If I had to guess I might have lost 25-30 ft lbs on the low end. The high end gains were well worth it. the difference was very apparent at about 3000 rpm and up (convenient since its my stall... lol) as the Vic Jr was a wholly different animal.

Granted I have a 402... but with your FI... if you stall it right... you'll never miss any torque loss and gain lost of high rpm potential as well as more even air distribution.

 

Well It was another night of being pissed with this kit. After spending half the day running around buying bolts fittings and what not I got home from work went to the shop and started trying to bolt down the waste gate, turbo, and down pipe. NOT SO MUCH! Aparently they cant include all of the nuts and bolts for the kit. I used the Tial supplied bolts to get the waste gate bolted to the down pipe, but did not have the nuts and bolts to bolt it to the manifold. And just a suggestion to Detroit Speed Works and Livernois instead of shoving a bolt through the manifold where it is going to be a pain in the *** to bolt the waste gate to the manifold try taping the holes on the manifold so you can use the supplied allen head bolts from the Tial waste gate. just my .02. I will make another run to the hardware store tomorrow to get bolts for the waste gate, but hey what ever.

I really am getting frustrated with this kit. The " some fabrication may be required " is a misleading statement. I would have been better off buying hot parts and making the rest of this stuff my self!

The parts I have used out of the kit are: drivers side header, passengers side manifold, crossover, down pipe ( with modification to my $4300.00 4L80E i.e. sawzall and grinder ..........NICE! ), tial waste gate ( but bolts to bolt it to the manifold were not included, down pipe bolts were thanks to Tial ) I sold the GT 37 that came with the kit and bought a larger turbo. I have no clue what they originally mocked the intercooler up on because it damn sure does not bolt up to my truck, lordaries truck, or 2toneblowns truck. Now I have ordered a new intercooler that will hopefully work properly and have to make new charge pipes, pay for new clamps and couplers, pay to have the pipes i am making welded together, and add a blow off to a kit that in my opinion should already have one in it, especially for the amount of money they charge.I could rig crap up to get it to work, but for it to be functioning to its potential I am having to leave half of the kit in the box and fabricate the rest my self.

By the way if Livernois is interested in buying back the unused intercooler, charge pipes, couplers, and clamps feel free to contact me!

 

wow man, sorry to hear you are having all of those problems. Wish you were closer, would be more than happy to help you out......you could always send it back and get an STS J/K good luck and keep us posted on the progress.

 

Come hell or high water this bitch is gonna roll under the power of the turbo. I may only have the hot parts out of the kit left when it is said and done, but screw it I want it going quick, fast, and in a hurry. In my opinion would I go this route again. Yes and no. Hot parts..........most of a yes..............everything else piece it together and make something better.

This damn thing has me more stressed out than a virgin on prom night!

 

The intercooler issue is really simple... these kits were design for the Escalade, the Escalade has a totaly difirent layout for the front end. I know because i looked at one side by side with my truck and was shocked at how difirent they were considering they are technicaly the same truck! But that said, all i ahd to do for my intercooler was have a plate welded onto it to span the back side far enough to fit the bolt locations. I didn't have to change the charge pipes or anything...

See attached picture for my mocked up mounting plate, i will try to find or take a picture of the finished plate...

And as for Airflow on the Intercooler, i cheated and mounted Two 10inch Electric fans to the back side of it! hehe

 

I know I could get the intercooler to bolt up, and a new mount wouldnt be hard to make. It would definetly be easier than making new charge pipes. I just cant see having an air to air intercooler sitting like a skid plate getting limited airflow. I want this thing to be done right, which is why I am going to the extra expense to do it right.

As far as the intercooler bolting to the escalade, it wouldnt bolt to 2tone's escalade either, and he made a new mount to get it bolted up.

 

Yea, I wish it was a true front mount intercooler like you are doing and I am actualy working on this. I am waiting to get a spare front bumper to hack apart though before trying it... Bumpers for a Cladded AV are not cheap and there really are not any after market choices out there. Only one that i know of by Valcana and it is very expensive... :-\

 

I will let you know how the TRT intercooler works out. It will be here tomorrow.

 

Didnt make any progress tonight other than bolting on the drain flange for the turbo. Shortly after doing that I dropped a nut down the turbo header which fell down the crossover, at least it didnt fall into the header side. After pulling the crossover to get the bolt out I really wasnt that motivated. I didnt plan on doing that much tonight any way so I'm taking the night away from it to recoop.

The intercooler, new pipeing, couplers, clamps, and injector harness adapters will be here tomorrow, so tomorrow will be a busy day. If I can bang out bolting the turbo, down pipe, waste gate, new intercooler, and get the new charge pipes and drain hose to the oil pan mocked up I will definetly be a happy man. I have a guy who is supposed to weld up the charge pipes and bung on the oil pan on saturday, hopefully I will be able to install those saturday night. Then I will need to get the boost controller and wide band sorted. finish the O2 sensor stuff, extend some wires for the MAF, finish the intake stuff, and run the vacume lines.

As long as parts show up as I need them to I think I can stay on schedule for my April 5th tuning appointment in San Antonio.

 

damn man, you are getting beat up on this project...wish you were closer, would love to help you with it. Good luck!