Hey all. Thought I would stop in and say hello, Ive been absent a little. I get the quirky thing going when I want to post a topic yet dont own a Focus anymore. But anyway, I have finally gotten time to start work on the Grand Prix, and Im scheduled to go to the track this evening to see what she can do. Im optimistically hoping for high 13's to low to mid 14's.
I know of a few totally stock GTP's running mid 14's so Im hoping to do at least that well. Hurrican Katrina put my world in a tizzy at work and since getting back from the honeymoon Ive been pretty much non-stop at work. I worked through labor day weekend, overtime during the week, etc, etc. I am part of the disaster recovery team trying to get communications and such restored for the rescue/recovery teams and for the public services such as police and medical and even the military. So I havent had much time to do anything at all.
But I am finally getting some time to do things and so instead of mowing the grass, taking out the trash, spending time with the wife, etc., etc. I got to work on some projects for the Grand Prix. Jennifer had to work over the weekend, so it was just as good as an opportunity as I was going to get for now. Plus I had some service jobs to do, packages to mail, all of which had been waiting to be done for FAR too long.
Mods so far:
1. Installed 4" Intake complete with Amsoil TS191 2-stage foam air filter.
2. Install 3" exhaust from the header to the rear split. Cat and resonator removed.
3. Stage II shift kit installed
4. Throttle body spacer installed. This is more to isolate the Throttle Body from the Supercharger to reduce inlet air temps. That sucker gets hot when you are in the boost and it heat soaks the throttle body and this reduces that significantly.
5. De-screened the Throttle Body. This is a free and easy mod. But if you ever see the screen they put in the throttle body you'd understand the massive amount of airflow being lost there. GM says its to straighten out the air flow for the MAF, but it is a very prominent restriction. Ive had no problems since yanking it out.
Mods in the works:
1. Roller rockers w/valve springs, retainers and beefed up pushrods.
2. Complete PCM replacement with a powertuner which will give me near complete access to the PCM to tune it as well it includes a GM enhanced parameter scan tool built in.
3. One size smaller Supercharger pulley. Stock size is 3.8". Next size down is 3.4" though Ive seen them under 3.0" but I dont yet know if I want to start laying down that kind of boost/power yet.
Improvements so far:
1. Pulled the supercharger snout off, replaced the coupler. This is a know part to go out so I yanked the OEM one and installed a beefier coupler.
2. I think I had already posted about the 180* T-stat installed
3. Replaced the crankshaft postition sensor. Another known OEM part that has problems. Got that replaced cause when it goes bad it aint pretty. My '89 GP had one go out and the motor just decides to quit when it goes bad and can make it difficult to start or idle at times.
Planned Improvements:
1. Replace the half shafts. Stock ones are okay, but are known to snap once you start putting down some serious power. Id like to go to the track more so I want to make sure this part doesnt fail.
2. GM Racing Limited Slip Diff. This is going to be a little pricey, but this with the half shafts should make the drive section pretty reliable though Ive had no problems with any of it.
Im hoping this weekend I'll be able to get my Amsoil dual remote by-pass filter system installed. After that will come the tranny fluid cooler. GM has already fitted the body of the GTP to mount a tranny cooler they sell, so all I got to do is get the parts and install it. If I can, I'll put an external filter on the tranny fluid but Im not all that concerned about doing that as I was with the Focus. The GTP has a heavy duty tranny in it. Even so, the people replacing their tranny's are doing so because of hard parts and not because of heat related failures or filtration. They are just getting into the power numbers that the stock heavy duty tranny cant handle.
So thats where Im at with it so far. I may try and get a sound clip of the exhaust cause it sounds nice to me. Right now, some of my focus is going to reliability/durability. I want it to last so I can have fun. I cant begin to describe how clean the motor internals are, at least what I can see. Not one speck of varnish anywhere to be seen. When I dropped the tranny pan to flush it and install the shift kit there was hardly any material on the pan magnet, yet the fluid or the filter had never been changed as best I can tell.
My time is getting constrained again so I dont know what I will be able to get done over the next few weeks as I got the state fair coming up and the Amsoil booth to work, but we'll see how that goes.
