A FAVOR AND BUY A REV KIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I purchased a pair of BFG Drag Radials in the morning of the trip. Here are my times:

run one: run two:
R/T .559 .500 (only perfect at track!)
60' 1.664 2.182
330 4.997 6.097
1/8 7.845 9.425
MPH 86.34 73.24
1000 10.323 12.341
1/4 12.435 14.808
MPH 106.53 91.36

What a waste of the only perfect light the whole day at the track! I am definitely kicking myself for not buying a Rev kit... At least I didn't kill my cam and motor (whew!)

gixxer9

By the way, my car weighed in at 3325 (without me). I'm 270 lbs.

92 zzz28

Yeah, I got a rev kit!!! A solid roller might do the trick to.

Times look good. Hope I can see some mid 12s out of the box. With some tuning you'll see 11s no prob. Good work..

Schultzy89GTA

Nice times Gixxer. I have been running my new 383 miniram combo for one week now. I did get the rev kit just for a little insurance. It is a lot diff than the ltr setup... mid - high rpm running takes on a new definition.

Knocking on 11's door... have fun man!

-Schultzy

Ricktpi

Just a thought, .600 lift on AFR heads? .550 is the max on mine, unless you did some work on them. That might explain your lifter destruction.

Schultzy89GTA

I believe that the .550 lift limitation is due to the standard springs that AFR uses in their assembly. Gixxer is running comps that I assume were selected for his cam and lift.

My 195's have a max lift of .600 and I'm running .565/.565.

FWIW.

-Schultzy

gixxer9

Schultzy is right. I am using Comp Cams matched springs for my cam and the next one up from mine which has .600 lift with 1.5 rockers. Rick might be talking about piston clearance which I have just enough of. I believe that I collapsed a lifter and then floated a valve, leading to the destruction of the lifter. The spring seat pressure is 130# and the open pressure is 325#. The lifters should be able to handle that.

Kingtal0n

I have heard stories of roller lifters that collapse and destroy the cam, or the roller comes loose and needle bearing destroy the motor, or the roller comes off and the lifter grinds down the lobe... etc...

what exactly happened when your lifter went wacko? are you using the spider bar retainer plate to hold them? is the cam standard base circle? is the lifter standard height? retro fit?

there have been warning about retro fit lifters and small base circle cams where the lifter will fall below the oil hole in the lifter galley causing the lifters to lose oil at certain points, although im pretty sure is only in the case of small base circle cams and hydraulic lifters... but i could be wrong.

gixxer9

KingtalOn, To the best of my knowledge, the cam is standard base circle but has very steep and fast ramps. That alone is enough to warrant a Rev Kit. My lifters are GM Performance hydraulic rollers. I am using the spider/retainer to keep the lifters straight. I think that the lifter collapsed, caused my valve to float, and then launched the plunger. I removed my cylinder #3 guide plate and looked into the valley and could see my plunger and spring just laying there. I did not see the steel plunger retainer clip, though. I hope to find it when I pull the intake in a day or two. I have an AFR rev kit coming second day air, so I hope to be up and running by the weekend. I talked at length with AFR and a rev kit should help prevent this from occuring again. I am shifting at 7000 rpm's with my current setup and both TPIS and AFR believe that I am floating my valves that high, and I believe them. Since the rev kit keeps the rollers on the cam, the plunger does not have to work so hard and shouldn't fail as my old one did. As always, I will keep you posted on the results.

gixxer9

Just an update on the car. I did, in fact, blow the plunger out of my lifter, but I also found out that my lifter had broken in half! It put a large groove in my cam lobe, and I now have to replace my cam for the second time. I have had two hydraulic roller failures now. I am so done with hydraulic rollers! I sent my rev kit back to AFR and am going to be running solid rollers from now on. I should have just went solid right from the beginning. I am completely re-doing my valvetrain. Starting with 7/16" studs, roller rockers, and stud girdles (girlfriend buying that stuff for christmas!). I'm going to go with a custom Comp Cam solid roller, along with there special street solid rollers (have taller bodies for our factory roller blocks, and machined oiling grooves so lifters don't rely on crank slosh for lubrication). I'll keep everyone updated.

TRAXION

Gixxer9,

Great decision. Solid is definitely the way to go as long as the specs are good and match the setup. BTW, are you really running that TPIS L6 chip that is in your sig? There's a nice gain just by doing your own.

Tim

gixxer9

Yeah Traxion, I unfortunately invested a ton of money in that prom before I knew about home programming. The good part is that the prom is burnt for a miniram so it did make a noticeable gain over the stock prom.

Kingtal0n

I cannot wait to see what that thing does next! its going to be insane.

