Camaro | Chevrolet : January 14, 2020
Would you expect to gain over 100whp & 70lbft from just long-tube headers and Flex Fuel on a nearly stock naturally aspirated vehicle? Yeah, neither did Jason when he brought his Summit White 2019 Chevrolet Camaro SS in from Maryland for that exact scope-of-work, but that's where we landed!
Up first, Charlie performed pre-work dyno runs to establish a starting point, and with the only modification being a Chevrolet Performance air-intake system, the baseline came in at 353.87whp & 395.79lbft. Far less than expected, but after inspecting the datalogs, we noticed that the short term fuel trims were alarmingly out of line. The only logical conclusion we could draw is that the intake wasn't playing nicely with the factory calibration, which is obviously odd given the manufacturer.
Once we determined the low power wasn't due to a mechanical issue, she moved to the shop where Jackson installed Stainless Works long-tube headers and Chambered S-Tube exhaust system (NPP compatible), MSD Performance spark-plug wires with Design Engineering, Inc. Protect-a-Boots, Mishimoto Automotive 160° thermostat, and a DSX Tuning Flex Fuel conversion.
With the mechanical work wrapped in the shop, Charlie strapped her back down to the rollers for Vlad to perform the 93 octane calibration up first via HP Tuners. Our hypothesis proved out, with the LT1's output jumping to 440.00whp & 445.30lbft -- gaining 86.13whp & 49.51lbft on 93 octane alone! Then, with E85 in the tank, Vlad moved on to the Flex Fuel calibration, increasing output to 461.49whp & 469.00lbft -- gaining 107.62whp & 73.21lbft at peak over baseline, and over 130lbft at ~3,700rpm! See overlay graph of all three runs in the picture stack.
Suffice it to say, Jason left with an entirely different car than he arrived with, and is enjoying the new power output! Check out the dyno video below.
