My Impressions So far....LOOONG

[Shuffler]

which means that it flat out embarrasses those old 455's

Ford and Chevy...just different flavors of awesome

Here is something for you to chew on.   Be sure to watch all 4 sections. Click on "VIEW ALL" at the bottom to change vids.

http://www.chevrolet.com/camaro-zl1/#image10

[eagl]

For Police that was not stock.

Glad you have good memories though.

CHP mustangs had stock powertrains.  They were essentially a stock mustang LX 5.0 with most of the soundproofing and other non-essentials stripped out to reduce weight, a reinforced floorpan, and a crapload of cop gear stuffed in.

The other 5.0 mustangs I encountered sounded almost the same, except that the CHP tended to wear out the cats and mufflers pretty quickly from the hard driving, so they were maybe a bit louder.  But the burbling sound was otherwise identical to any other stock 5.0 LX.  It's the way the resonators and H pipe work together.  Beautiful sound.

[eagl]

i think the police mustangs had slightly different exhaust.

Not in Calif for CHP.  Basically stock but stripped 5.0 LX mustangs with all the emissions crap still installed.  The "best" special vehicles the CHP ever got during the 1980s were some crown victorias with mustang 5.0 motors, because state law required them to meet emissions laws no different than any other vehicle owner.  So they ended up with essentially stock powertrains.  It didn't matter because in the late '80s and early '90s, a well driven mustang could easily keep up with anything but a superbike.  My Dad was considered fairly talented as a pursuit driver, but he never "lost" a pursuit against a car due to vehicle performance when driving the mustang.  Even if the perp had a faster car, he'd eventually have to slow down to turn or he'd wreck and my Dad had a couple decades of experience NOT crashing when driving fast in traffic.  He retired with zero avoidable accidents on his record after 27 years, pretty amazing I think.

But the powertrain...  bone stock by law.

[icepac]

The oldsmobile toronado GT 455 with 400hp and 510 ft/pounds of torque was a pretty stout engine.

People say the Mopar Hemi is what caused nascar to clamp down but it was the other manufacturers answers to the hemi that caused it.

The other manufacturers had engines being readied that were nothing short of unbelievable and this scared the nascar bosses.

Oldsmobile had at least 3 flavor of hemis.......some with 4 valve overhead cam....etc.

A few flavors of olds hemi and overhead cam engines.





Olds also liked turbos and remember they produced the first turbocharged production car.



Olds had deveolped.....

Aluminum 2 Valve 455, Aluminum DOHC 4 Valve 455, Aluminum 2 Valve Turbo 455, Iron, Aluminum 2 Valve 455 Hemi (W-45), and a Aluminum 4 valve 455 Hemi (OW-43).


Pontiac didn't want to be left out.




Ford actually produced cars powered by thier answer to the hemi.

Ford overhead cam 427 "cammer"



Ford Boss 429 hemi.



Small blocks were not ignored as chevy had experimented with the moser 4 valve small block.




The 4.6 is also a stout engine and we got 800hp out of one a couple of years ago on pump gas with a 3.4 whipple, cams, and mild head porting after we sourced a teksid block from a lincoln MKVIII.

[CAP1]

The oldsmobile toronado GT 455 with 400hp and 510 ft/pounds of torque was a pretty stout engine.

People say the Mopar Hemi is what caused nascar to clamp down but it was the other manufacturers answers to the hemi that caused it.

The other manufacturers had engines being readied that were nothing short of unbelievable and this scared the nascar bosses.

Oldsmobile had at least 3 flavor of hemis.......some with 4 valve overhead cam....etc.

A few flavors of olds hemi and overhead cam engines.

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

Olds also liked turbos and remember they produced the first turbocharged production car.

(Image removed from quote.)

Olds had deveolped.....

Aluminum 2 Valve 455, Aluminum DOHC 4 Valve 455, Aluminum 2 Valve Turbo 455, Iron, Aluminum 2 Valve 455 Hemi (W-45), and a Aluminum 4 valve 455 Hemi (OW-43).


Pontiac didn't want to be left out.

(Image removed from quote.)


Ford actually produced cars powered by thier answer to the hemi.

Ford overhead cam 427 "cammer"

(Image removed from quote.)

Ford Boss 429 hemi.

[iimg]http://www.nzmustang.com/history/Racecars/70boss429eng2.jpg[/img]

Small blocks were not ignored as chevy had experimented with the moser 4 valve small block.

(Image removed from quote.)

 I THOUGHT fords cammer was outlawed before mopar brought the hemi to nascar?

[CAP1]

Not in Calif for CHP.  Basically stock but stripped 5.0 LX mustangs with all the emissions crap still installed.  The "best" special vehicles the CHP ever got during the 1980s were some crown victorias with mustang 5.0 motors, because state law required them to meet emissions laws no different than any other vehicle owner.  So they ended up with essentially stock powertrains.  It didn't matter because in the late '80s and early '90s, a well driven mustang could easily keep up with anything but a superbike.  My Dad was considered fairly talented as a pursuit driver, but he never "lost" a pursuit against a car due to vehicle performance when driving the mustang.  Even if the perp had a faster car, he'd eventually have to slow down to turn or he'd wreck and my Dad had a couple decades of experience NOT crashing when driving fast in traffic.  He retired with zero avoidable accidents on his record after 27 years, pretty amazing I think.