I just blew my tranny at the track; im going to a solid roller here and re-doing everything i can.

keep us posted! give me some ideas...

gixxer9

Yeah kingtalon, it is always an adventure when driving my car. I'm almost paranoid to drive it hard while not knowing whats going to break next! Hopefully not much, though lol! The valvetrain problems are my doing as I knew the limitations of hydraulic rollers, but that will be a problem of the past! I'm in the quest for 11's and without a power adder, you need to rev a 350 so I will have a high revving valvetrain. I just have to worry about my rods letting go now, lol!! I'll keep everyone posted, but it'll be a few months before any road testing because I live in Wisconsin and winter is just starting. If anyone is curious, my motor is identical to the motor in the article section at http://www.airflowresearch.com called ultimate crate motor. The only difference is my motor has a stealthram instead of a victor jr. I'm in negotiations with AFR right now about getting my heads angle milled just like in the article to raise my compression to 10.6 to 1 (article motor is straight 10 to 1). I'm also talking with Comp Cams also about getting a custom solid roller based on the xr280 that the article uses.

gruveb

Gixxer,

What did you have to do to get HSR to clear the hood?

gixxer9

Nothing to the hood itself, but I did turn my bellows upside down because the clamp on the throttle body would hit the fire mat retaining button.

gruveb

How streetable was it?

gixxer9

Very streetable! I did not notice any loss in low-end power, just a major gain all the way up 7000 rpm (why i broke a lifter). To be fair here, i have to say that my motor was not very compatible with the LTR setup that I had, so my bottom end power was never as awesome as it should have been. I went from high 13's to a 12.4 on my first run (broke my lifter toward the end of that pass). The stealthram is a great intake, provided that you have a motor combination that accomodates high revolutions.

gruveb

I'm confused. When you say bottom end power was never as awesome as it should have been....does that mean it feels like you have to push start it? Seriously though, I'm not sure if you're saying the Stealth Ram is terrible at low end power or not.

Sorry for the confusion.

gixxer9

Gruve, what I'm saying is that my car had good bottom end with the LTR setup, but not as good as it could have had if I had a smaller cam, smaller heads, less gear, etc... With my setup and the LTR, I could annihilate the tires almost at will... I still do with the stealth ram, except now it continues to hold me in the seat. If you have a mostly stock motor, the stealthram is not going to net you a lot of power, or performance gain (in the 1/4). However, the stealthram is wonderful starting point on a build-up if you are ready to commit to revving higher. I personally wish that I had purchased my stealthram sooner! For me, the stealthram was the single best purchase that I made.

gruveb

Gotcha now. Thanks!

Funny thing about the Stealth Ram is that everything I've read about it pretty much says the same thing.....it pulls hard through the whole RPM band.

I guess since nobody has complained about anything other than some minor hood clearance issues, it is fine.

Now I've just got to save my pennies. I'll be buying one this spring, along with heads and a cam.

gixxer9

You'll be very happy with your purchase! Good luck!

92 zzz28

The best part about the HSR is you don't have to save that many pennies. I bought mine through Thunder Racing with no discounts or any special pricing for under $500 to my door. Great buy, now I just need to tune my engine!!!

Gixxer,

Let me borrow your PROM!!! J/K!!

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

I would seriously consider the HSR if they made a base to fit vortec heads!!

We need to keep bugging holley to make a HSR vortec base!


What intake would you guys recommend for my combo in sig. ?

Do you think any of the other aftermarket intakes would make a susbtantial difference over my ported SLP / SDPC setup?

OMINOUS_87

Should I even toss in my .02 here?

I am sure you already know what I would say, LOL!

Peace

92 zzz28

Miniram...

Yes...

gixxer9

BAD91Z, I BELIEVE TPIS HAS A VORTEC MINIRAM, WHICH YOU ARE PROBABLY AWARE OF, AND THE INSANE PRICE TAG, WHICH I KNOW YOU ARE AWARE OF! I THOUGHT LONG AND HARD ABOUT THE MINIRAM AND WAS GOING TO PURCHASE ONE MYSELF UNTIL I DISCOVERED THE STEALTHRAM. SOME COMPANY WILL MAKE AN EFI INTAKE FOR VORTEC HEADS EVENTUALLY. I JUST THOUGHT ABOUT THE EDELBROCK PRO-FLO EFI (FI VICTOR JR. OR PERFORMER RPM BASE). YOU COULD MAKE YOUR OWN, OR JUST CONTINUE ROLLING WHAT YOU HAVE (WHICH SEEMS TO BE PRETTY GOOD).

fb305svs

Gixxer, glad you've been having fun


glad too see that a zz4 is holding up to business your applying to it!!

we have simliar setups, albeit, i have trickflow heads (slightly less flow) and a smaller cam (CC xr288 HR cam)

i went with a 288, seeing as i was close on piston to valve clearence...

in ordering a new cam, you might want to consider a cam with simliar lift, but less duration...the duration is what is casuing your power to peak so high.

