93 Cutlass Ram-Air Questions

[3100 MPFI]

I didn't do the synthetic switch right then. The coal build up was from the conventional oil, and the lack of maintenence from the previous owner.

When I chisled out the intake, I had a shop vac in there until I could cover up the cam.

That aside, I know shit probably still got in there. In all honesty, if I had NOT done anything, I would have ruined the engine. It had almost COMPLETLY sealed off the oil passages. I would have had no oil in the bottom and all of it in top.

[El_Diablo]

coal? no... wax? yes... perhaps

sorry but i dont fully believe your problem

[3100 MPFI]

Ask GPSE3400. He was just as HOLY SHIT as I was when I pulled it off. It was a hard crystalline-looking stuff that I had to basically SCRAPE out of it.

[mfewtrail]

Your poor ET's can be attributed to your 60ft times. A 2.8 60ft time is terrible! 76.22mph is enough to get you down in the low-mid 17 second range. Did the car spin on the track or bog down/take off very slowly?

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah the 3.1 should have more low torq than the 3100 and thus your 60ft shouldn't be that high. I would replace your O2 sensor with a good unit like a denso, spark plugs, wires, any leaky gaskets, and if your cat is clogged then a good time is to replace your whole exhaust to something larger for more power. Even with the 140hp 3.1mfpi and your heavier car, you should be faster. A tune up is needed here.

[Stonedified]

sorry havnt been able to get on in awhile. stupid ISP problems.
the track i go to prepares the strip very well...super shifter 10,000 rpm launchers dont spin their tires...its prepared for very high performance cars every night it is open...so there was no slippage to be had. on launch, it didn't seem bogged down, i beat the stock 94 lumina i was against by like 1/4 of a second if i remember right (cant find the slip now)...
so im thinking...new trans fluid, new synthetic oil, fuel filter, spark plugs, plug wires, O2 sensor...right now, a whole new exhaust is out of my budget...anything i can do to the existing cat? im worried about my backpressure being too low and the car not running right...the sound to me is honestly not an issue at this point.

anything else I should do for the tuneup? and low cost remedies for my exhaust? this car ran 87 pump for most of its first 235,000 miles...although i run it on 91 now...so im sure the cat has diamonds forming in it by now

[El_Diablo]

backpressure is a myth.... its flow vs. velocity, back pressure has nothing to do with it and no matter what its bad, if you want me to tell you the whole theory i will, just let me know

dont run 91, its not needed, your not doing anything as far as tuning so the extra octance is pretty much useless, magnaflow cats can be had for $65 shipped if you shop around and if you get one with an o2 bung already mounted im sure an exhaust shop wouldn't charge much

[IsaacHayes]

He is a 93 OBDI so he has no O2 bung after the cat to worry about.

Ebay has some carsound/magnaflow cats for cheap brand new.

[El_Diablo]

yeah, kinda thought about that after the fact but ohwell, lol

[Ortie666]

Is it illegal were u are to take the cat right off?

[Stonedified]

it is illegal...but not really an enforced law.
i know a guy that had an old 454 blazer straight piped, dumped right under the front seats. he drove the hell out of it, and never got a ticket, or even pulled over. and my manager at work has 2 willy's jeeps that are straight piped, although he uses em mostly for farm-related stuff, he drives them sometimes for kicks...

so, if i just cut both my mufflers off untill i put the glasspacks on...it wont slow it down or hurt it in any way?

[Ortie666]

I couldent see a problem besides the noise.. When ever I go out to race, I now just run open headers. I did a little experement a couple months ago and was really impressed with the diffrence from open exhast to single 2.5 with a Thrush turbo..

[Stonedified]

hmmm...cool. ive been told by many many people that without mufflers i wouldnt have enough backpressure...and even if the engine ran, it would be slow as molasses on a january night.

thinking of just cutting off the mufflers and then clamping on the glasspacks...
if i did that, though...id need to somehow attach the brackets to the glasspacks. maybe i could find someone to just weld that on, since nobody seems to be up to the task of welding the whole system.

might just cut off the cat, and straight pipe it all the way to the glasspacks

[Ortie666]

These motors dont need pipes creating backpresure to run good, There not 2 strokes, small 4 cyl's, or lawnmowers.
Look up exhaust scavenging and you be the judge if you either want a little bit of low end power VS high end and lots of power..

[RedBird]

it's illegal everywhere to remove the cat just not checked everywhere, thats how some poeple get away with it. Just buy a high flow cat off ebay, better for the environment and basically a straight pipe....... i have no e-tests or checks in here in Iowa but i kept a hi-flow cat to help the environment a little bit at least, lol.