Mods I have made to my car

[Throckmorton]

People are always asking me what I have modified on my Altima.

Let me give you a little background. My brother-in-law recently retired after many years working for NASCAR, his last assignment was as a tech inspector at the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, NC..Toyota entered NASCAR racing in February 2007 at the Daytona 500.

Remember Michael Waltrip being disqualified for cheating, and how embarrassed Toyota was about the incident? Michael Waltrip got caught. Or, more accurately, his crew chief got caught.

The fact that the Waltrip team’s offense – reportedly doctoring the fuel with an oxygenate to increase power – was the most egregious of the lot is not the big news here. The big news is that Michael Waltrip drives a Toyota Camry. And being busted on a cheating rap is absolutely the worst possible start for Toyota’s audacious, multi-million dollar push into NASCAR.

The “oxygenate fuel” story was just a cover story concocted by both NASCAR and Toyota, in an attempt to limit the damage, and to control negative PR.

According to my brother-in-law, the real reason that Waltrip was disqualified was the fact that NASCAR caught his team using a special, super high voltage ’unobtainium’ spark plug. These plugs produced unbelievable horsepower and torque gains in the new for 2007 Toyota NASCAR 366 cid, 6.0L V-8 engine, and they not on the approved products list that NASCAR provides the race car teams.

At the Concord, NC R+D center, where Waltrip’s #55 Toyota was taken for closer inspection, and a complete teardown, my brother-in-law got to know the TRD engineers who were responsible for the development of these spark plugs.

Since the plugs were not legal for NASCAR racing, my brother-in law was able to obtain 16 of these special plugs before the rest were destroyed. He gave 8 to me.

To my surprise, I found that these plugs fit my Altima 2.5. They were almost the same overall length as the factory plugs.

How was I going to get them to work in my Altima? I knew that the factory coil packs did not produce enough spark to properly activate the ‘unobtainium’ plugs. I had to modify my system somehow.

I did a 'voltage mod' to my Altima. I wired a series of transducers, in both series and parallel, to the three 12 volt batteries I mounted in the trunk, where the spare tire used to reside. I fabricated a triangular shape quick change hold down to mount the batteries. This gave my electrical system 48 volts on demand. Using Electroactive polymers, I made a series of actuators, which I control by switches mounted on the console, within easy reach. I used a Potentiometer for measuring the position of the crankshaft for reference during the firing order of the spark plugs. I made and installed a grounding kit of 10 gauge, gold tipped wire, to handle the extra current. I used about sixty feet of grounding wire, and grounded everything under the hood.

I wired this to each coil pack, so I would have maximum voltage firing each spark plug. I used a Hall effect sensor, wired to my portable battery charger, to maintain a constant 13.6 volts to each of my auxiliary batteries. I charge the batteries over night at home, so they are fully charged when I need the extra power sent to my spark plugs. I keep an 100 foot extension cord and a smaller battery charger in my trunk for when I travel.

I was able to make this power booster for right at $500.00, including the price of the 3 Optima red top sealed batteries. The most expensive parts were purchased at a going out of business sale at my local Radio Shack.

I have not taken my car to a dynamometer, so I am not making any performance, horsepower, torque, or fuel mileage claims. I don’t want to make claims that I can not back up by showing proof. I do know that my spark plugs have a much bigger spark, and my car has a tremendous boost in power.

[Colton92]

Pics?

[mrodrig2]

After reading through all of that, I was at least hoping for some lulz. But alas, this thread has failed.

[1125Altima3.5]

If you feel like buying a realtime OBD2 reader, you could measure any possible improvements due to your new plugs. (A/F Ratios, exhaust O2 content)

But basically I'm not seeing how spark plugs alone can improve power output unless your engine is experiencing incomplete/slow combustion to begin with. Would be interested to know the theory behind this. Could your brother in law drop some knowledge on us?

You don't need a dyno - you can buy Dynolicious for the iPod for $13!

[Ricko]

Lol, i think your brother is being . . . a brother. He has you fooled man and you just spent all that time trying to get it to work!

Ok no seriously, interested in the numbers!

[rcboy514]

[CoupeVQ35CVT]

While I can see a better spark increasing the fuel efficiency and power by a small margin, I wonder if any of that offsets the added weight of 3 more car batteries and still provides more power on top of that?

Very interesting story. Almost as good as the time I flew over Angola in a C-130 and airdropped rice bags to feed hungry mouths except that most of the rice bags were imported from China so the quality was poorer than poor and so the result was I ended up adding to the death rate...

