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why?

Just mod it. They do suck a bit stock, especially as they get older. I'm hoping to wake mine up soon. I got beat by a basically stock gli last night. :(
And a svt weighs around 3000lb. Still heavy compared to many other popular cars. Always keep in mind a contour isn't a drag car and to make it into one would be stupid expensive. I just want some added power (mainly torque) to pull me outta corners and save from having to downshift as much when doing so.
 
8000RPM said:
ok, why do i have the imrpession that the svt kinda sucks in first gear.
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i can't really remember too much from before i had a lightened flywheel installed, but i know first gear was always violent. Never "sluggish" per say, but we are talking about 1st gear here. I myself never use first unless i absolutely have to (starting from a stop basically).

With the lightened flywheel, 1st gear has definitely gained the most improvement. With the proper launch it does not feel sluggish at all. I generally do not race, but all the races i have participated in were decided by the jump i got from the launch. If i wanted to, i could rip tires through 1st and second, and bark third. I've even won a drunken burnout contest against a bunch of coog's (closed course, no danger to anything except my trans!)

Reading back, it says your problem is from a 10mph roll. Definitely check your imrc, also check for clogged cats...and even your spark plugs/wires. Even if i were to do what you described from 10mph, the wires would be breaking loose towards the top of 1st.


still, we're talking about a car that was not designed to be a drag racer. The gearing really hinders the cars performance at drag racing, but i mean, it's great around a road course...which is what it was meant for - and what i personally prefer :laugh:
 
8000RPM said:
true. that's why i asked, what can be done to imrpove that...other than headers, 3L, turbo, etc...?
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Headers or various other open exhaust mods, open intake. Thats your best bet until you move up to a 3L/ Not much else will give you what you want off the line.
Still, our cars weren't meant to be driven like that. Taking off with a minor clutch slip and then punching it is just not a sensible way to launch this car. IT was meant for a 2000-2500 rpm slip which will get it into the torque area almost right away on take-off since first gear is pretty low.
Every car has its way to drive and is different. If you want that kind of power then get a truck. lol
 
warmonger said:
Headers or various other open exhaust mods, open intake. Thats your best bet until you move up to a 3L/ Not much else will give you what you want off the line.

Every car has its way to drive and is different. If you want that kind of power then get a truck. lol
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MY point exactly!
 
BrandonSVT99 said:
I weighed my car at a truck stop and got a little over 2800 I have a carbon fiber hood and no spare or jack and I keep the car clutter free.
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You wish! You'd have to remove body panels and likely the glass to get the SVT to weigh 2800lbs.

Truck scales are notorious for weighing light objects very far off. Their normal range of operation is 10's of thousands of pounds. I see far too many people quoting these overly light numbers for this platform from dubious sources.

The best you could hope, by stripping most unboltable pieces (including seats), is to drop the car's weight down around 2900lbs. Of course this information is courtesy of a digital corner scale set that is accurate to within 1/10 of a pound so take it with a gram of salt.

I have a pretty decent break down of the weight savings from removing various pieces and this was done on a car that already had a good 100lbs taken off it. (headers, exhaust, misc frame mounts, 13lb battery, etc)
See my website! It's been up a while.
 
Bingo.

My E1, stock with driver was 3280.. a pig.. no hopes of getting it to 2900 without SERIOUS stripping. Anyone who thinks that they are driving a street-trim SVT around with only 2800-2900 pounds on them is either crazy, ignorant, or just plain wrong.
 
DemonSVT said:
You wish! You'd have to remove body panels and likely the glass to get the SVT to weigh 2800lbs.

Truck scales are notorious for weighing light objects very far off. Their normal range of operation is 10's of thousands of pounds. I see far too many people quoting these overly light numbers for this platform from dubious sources.

The best you could hope, by stripping most unboltable pieces (including seats), is to drop the car's weight down around 2900lbs. Of course this information is courtesy of a digital corner scale set that is accurate to within 1/10 of a pound so take it with a gram of salt.

I have a pretty decent break down of the weight savings from removing various pieces and this was done on a car that already had a good 100lbs taken off it. (headers, exhaust, misc frame mounts, 13lb battery, etc)
See my website! It's been up a while.
Click to expand...


POINT TAKEN I WASN'T AWARE OF HOW OFF THOSE SCALES ARE.I guess I should of researched them a little better.
 
