DA aftercooled 2.3L Whipple SC tuned by LoveFab

[cmc140]

Well like all of my projects, the “might as wells” led me to where I am at this point. I had originally decided to do an aftercooled high boost setup with my old Whipple 1600 because I wasn’t happy with my air fuel ratios. My car was running lean and the fuel pressure with the Comptech fueling made me nervous.

I got started on the 2.3L supercharger upgrade path after pulling the blower off of the car and noticing that it would “catch” at one point when being rotated by hand. It had always been overly loud but this confirmed to me that there was a problem. I decided to take it apart and have a look and it was obvious that there was no way I was going to fix it. Based on the color of the gears my layman’s assessment was that most likely the gears were burned up. Then in putting in back together I made a mistake which basically junked it. So live and learn. The expensive mistakes are the ones you most remember.

Anyhow a friend’s uncle got me the inside track with the guys at Whipple and they got me a great deal on a new W140AX 2.3L compressor. Then Shad at Driving Ambition was generous enough to get me some help from Nate at Comptech to get an inlet manifold, top plate, and top plate adapter to bolt it on. It took a long time, but it was worth the wait.

Also, I feel like it’s only appropriate to formally thank some of the people who were nice enough to take the time to help me throughout this process. I’m a do-it-yourselfer type and I’m very appreciative that some of the most knowledgeable and busiest people were willing to help me out. I also met a bunch of cool people along the way.

So in no particular order… Thank You very much to:
Shad at Driving Ambition for helping me get the process started.
Cody at LoveFab the tuning the car and for the exceptional work and follow through.
Shane at Autowave for always taking the time to answer any of my questions and giving me advice.
Nate at Comptech for getting me the parts to make it happen.
Sky and Brandon from southern Indiana from letting me come down and check out their cars and their support. Sky also gave me the pulley I wound up using.

My car is a '91 with a stock 3.0L bottom end and my supporting mods are as follows:
Comptech Air box top and bottom with Uni Filter. The top is custom and raised 2” and Dali air scoop.
SOS BBTB.
Driving Ambition aftercooler.
RM headers, Dali test pipes, Angus APX exhaust. All of which have been JET-HOT coated.
Walbro 255lph fuel pump, RC 550 injectors, and AEM fuel pressure regulator.
AEM full standalone and dual channel UEGO controller.
Snow Performance meth injection.
Autowave ATI damper pulley.
STMPO coolant tank.
RPS single disk clutch.
SOS oil pan baffle.
Koyo radiator.
Toda oil pump gear.

Here are the dyno graphs. The first is with the old Whipple 1600 low boost. The second is the 2.3L with meth and the third is the 2.3L without meth. I still have a few bugs to work out with the meth and am currently not running it.

old Whipple 1600 low boost with old Ark DTS exhaust.

2.3L with meth.

2.3L without meth.

If anyone decides to go this route or winds up going down this path for whatever the reason, I'd be more than happy to share any information that may help you out along the way.

 

[bruce91nsx]

Awesome numbers, especially at 10psi!

 

[BTL3.0]

Chris,
Awesome job on the build. Glad u finally made it. It's must have been forever. I need a ride in your setup. Very nice numbers. With and without meth.

 

[cmc140]

Awesome numbers, especially at 10psi!

Bruce,
Thanks you very much. Your build thread and PM responses were also a great help.
Thanks again,
Chris

 

[cmc140]

Chris,
Awesome job on the build. Glad u finally made it. It's must have been forever. I need a ride in your setup. Very nice numbers. With and without meth.

Brandon,
I'm glad I finally have it on the road too. Your always welcome to come up and check it out. Or else maybe we can plan something before the weather turns. Tomorrow I have to pull the axles, as a lost a boot on my way to nsxpo, and I'm going to have them rebuilt. I should have it back together by Wednesday.

 

[BTL3.0]

I just saw your picture from xpo blog. Yea, we need to meet up. What say you next Sunday??

 

[jorligan]

Chris,
Great numbers. I feel for you about the boot. I found mine was split right before XPO and Cody took care of it for me. See ya.
Tim

 

[NetViper]

fantastic numbers. It must feel awesome. Is the meth tuned for safety or power?

 

[Semnos_NSX]

Very interesting how the numbers didn't change very much with and without meth.

 

[RYU]

Thanks for sharing. Stories like these make tinkering on the NSX fun and interesting.

On your "no meth" dyno run do you feel the system was sufficiently heat soaked? I'm starting to notice a significant heat soak problem but only after say 30+ mins of hard driving. I'm not sure if that can be duplicated on the dyno but i'm certainly no expert either.

Would be interested to hear your experience on the track or similar. The 2.3L upgrade sounds very nice. Congrats!

 

[cmc140]

Chris,
Great numbers. I feel for you about the boot. I found mine was split right before XPO and Cody took care of it for me. See ya.
Tim

Tim, it was great meeting you and thanks again for letting my car spend the night. Hopefully, we'll meet up at another event in the future. Thanks for sympathizing about the cv boot. It took me at least 4 hours to get everything cleaned up and I still keep finding grease.

fantastic numbers. It must feel awesome. Is the meth tuned for safety or power?

Thanks NetViper. I guess omitted what the driving experience is like now with the new setup. It's completely different:biggrin:. I realize that there are much higher hp builds, but I have to say that the car is fast. Real fast for me, we mid-westerners move pretty slow.
As per the meth I wanted it for safety. When I asked Cody to tune it I told him I didn't care about numbers and would rather a conservative tune. Admittedly, pushing the stock bottom end this much is a gamble, but I realize the risks.