[Throckmorton]

Being the ‘tree hugger’ that I am, I wanted to do my part to save the planet. Everything I have done to my car is done in an attempt to “Go Green”, and to reduce my carbon footprint. A smaller carbon footprint today will help prevent global warming tomorrow, according to Albert Gore.

After successfully completing a voltage mod, I felt the need for even more speed. Speed cheaper than those $6000.00 turbo kits I have seen advertised elsewhere, and are extremely difficult and time consuming to install.

I wanted quick, bolt on speed! I wanted the holy grail, the magic bullet!

I decided to purchase and install an inline electric turbocharger. After much research, I found one at http://www.frigamallindustries.com/electurbo. The website claimed horsepower and torque claims that were unbelievable! I ordered the kit, and within a week, the turbo kit was delivered to my doorstep. A few hours later, I had it installed, and the car running. I did experience problems, but nothing was going to deter ole’ Leonard from his dream.

How did it work out for me?

At first, it was a cheap, temporary pain in my big behind. Try as I might, the 110 volt extension cord kept working itself loose from the electrical outlet I mounted behind the rear license plate. I could not even drive around the block without the cord getting tangled up with something. I finally fixed that problem by buying a high performance controller for the electric turbocharger. It came with it's own solar powered power cell. Strangely, my car is faster on sunny, cloud free days, and before sunset.

The controller controls an electrically assisted turbocharger including a turbocharger body and an assist electric motor for assisting the turbocharger body in driving. The controller controls the operation of the assist electric motor. The controller compares a target power value of the assist electric motor with an actual power value actually supplied to the assist electric motor, and computes the differential between them. The controller compensates a torque error of the assist electric motor due to the differential, updating a correction coefficient, based on the differential.

I was not able to drive my car at full throttle until I got this spoiler installed. I calculated that I didn't have enough downforce on the rear of the car, and this baby really made a difference. The only downside to this spoiler is that now it takes two people to open the trunk; two to open it, and one to hold it up so that I don’t get decapitated while I put things in or take things out of my trunk.

WG716L Car Spoiler for Universal Wings Universal Fit

Green power is great! My car is so much more powerful now!

[ESP]

Ugh...

[dldjros69]

Ugh...

This guy needs to be banned.

What a useless thread and posts.

[rcboy514]

pics?? I have to see this set-up with my own eyes......solar panel on top of the car, eletrical outlet behind the license plate, super top secret special spark plugs, 50lbs of batts in the trunk, $$$$, just to save trees?? f*ck trees lol you gotta give us something to work with Mr. Morton....and...............

WTF

[CoupeVQ35CVT]

Haha. I liked that story even better. You almost had me with the "electric" then when you said turbo.. yeah. IF you said supercharger that would have stretched better.

Of course, "unobtainium" was so obvious I'm not sure anyone else caught it due to the sheer cleverness of it...

[rcboy514]

Haha. I liked that story even better. You almost had me with the "electric" then when you said turbo.. yeah. IF you said supercharger that would have stretched better.

Of course, "unobtainium" was so obvious I'm not sure anyone else caught it due to the sheer cleverness of it...

unobtainium should not be joked about lightly.....it is a super rare element found only on the planet next to krypton, if not handled correctly in the spark plug form it can cause your exhaust to shoot out flowers and plant seeds to reverse the bad effects of mankind on the planet...........

also

[LinkNuc]

I got "uobtainium"right off the bat. This guy takes sarcasm to a new level and the Al Gore comment too....notice the "Bob and Tom Show" reference too (frigimalindustries). Spoiler comment too...

[Throckmorton]

OK, confession time.

I do not have a brother-in-law that worked for NASCAR, nor have I made any of these modifications to my car.

I knew when I concocted these hoaxes that I would generate controversy, and cause people to think. It appears that I have been successful.

Was anyone actually fooled by the gibberish that I wrote? I hope not!

Are we so blinded in our quest for “More Horsepower at Any Cost!” that we are going to believe everything that we read on these forums?

Unfortunately, in some cases we are. As P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Look at some of the things that people do to their cars because they were snookered into buying some ‘magic bullet’ that promised more horse power.

Every company that sells items that make alleged performance gains have slick marketing and promotion writing in the ads. They make claims that are not backed up by reliable testing, nor are the results published for us to see.

Have you ever seen an ad for a high performance product / add-on that claims to reduce your horsepower, torque, or gas mileage? Of course not! Horse power sells!

Install our product and get 25 more HP and 40 ft. lbs of torque!

