[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by JKennedy Why is a throttle body spacer crap if all the sites say it is a good upgrade? And....why will changing my throttle body and adding a spacer reduce my torque. These are things I guess I'm still learning.

well its wierd, when youre dealing with a N/A motor thats pretty much stock back pressure and a certain amount air flow restriction will give you a crisp trottle response and good tourqe when youre at low speeds at the cost of a lower top speed when youre running wide open.

If you open up your intake and reduce the restricion of air into the motor and and free up the back pressure in the exhaust, youll gain some top speed and some top-end acceleration but at the cost of low-end accelleration and low-wnd tourque (ie, streangth)

This is a very vauge and generalized description that does not apply to motors that produce alot more power than the one you have right now..well kinda..lets just say that those bigger top-end parts wont give you the claimed hp gains unless you are running a really high output motor! Your low out put motor will either not be changed or be changed in ways that you wont want, ie. it will be sluggish!

[06dkkiser]

I have never seen that spoiler before man. I'm diggin your black scoops, taillights and such. I think you need to buy some new rims tho. Get some black bullets to go with your whole black on white theme. Oh, and tint those windows.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by 06dkkiser I have never seen that spoiler before man. I'm diggin your black scoops, taillights and such. I think you need to buy some new rims tho. Get some black bullets to go with your whole black on white theme. Oh, and tint those windows.

Yeah wheels are next! Bullets like you said, Im thinking grey ones! Yeah thats a wierd spoiler I think it came off of a Escort GT, not sure..anyone recognize that spoiler Ive got?

[06dkkiser]

maybe off of a focus

[ESG-642T]

BTW: 85k is cake for these cars, you can still upgrade whatever you want. I was 83k when I put the vortech on my stock short block, and now its running in my friends 98 v6...

You don't have to worry much about the bottom end with a power pack and bolt ons. Now if your going to spray or go f/i then you may want a compression check.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by SSStang BTW: 85k is cake for these cars, you can still upgrade whatever you want. I was 83k when I put the vortech on my stock short block, and now its running in my friends 98 v6... You don't have to worry much about the bottom end with a power pack and bolt ons. Now if your going to spray or go f/i then you may want a compression check.

Oh sure 85K is cake but 185K is not cake..so pour another 60-100ph on a 85K bottom end and I wouldnt trust it to get another 100K like I would a stock motor, yeah its possible but I wouldnt do, Im paraniod! lol

Im coming back to edit this cool?..what I worry about and what really keeps me awake at night is actually only three things and in this order:

1: Oil pump failure, were lucky that the Essex has an external oil pump that can be changed without pulling the motor, so if you have a high mileage bottom end its worth the $40-$50 for a new oil pump. Ive seen them go without warning and fuck up a good rotating assy in like 5 sec.

2: Connecting rod bearning failure, those lil bitches take a bunch of punishment spinning around on that crankshaft, those are the first ones to go! The 4.6 modular that I used to deal with on a daily basis is where Im getting this. We'd strip those cop cars down and notice that as those things approached 100K those conn. rod bearings would start to look pretty weak, we would mic em out from time to time just to get a tolerance reading and 1/2 the time they were on the edge of being out of spec. or out of spec or just plain fucking spun..we hear em driving up to the fleet shop with a rod knocking like a mo-fo! ...and the 4.6 modualr is twice the motor of a Essex..that sucker can take some punishment, ive seen it!


3: Timing chain failure! We saw a bunch of it in cop cars! It would fuck-up valves and heads..big-ass gashes right in the combustion chambers, make a head totally useless! It would fuck up cams too the lobes would be out of spec and we had to chuck em! ..good thing abou the essex is no overhead cam chains though, a big weakness in motors that average ppl dont see.

Granted, these were Police cars, they spent alot of time sitting at ldle, the odometer might read 100K but the car also had untold hours of RPMs just sitting there...but those "tourtue-test-lives" of Police cars made me into a guy that worries like a mother fucker!

Im not trying to be a nay-sayer Im just trying to move lifespan to the forefront on top of power, you can get power easily, I just belive in getting it along with lifespan. Thankyou Gentlemen!

[JKennedy]

So, I have continued my reading and researching and have reached a new question. Since I live in a county in TN that has emissions testing I don't think that LT will be an option my only other header option if I want to switch would be shorty headers. Why are shorty's not as good as long tubes and why are what is standard equipment on the car better than the shorty's?

[ESG-642T]

Unless you make more than 300rwhp shorties are worthless.

[gloomshadow]

Originally Posted by JKennedy So, I have continued my reading and researching and have reached a new question. Since I live in a county in TN that has emissions testing I don't think that LT will be an option my only other header option if I want to switch would be shorty headers. Why are shorty's not as good as long tubes and why are what is standard equipment on the car better than the shorty's?

long tubes wont really do anything for you unless youre running Forced Induction or maybe a really hot rotating assy, most guys are using them to get a deep rumble like a V-8. I dont think there is a spit worth of difference btw shorties and stock. Some guys are runinng shorties so they can get a different mid-pipe to fit maybe like a cat-less X-pipe or something. Just run your stock headers for now, they are pretty good for what you have. Even going over to a dual set up doesnt give you a big result on a Dyno when youre dealing with a mostly stock motor anyway. Most guys are looking for sound quality. Just keep your cats and your stock headers and look into the dual set-ups that you can either make or buy. One guy I talked to bought two Flowmaster mufflers and cut his Y-pipe and just ran two straight pipes right to mufflers and didnt even make tail pipes to exit the mufflers..they are called "dumps" or a 'Dual-dump" setup. Its quick,easy and cheap. Gives a good sound and about the same results as a more expensive set-up on a mostly stock engine. He recommended Flowmasters, he said they sounded best..hes got a video on Youtube of what he did and how it sounds. I dont remember his name though, I could find it if youre interested.