Brendan's 99 Grand Am GT update

[geldartb]

Ok so you guys remember my valvetrain noise thread and how the car sounded before. well i was never happy with it that way and never stopped my pursuit to end the noise.

well after an amount of time i cant or feel like remembering its over.
the car runs and sounds awesome. there is absolutely no noise except for the exhaust leak where the downpipe meets the rear header.

well 2 weeks ago i took the engine apart to put the metal LIM gaskets in and figured while i was at it i would re-time it and tear apart the lifter and clean them and inspect the insides while i was at it.

well i tried to get a video but the blackberry's video capturing quality sucks bad very very bad. so FML on that aspect but i did get some pics of it.

ive got a few tuning issues to resolve. one being the idle which i need to bump up a tad since it still idles low enough to die when put in gear.
the other issue is a stumble upon accel and when the engine has a load on it. Jon suggested i bump my AE table a tad.
But i forgot to bring the laptop so i couldnt fix these issues so FML on that too.

here are the pics since the video sucked bad.

so all in all im happy now. the car has no valvtrain sound like it did before. im sure once i get another piece of gasket cut it will be quiet.

if the pics are too big or anything let me know and ill fix them but there only 10x768

yes i know thers the different tire on the pass front wheel i didnt feel like sitting there for a half an hour filling it up so that wheel went on.











oh yeah and we cant forget where i got all the parts from. you cant even really notice they are there from a distance.

[geldartb]

idle video


short driving video


oh yeah and incase you dont remember what it sounded like before heres a comparison video.

[SappySE107]

I can tell the tune is a lot better cause there is no smoke coming out of the exhaust and it doesn't try to die. Time for a new track time

[geldartb]

i think the smoke was partly cause it wasnt that warm that day. iirc i upped the idle a little bit more from the last video.

ive actually gotten alot done with getting it to run decent. still needs a little bit of help in the tune dept since it still has a very slight hesitation on hard accel.

looking through some of the scans i dont think ive gone over 60% throttle yet and it still hauls ass. ive got one from today with all the recent changes,ill add up later.

EDIT
heres the latest scan with all the changes i did this week

http://www.scandepot.net/viewscan.php?pk=4741

[IsaacHayes]

How freaking thick are those intake spacers? WOW! Grand Ams must have tons of hood clearance.

[geldartb]

1" any more and it wouldn't close. i think it might be the equivalent of the 3500 UIM and 1/2 spacers. if they were more than an inch id have to get custom on one of the cross braces on the hood.

honestly i think its touching the hood but none of the paint has come off my UIM. i think that might be partly my engine either doesn't move or barely moves.

that valve cover sucks i had one that i painted the same color but when i took it off the gasket came out and i seriously spent prob the better part of a half hour and still couldn't manage to get the gasket to stay in the cover. so i tried that one and it fit so thats what went on.

this thing is a beast looking back at the scan i did today and im still only hitting 80% throttle and about 4200rpm and this thing was still pulling for more.

[asylummotorsports]

Nice car and that was what I was thinking about for my UIM on my 3500 but I keep hearing how the '99 plain manifolds don't flow very well.

Also not to be critical of a nice car, but you REALLY need some exhaust tips.

Oh and the valve cover gasket.

I had to actually cut a little piece out of mine to get it back in. I just made sure to keep the cut at the top and it doesn't leak.

[geldartb]

when the valve cover gasket when new(got them with the 3500 lim set) they went in no problem. they must expand alot when they get heated up.

for the muffler thats only temporary until i find a better one. im leaning towards an edlebrock sdt or a borla pro xs both in crossflow config.

Edelbrock 55762 SDT chambered muffler

http://performanceparts.com/part.php?partID=282397

BORLA ProXS mufflers 40477. obviously i wont be spending 300 bucks on a muffler ive found them for cheaper this was just the first link i found

http://www.realtruck.com/product/115505/borla_universal_performance_muffler_40477_transverse_flow_oval_body.html

until i get the new muffler im prob gonna get some better piping for the tips thats at a 90* instead of the wierd angle this pipe is.

the 99 UIM sucks if you look inside it you can see a little shelf. on the 00+ its a smooth track straight in. i found this out after spending the time to open it up to 65mm.

i have a 3500 UIM but i cant decide which im gonna go with in the long run. so unless someone chimes in that the 3500 UIM has some secret hidden power in it and is better than what i got now then what i got is staying.

the shaving of the letters off took maybe 5 minutes with a flapper wheel and an angle ginder and then 5 minutes to smooth it out. i wanted the shaved look but didnt want to use the older plenum.

[asylummotorsports]

From what I have read on here and other places, the later 3400 UIM actually outflows the 3500. I had my 3500 ported by Ben and noticed no improvement AT ALL, however I blame that on perhaps only doing the upper.

I'm going to get a 3400 UIM and see it it makes any difference.

[geldartb]

yeah ive been reading up on the 3400 vs 3500 uim all along. but like i said until theres some significant gain ill stick with the 3400 uim for now.

i got a 3500 UIM that was ported by ben but have yet to put it on i wanted to get the car all straightened out engine wise before i threw other stuff on.

[MY91GT(Z)]

i heard that 3500 uim mani when the lim and heads are ported will suit it better and that the throttle response is quite noticeable but not sure if it made much horsepower difference between the 2

[geldartb]

the heads and lim are ported i bought the lim from ben here and i bought the heads off someone who was parting out but the came from ben.

so theres really not an unported part on the top half of the engine.

throttle response is already up there with this setup.

[IsaacHayes]

The 3500 UIM ports are smaller than the 3400, but a quick die grinder job and they open right up since there is no runner. Then it will flow good. Also there is more to it than just flow. There is more plenum space, different flow pattern, etc. Ben said it broadens the power band, which I noticed my motor isn't as peaky anymore, but just pulls all over. I don't have a before and after feel from just the UIM, cause I went from a small port lower to the large port lower and 3500 UIM all at once. But the 3000 RPM "vtec" kick in feel is no longer there. It just moves off idle and keeps pulling.

[3400-95-Modified]

I ran both a ported 3400 upper and a ported 3500 upper at Epping last year, the times were within 1 tenth, and I think that was more due to the fact that I had my street tires that day and my 60' times were all over the place. I cant say I've notice any gains with the 3500 upper on there.

[heavymtl]

please forgive me but it's dumb question time...why do you have spacers on the intake?. i have never seen that before and now i am curious