But the powertrain...  bone stock by law.

 that's pretty cool. i alwys liked the notch backs better than the hatch backs. they had a kind of badass look to them.


 i was driving to florida one year, had a camaro blew by me like i wasn't moving. i was in my 5th ave doing 80. wondered if the dood was insane. about 2 seconds later, came the highway patrol car that was chasing him down. it was a mustang. i passed them about 5 miles up the road. i'd be willuing to bet that the driver wasn't gonna be driving anywhere any time soon.

[icepac]

The cammer probably was banned early but I didn't want to fashion a single post to reference one engine and instead combined all in one post.

Those florida highway patrol mustangs were loaded down with equipment and not very fast.

In the 80s, I routinely dusted them in a mazda RX-2.

The florida marine patrol cars are the ones to watch for......they are not stock and haven't been since the 70s.

Makes sense since you see them running 26 foot boats with 3X 275hp engines on the transom.

[CAP1]

Go to griot's garage and get the starter kit.

 i checked that site out last night. ordering the starter kit today.

 i watched the video clips they have. a lot i didn't know. the video of the claybar is scary. the way he snaps that glove is kinda scary......



 almost forgot.......THANK YOU!!!!!

[CAP1]

when i was up at mcguire the other night, my assistant, and good friend gary pulled in in his 2010 camaro, just as i was parking. he got a 6 cylinder. first thing he did, was to cut off the mufflers, and put flowmasters on. the thing sounds great. and although not loud at idle, it was much louder than my gt.

 just for the heck of it, i was just listening for different exhausts for the gt. ya know what? there is not a SINGLE truly good sounding aftermarket exhaust out there for these cars.

 i'm not dissing the aftermarket. what i mean by the above, is that the stock exhaust is the best sounding. the aftermarket boys seem to only be really concentrating on making them louder. not a one of them has as good of a note as the stock on my gt, or the stock on the boss302's that i've heard.

 guess when i get her to milleville, i'm gonna be the "stealthmobile", with my stock exhaust. 

[eagl]

There is a great free mod for the G8...  Seems the aussie car designers don't feel like they have to support the muffler shop and welding supply industries, so the G8 mufflers are bolted in place with 2 bolts through a beefy mating flange and metallic gasket.  It's super easy to replace the mufflers even without lifting the car if necessary.

As a result, probably the single most popular "free" mod for the G8 is to loosen the top muffler flange bolt, remove the bottom bolt, insert a thin washer between the flanges at the bottom bolt, and tighten it all down with the washer leaving a gap between the flanges.  Through some coincidental engineering miracle, the car sounds awesome with even a small gap in that flange.  I don't think there is any sort of aftermarket industry for G8 mufflers because the only problem with the stock mufflers is that they're too quiet, and they can be trivially "fixed" by putting in that washer and then it sounds great.  The thicker the washer (or the more washers you use), the louder and sweeter it gets.

The next best sounding mod is a cold air intake, which further increases the musical harmony of the motor.  The cold air intakes don't actually DO anything for performance unless the ECM is tuned to match however, because the stock tune is so craptastic.  It runs terribly rich no matter how much air you stuff into the motor and the only way to fix it is with an ECM tune.  Luckily a few shops have done a few hundred tunes, so you just download your engine's own internal calibration tune and send it to the tuner shop, and they send back a customized tune that adds around 30 free hp and 4-5 additional mpg.  And then the exhaust tips quit turning black.

[CAP1]

There is a great free mod for the G8...  Seems the aussie car designers don't feel like they have to support the muffler shop and welding supply industries, so the G8 mufflers are bolted in place with 2 bolts through a beefy mating flange and metallic gasket.  It's super easy to replace the mufflers even without lifting the car if necessary.

As a result, probably the single most popular "free" mod for the G8 is to loosen the top muffler flange bolt, remove the bottom bolt, insert a thin washer between the flanges at the bottom bolt, and tighten it all down with the washer leaving a gap between the flanges.  Through some coincidental engineering miracle, the car sounds awesome with even a small gap in that flange.  I don't think there is any sort of aftermarket industry for G8 mufflers because the only problem with the stock mufflers is that they're too quiet, and they can be trivially "fixed" by putting in that washer and then it sounds great.  The thicker the washer (or the more washers you use), the louder and sweeter it gets.

