Finished 99 GT 3S-GTE Swap from Dr. Tweak UPDATE W/PICS AND VID Page 3, Titled "The Thing That Should Not Be" Options

[Fastbird]

"The Thing That Should Not Be"

This was a swap that should have never happened, and suddenly in April, a decision was made and the rest is history. Anyway,

Swap is DONE! Sadly, we didn't get to dyno tune it today due to a slight glitch, but it's running at pretty much 100%. Here's what was done:

JDM Gen II 3S-GTE w/ECU
eBay Downpipe
Custom 3" Exhaust system from ST Performance (all stainless, pieced together mandrel bends, Magnaflow muffler and resonator)
ATS Racing TB Inlet Pipe
ATS Racing GM Knock Sensor kit
GReddy Electronic Boost Controller
Perfect Power SMT-6 Piggyback
HKS BOV
Whalbro 255 LPH High Pressure pump (whines like a mofo!! )
Autometer Nexus Gauges in a Lotek Pod (unfortunately, Autometer forgot to include a power cable in the controller box, so they're not working yet).

I left the exhaust setup choice up to Dr. Tweak, and he did us right. My wife and I both popped a huge grin when we first heard the car. Sounds completely AWESOME.

We turned up the boost to 15 PSI, car seems to run really well. Down low is nothing to write home about, but at about 3000 RPM the boost comes on HARD and she pulls like a mofo on the top end.

Given that there wasn't a dyno tune, how much power and torque do you think I'm putting to the wheels??

Dr. Tweak, a review.

Dr. Tweak has been nothing but outstanding during this whole endeavour. His customer service is certainly top notch and he's done an outstanding job with the swap. He was having issues with getting the SMT-6 wired in last night and ended up staying at the shop until 3:30 in the morning and only got two hours sleep before coming back in to get everything polished up. If that's not a testament to his dedication I don't know what it. EVERYTHING works on the car, from the A/C back. Nothing but perfection. Everything was installed where and how I asked, cleanly done. He even installed a couple of "feeder wires" through the firewall in the event we decide to install anything in the future that needs wiring through the firewall.

Money wise, his estimation was almost spot on. Due to a couple of unforseen events I had to pay some out of pocket, but nothing terrible and certainly an understandable deal. I consider what we got to be well worth the money, and for anyone even contemplating paying someone the swap, I would highly recommend getting ahold of Dr. Tweak. He will go out of his way to make sure that you, the end consumer, is happy. A TRUE professional.

Feedback on dyno numbers please people. I'd love to have an idea of where we're at.

Lastly, videos to come. Took a couple today and will download and edit them into one vid when we get home tomorrow (parked in the middle of North Carolina for tonight).

This post has been edited by Fastbird: Jul 23, 2006 - 6:35 PM

[Fastbird]

Looks fantastic, but I would lag your downpipe....will help stop heat transfer to your intake air as the intercooler pipe looks like its touching the exhaust.

Explain "lag." FWIW, the intercooler pipe that's touching the downpipe is pre-intercooler. I'm already scheming on a way to seperate the two.

400$ for a wideband gauge? does it come with a sender?

Yeah, that's gauge, sender, brain, and will hook right into the nexus system via piggyback for visual control. That's pretty much the standard price for any decent wide band with logging capability (in this case, logging via the nexus control module along with any other guage connected).

[Insanity-74]

Explain "lag."

Put in some heat shielding.... that exhaust wrap stuff would be your best and cheapest bet...put it on both the exhaust and the intercooler pipework great stuff at stopping heat transfer.

[Fastbird]

Put in some heat shielding.... that exhaust wrap stuff would be your best and cheapest bet...put it on both the exhaust and the intercooler pipework great stuff at stopping heat transfer.

NEVER do the exhaust wrap. I've seen first hand what that stuff can do in the wrong conditions. I'm looking at a re-route of the piping, but given that the pipe are touching on the pre-intercooler side, I'm not overly concerned about it. I'd like to get the rubber intake issue taken care of first (3" custom tubing to AFM and a better filter).

[Dr_Tweak]

Put in some heat shielding.... that exhaust wrap stuff would be your best and cheapest bet...put it on both the exhaust and the intercooler pipework great stuff at stopping heat transfer.

NEVER do the exhaust wrap. I've seen first hand what that stuff can do in the wrong conditions. I'm looking at a re-route of the piping, but given that the pipe are touching on the pre-intercooler side, I'm not overly concerned about it. I'd like to get the rubber intake issue taken care of first (3" custom tubing to AFM and a better filter).

Yeah and not only that, header wrap WILL eventually damage any exhaust parts which get real hot. I never allows the heat out which will bring the temperature of a header, for example, to near-molten state. This causes serious problems down the road.

That pipe touching is the reason that I'd like to someday do a setup with a top flow intercooler and both pipes running off towards the driver's side. At any rate, I would be far more concerned with upgrading that intercooler than relocating that pipe.

-Doc