I have been track testing all kinds of mods from exhaust![]()
to intakes to tb and gears and anything else I have not mentioned.
Why do I do such testing? Fun.
Most track guys are v8 owners and the internet![]()
is flooded with information about the hemi Challengers, lots of aftermarket support, so there is many from which one can copy the results.
I went down the v6 road because, the initial cost of buying a hemi, I wanted something cheap up front that had the awesome challenger![]()
look with plenty of money to spare for upgrades on the visual side, I bought a new 2013 challenger for $20,905 out the door with like 33 miles on the clock.
I'm a hot rodder at heart, always been that way and I knew even a v6 would not stop me from trying to go faster.
So I was pretty much on my own when it came time to make changes, I ignored a bunch of the nay sayers and pulled from my past experience.
most v6 owners say mods don't work and it's a waste, that never stopped me.
So I'm finally putting all the pieces together from testing over the years and the results say it all.
In the beginning I tinkered with cai intakes, porting manifolds, porting tb, and doing custom exhaust work that no one else had done before.
I had to see what it was doing for myself on moving the air in an out of the motor.
each part was worth something, for example a cai was worth a solid .10 reduction in e.t. and was worth 1 mph gain in the 1/4, just a drop in K&N filter was worth .05 e.t. reduction and .5 mph gain, swapping tb from stock to fastman was worth almost 1 mph and my own ported tb was worth 1 mph more then fastman, no cats was worth a .10 reduction in e.t. but not no extra mph, h pipes that kill low end power, smaller 2 1/4" pipe increase low end grunt and so on............ So I did extensive track testing for each common part.
I did it in my free time and there was no time goal per say of when I wanted to get everything done, as a hot rodder you never really done.
The progress was slow at first
Best e.t. was 14.90 @ 95.36 mph 2.20 60 ft- using parts to increase low end torque.
Best mph was 15.20's at over 97 mph, 60 ft was in the mid/upper 2.20's
using parts for upper rpm power
The 3.6 is a great challenge in it's own trying to find that middle ground, too much ported intake, and tb and exhaust mods just kill the low end torque and you can not get the beast to move off the line in stock gearing form. you have great hp numbers (per trap speed![]()
mph) but the amount of time it takes to get in the power band just kills the e.t.
Build for low end torque and the car![]()
just falls flat on the upper end.
So I was able to find out what each part could give me. What worked for low end and what worked for top end.
So I had the best parts I could come up with to help the lower end with crappy 2.65 gears, which provided me with a 14.90 e.t. and a best ever 6.80 0-60![]()
mph run at the track along with the 14.90 1/4 mile pass.
So I left the parts on the shelf that help with hp ( trap speed) but cost the e.t. to be way slower.
So next step was to up the gearing from 2.65 to 3.64 gears![]()
to allow me to run full pull thru the 1/4 mile in 3rd gear, I wanted to cross the finish line well past 6k but not go over and end up shifting before the finish line into 4th, so the car had no chance to lay down crossing the finish line.
So in went the 3.64 gears and I had to have a tuner to change gears so I installed the 91 can tune from diablo and added stickier tires because the gear change cause more traction issues.
At the track the car ran quicker but not faster, the car ran 14.72 @ 95.20 mph with a 2.18 60ft and recorded the best ever 0-60 mph run at 6.29 seconds during that pass.
After that outing I went ahead and installed the heavily ported lower intake manifold that I did long ago and also installed the heavily ported stock throttle body of my own design which these parts I did track test and they provided much more top end power. They also killed some low end torque![]()
which provided much easier launches that was more controllable which was a help with the better 3.64 gears now.
I also messed with the 91 and 93 can tunes and some wot fuel and spark. Using marked off roads and seat of the pants I came up with leaving the 91 can tune installed with 2 more degrees of timing in each rpm category.
So at the track with heavily ported lower intake and TB plus 2 more degrees of timing added to the 91 can tune, the car ran
14.33 @ 98.81 mph with a 2.11 60ft time
the 0-60 mph run was now reduced to 5.89 seconds on that pass.
I tinkered with 10% lean on the wot fuel but it killed the trap speed by 1.32 mph and I also tried 5% richer wot fuel but it killed the trap speed 1.43 mph both moves slowed the car to 14.40 range but the 2.11 60ft stayed the same, both runs the 0-60 mph was slowed as well 5.94 on the rich side of 5% and 6.10 on the lean side of 10%
Setting the wot fuel back to normal on the 91 can tune I was able to repeat my 14.33 run and mph to confirm the baseline and ran a 5.90 0-60 mph time as well.
So there you have it, real world results that mods do work, but they need to be done together to work and you need to understand what the mods do to this engine.
Next on the list is to get a custom tune to help tie everything together better and possible stall converter (fti 3600 rpm), the stall can cause launching issues again with traction but I have another trick up my sleeve to help with that, past testing shows h-pipe and x pipes kill low end power, so installing one might help balance out the traction issue of running a higher stall.
Should have the car in the 13's soon at over 100 mph
14.33 at 98.81 mph with a 2.11 60 ft time. pretty good now with simple bolt ons and my car is over .80 second quicker and about 5-6 mph faster now over stock in the 1/4 using the same race track as the measuring stick. 2013 sxt challenger
3.6 engine
to intakes to tb and gears and anything else I have not mentioned.Why do I do such testing? Fun.
