a few one million dollars questions....
Discussion
hi
what's the best performant advance that should i give my griff 500 engine (that has decatted sport exahust, larger am, tuned tornado chip and triple carbon act inlet...)? i'm using good premium 98 oct gas.
what's the best streetable clutch kit for hard driving manners? who can supply it?
i'm going to swap rear diff gears to a sweet 4.11 one, does any of you has shorter gears? comments?
what's the engine some of you name as '520'?
i'd like to drop a few lbs from the griffith, i've got an alu radiator and have taken the whole top from the car and i'm going to get rid of the side windows and empty the doors from the power motors and i will fix a lexan windshield, what are the other places where i could shave some weight? wheels? which ones?
does any of you use the american dot street race hoosier tires?
thanks/giu
what's the best performant advance that should i give my griff 500 engine (that has decatted sport exahust, larger am, tuned tornado chip and triple carbon act inlet...)? i'm using good premium 98 oct gas.
what's the best streetable clutch kit for hard driving manners? who can supply it?
i'm going to swap rear diff gears to a sweet 4.11 one, does any of you has shorter gears? comments?
what's the engine some of you name as '520'?
i'd like to drop a few lbs from the griffith, i've got an alu radiator and have taken the whole top from the car and i'm going to get rid of the side windows and empty the doors from the power motors and i will fix a lexan windshield, what are the other places where i could shave some weight? wheels? which ones?
does any of you use the american dot street race hoosier tires?
thanks/giu
Edited by panic on Saturday 26th May 18:10
GreenV8S said:
Do you actually have the car? What're you planning to use it for?
of course i do have the car, since '96...and bought new, as soon as it was available in Italy.my griffith is actually one of the very first models arrived to the dealers...
this is my griffith, now in spain with me where i'm living since 3 years now...
the use i do of the car is simply having fun and having a few crosslights challenging when somebody is looking for it, often i also use her as daily driver, when the weather is fine.
i am now in the process of giving the car a more extreme use, that's why i'd like to uprate the engine going for a 5.20ltr or swapping in a 383 chevy (i also have a C3 vette with a 406ci engine and i must say small blk high output chevies are the business, and on a griffith would be an absolute blast) and further lightening her...
i'm new of this forum, even if i'm signed in since sometime now...
thanks
Edited by panic on Sunday 27th May 07:14
Edited by panic on Sunday 27th May 10:35
Edited by panic on Sunday 27th May 20:49
Edited by panic on Sunday 27th May 20:51
Edited by panic on Sunday 27th May 20:52
No offence meant, it wasn't clear from your post.
It sounds as if you are mainly after straight line acceleration at low speed, rather than handling/braking/grip/high speed performance. I'd normally suggest the driver as the first thing to upgrade, but in this case there isn't a lot of scope for the driver to improve the performance once the throttle is wide open. Getting a good standing start requires a good technique and practice so depending how good you are at finding traction it might be worth attention there. Suspension/brake upgrades are going to do you no good at all. Sticky tyres would be the most obvious improvement, but obviously the tyre wear will be a lot higher. Gearing down will effectively close the ratios up, it might improve things but it might make things worse since you will need to change gear more often. You're starting with a very torquey engine with a wide power band, close ratios would make more sense for a very peaky engine that needs to be kept in the power band.
Taking weight off the car will help, 100 Kgs is worth the equivalent of roughly 30 bhp and will increase the acceleration by roughly 10% across the board. 100 Kgs is a lot to save unless you literally strip the interior down to the fiberglass, replace the seats with lightweight bucket seats and so on. The car won't be exactly practical for road use afterwards.
On the other hand 30 bhp isn't an awful lot to add. It's worth being realistic about how much money, time and mechanical skill you have to invest in the project. In the UK I would budget around £100 per bhp as a rough guide assuming you are just signing the cheque, it would be cheaper if you can make/fit the parts yourself and even cheaper if you can map the engine yourself. But I doubt you are at that stage yet. Once you know what sort of investment you're prepared to make and how much power you're hoping to gain, you can look at sensible options to achieve that. Small increases (say up to 10%) can be had by improving the breathing on the original engine, it sounds as if you've already done this. Moderate increases (say up to 30%) can be had by installing a new bigger capacity tuned variant of the RV8. 5.2L is the biggest capacity commonly available, although you can get up to 5.3 or even 5.5L if you can afford the five figure price. If you're after more than that then you are probably looking at forced induction or an engine transplant (LSx for example), these options cost a lot more up front but have the potential for very large power increases. You can expect to need new transmission to cope reliably with this sort of power increase, even if you're just using it for traffic light grand prix you will probably need bigger brakes (if you're using it for anything more, you will certainly need them), and at low speeds you will be struggling for grip. Four wheel drive has been done in the past too, it's just a matter of time and money.
