Well I must say it has been a stressful couple of months. Ordered my ECS / Vortech kit the week of Thanksgiving and had most of the stuff to begin the install by mid-December.
Original plan was the ECS kit with Novi 1500 with about 7-8lbs of boost on 91 octane (that is the best commonly available premium in MN). And then moved to adding a Alky kit to attempt to add more fuel on the top to try and reach 10-11 lbs.
Kit install went well - I had never put one on before but have been around engines and doing rebuilds my whole life so I wasn't intimidated. Other than some hiccups getting some communication worked out with ECS on pulleys and boost (which wasn't a big deal), the S/C went smooth as glass.
Now, the Alky kit on the other hand, while being a very well built and thought out product, the instructions for it are really open for interpretation. They have some rough guidelines for a 6th gen install, but you pretty much are left figuring a lot of it out on your own. (component location, where to run the lines, wires, etc....). Julio there is great to deal with - answered all questions very promptly.
After that was installed in mid-Jan, I had a longing concern in the back of my mind about fuel supply. I knew we could feed it to over 600hp with the LT1 HPFP & Injectors along with the Alky kit, but I knew if we had any hiccups in the Alky kit, I would roach the motor. I then pulled the trigger on a LT4 HPFP, LT4 injectors and installed everything once they arrived. Other than that, it is a bone stock LT1.
The car was done by early Feb and I made my appointment for 3/19 with Carl Thomas at CJTunes. Took forever for the day to get here.
We went into this morning with the cogged gearing on the system targeted for what we thought was 11-12psi (about 51k on the Novi head unit), 91octane and no meth. First pulls with in the 560s, then 590 pretty quickly at only 5400-5500 rpm. We weren't running a lot of timing (5deg) and Carl started to voice some concern about boost. Said he had to keep pushing it some to creep up on how the fuel supply and timing looked - but we ended up at 670hp at only 5900rpm. The bad news was is we were at 12lbs already, and he informed me we will be north of 14lbs at 6500. He massaged it to 709hp at 6100 but pulled the plug at 14psi. We both felt we were headed towards disaster at 6500.
Unfortunately I only had one other pulley with me - a 30T lower cogged pulley which is the front side of the jackshaft - we would be dropping 4T, which according to ECS would net us about 4lbs loss. It felt like I was going to be way under boosted, but Carl said lets give it a try. Good news is we were in the clear to run it to 6500. First pull with the new setup was 565, then 590. Carl then said it was time to turn on the Alky - and with 91 & meth we smacked 657H/582T after some timing tweaks. He said we had a ton of room on fuel left, so to just pour all 15 gallons of E85 in and we will go for it.
We had to re-install the pin on the SMG fuel sensor as the pin really doesn't fit in the plug real well, but once we had the sensor talking to the ECU - Carl rolled it on and after 4 pulls we were sitting happy at 9.5lbs / 709H / 643T! North of 700 on a stock lt1, no headers, stock cam / heads / intake. He has tuned a lot of GenV LT1s and said none have come close to this on a stock engine. Some 680s on roots blowers but with headers. He thinks 750 could be in it on Meth / E85 / and 11lbs. He figures the head unit is suited very well for the engine. FYI - no pic of Run12 which had the 709/643 number - should get info from the tuner this week.
We are running it here for now - but I am very elated with my results. Nothing but great things to say about the help from Alex & Chris at ECS, and I would highly recommend Carl at CJTunes for any dyno or email tuning.
My build start to finish:
ECS Novi 1500 Head Unit / Stock Crank Pulley / 3.6" Jackshaft Serpentine Pulley / 30T Lower Jackshaft Cogged Pulley / 32T Cogged Pulley on the HU - Alky Control fuel nozzle meth kit with twin 10# nozzles / all stock pot settings / gain set to "5" - Stock 1LE Tank Pump / LT4 HPFP / LT4 Injectors - Secondary Cat Delete - Elite Engineering Catch Can - NGK LTR7IX Plugs / MSD Wires
2018 1SS 1LE LT1 Tune / ECS Novi 1500
