Denroll

Last night, I finally got my MBH headers and midsection installed. Woke up early this morning and drove up for my man-date with Jeremy @ OE Tuning for the TTM fuel rail and injectors (thanks, Bruce!) and for some dyno tuning. After a couple hours in the infamous 405 traffic, I'm now at home enjoying a beer.

Anyhow, last night was the header install and Dane & Brian, two dudes from this site, showed up to help. The installer kept commenting on how nice this entire exhaust system looked and installed. He's done several 55k exhausts and I think this was the easiest for him. I also got some new tires as the old ones were as bald as Michael Chiklis after a round of chemo. Here are the pics:










It meets the stock exhaust system here:





Can't believe I went drag racing on these things! New meats are nice as I have (some) traction and the ride is much smoother and quieter.




On the dyno at OE




And some random shots after a cleaning. There is a detailing shop right next door to OE and the guys were nice enough to let me clean my car. I had them buff my headlights as they were a bit hazy. Nice (but slow!) M5:









And a surprising benefit of the exhaust and tuning is the MPG. I never made 20mpg before the mods. These mods are practically paying for themselves!




VIDEOS

I took some in-car videos on the way home. iPhone 4S, but the sound is decent. I wanted to demonstrate how stock-like it cruises and then what it sounds like during a 1/2 throttle 3rd gear pull and a full throttle 2nd gear pull. Also a little 1st gear pull and some parking garage revs. Spot the flashing triangle from 50-70mph?

Exhaust sound


On the dyno:

Dyno pull


I'm a satisfied camper for the mean time. I've got the sound I want, some more power, a smooth, powerful, and safe tune, and the peace of mind that comes with the TTM fuel rail and injectors. Also, breaking the 500rwtq barrier on a heartbreaker is very nice

Hammer Down

Sounds beautiful my friend, you'll love those headers

Denroll

I do.

And video links fixed.

I hope.

mikey33

Sounds Beast

GT-ER

Those headers are sick.

BTW- scaling the fuel maps for larger injectors will also skew the ecu's ability to calculate mpg. It's not a lot but it's about 1-2mpg or so.

GregMB

Congrats Denroll,

(Who I consider my West Coast twin!)

The MBH's sound great.....highway cruise sounds just as quiet as stock, yes?

Love the traction control light at 60MPH, now THAT'S torque! Do you have the Custom TCU mod on your car now? I can't remember if you jumped on that Holiday special that OE was running...

Be careful on the MPG celebration though.... I think you may be getting bad data now. If you run large injectors, you will use the same amount of fuel but the duty cycle will be lower on the injectors since the flow rate is higher. I think this is what the computer uses to calculate the fuel economy, so you may end up seeing a nice high MPG number that isn't actually accurate. Hopefully a "real" expert will chime in and answer this one.

Did the exhaust shop talk about the differences between running straight pipes vs. an x-pipe and which would be quieter? I've heard the x-pipe will be more aggressive and deep under full throttle but I'm not sure it's also louder at normal part-throttle highway cruise?

Any plans for a larger throttle body? I have always wondered what it would be like to build a car with headers, TB and fuel rail only. It should be a way to avoid adding a ton of heat but still make big power.

EDIT:

I thought of another question... Did you do a baseline dyno pull? I'm curious what the before/after gains were..... The absolute numbers are less important since every dyno is different.


-G

GT-ER

FWIW, the factory resonator has a build in H pipe for those who don't know.

chawkins2001

Looks on point bro, do you have a dyno chart you could share

AKnight55

Very nice

Denroll

The only time the exhaust makes itself known is when I gas it or cruise over 80mph. The sound level is proportionate to the amount of throttle used. Even cruising over 80, it is definitely within the tolerable limit. I listen to NPR a lot (I know, ***, right? lol) and it didn't get in the way. Putting on music masks it all.

I did get in on the TCU reflash. I love it as I have actual paddle shifters and they work like they are supposed to instead of shift "suggestion" paddles like they used to be.

I definitely plan to go with a throttle body in the future. There's just too much power to be had at every part of the rev range to not do it. I believe every engine should be modified to breathe as efficiently as possible and opening the intake and exhaust is a great way to do so. Dane also has me considering a 180mm pulley.

I did a baseline on a different dyno dynamics back when I got the car and it put down 400whp and a little over 450rwtq. I was expecting at a minimum 450whp, but only put down 420. But numbers are just numbers and it definitely feels faster than that. I might put it on a Dynojet just for poops and giggles.

Jeremy is going to email me the dyno sheet and I'll post it when I get it.


Oh, and thanks for the heads-up about the fuel economy. I guess I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way and use that math junk.

TonyC

Curious if that setup will pass Cali smog? Doubtful?

So will you pull it all off every 2 years?

novae500

Looks like no cats on the car. Also 500rwhp w pulley, headers and tune? Any trouble running into when headers installed? Can't wait to get my headers and pulley installed next few weeks when I get car back from body shop

pullejo

400 baseline on a DD? Wait...there were *some* mods, right? Otherwise...that's the highest EVER!!!!!!!

Denroll

The car is registered in Kentucky. It's all rednecky and junk there and you will get a ticket for not modifying your V8's exhaust.

this dyno was 420rwhp and 506rwtq.

My baseline was 400whp, but the car had a 172 pulley and some green filters.


The car sounds so damn good!

novae500

Making me jealous. Can't wait

outrun

I have never seen a shop while dynoing a car use a strap on the wheels.

Black_55AMG

MBH makes quality headers and mid section...wow I'll be going this route.

chawkins2001

My thoughts exactly homey, no way in hell a stock e55 will out down 400rwhp on a DD dyno. Hell if you break that number with a tune only you are very lucky. It is not called the heartbreaker for nothing.

pearlpower

Very nice, now go out and buy some tires.

Denroll

Those new meats in the background went on, also. The traction breaking on the highway was with new ties.

skratch77

Nice kid...you are getting there and dont worry about the numbers.i hit 460 on a low reading dyno and found a dynojet with same mods and made 502whp so add about 40-50hp to your numbers to compare it to a dynojet.

I use dynojets now because they are so consistent and my car made within 2whp on two different dynojets.

Add intake/tb and 180 pulley and you will make another 40-50whp on top of your gains now

Hammer Down

Don't get to caught up with dyno numbers. They're great for tuning & bragging and that's about it. Just make sure that you have a good safe tune that makes pretty good power and I know Jeremy will make sure that you do.

Denroll

Yeah, I'm not worried at all about the numbers. The car pulls like mad and that's all I wanted out of it.

Hammer Down

chawkins2001

What's next on the list homey? You should try and hit 500rwhp on the stock pulley. I am not sure if that is done before but is definitely do able.