Khan - good post as usual

Ruggles squeezed out the extra hp by gasket matching mating components and then porting and polishing things to eliminate sources of turbulance. What they did in the mid 80s was to optimize the performance of the 231 V6 by taking the extra time to improve what was already there. I recall when I was reading about the reworking of the engine that they would have the owner rotate races and by drilling smaller through holes, bump up the oil pressure needed by the higher performing engine. To expand on a point you made, the auto manufacturers have designed in some level of inefficiency because they now that the Average Joe won't change the oil religiously, thus gunking up the engine and clogging things like an oversized hole in the race. I'm sure though that 25 years later, the manufacturers have improved the engines leaps, but not completely perhaps.

Having this in mind and having read a bunch about bolt on improvements, it's clear that the biggest gains come with the investment of elbow grease and know how. I think that Dutter's dream to build an engine exercises the right kind of thinking if folks are serious about performance; mpg's or hp's. Most folks though don't have the luxury of pulling their engines, not without at least having alternate transportation. I suppose that the best time to start though is once the warrantees have expired and the itch to optimize performance needs to be scratched. I've seen engines for sale, something that could be acquired reasonably and then reworked and rebuilt with specific mods and tuned to achieve the dream. That could be a fun winter project given time, elbow grease, and some money. But what a kick if you can take a stock engine, optimize it, and enjoy improved performance for the remainder of your ownership!

Thanks for the input.

 

Gears will help, I would probably get 4.56's

 

Alright,, now how easy is it to install gears, i know they have spec and what not

 

Well today i quickly fab.d up a intake like the one i had on my f150. Mainly for looks but might add .5 to 1 hp with the sticker haha. Its all rounded off and what not. And after i can my back spaced rims, i think ill polish my hole intake and heads

 

Good job on that intake, it should gain you -5 to -10 hp. Notice this numbers are negative. The negative of a gain is a loss. Warm air intakes never cause power gains. Your factory intake was designed to shield the intake from engine heat, and to draw in only cold air from outside. When you run a filter with no shroud, you draw heated air from under the hood. Warmer air is less dense than cold air. This density difference results in a power difference. But its more than that. Air heats up as it gets compressed. The colder the air, the cooler the compressed mixture. The colder the compressed mixture, the more timing advance can be used, which in turn produces more power. When you draw in warm air, the computer detects the temperature difference, and will pull timing to prevent pinging, which costs additional power.

Put you stock intake back on to restore you performance back to what it should be.


You don't want to polish anything on your intake. Polished on the intake is bad.

 

Well i do see what your saying, Bit iv tried the stock and the hot airs and i didnt feela big difference in eather. BUT on the f150 i have i put the filter with the MAI right to the part were in gos off the throttle body to a single tube, and i did feel a difference. But ill take it for a test ride to day and see.

And how its it bad, lots of ppl do it

 

I don't know anyone who wants warm air in their intake

 

Dutter,

I work in a regulated industry where making false claims on performance is a felony. Fortunately, most industries are unregulated however, the down side is that making false claims is in general, not a felony...just bad practice. Unless there is a class action suit of some kind, the most manufacturers get is a slap on the hand.

There is huge money to be made at the expense of the consumer. Buyer beware. No doubt many of us have dropped our guards and been dupped by a salesperson - probably more than once. Before I got engaged here at FTE, I might have not had the benefit of expanded information to make a more informed buying decision around my Ranger. Now, a quick Search and a series of questions generally introduces enough input to make a better decision. As a result of reading here, Cold Air Intakes are out: don't work as advertised. K&N filters are out: don't work as advertised and the consumer runs the risk of messing up their MAF sensor. Exhaust systems seem to be an OK investment, but probably maximized by proper tuning. I'm still not convinced on that one and for now, my original exhaust is hanging on. So I have more time to gather input (data and opinion).

Hopefully your CAI didn't cost you much, but I'm with Khan - go stock if you are looking for modest power gains and in this case, minimizing the losses.

Kevin

 

That's actually old school thinking (sorry I like carbs to and I am big time old school)

Polishing intakes with Carbs was bad because you wanted the turbulance to keep the fuel atomized in the mixture, BUT with fuel injection the fuel isn't introduced into the air stream until right before the valve. So polishing the intake actually can increase the air flow rates and since no fuel is mixed doesn't hurt like it used to. The mustang guys learned this 20yrs ago.

NOW with that said, on a ranger polishing the intake probably won't do you much good unless your running flat out all the time. It's pretty much a race only or full throttle gain only. Won't hurt ya, but won't make a noticeable difference.

 

Thinking back to the mid 80's Buick V6s - some turbo charged but most ran carbs. I don't recall Ruggles having noted that for carb engines that polishing the intake was a bad thing. But what you post here makes sense. Thanks for posting.

Kevin

 

Alright well im going to work on my truck getting more cold air for the filter. Ill just make like a block off thingy. And now will polishing my intake affect smog, I dont think so but i want to be sure.

 

No it wont.

That filter would be more likely to affect smog. Mainly because that is an oiled filter and the oil will get sucked off and contaminate your MAF wire and require cleaning or replacing soon. Honestly, get rid of that filter, even if you go with the same size and shape paper filter, those oiled filters are a race only filter or should be. And they are death on your sensors.

 

Alright cool, And yeah it wont pass with it on, so i saved the stock intake

 

Big thing on a carb engine, you can port but you don't want polished surfaces. Basically when I do porting on an intake I don't get any finer then 80 grit cartridge rolls.

Oh and just want to correct on minor thing from one of your earlier posts, the 3.8 is a buick engine and not the 350 with 2 cylinders cut off. The 4.3 is the one that is based on the 350 minus a couple cylinders (the math shows this, a 3.8 x 1.33 equals 5L but 4.3 x 1.33 = 5.7 or 350cid) Sorry used to work for a Chev dealer back in the early 90s very familar with all of those LOL

 

Its not old school thinking, for several reasons. One, atomization is still important, and two, it is false that a mirror smooth finish flows better than a rough finish. Ever see this simple object called a golf ball? What do the dimples do? Thats right, it creates a different type of boundary layer that reduces drag. The same thing happens anytime you ask air to flow over a surface, boundary layers form which create drag. You want to mirror polish the exhaust not because the smoother surface flows better, but rather because carbon deposits can form on a rough surface, and at those kinds of speeds, boundary layers are a non-issue. You do not want a finish smoother than about 80 grit on the intake.

Porting is not the same as polishing. I have done several porting jobs, and know several people who do that kind of work for a living. Trust me, on a dyno you can tell the difference between a ported intake and a polished intake. Most of the rough yet ported intakes would average about 4% more power than a comparable polished finish. The difference is in airflow, which can be verified with a flow bench. The slightly rougher finish flows better.