Very interesting how the numbers didn't change very much with and without meth.

Agreed, I thought I would pickup a few HP, but Cody told me he was afraid to throw too much timing at it and blow the motor. If it helps keep it cool, I'll be more than satisfied.

Thanks for sharing. Stories like these make tinkering on the NSX fun and interesting.

On your "no meth" dyno run do you feel the system was sufficiently heat soaked? I'm starting to notice a significant heat soak problem but only after say 30+ mins of hard driving. I'm not sure if that can be duplicated on the dyno but i'm certainly no expert either.

Would be interested to hear your experience on the track or similar. The 2.3L upgrade sounds very nice. Congrats!

Your welcome. I'm not a big fan of posting, as my post count will reflect. I normally don't have a whole lot to add. Tinkering on this car has become an obsession the last few years and this seems to be an upgrade people are interested in.

As per whether it was sufficiently heat soaked or not on the dyno, I have no idea. Perhaps Cody will chime in at some point and have an answer.

I've been following your other thread, but I don't have enough knowledge to really add anything constructive. I believe at one time I read one of Bruce's posts or it was a PM and he stated that even after running hard he could put his hand on his blower and it wasn't hot. I can't remember where I read it, but it sounded legitimate and that's why I decided to run meth even with the aftercooler. I figure it can't hurt and should at a minimum reduce the chances of detonation.

I definitely plan to track it next year and will post my impressions.

 

[Cody@LoveFab]

Hi guys,

Chris built a FANTASTIC car! It's extremely rare that I get to work on a car this well-built, especially when it hasn't been driven in over two years. I felt totally relaxed hopping into this car and ripping up to 140MPH; even when Chris called me in a panic second-guessing his work(which ended up being fine).

The car was brought to me a few weeks before NSXPO. My summer has been nuts. I didn't get to the car until about a week before Chris's departure date due to my strict schedule.

I finished the installation of his Snow Meth system(which he had purchased used), and began tuning.

Initially I was concerned about 10psi through a Supercharger being able to run without detonation. The first few pulls quelched that fear, even without Meth. The car was running very clean, and quite strong at that.

I fully tuned the car without Meth, and then activated the Meth system. I began to pull a TON of fuel to compensate for the Meth, along with feeding the motor additional timing. It got to the point where I would've been running more timing than stock under boost, and the motor wanted even MORE timing, as power increasing. Since Chris' departure date was only two days away, and the car was perfectly safe without the Meth, I decided to stop trying to massage more power out of the car with the Meth activated.

Another reason for my early departure with the Meht was a leanout issue with the Meth activated that wasn't present without. I suspect the pump is on its way out, or needs a better electrical source.

Driving impressions? Oddly enough, it feels like a turbo car. It doesn't hit extremely hard like other SC cars I've driven, and it pulls like a beast above 5000rpm. An interesting combo that I wouldn't have expected out of a Roots type blower. However, I still prefer turbocharging

Overall, amazing build Chris. I was glad to be a part of it and I hope you consider me for any further work and questions that you may have.

 

[cmc140]

Hi guys,

Chris built a FANTASTIC car! It's extremely rare that I get to work on a car this well-built, especially when it hasn't been driven in over two years. I felt totally relaxed hopping into this car and ripping up to 140MPH; even when Chris called me in a panic second-guessing his work(which ended up being fine).

The car was brought to me a few weeks before NSXPO. My summer has been nuts. I didn't get to the car until about a week before Chris's departure date due to my strict schedule.

I finished the installation of his Snow Meth system(which he had purchased used), and began tuning.

Initially I was concerned about 10psi through a Supercharger being able to run without detonation. The first few pulls quelched that fear, even without Meth. The car was running very clean, and quite strong at that.

I fully tuned the car without Meth, and then activated the Meth system. I began to pull a TON of fuel to compensate for the Meth, along with feeding the motor additional timing. It got to the point where I would've been running more timing than stock under boost, and the motor wanted even MORE timing, as power increasing. Since Chris' departure date was only two days away, and the car was perfectly safe without the Meth, I decided to stop trying to massage more power out of the car with the Meth activated.

Another reason for my early departure with the Meht was a leanout issue with the Meth activated that wasn't present without. I suspect the pump is on its way out, or needs a better electrical source.

Driving impressions? Oddly enough, it feels like a turbo car. It doesn't hit extremely hard like other SC cars I've driven, and it pulls like a beast above 5000rpm. An interesting combo that I wouldn't have expected out of a Roots type blower. However, I still prefer turbocharging

Overall, amazing build Chris. I was glad to be a part of it and I hope you consider me for any further work and questions that you may have.

Cody,
I'm genuinely impressed by your talent and craftsmanship, and appreciate your willingness to tune my lowly supercharged car. Perhaps my next project will get the full LoveFab treatment. Have you done a Zanardi? If I hit the powerball we can turn blasphemy into reality.:smile:

Anyhow, thanks for your kind words in regards to my build as my tech is kind of a jackass. I'll get the meth sorted out and give you a ring when a I have a chance the next few weeks.

The greatest compliment I think I can offer up to you lies in the fact that I was able to get my car back from your tuning it, then jump in and drive it over 1400 miles. You are also the only person that has worked on my car and I can't tell. You are top notch in my book.

Thanks again,
Chris