So, basically you need to think about how far you want to go and what you're willing to spend to get there.
It sounds as if you are mainly after straight line acceleration at low speed, rather than handling/braking/grip/high speed performance. I'd normally suggest the driver as the first thing to upgrade, but in this case there isn't a lot of scope for the driver to improve the performance once the throttle is wide open. Getting a good standing start requires a good technique and practice so depending how good you are at finding traction it might be worth attention there. Suspension/brake upgrades are going to do you no good at all. Sticky tyres would be the most obvious improvement, but obviously the tyre wear will be a lot higher. Gearing down will effectively close the ratios up, it might improve things but it might make things worse since you will need to change gear more often. You're starting with a very torquey engine with a wide power band, close ratios would make more sense for a very peaky engine that needs to be kept in the power band.
Taking weight off the car will help, 100 Kgs is worth the equivalent of roughly 30 bhp and will increase the acceleration by roughly 10% across the board. 100 Kgs is a lot to save unless you literally strip the interior down to the fiberglass, replace the seats with lightweight bucket seats and so on. The car won't be exactly practical for road use afterwards.
On the other hand 30 bhp isn't an awful lot to add. It's worth being realistic about how much money, time and mechanical skill you have to invest in the project. In the UK I would budget around £100 per bhp as a rough guide assuming you are just signing the cheque, it would be cheaper if you can make/fit the parts yourself and even cheaper if you can map the engine yourself. But I doubt you are at that stage yet. Once you know what sort of investment you're prepared to make and how much power you're hoping to gain, you can look at sensible options to achieve that. Small increases (say up to 10%) can be had by improving the breathing on the original engine, it sounds as if you've already done this. Moderate increases (say up to 30%) can be had by installing a new bigger capacity tuned variant of the RV8. 5.2L is the biggest capacity commonly available, although you can get up to 5.3 or even 5.5L if you can afford the five figure price. If you're after more than that then you are probably looking at forced induction or an engine transplant (LSx for example), these options cost a lot more up front but have the potential for very large power increases. You can expect to need new transmission to cope reliably with this sort of power increase, even if you're just using it for traffic light grand prix you will probably need bigger brakes (if you're using it for anything more, you will certainly need them), and at low speeds you will be struggling for grip. Four wheel drive has been done in the past too, it's just a matter of time and money.
So, basically you need to think about how far you want to go and what you're willing to spend to get there.
thanks a lot green, i'll indeed bear in mind your advices.
suspension and braking have recently been rebuilt and upgraded.
lightening the car won't go as far as gutting the whole interior, i have already sparco race seats and an alu rad, i'll only go as far as emptying the doors from the power window motors and get rid of side windows and maybe find lighter wheels then the compomotives MO i have at moment, fix a red top race battery and a lexan windshield...these mods i guess will be good for 50 kgs of weight saves, or maybe more.
for the engine i must stay within a 5/6.000 pounds budget, so maybe a V8D 5.3 ltr long block will be the choice, with the old cux14 ecu and a new tuned chip (is still the mark adams tornado on top of the tuners choices?).
regds/Giu
suspension and braking have recently been rebuilt and upgraded.
lightening the car won't go as far as gutting the whole interior, i have already sparco race seats and an alu rad, i'll only go as far as emptying the doors from the power window motors and get rid of side windows and maybe find lighter wheels then the compomotives MO i have at moment, fix a red top race battery and a lexan windshield...these mods i guess will be good for 50 kgs of weight saves, or maybe more.
for the engine i must stay within a 5/6.000 pounds budget, so maybe a V8D 5.3 ltr long block will be the choice, with the old cux14 ecu and a new tuned chip (is still the mark adams tornado on top of the tuners choices?).
regds/Giu
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