My Marauder's Trilogy Blower Set-Up

[Lidio]

Well after returning from California and back to work this Monday we were able to finalize the Trilogy install on my own MM. As usual the install looks as nice and clean as if it came from the factory.

I didn’t want to get ahead of my self and post thoughts and pix before I tested it all but I couldn’t wait to share some of this stuff.

For now I’m posting a PIC of the larger intercooler heat exchanger I had made for my MM. This part will be available from us as an upgrade from the standard part. (about $280.00) It has over twice the amount of tubes and more fins per inch as well, and it’s a double pass design. This part should work much better then the supplied Cobra unit. Although the Cobra unit is also a very good part to begin with.

For now I’m not adding a fan to the heat exchanger, just gona see how it does on its own.

Like I said in a previous post… the folks over at Apten did some porting to my blower unit and the attaching inlet elbow at the rear. The thing the arrow points to has been added by Apten, normally its totally open. It all looks real good… I’ve attached a few pix of the parts that are different then a stock Trilogy blower kit.

Once I do some testing with the stock 3.4” pulley on the bower, I will soon move onto a smaller pulley, bigger T/B and larger MAF meter. But for right now I want to see what just the Apten porting does with manifold pressure and RWHP. I’m going to try to leave the rest of the tune like all other Trilogy cars to make sure I can see what just the blower mod does.
The larger heat exchanger should just allow me to run more timing (I hope) which I’m not going to touch at first for the blower porting comparisons.

For the past couple of days of testing on the street. I drove the car with the established tune program I use on all Trilogy cars with the 9.5psi pulley, 4.10 gears and proceeded to drive the car for about fifty miles and it feels real nice so far with the conservative tune included in all kits like this. The temps here are in the mid 20’s to mid 30’s the last few days. So the car feels incredible!!! After several WOT test drives and then pulling over and opening the hood… the intercooler reservoir and all related plumbing were down right as cold feeling as the out side temps!

I’ll be posting more very soon. I’m going to try to dyno it this Thursday.

Thanks

http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/inletcooler/in1.jpg
http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/inletcooler/in2.jpg http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/inletcooler/rad1.jpg http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/inletcooler/rad2.jpg http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/inletcooler/rad3.jpg http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/inletcooler/rad4.jpg

[bigslim]

Can't wait to see your results Lidio, or should I say "Lord of the Marauders". Also can't wait for you to do the tuning on mine. Chip, 410 and underpulleys here I come.

[MI2QWK4U]

Looks real good...I got a look at this the other day at Lidios shop. I for one am VERY interested in the results. The Intercooler radiator can do nothing but keep the whole thing cooler and should help a lot in the summer heat. The Apton work to the Eaton blower looks good, I have heard what they do for the Roots blowers on Cobra's and Lightning's, if our Eatons follow suit...mmmmmm. If anyone wonders why I put my faith in Lidio, this is why. He comes up with good, solid modifications that are both reasonable and practical, yielding the best results for the cost. I will be willing to bet hard money that Lidio will gleen a respectible result from what he has done to his ride. God knows he has literally dozens and dozens of dyno pulls from all of the Trilogy Marauders he has done to date to gauge his results by...so get that ride Dyno'ed Lidio....I smell some more Rear Wheel Horsepower...... and it smells sweet!!!!

[jgc61sr2002]

Lidio - That sure does look like factory. Nice job. :up:

[Jerry Barnes]

Lidio,

Great job! Like Dave and Darryl, I am also interested in the results. From what you said on the phone the other day, its sounds fantastic. I feel the 11's getting very close! Congratulations on a job well done, but I have come to expect nothing less. See you later this week.

Jerry

[Cobra25]

You did a nice job .

[Lidio]

Ok its time to divulge how my MM did on the dyno with the new Trilogy Blower set up. First I want to talk about some details about how I Dyno MM most of the time and other vehicles as well.

