Exhaust ready

[SSsuperstar]

Well..my 2 1/2 inch Borla mufflers are on and boy do they sound sweet! 3 inch tips give it a nice aggressive look and make those mufflers stand out. I'll post pics of it sometime. Next up is my cold air intake and possibly a dyno tuning once i can afford it.

[El_Diablo]

not to be an ass but how do you plan to dyno tune it?

[SSsuperstar]

No offense taken, but as far as dyno tuning, I'm not exactly sure. The speed shop I go to has a dyno. What are the steps I should be taking? What exactly is involved with dyno tuning?

[El_Diablo]

well honestly, theres no way for you to tune the car currently from what you've done and what you have, to tune it at all you will need to find someone who offers computer editing software for your car which, correct me if im wrong, but i dont believe dhp or hpt cover your car so your pretty much on your own.... that and its not like you have an adjustable fpr or anything else to tune and even then you have no real need to

all you can do right now is get a basline at stock or near stock until you get/find a tuner

[Superdave]

dyno tuning isn't really needed unless you are making big changes like larger cams, port work , headers etc..


sinple intakes and exhaust don't change the VE of the engine enough to worry about.

[SSsuperstar]

Okay. And as of right now, nothing of that sort as far as cams or heads or headers are available so I do indeed see your point. But a dyno test would be cool just to see how much an increase in horsepower there might be from those few bolt ons..but not really a need to spend the money for it. Thanx guys. Any other thoughts on what I can do to get some extra ponies out of this motor the way it is?

[El_Diablo]

pcm tune (not availible afaik) or nitrous... and sorry but pcm tunes do increase performance, most improvement is found in the trans though if your near stock like he is IMO

[SSsuperstar]

so is there a PCM tune available for this motor? or am I missunderstanding what you are saying?

[zofo61]

What motor do you have...........? I have read this thread and do not see it

[El_Diablo]

he has a malibu ss... 3900

ive heard of someone going to "pcmtunesforless.com" or something like that but i wouldn't recomend it as ive heard bad things about them

[IsaacHayes]

Possibly an under drive pulley if you can find one that will work. Not sure if the MrZ or FFP pulleys will work. I think you have a 3900 right? I think it might bolt up. But I have no idea what your stock pulley size is, so it may be a lot different than what the 3400/3100 had and may be too small or not small enough...

A more fun and cost affordable way to measure power is to take it to the strip. Not an absolute measure of power since everyones car's weigh different, but you'll know how fast you are and how much faster after mods.

Other mods after exhaust at this point would be internal engine mods such as port and polish and cam. Or custom headers welded up. But the 3900 manifolds are leaps and bounds over what the 3100/3400's got so there won't be such a big increase as those motors would get, but still power to have if you can make and fit long tube equal length headers.

[SSsuperstar]

Yea LZ9 3900 v6 in a 2006 Malibu SS. I have a 2 1/2 inch stainless steel cat back to 2 1/2 inch Borla Turbo mufflers with 3" stainless tips. I have an MP Racing Cold Air Intake on the way and platinum plugs as well. Does this motor still use plug wires along with the coil packs? I know my old 3100 did..but I'm not sure about this motor.

[El_Diablo]

you should've gone ahead and gotten the cat swapped aswell.... glad you went with mpr, you wont be disappointed

bosche plugs suck... NGK or denso are far better, my bosches all burned down the tips after 10k miles... started misfiring like a mofo

might wanna look at getting a universal wire set from MSD and making some wires, either that or contact them and see if they can make some if you send in your stockers

[IsaacHayes]

Don't get bosch, your car will run terrible. The stock plugs should be iridium anyways.... Yes this motor uses plug wires... have you not poped the hood yet?

[SSsuperstar]

I have..but I have no idea where the plugs and plug wires are. When doing the intake should I eventually replace the mass airflow sensor? or will the stock one be sufficient?