DemonSVT said:
You wish! You'd have to remove body panels and likely the glass to get the SVT to weigh 2800lbs.

Truck scales are notorious for weighing light objects very far off. Their normal range of operation is 10's of thousands of pounds. I see far too many people quoting these overly light numbers for this platform from dubious sources.

The best you could hope, by stripping most unboltable pieces (including seats), is to drop the car's weight down around 2900lbs. Of course this information is courtesy of a digital corner scale set that is accurate to within 1/10 of a pound so take it with a gram of salt.

I have a pretty decent break down of the weight savings from removing various pieces and this was done on a car that already had a good 100lbs taken off it. (headers, exhaust, misc frame mounts, 13lb battery, etc)
See my website! It's been up a while.
Click to expand...
Lol the great thing about owner a beater with almost 100k miles on it is that you can do dumb things to it without any risk of losing value :)

I got bored and stripped my trunk of EVERYTHING; carpeteing, plastic trim, trunk light, spare, plastic tailight covers, everything except bare metal and wiring came out...

Then I said WTF - lets get rid of the sound insulation. ripped up the carpet and yanked out the hard platic coated firewall insulation as well as the floor foam insulation. Must have saved at least 8 pounds with all that stuff lol, and now my feet stay warm and toasty. I don't use the ashtray so that went, even pulled the cruise control module and emptied my cd collection and change drawer. I must be almost 1/100th of second faster in the 1/4 now, and best of all I bet my MPG went from 19 to 19.01

Oh yeah - the missing jack point cover saves another few ounces - but I had to put my CC module back in as the ground for the horn goes through that harness. Add to that the missing cat guts, the underhood lienr, the hood rear weather stripping, the IMRC killer cover and the 2 car seats I used to carry around (kids dont ride in dads beater anymore lol) plus the el cheapo walmart battery that was like 10 lbs less than the motorcraft one and a lighter SVT flywheel and the lighter front sway bar links and I'm getting somewhere

Seriously though - I did remove all that crap and I guess I can almost maybe feel the car act a little more nimbly, but from putting all the crap I pulled out (that I still had) onto the trunk liner and trying to lift I'd say it was no more than 50-60 lbs total, with most being the spare tire.
 
This post was about low end torque not weight savings.....but damn scott you went a little nuts with stripping everything out:)
 
No.. This post was about low-end responsiveness (or lack thereof) and was equated to a lack of torque in general.

Weight savings was brought up to increase the overall acceleration of the vehicle (which is what the poster asked how to do). Inertia is a killer, man.
 
OK, LOL. You guys are unbelivable. Well, the post was about my 98 CSVT E0:))
ok, so sparkplugs new, cables too. IMRC works fine once it opens at 4k rpm or so. Throttle body is very clean, new EGR, new DPFE, and 2 new upper O2 sensors. I have a K&N short ram (No heat shield), and a Superchips module (which i think makes no difference:(( ), oh I have straight pipes with stock resonator, no gutet cats and all that good stuff.

SOOOOOOOO....
from roll start, say 10mph, yeah the rpm needle seems to go up kinda slow. or maybe its my imagination. I've had the car for 3.5 years now, and its always been like that. Now I have 105+k miles on it. My friend's 99CSVT feels identical like mine (all stock - other than K&N in the housing and no resonator).

SOOOOOOOO....
my initial question was, what can i do (simple, cheap) to imrove that. And I think I already got some answers:

TB optimization
Y-pipe optimization
Magnaflow resonator (I assume will improve a little -- remember, i have straight pipes after the resonator)
?????????????

I CAN'T FIND THE TB/Y-PIPE OPTIMIZATIONS HOW-TO LINKS...they don't work..why????

btw. I have been changing my friend's 99 csvt clutch for the past 3 days, and its been pain in the but. :((((((((((( don't try this at home!!! (like we did)
 
The howto on the main page appears to be gone (along with everything else).

The jist of it is...

1) half shaft (cut the top 1/2 of the shaft off so the screws mount against the tb plate instead of the top of the shaft).

2) flatten (file down) back 1/2 of shaft. I think mine ended up about 1/2 the height that it was. After reassembly, cut off (hacksaw or dremel) the protruding screw threads and file them down smooth to match the shaft.

2) standard p&p. If you're adept with a dremel, then you can use that. I prefer various files and sandpapers, though it'll take alot longer.

