[socalsilverRL]

For teh n00bs.

If you have any questions that you see on here regularly, and want answered here, please post, and I will add it here.

Hopefully NoRemorse will come in here later and clean things up to keep it as helpful as possible.

A few questions we came up with:

1) Can you put a Blow Off Valve (BOV) on the redline?

A) No, Goofyguy found a way of putting some kind of BOV on his car, but it did nothing for performance, and was an immense amount of work.

2) What's the Size of the Stock Exhaust?

A) 2.75" at up until after the catalytic converter, 2.5" through the resonator, tapering down to 2.25" at the bend right before the axle.

3) What's the bolt pattern of our car?

A) 5 x 110mm, shares with many GM cars (SAAB, Cadillac, Pontiac, Chevy, etc.)

4) What's the Size & Offset of the stock rim?

A) 17" tall by 7" wide, with a +38mm offset

5) What is the stock tire size, and speed rating?

A) 215/45/17 Z-Rated Dunlop SP9000. The Maximum rolling diameter is about 27".

6) What type of intercooler does the redline have/ Can I put a Front Mount InterCooler (FMIC) on the redline?

A) The redline comes equipped with a water-to-air intercooler. The "charge air cooler" is located directly underneath the Supercharger. The system uses a electric pump (flowing @ 7 GPM) to flow 50/50 Dex-cool, to a Heat-Exchanger located between the factory Radiator and the Air Conditioning Condenser. This cools the charged (heated) air coming out of the Supercharger, and is much more efficient than an air-to-air FMIC. And, NO, you cannot put a FMIC on the Redline, BUT you CAN upgrade the heat exchanger.

7) What type of fuel system does the Redline have?

A) It has a returnless style fuel rail, with an in-tank fuel pump, and an internal fuel pressure regulator.

8) What size are the stock injectors?

A) 32 lb/hr., or ~336cc/min. High Impedance, Square Plug

9) What size are the GMPP Stage 1/2 Injectors?

A) 42.5 lb/hr., or ~446cc/min. High Impedance, Square Plug

10) What type of supercharger does the Redline have?

A) An Eaton Generation V (5) M62 (62 cubic inch) roots-type supercharger. Its positive displacement, and puts out 1 Litre of air per revolution.

11) What size is the stock supercharger pulley?

A) 3.35 inches, producing 10-12.5lbs of pressure (depending on Altitude, and limited by the ECM)

12) What is the size of the GMPP Stage 2 pulley?

A) 78mm, or about 3.1"

13) What is the size of the GMPP Stage 3 pulley?

A) 76mm, or about 2.95"

14) What's the smallest pulley I can run with the stock injectors?

A) 3.15 inches. That will net you about a 2psi gain over stock.

15) When do I need bigger injectors?

A) When you exceed 85% Injector Duty Cycle (IDC). Stock injectors, when you go passed a 3.15" pulley. Stage 2, when you go passed a 2.9" pulley.
NOTE: It is IMPERATIVE to increase fuel flow when running a smaller pulley

16) What's the maximum rotational speed of the supercharger?

A) 16,000 RPM's sustained. Faster in short bursts. To calculate SC max speed:
redline x (6/pulley size)


17) What's the RPM redline?

A) Stock is 6450 RPM, and Stage 1/2 is 7000 RPM, Stage 3 allows for up to 8000 RPM (but will require stiffer valve springs, and head porting to reduce exhaust heat).

18) What's the Maximum speed of the Redline?

A) 155 MPH is the limit within the ECM. One special Redline achieved 212mph on Methanol + a Turbo (Bonneville redline)

19) What is "Limp" mode/ I bounced off the limiter and now have no power/ What is this "reduced power" light?

A) You have hit what’s called "limp mode" or "reduced power" mode. There will be a light illuminated on the far right of your gauge cluster, that looks like an engine, with a downward pointing arrow inside it...and you will notice that it has no throttle response, and feels heavy and sluggish. You have this because you did something wrong, (bouncing off the limiter, improper tune, random malfunction)...this feature is to save your engine. Try not do what you did to get it there. If you have a OBDII code scanner, you can reset the Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTC's) stored in your car's ECU, and you will regain power. DO NOT try to tune-out the sensor fail frequencies to eliminate this feature, it should only be adjusted by A TUNING PROFFESIONAL!

*NOTE*: If have limp mode occuring on a regular basis, or on a stock tune, there may be a larger problem with either yout tune, or engine.

20) What are the stock spark plugs?

A) NGK BKR6ES gapped at 0.045"

21) What are the best spark plugs for Stage 2 and what gap should they be at?


A) A "One Stage Colder" plug is recommended to prevent knock. On a 3.0"-2.8" pulley, most use NGK BKR7es, gaped at .040-.045. Smaller than a 2.8" pulley, some recommend "Two Stage Colder" plugs, i.e. NGK BKR8es, gapped at .040. For places with 91 octane, most will run BKR8es', gapped at .040-.045, (with their 2.9" or less pulley’s) to help reduce knock.

Originally Posted by www.Intense-racing.com, for BKR7e plugs

Stage 1 - 3.30" to 3.20" supercharger pulley - .045" gap
Stage 2 - 3.10" to 3.00" supercharger pulley - .045" gap
Stage 3 - 2.90" to 2.80" supercharger pulley - .040" gap
Stage 4 - 2.70" to 2.60" supercharger pulley - .035" gap
Stage 5 - 2.50" supercharger pulley - .035" gap

*NOTE* When determining plug gap, always remember, too wide of a gap will induce "spark blowout," and you may misfire. Too small of a gap, and you do not get as hot of a spark. Use the above for reference, not fact.

ADVANCED QUESTIONS:
1) What does adding timing do?

A) Simple Answer: Adding Timing adds power, untill you create knock. The best timing results from maximizing flame speed, and burning the entire amount of fuel. The degrees of timing, "°", refers to the time the ignition (spark) takes place Before (piston) Top Dead Center (BTDC). So 10° means that the spark is taking place 10° before piston TDC. Too much timing results in detonation, and high cylinder temperatures.
For a better answer, follow link at the bottom "Timing info"

2) What is Knock?

A) Knock is the common term for Pre-detonation. Knock occurs when the air-fuel mixture ignites before the ingition system sparks. Pre-detonation can occur in many situations. Not enough fuel, low octane rating, excessively hot cylinder temperatures, too hot of spark plugs, etc. You cannot hear knock occuring, until it is too much knock (its kinda like a pinging sound). Too much knock can result in engine failure due to high cyl. temps, ring damage, valve damage, etc. Bottom line, try to avoid knock.

3) What is negative camber, and what does it do?

A) Simple answer...Negative Camber is when you bring the tops of your tires in further than the stock setting.
so your tires look like this: /===\
instead of this: |===|

It helps initial turn-in on some vehicles, but creates excessive tire wear, and toe-out is sometimes needed to create proper steering balance.

The RL has a stock camber of about -1°, and can be increased to -2° by drilling the holes on your strut tower. I DO NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS YOURSELF, please consult a proffesional before making ANY modifications to your suspension set-up.

4)What is HP Tuners?

A) HP Tuners (HPT) is the ONLY tuning program that is able to tune the factory ECU. It will allow you to "tune" for modifications done to your engine. It will also allow you to change the base fuel/ignition maps (and a LOT of other settings) within the factory ECU. Follow the links at the bottom for more info.

*NOTE*: Before purchasing HPT you may want to check your local library for books on tuning EFI, and factory ECU systems. One good book, How to tune and modify engine management systems, by Jeff Hartman