When I Dyno most cars, I like to dyno in a fashion that’s truly consistent and shows the true repeatability of a given car or combo. What I usually do that most other dyno guys don't do is make most runs with out ever turning off the car and only waiting about 3-5 minutes between runs. This is a very acceptable way of Dynoing because in the real world especially on the streets, you really don’t play a little… stop with the hood open for ten minutes… then go back out cruise and play a little… then pull over again for a few minutes. At least I don’t in the real world with a modern EFI, nice street car that has normal manners and a proper cooling system.
And besides all that, when most guys’ dyno a car on a chassis dyno, including myself, we leave the hood open! This in its self to some extent can be advantages in some ways! When do you go down the road with the hood gone? I like to call my chassis dyno the “truth dyno” maybe it’s the dyno, maybe it’s me or how I run it. But just in the last six months I’ve dispelled a lot of the exaggerated claims of high gains with quick and easy bolt-ons. We don’t dyno a given part that lets say really only nets a gain of about 3 horse and then proceed to let it cool down, even ice it and then 20 minutes later re-run the car to see a 18RWHP gain and then proceed to use that gain as the marketing ploy for that part. You’re only cheating yourself, the car and the dyno with unfair inconclusive stuff like that.

Now onto my results.
My MM’s blower and inlet casting have been ported by Apten. And so far with the stock 3.4” blower pulley I believe it’s picked up about 15RWHP over all other MM’s with Trilogy’s and 4.10 gears.
I make most pulls in MM’s with the trans in manual 2nd gear because this lugs the motor down better and allows a lower rpm start to better show off how much boost and low end torque the Trilogy’s produce over other non roots blowers. When making pulls only in 3rd gear most of the time all it shows is the peak RWHP number. This is nice if you hang the high revs all the time. The Trilogy’s make a lot of steam right off idle, so their peak number is nice and all, but its not what gets the car really moving off idle and in the mid range.

Most MM’s with Trilogy’s and 4.10’s make about 365 to 375RWHP and with the stock 3.55 gears they make about 380+RWHP. The bigger rear gears cause about a 2-4% loss in RWHP we’ve found.

With the same conservative tune that all Trilogy blower kits come with right off the bat… my car produced 384RWHP. This is up about 15 RWHP over most others we’ve done with 4.10’s and the 3.4” pulley in 2nd gear. Normal unmodded Trilogy’s with the stock 3.4” pulley usually make about 9.5psi of boost over all and some times drop-off a little at the high rpm’s which is normal for a Eaton roots type blower. What we found with mine is the boost so far never drops, it keeps climbing a little from 8.5ish right off the bat to about 9.5 to10ish at the top of the pull on some.

After several pulls with the stock set up we then installed a Pro-M mass-air meter that’s only 80mm. It’s the same size as the stock meter but it has a better shape to it and a K&N open element air filter. This right off the bat seemed to be worth about 10-15 RWHP!! It made the Air/Fuel ratio go a little leaner and the boost go up about 1 psi at first. After tweaking the A/F back to where I like it and adding 1 degree of timing to it at about 4000rpms… I ended up with a best in 2nd gear of about 405RWHP! This is the best I’ve seen so far for a MM with the stock 3.4” pulley and 4.10s in the rear. I then proceeded to make a couple of pulls in 3d gear from 3000rpm on up because I know that typically 3d makes for a higher RWHP number. The 3rd gear pulls ended up showing about 30 more RWHP with a best in the 439 range, although I thought the 439 was an incorrect spike. But the average in 3d that I did was about 430 to 434RWHP.

Needless to say I’m quite pleased with the results so far with a tune that has a little more room to play with on the ignition timing and a tiny bit more in the A/F ratio.

In the next few days I will be trying an 85mm MAF from Pro-M that’s supposed to fit in the stock air box and then also try a bigger non stock “air box” 90mm and a 95mm MAF. Once I figure out which one offer the best over all RWHP with the 3.4” pulley and uncompromised drivability, I will stay with that one and then proceed to go to a smaller blower pulley like a 3.0” or a 2.8”. These smaller pulleys with really show off how well the Apten porting really works on this application. We know that on Cobras and Lightning’s with Eaton’s… when you really over spin them the boost does climb up and peak in a hurry. But then the boost always drops off a little or even a lot as the revs get higher and higher. So far on my MM with the Apten porting and only the 80mm Pro-M the boost has yet to drop off at the top of the tach. Please remember also on my MM that the entire exhaust system is stock!! And will remain that way for as long as I can contain my self in that area.

The next few posts from me are various dyno graphs and a little video I did with my MM on the dyno.

The out side temp gauge on my car in this video show 37 degrees... its actually about 60 degrees indoors. The car had been recently pulled inside and the temp sensor didnt stabilize yet. And also forgive me for some of the shop background noise in this video.