The next best sounding mod is a cold air intake, which further increases the musical harmony of the motor.  The cold air intakes don't actually DO anything for performance unless the ECM is tuned to match however, because the stock tune is so craptastic.  It runs terribly rich no matter how much air you stuff into the motor and the only way to fix it is with an ECM tune.  Luckily a few shops have done a few hundred tunes, so you just download your engine's own internal calibration tune and send it to the tuner shop, and they send back a customized tune that adds around 30 free hp and 4-5 additional mpg.  And then the exhaust tips quit turning black.

 may be time to look into a better control system then. or find the cause of the overly rich condition. your engine should never be so rich that the tips turn black. if it is, then something isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing.

 regardless of tune, you will gain some power by getting colder air into that engine. it may be less without a tune, but it will happen. your sensors will pick up the colder temps, and add fuel accordingly, giving extra power. mustangs with cold air intakes gain about 8-15hp without a tune.....upwards of 30 with.

 hell......even on an ollllldddd EEC4 system, i gained nearly a half second in the 1/4 mile, and about 2mpg by installing a ford motorsports cold air intake. it wasn't what's passed off as cold air intakes these days though. it was a true cold air intake. it took its air from just under the passengers side ground effects, just under the fog light. todays systems keep everything under the hood, and merely isolate the filter from the engine heat.

[eagl]

may be time to look into a better control system then. or find the cause of the overly rich condition. your engine should never be so rich that the tips turn black. if it is, then something isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing.

GM left it tuned REALLY rich.  As in stupidly rich.  All V8 G8s are like this.  Its why the tune is such a popular first mod.

regardless of tune, you will gain some power by getting colder air into that engine. it may be less without a tune, but it will happen. your sensors will pick up the colder temps, and add fuel accordingly, giving extra power. mustangs with cold air intakes gain about 8-15hp without a tune.....upwards of 30 with.

The cold air intake is worthless without the tune simply because when the colder denser air hits the MAF, the stock ECM tune just dumps too much additional fuel in there and doesn't optimize the timing to any reasonable degree.  Seriously, there have been a LOT of G8 owners get aggressively angry about their brand new CAI showing ZERO performance improvement both on the dyno and on the dragstrip, to the point where a lot of the speed shop owners have put together discount packages for the CAI and tune and recommend against simple CAI-only upgrades.  There simply isn't any performance gain from a CAI with a stock engine tune because the stock tune is so awful.  Read my lips - no performance improvement with CAI and stock tune in the pontiac G8.  I tell you three times

hell......even on an ollllldddd EEC4 system, i gained nearly a half second in the 1/4 mile, and about 2mpg by installing a ford motorsports cold air intake. it wasn't what's passed off as cold air intakes these days though. it was a true cold air intake. it took its air from just under the passengers side ground effects, just under the fog light. todays systems keep everything under the hood, and merely isolate the filter from the engine heat.

Different car, different engine map.  Any other car and I'd agree with you.  I didn't believe it myself until I saw dyno runs and ET slips from not only the speed shops, but individuals asking what they are doing wrong with their brand new CAI install.  The CAI in a G8 is worth a good 5hp once a decent tune is applied and it has even bigger benefits if more engine mods are applied like major exhaust work or a cam, but by itself it does nothing but look and sound cool because the engine fuel/air/ignition map from the factory is so bad to begin with that it can't do anything with the denser air and better airflow.

[Shuffler]

My Daughter's camaro has the Flowmaster American Thunder axle back and Vararam ram air cold air induction.

Sounds and runs good for a V6.


Nice tips on the AT Flowmasters too....



Vararam with green filter.

[CAP1]

GM left it tuned REALLY rich.  As in stupidly rich.  All V8 G8s are like this.  Its why the tune is such a popular first mod.

The cold air intake is worthless without the tune simply because when the colder denser air hits the MAF, the stock ECM tune just dumps too much additional fuel in there and doesn't optimize the timing to any reasonable degree.  Seriously, there have been a LOT of G8 owners get aggressively angry about their brand new CAI showing ZERO performance improvement both on the dyno and on the dragstrip, to the point where a lot of the speed shop owners have put together discount packages for the CAI and tune and recommend against simple CAI-only upgrades.  There simply isn't any performance gain from a CAI with a stock engine tune because the stock tune is so awful.  Read my lips - no performance improvement with CAI and stock tune in the pontiac G8.  I tell you three times

Different car, different engine map.  Any other car and I'd agree with you.  I didn't believe it myself until I saw dyno runs and ET slips from not only the speed shops, but individuals asking what they are doing wrong with their brand new CAI install.  The CAI in a G8 is worth a good 5hp once a decent tune is applied and it has even bigger benefits if more engine mods are applied like major exhaust work or a cam, but by itself it does nothing but look and sound cool because the engine fuel/air/ignition map from the factory is so bad to begin with that it can't do anything with the denser air and better airflow.

 i could be wrong. it's not like that never happens.........

 but then i've worked on plenty of camaros, and firebirds, and nevefr seen tailpipes from an engine running too rich. i mean think about that for a second. an overly rich engine will cook catalytic converters in short order.

[eagl]

Next time you see a G8, for that matter every time you see a G8, look at the exhaust tips

Nobody believes the claims for the HP and MPG boost from a simple tune until they see the dyno numbers and drive the car around enough to see the mileage improvement.  The only downside is that GM will void the warranty if they detect the tune.  Only certain dealers have the equipment and tech knowledge to detect the tune especially if the tune is returned to stock whenever the car is taken in for service, but it's possible to detect it if the tech is really good, and then the whole powertrain warranty is voided on the spot.

So I'll wait until the warranty expires and then get the tune and a CAI immediately.