Install our KittyDog GTX Tuner and adjust your timing, remove speed limiter, adjust your ECU, MAF, BFD, IUD…..etc, etc, etc.

We see it all the time here on these forums. Someone posts a thread that Snardley GoFast Industries has a new product that costs $299.99, and gives the Altima 20 more HP. Without anyone knowing a thing about the product and/or the company, posts start appearing that contain one or more of the following the comments:

I can’t wait to get one! How much for a group buy?

Dldjros69, it would be hard to ban all the threads and posts that are as nonsensical. If that were the criteria, most threads would disappear from the board.

I love reading these forums. I have gained information, and have learned quite a few things about my car.

As you can tell from my posts, I do use sarcasm at times to make my point.

When I read threads about dubious products, and the make believe power gains you get by using them, I will respond with my opinion and ask questions, and ask for proof.

After all, I still believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. Believing in all three of them gave my Altima an extra 10 HP, at the rear wheels.

Here we go again......

[CoupeVQ35CVT]

Speaking of gaining HP..

Why is it that it seems whenever someone removes their car's (usually stock ) muffler(s) they lose bottom end? Most will come back with "you lose backpressure" BS which I know is false.

Is it because the stock muffler is designed to help with the exhaust escape velocity.. even that far down the piping? I don't understand how that would still have any affect... But yet I've seen several threads about this.. going straight pipe and you lose bottom end. I think a poster by the name of Hussain said the same thing, going straight pipe caused him to notice a lack of low end.... Maybe you can enlighten us?

[LinkNuc]

I got ya from the get-go...that is why you sir, ARE NOT A BAG OF DOUCHE! My Ifavorite is the butt-dyno. i'll be honest I used to be that way too back when I got my 1st 350Z...yeah I added about 15HP to the real dyno, but my "butt" dyno seems to go off on that perfect cool fall afternoon at perfect conditions just as much as addling a cat-back and Ram intake...10HP is tough to tell from a butt dyno. We never want our babies called ugly or to feel like we got gyped, but hey sometimes its a tough pill to swallow...suck it up, warn others...and for god sakes loosen your skirt, Sally!

[mcheddadi]

OK, confession time.

I do not have a brother-in-law that worked for NASCAR, nor have I made any of these modifications to my car.

I knew when I concocted these hoaxes that I would generate controversy, and cause people to think. It appears that I have been successful.

FAIL

[Throckmorton]

Speaking of gaining HP..

Why is it that it seems whenever someone removes their car's (usually stock ) muffler(s) they lose bottom end? Most will come back with "you lose backpressure" BS which I know is false.

Is it because the stock muffler is designed to help with the exhaust escape velocity.. even that far down the piping? I don't understand how that would still have any affect... But yet I've seen several threads about this.. going straight pipe and you lose bottom end. I think a poster by the name of Hussain said the same thing, going straight pipe caused him to notice a lack of low end.... Maybe you can enlighten us?

Exhaust Theory 101 from Professor Throckmorton

Your exhaust system is designed to evacuate gases from the combustion chamber quickly and efficiently. Exhaust gases are not produced in a smooth stream; exhaust gases originate in pulses. A 4 cylinder engine will have 4 distinct pulses per complete engine cycle, a 6 cylinder has 6 pulses and so on. The more pulses that are produced, the more continuous the exhaust flow. Backpressure can be loosely defined as the resistance to positive flow - in this case, the resistance to positive flow of the exhaust stream.

Backpressure and velocity

Some people operate under the misguided notion that wider pipes are more effective at clearing the combustion chamber than narrower pipes. It's not hard to see how this misconception is appealing - wider pipes have the capability to flow more than narrower pipes. So if they have the ability to flow more, why isn't "wider is better" a good rule of thumb for exhaust upgrading? In a word - VELOCITY. I'm sure that all of you have at one time used a garden hose w/o a spray nozzle on it. If you let the water just run unrestricted out of the house it flows at a rather slow rate. However, if you take your finger and cover part of the opening, the water will flow out at a much much faster rate. Strange but true!