Marauder on Dyno (http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/mmondyno.wmv)


Thanks

[Lidio]

This graph is is a comparison of my MM stock with 4.10s and then the Trilogy set up with the Apten porting and Pro-M 80mm MAF.

Unfortunately as much as I try to start all the pulls in manual 2nd gear at about 1500 rpm… The dyno can’t begin to do the math right away because of the torque converter slippage initially. All manual 2nd gear pulls are started at about 1500rpm but the dyno doesn’t begin to graph correctly till about 3000rpm. But if you look closely at the torque line, it’s quite obvious that it’s already on very strong by 3000rpms. If it could log below 3000 rpm I’m sure it would show no less then 300-340ft lbs of torque starting from 1800 on up!!

http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/mmdyno/StockMMvsTrilogy.gif

[Lidio]

This is a graph useing 3d gear only and waiting till about 3000 rpm so it does'nt down shift back to 2nd. The A/F is a little rich here but it still made great power. Look at the boost and how flat it is and yet climbed a little at the end.

http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/mmdyno/3rdgear.gif

[Lidio]

This graph is to show how different a 2nd vs a 3rd gear pull can be!

Please note that I only reved it to about 7000rpms. The dyno it off a little for some reason when it gets reved this high. Or the stock tach is off a little and I really did take it past 7K. Either way it pulled to this high of an rpm.

http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/mmdyno/3dvs2nd.gif

[Lidio]

This is exactly what happened when I made two pulls with and with-out the Pro-M 80mm MAF back to back. Once again... these are both in 2nd gear only.

I was not ready to mount the Pro-M permanently so I wanted to see what the boost, power, torque and A/F did when flat out removing the meter and going back to stock. Yes it got a little richer but this isn’t what made it loose about 15-RWHP. Look at the boost!


http://www.alternativeauto.com/lidspix/mmdyno/promcompare.gif

[MI2QWK4U]

Those are some eye opening dyno sheets. Its clear to see that with a cleanup job on the Eaton, addition of a mass air, and open K&N filter, the Trilogy setup is right in the ballpark of the Vortech set up....very interesting. Taking what Lidio has done, and adding the smaller pully that i have already, and a new Throttle body, this car will be knocking at 450RWHP and god only knows how much more torque, even with a conservative tune. What is important to note is how fast the torque comes on, seems that it has a clear advantage in that department, and if these mods will allow the eaton to maintain the torque......
Lidio, when I get the car back from the Autorama, its going straight to the shop, the eaton has a date with Apten! So pencil me in for Monday, March 1st brother! Good job on the eye opening info as usual.

[Jerry Barnes]

Lidio,

This is more great information. I really admire how you show the facts about what can be done with the mods you have made. I find this very informative, as should everyone else looking for real data about performance improvements to the car. Once again, this is very impressive!!

People on this forum really need to see real world results in order to make informed decisions. This can only be done if mods are appraoched in a systematic way, with results of each mod displayed on the dyno. How can anyone make changes based on speculation. This type of data can help many of us understand which mods are best for us based on price, performance, reliability, etc.

Once again, great work!!!

[MikesMerc]

Wow...those results are even better than I imagined they might be...well done Lidio. I'm dying to get the blower on my MM.

As we discussed last week, I'll be calling you shortly to make an appointment for the Trilogy set up on my 04. The car will be a daily driver during the fair weather months and see a fair amount of expressway miles to/from work. So I'll need things set up accordingly. Reliability must remain #1 while getting as much practical power I can get. Any thoughts on this you might like to share on this? Others might be interested to hear.

I'll call you to work out the specifics for my personal set up in the next week ot two. I just started a new job feb 2nd, and it's been real crazy. But, I want to get in soon to avoid the spring rush (if it isn't already starting to happen :) )

[bigslim]

Mike, where have you been? We are looking forward to having a great spring/summer turnout.

[MikesMerc]

I've been working my butt off. Doing a lot of out of town travel for work. But I get here to lurk when I can.

No worries M8, when the weather is nice, I'll be around for sure :up:

[studio460]

Wow! Nice work, Lidio! Very exciting data!!!

[MikesMerc]

It was nice talking to you today Lidio. I look forward to getting all the details worked out and bringing 04 MM into your shop soon. I'd love to have the blower set up and ready to go for the spring thaw.

Talk to you soon.