I have retained all the factory roller stuff, and i run a rev kit, and i still start hearing the beginnings of valve float around 6600.. altho, we did run it to 7200 on the dyno plenty of times lol.

one trick you you could have used was to adjust the rockers a little looser- this helped take care of a lot of my valve float (only an 1/8th turn of preload)

Good luck with it, and nice 60's on that first run! wish i had that much traction!!! best for me so far is a 1.9, and i have all the goodies

next year with some new, possibly bigger tires shoudl hopefully net me som ebetter times

info on my set up is in the sig.

one last question for ya- what did you zz4 pistons look like? did the have the valve reliefs that run across the entire piston, on both sides? or just the individual cut reliefs?

OMINOUS_87

The funny thing about the Miniram III is that those clowns over at TPIS didnt make it as a bolt-on for the Vortec heads. It is for the Fastburn heads. It still uses the 12 bolt-pattern design, which the fastburn is tapped for. So machining needsd to occur for it to bolt-on to the Vortecs.

92 zzz28

As suprising as that sounds, I am not that suprised to hear TPIS did something like that...

Oh well, I retract my previous statement...

gixxer9

fb305svs, My pistons have four individual reliefs in them. As for my high revs, I do not want to lower them. I am actually in the middle of a valvetrain overhaul (7/16" studs, roller rockers, stud girdles) and going with a custom Comp solid roller. In order to take full advantage of an LT1, stealthram, or miniram intake, one has to rev the motor. The solid roller I'm going with is similar in stature to the xr294hr that I'm running now, only solid. Powerband is 3200 to 6500 rpm. EA software predicts peak power at 6700 rpm, and that's what I'm looking to rev. Thanks for the input though.

88-383

gixxer9

Wow, I wished I'd found this thread a long time ago. I could've save you some trouble. I ran the XR288HR and had all the same problems you did. I even tried it with the hydra-rev but couldn't control valve float. Ofcourse my AFR springs went away fairly quick.

My setup is a 383 with a MiniRam. I just recently switched to a solid roller because I couldn't that Hyd to behave reliably above 6500 on my way to my 7100-7200RPM shift point.

Here's one of my old dyno's I did with the XR288HR I lifted off the pedal when I heard the valves/engine starting to change notes. Also my AF ratio was WAY OFF, but you can kinda tell it was on it's way to bigger HP numbers.

My new cam is a Agostino solid roller 244/252 .624/.626 adv 277/285 on a 112 LSA. I expect this cam along with my Endur-X lifters, big-azz springs and an aluminum flywheel to do the trick. A topend motor is a beatiful thing I actually enjoyed reeling in cars down the 1/4mi and pulling them with RPM alone! So I totally understand where you're comming from when you said you dont want to lower your power band.

KM

Tibo

iTrader: (15)

OK. I have read all of the stealth ram website and article and this whole thread and I don't see how a Holley Stealth Ram would be better for a daily driver. It seems like it is more of a strip with little street set-up. When I look at the dynos it looks to me like a Edelbrock/SLP set-up would kill the HSR in stoplight to stoplight driving. I have the chance to trade my stock TPI for a HSR or sell it for the Edelbrock/SLP combo. I know you guys report good results with the HSR but you also say you don't feel more power until the mid- upper RPMs. Now, of course I would not put it on a stock engine, but I am wondering what set-up would be better suited for stoplight to stoplight driving?

mrr23

that's my car with the slp/edelbrock combo converterd to HSR. it would still peak at 4800 with the slp/edelbrock. with the HSR i now shift at 5200 rpms. what loss i have under 3200 as the graph shows, you won't notice. i can still boil the tires at will. trust me you'll be better off in the long run. one thing you have to remember, the only time you are under 3000 rpms when racing is in first gear. the shift from 5200 brings you right to 3000 again. i gained a tenth over the slp/edelbrock with the HSR. this is with no prom tuning at all. i did some upper rpm tuning and gained another 2 tenths at the track.

jmd

iTrader: (4)

But the MiniRam III matches the ports fairly well, yes?

I don't imagine you'll be running stock iron Vortec heads with a MiniRam as an ideally matched combo. By the time you spend $ & time to really work over the OEM Vortecs, you're better off with Etec 200's or Fast Burns. Etec 200's are Vortec pattern. Fast burns have both patterns.

fb305svs

ive said it before, and i'll say it again... tpis parts quality STINKS... when i had my motor at the engine dyno, there was a mini rammed 383 sitting there... when asked how much power it mad all i got were frowning faces and "300" grumbled... turnes out, the one that was sitting on the motor was just like the 1st one they had gotten, which had horrible machining on the intake to head mating surfaces.... they went through 3 before they finally got one from tpis that would work...

come to find out, the guy switched to a the stealth ram afterwards... dunno why, im assuming that he wanted something with a little longer runner length... ?

If your going to run a vortec head however, your pretty much limited to the mini ram, and will have to hope that tpis has finally gotten there QC back on task!

for the price, i also say the SR is going to own the mini ram...

And just for ha ha's, the SR has pretty much identical runner lengths and flow numebrs to a edlebrock vic. jr.