Soooooooo....the timing chain tensioner arrived while I was away at work and Bizzy decided to put everything together and back into the car. That part was good news....bad news, He mentioned that he couldn't get timing perfectly inline and it made me think back to when I messed with it myself and remembered the cam gear markings being slightly off when it was actually properly in time, so I thought nothing of it.
I found out later, like after the engine was in the car and on and off the dyno, that the timing was actually closer to a half a tooth off. I'm fairly certain I had some chain stretch and I'll be replacing that when I get the chance. During the time I was away, JTran decided to do a quick back to back test on my engine with my K-Tuned manifold and Bizzy's Skunk2 Ultra race manifold with the cnc 156 port job. This is something we 3 discussed doing awhile back but now we finally had the chance. I arrived at the shop just as the pulls with the Skunk2 Ultra had finished up...
skunk2 ultra race with the cnc port
Some have asked me why I didn't choose a Skunk2 intake manifold for myself, and honestly the only real reason why I didn't is because I don't like how it looks. Anyone who has followed my thread knows that I like shiny stuff regardless of how it works lol. That's just me, I'm weird like that.
and some shots with the K-Tuned manifold on. Both were tested that same way, open throttle body, my same fuel rail and injectors and everything. Literally just swapped manifolds.
A couple things first, I'd like to make it clear that I have no bias towards either product, the test was done initially out of my own curiosity (as you've seen I like testing every little thing I can). My personal speculation was that the K-Tuned manifold would do a little better in the midrange and then be beaten out on the top end. Everyone else at the shop and friends I spoke with about the test all figured the Skunk2 Ultra would beat out the K-Tuned manifold everywhere. This test on mine peaked the curiosity of others at the shop and we may have more tests to show later on.
Here was the uncorrected results (Gotta throw that uncorrected in there since I became satan all of a sudden because JTran didn't use a common correction factor when he posted it)
Johnny Tran's quote from the test
"
Ktuned manifold vs ultra series intake manifold this morning. Zero cam angle. Afr at 12.9 on 31 degrees of timing. Vtec engaging at 6750. K24 with 12.5 pistons and k20 head with k600 cams with a mild port. Ktuned in blue and ultra in red. Posting results for purely comparison. Will be trying the Ktuned @bizzy625 engine next and have a complete comparison on two totally different setups so you can reference later! We support both @skunk2racing @skunk2dave @ktuned . Both products are awesome! @heychildstar thanks for donating your vehicle for testing!!!!!"
Bizzy's engine is a 10,500rpm 2.3L stroked z1 with Skunk2 ultra 4 cams, Skunk2 full valvetrain with flat faced valves, 4Piston 156 prb head, CP 12.5:1 pistons, Carrillo rods, s2k oil pump, running e85. He previously made 306 whp with his skunk2 ultra race on with open throttle body just like tested here. So we'll see how things look on his setup since I'm willing to pull mine off for the test.
My thoughts afterwards, I believe the skunk2 ultra with that cnc port and the 1L spacer they offer will make a pretty even match with the K-Tuned manifold (on my setup at least). The power difference down low could be contributed to the rise in temp and humidity, but the power difference up top got pretty big. I'm no scientist, these are just my thoughts.
The VTC being disabled and 0 cam angle was due to the timing issue. If I was there I would've stopped the engine build to correct the chain problem before proceeding but oh well. I'm pretty excited after seeing how the car performed with no VTC, so I know power will just go up from here. Looks like I may coincidentally make a 300 hp 93 pump gas car lol.
After all that, JTran welded up an intake for me. Same as before, 3.5" piping with 3.5" velocity stack. My old intake wouldn't work because it had a bit of a twist to it. Johnny preferred to make a new intake rather than chopping up the old one to make this one
I still need to do a few things like, fab a bracket for my intake piping. I never used a vanjen before and the weight of the filter and vstack makes the intake droop down. Also I need to finish making an overflow for the radiator. So i'm right back to standby mode now until I get this stuff sorted out...chain, overflow, intake, and a few misc bolts that I want to replace.
2nd gear 3/4 throttle into vtec
3/4 acceleration to top of 5th gear