Anyway, thought I would stop by and say hello. It may be a bit longer but I hope to have an oil analysis from the GTP before too long. I got less than a month on the oil and already over 2,000 miles on it. Im going to set the oil analysis to coincide with the Oil Life Monitor system. When it says its time to change the oil, I'll just pull an analysis and go from there.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Well it appears I wont be going to the track tonight. My dad is in the hospital in intensive care. He went in yesterday after having a terrible time breathing. They found he had a collapsed lung with some other complications.
The doctors were concerned that putting in a tube to re-inflate the lung would put to much stress on him so they took him to do a CAT scan on him. Something happened at that time and he was clinically dead for a short time. So they went ahead and put the tube in him while they worked on reviving him. They were able revive him and his lung started to re-inflate and they took him out of ICU.
Things were looking good for the most part, he was recovering and we all thought it was just now a matter of him getting his strength back and him being able to go home. So I planned my day like all would be fine.
Today I get word that now his other lung has collapsed and they feel it totally unsafe to go in and put in another tube let alone remove the previous one. Apparently it has collapsed differently as well complicating matters.
So for right now Im praying all I can, getting everyone I know that believes in prayer to join in as well. So if you do, please say a prayer for him. I dont know yet if I will have to make a trip to Florida yet but I will try to get back on here once I know more and update the post.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
thats not so good hope he recovers ok know how you feel my dad doesnt keep to well either as for the car sounds good can be a long haul that seems to take forever
The only news I have as of today is that they are going to do surgery on him on Monday. Apparently he has some type of build up in his lung that is collapsed and they have not been able to get it to break up with medication.
Monday they will try to go in surgically and remove it. He will have to be put on a ventilator at that time because of the proceedure. So right now we are praying that all goes well with that and that he wont be stuck on the ventillator. My dad is an old country hick from Alabama and he aint going to like the whole ventillator thing. He's been kinda withdrawn since all this started not wanting any of the family to see him in the state he is in. I guess I can understand that. I talked to my sister today and she said he is stable but still in CCU.
I'll post more when I have more information. Right now the family is telling me to sit tight for now so Im not heading down there just yet.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Hello all again. Well I just got back from a 2600 mile round trip to Florida. My dad is now out of the hospital, though he still has some issues with one lung and most likely will end up pitting a stint in it to keep it open. The doctors were saying it looks like its been nearly completely closed off for some time.
They, as do I, feel that once they can get a stint in there to keep it open he will be doing a WHOLE lot better. A LOT of praying and he's doing better but not completely out of the woods, but I have complete faith all will improve better than anyone had imagined it would, otherwise I would still be down there.
I do have one, maybe two things to say about my trip.
1. I HATE FREAKIN' ATLANTA!!!! Geeesh what a traffic mess that place is.
2. 31 mpg BABY!!!! I did about 28 or so on my last trip down there with just regular petroleum oil in the GTP. I got Amsoil in the oil and tranny now and Im getting 31mpg. I was filling up at the 1/4 tank mark on the trip and was seeing 475 miles at that mark and still had the 1/4 tank of gas to go. Taking into account the slight roll off in fuel pressure as the tank empties out I figure I could easily do 550 miles on a tank though the computer was putting it closer to 600 and at one point was showing a 620 mile range but I dont think the computer takes into account the roll off in mileage as a tank empties out.
But Im back and all is well and I want to say thank you to everyone that was praying for my dad.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
Yeah, I was pretty happy with it. Im hoping that when I get the roller rockers, springs and push rods the mileage will go up some more. Ive been told/advised on more than one occasion that it would help mileage along with a performance boost. Plus once I get the new computer for it and can do some reprogramming Im hoping to be able to create a set up for highway driving that will help even further. It may be a stretch, but I really would like to see 35 - 36 mpg out of it. I dont think it would be impossible if I got the tuning done right but we shall see.
If I can keep the fuel trims close to 0 then that would go a long way to that goal. They also have a device available for around $100 or so that ties into the MAF where I can even tune that sucker. That ought to be an interesting thing.
____________________ My car is a synner! It uses Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants.
2001 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP
It whines a lot, but I like it