Most track guys are v8 owners and the internet
is flooded with information about the hemi Challengers, lots of aftermarket support, so there is many from which one can copy the results.I went down the v6 road because, the initial cost of buying a hemi, I wanted something cheap up front that had the awesome challenger
look with plenty of money to spare for upgrades on the visual side, I bought a new 2013 challenger for $20,905 out the door with like 33 miles on the clock.I'm a hot rodder at heart, always been that way and I knew even a v6 would not stop me from trying to go faster.
So I was pretty much on my own when it came time to make changes, I ignored a bunch of the nay sayers and pulled from my past experience.
most v6 owners say mods don't work and it's a waste, that never stopped me.
So I'm finally putting all the pieces together from testing over the years and the results say it all.
In the beginning I tinkered with cai intakes, porting manifolds, porting tb, and doing custom exhaust work that no one else had done before.
I had to see what it was doing for myself on moving the air in an out of the motor.
each part was worth something, for example a cai was worth a solid .10 reduction in e.t. and was worth 1 mph gain in the 1/4, just a drop in K&N filter was worth .05 e.t. reduction and .5 mph gain, swapping tb from stock to fastman was worth almost 1 mph and my own ported tb was worth 1 mph more then fastman, no cats was worth a .10 reduction in e.t. but not no extra mph, h pipes that kill low end power, smaller 2 1/4" pipe increase low end grunt and so on............ So I did extensive track testing for each common part.
I did it in my free time and there was no time goal per say of when I wanted to get everything done, as a hot rodder you never really done.
The progress was slow at first
Best e.t. was 14.90 @ 95.36 mph 2.20 60 ft- using parts to increase low end torque.
Best mph was 15.20's at over 97 mph, 60 ft was in the mid/upper 2.20's
using parts for upper rpm power
The 3.6 is a great challenge in it's own trying to find that middle ground, too much ported intake, and tb and exhaust mods just kill the low end torque and you can not get the beast to move off the line in stock gearing form. you have great hp numbers (per trap speed
mph) but the amount of time it takes to get in the power band just kills the e.t.Build for low end torque and the car
just falls flat on the upper end.So I was able to find out what each part could give me. What worked for low end and what worked for top end.
So I had the best parts I could come up with to help the lower end with crappy 2.65 gears, which provided me with a 14.90 e.t. and a best ever 6.80 0-60
mph run at the track along with the 14.90 1/4 mile pass.So I left the parts on the shelf that help with hp ( trap speed) but cost the e.t. to be way slower.
So next step was to up the gearing from 2.65 to 3.64 gears
to allow me to run full pull thru the 1/4 mile in 3rd gear, I wanted to cross the finish line well past 6k but not go over and end up shifting before the finish line into 4th, so the car had no chance to lay down crossing the finish line.So in went the 3.64 gears and I had to have a tuner to change gears so I installed the 91 can tune from diablo and added stickier tires because the gear change cause more traction issues.
At the track the car ran quicker but not faster, the car ran 14.72 @ 95.20 mph with a 2.18 60ft and recorded the best ever 0-60 mph run at 6.29 seconds during that pass.
After that outing I went ahead and installed the heavily ported lower intake manifold that I did long ago and also installed the heavily ported stock throttle body of my own design which these parts I did track test and they provided much more top end power. They also killed some low end torque
which provided much easier launches that was more controllable which was a help with the better 3.64 gears now.I also messed with the 91 and 93 can tunes and some wot fuel and spark. Using marked off roads and seat of the pants I came up with leaving the 91 can tune installed with 2 more degrees of timing in each rpm category.
So at the track with heavily ported lower intake and TB plus 2 more degrees of timing added to the 91 can tune, the car ran
14.33 @ 98.81 mph with a 2.11 60ft time
the 0-60 mph run was now reduced to 5.89 seconds on that pass.
I tinkered with 10% lean on the wot fuel but it killed the trap speed by 1.32 mph and I also tried 5% richer wot fuel but it killed the trap speed 1.43 mph both moves slowed the car to 14.40 range but the 2.11 60ft stayed the same, both runs the 0-60 mph was slowed as well 5.94 on the rich side of 5% and 6.10 on the lean side of 10%
Setting the wot fuel back to normal on the 91 can tune I was able to repeat my 14.33 run and mph to confirm the baseline and ran a 5.90 0-60 mph time as well.
So there you have it, real world results that mods do work, but they need to be done together to work and you need to understand what the mods do to this engine.
Next on the list is to get a custom tune to help tie everything together better and possible stall converter (fti 3600 rpm), the stall can cause launching issues again with traction but I have another trick up my sleeve to help with that, past testing shows h-pipe and x pipes kill low end power, so installing one might help balance out the traction issue of running a higher stall.
Should have the car in the 13's soon at over 100 mph
14.33 at 98.81 mph with a 2.11 60 ft time. pretty good now with simple bolt ons and my car is over .80 second quicker and about 5-6 mph faster now over stock in the 1/4 using the same race track as the measuring stick. 2013 sxt challenger
3.6 engine