* the next two are more risky as many people have screwed them up

3) countersink the tb plate with countersink bits (the guide said to use a drill bit :nonono:). Make sure you get countersunk screws and loctite them. If this is done wrong then the tb plate might not be properly aligned to seal against the tb housing.

4) knife the tb edges. Some people have had problems because they removed too much material and the plate (when closed) would no longer be sealed to the tb housing.

In searching for the howto (search for "optimization" in the old duratec performance forum) I came across various pics. Those might also be useful.
 
8000RPM said:
OK, LOL. You guys are unbelivable. Well, the post was about my 98 CSVT E0:))
ok, so sparkplugs new, cables too. IMRC works fine once it opens at 4k rpm or so. Throttle body is very clean, new EGR, new DPFE, and 2 new upper O2 sensors. I have a K&N short ram (No heat shield), and a Superchips module (which i think makes no difference:(( ), oh I have straight pipes with stock resonator, no gutet cats and all that good stuff.

SOOOOOOOO....
from roll start, say 10mph, yeah the rpm needle seems to go up kinda slow. or maybe its my imagination. I've had the car for 3.5 years now, and its always been like that. Now I have 105+k miles on it. My friend's 99CSVT feels identical like mine (all stock - other than K&N in the housing and no resonator).

SOOOOOOOO....
my initial question was, what can i do (simple, cheap) to imrove that. And I think I already got some answers:

TB optimization
Y-pipe optimization
Magnaflow resonator (I assume will improve a little -- remember, i have straight pipes after the resonator)
?????????????

I CAN'T FIND THE TB/Y-PIPE OPTIMIZATIONS HOW-TO LINKS...they don't work..why????

btw. I have been changing my friend's 99 csvt clutch for the past 3 days, and its been pain in the but. :((((((((((( don't try this at home!!! (like we did)
Click to expand...


Funny, you missed the big one. HEADERS!
You must really get a set of headers. Nothing else compares aside from forced induction. If headers aren't enough then use a 3L, and the headers you buy will work fine on the 3L as well.
 
headers? yeah, i know, but hell. they are expensive, and it seems that i have to drop the subframe to get to them. right? besides, the cats that come with them might give me problems with emmisions. and i can't use mil eliminators.

so are you saying that only this TB optimization makes a difference that can be felt?
 
Headers are no longer that much. The are THE best mod you can do short of going F/I for overall power gain.

TB optimization may give you an ever so slight bump in HP (I believe in the range of 1-2 HP maybe?), but as far as I know it has a noticeable affect on throttle response.

BUT, the little gains add up. Just dont do one and expect a big kick.
 
ok. well it sounds like I wil do the TB opt, however, I will feel more comfortable to do it, once the Howto link is working. reading about it in greater detail will help me. and why are these links not working??? hmm :(

As far as headers go: which once are the best? do they require new cats or do they come with cars on them? can i use my stock y pipe or is it a must to change it. i know it is restrictive, but I am just wondering. and how much will be all that in terms of parts only?
 
Get with the program, get headers!

Get with the program, get headers!

8000RPM said:
ok. well it sounds like I wil do the TB opt, however, I will feel more comfortable to do it, once the Howto link is working. reading about it in greater detail will help me. and why are these links not working??? hmm :(

As far as headers go: which once are the best? do they require new cats or do they come with cars on them? can i use my stock y pipe or is it a must to change it. i know it is restrictive, but I am just wondering. and how much will be all that in terms of parts only?
Click to expand...


You can get bare steel MSDS headers for the $300 range right now. Spend a little more money and you can get them coated, or just buy a can of Thermotec 2000* paint and paint them in and out for about $10 from JC Whitney.
Even if they are coated from MSDS they will need periodic touch up work to prevent corrosion, about once per year you sand off any areas where a rust spot might form, clean it with solvent and repaint with the thermotec. Mainly just the y-pipe where it is hot but gets hit with water. Higher up they never have any issues.

Anyway, That is small change for the power you get and there are no other mods that come close to price/power gain other than nitrous.

The throttlebody mod probably won't give you anything to be honest. At least not till full exhaust and intake work is done first.

HEADERS HEADERS HEADERS......got the point? lol
 
i got your point:)) well well. ok
so i was looking for heathers and i couldn't find any. what's the url where they sell them that cheap? and do they come with cats? and use the stock y-pipe? ohh and well, how will the sound of the car change? thanks man.
 
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