The astute exhaust designer knows that you must balance flow capacity with velocity. You want the exhaust gases to exit the chamber and speed along at the highest velocity possible - you want a FAST exhaust stream. If you have two exhaust pulses of equal volume, one in a 2" pipe and one in a 3" pipe, the pulse in the 2" pipe will be traveling considerably FASTER than the pulse in the 3" pipe. While it is true that the narrower the pipe, the higher the velocity of the exiting gases, you want make sure the pipe is wide enough so that there is as little backpressure as possible while maintaining suitable exhaust velocity. Backpressure in it's most extreme form can lead to reversion of the exhaust stream - that is to say the exhaust flows backwards, which is not good. The trick is to have a pipe that that is as narrow as possible while having as close to zero backpressure as possible at the RPM range you want your power band to be located at. Exhaust pipe diameters are best suited to a particular RPM range. A smaller pipe diameter will produce higher exhaust velocities at a lower RPM but create unacceptably high amounts of backpressure at high rpm. Thus if your power band is located 2-3000 RPM you'd want a narrower pipe than if your power band is located at 8-9000RPM.

So how did this myth come to be?

I believe it is a misunderstanding of what is going on with the exhaust stream as pipe diameters change. For instance, someone with a low horsepower, small displacement daily driver decides he's going to upgrade his exhaust with a 3" diameter piping. Once it's installed the owner notices that he seems to have lost a good bit of power throughout the power band. He makes the connections in the following manner: "My wider exhaust eliminated all backpressure but I lost power, therefore the motor must need some backpressure in order to make power." What he did not realize is that he killed off all his flow velocity by using such a ridiculously wide pipe. It would have been possible for him to achieve close to zero backpressure with a much narrower pipe - in that way he would not have lost all his flow velocity.

It has been proven that most people equate noise = power. A loud car is a faster car in some peoples mind. You can read time after time on these forums that some people want a car that is loud, and will pay good money to modify their car to get that sound. They really don't know if their modification to the exhaust made their car faster, but to them it not only sounds better [louder], but they read on a forum that their car now makes 10 or more horse power. They are happy!

This I call the Placebo Effect:

An improvement in a vehicles performance regarded as the effect of the person's belief in the effectiveness of the modification performed.

I think that makes it easier to understand. Next week we will discuss Einstein's Theory of Relativity, E=mc2 Just kidding. It's that sarcasm thing rearing it's ugly head again.

I have to leave now, as I must get ready for my date this evening with Megan Fox. She wants to tell me the real reason she does not want to be a Bond Girl in the next 007 movie.

Now thats not likely to happen, is it?

Neither is free, cheap horse power gains.

Be Safe.

[dldjros69]

Modified by dldjros69 at 7:32 PM 8/3/2009

[1125Altima3.5]

Your exhaust system is designed to evacuate gases from the combustion chamber quickly and efficiently.

Lots of info in the post, but it's kind of disorganized. Here's a better link:

http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/Mi...y.htm

But basically all you need to know is:

Smaller pipe = faster velocity, higher restriction (good for exhaust scavening + torque production at low rpm)

Larger Pipe = lower velocity, lower restriction (good for minimal backpressure + power production at high rpm)

And obviously it's a lot more complicated than that (you can move the torque/hp peaks, widen the power band, etc etc with a properly tuned exhaust) but unless you're building a $200k supercar it's probably not worth thinking about.

[XXplosive990]

i got a headache from reading that exhaust theory

[CoupeVQ35CVT]

Actually I've already read up on your exhaust theory 101 and 201 off other sources.

Except noone mentions or addresses the question I asked. Why are people saying their car lost low end when they removed their stock mufflers with no other mods, or went straight pipe? I believe Mcheddadi, Hussain, and a few others just on this forum will atest to saying they experienced that.

Then I also googled and found half a dozen forums for BMWs, Porches, Hondas, Mustangs, all riddled with the back pressure myth, yet all the people who removed mufflers complained of feeling less low end torque... Which I don't think makes sense based on the exhaust velocity theory, yet I can't find anywhere that debunks this or explains why going straight pipe causes this apparent loss of low end.

And no, Megan Fox is with me tonight, so you have plenty time to answer that question now. I shall return soon tonight to check, otherwise tomorrow morning.

[1125Altima3.5]

Pipe/muffler dimensions and bend locations also can help in exhaust scavenging. The mufflers may be tuned to set up a pressure node at the engine outlet at low rpms, improving scavenging and hp/torque. They do this by using reflected pressure waves.

Basically it looks like the exhaust systems are tuned for low end torque and any modification will probably hurt that a bit.

[CoupeVQ35CVT]

Ok thanks. That is what I was hypothesizing, but I didn't think the effect would carry over all the way 10 feet down to the muffler.

[Bmore-coupe]

[G35lover]

Can anyone suggest a good auto enhancer in the DFW area for my Infiniti G35? I am trying to get some added HP.

[masterbeatty]