I spent the day tweeking, testing, and driving the formula. Before I tell you how it went, I'll tell a short story. Two days ago my friend ken (firebirdrestore) stops by to buy some parts. We decide to run to the bank together and jump into his 09' ford escape. As I get in I'm noticing that it's fully loaded and even has leather, so I assume right off the bat that it's a v6 car. He clicks his seatbelt in and hits the key..... Right away I know i've been fooled by the luxury interior and that it's a 4 cyl vehicle. Most 4 cyl cars of today have those plastic intake manifolds that put off a harmonic that carries through the passenger compartment notifying anyone with ears that its a 4 cylinder. It's also noteworthy to say that at idle, you can almost always feel the power pulses and a slight vibration through the passenger compartment.
That being said, when you drive/ride in my car you will notice immediately that there is no weird harmonic, and that it's almost completely silent. Sounds more like a fan than an engine.
There's no vibration what-so-ever. I re-used the factory engine and transmission mounts with the soft, 25 year old rubber with the intention of deadening any vibrations. However, I did fabricate a dog bone for it that uses poly bushings to eliminate any engine rocking.
Now, if you've ever driven a grand prix, impala, buick, or anything else that was built with the naturally aspirated 3800 series II, then you'll understand what I'm about to say.
The car is smooth, quiet, powerful, and has EXCELLENT throttle response. You would never know it has a 4 cylinder as the turbo is sized perfectly for the engine. There's NO lag at all, it takes right off and at a quarter throttle you're thinking "Man, this thing is really peppy!". The only thing I've driven that I know to compare it to is the NA 3800 series II cars. My engine is making roughly 200 h.p. and it feels as though it's all between 1200-4000 rpm. It does have a tendency to "fall off" above 4500 rpm or so, but there's really no need to ever punch it and take it up that far. At half throttle it shifts at about 3700-4000rpm and you've already pulled VERY far away from everyone else at the intersection. I guess the word to describe it would be zippy???
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the chance to perform a gas mileage test. There's a highway that runs a circle around my great city of indianapolis, and in the middle lane it's almost exactly 55 miles around. The speedlimit is 55, but you would be run over by a semi at that speed. The average in the middle lane is usually 65 during the day and 70ish at night. So I'll fill up with premium, make 2 laps around 465 at 65mph and finish the test run at the very pump which I had just filled up at. I'm expecting about 35 mpg out of this one. I'll let you guys know how it goes!!
[This message has been edited by fieroguy123 (edited 06-30-2010).]
