Price to get my car dyno'd

[DanteMO]

Ok...As a newbie here I'll post my first question.. I think I've lost some power with my duals but I can't be sure. I didn't have the car dyno'd before so I have no comparisons. (I know..stupid) I did get the h-pipe put on to equalize the pressure and hopefully eliminate any low end power loss but I still feel like the car is dragging a bit now. But I can't be sure... Should I get a dyno (it cost 60 bucks) to see? Is it even worth it if I don't have numbers from before? Anyone else experience the powerloss with an H-PIPE? When I punch it, it just doesn't have the pep that I remember. But to be fair, it's been very hot here in St. Louis (90+ degrees). Any advice would be appreciated. Oh... there is one other thing I did... I removed the Mustang strip on the rocker panels... Could that have affected performance? *LOL* (Ok..I can be somewhat of a sarcastic guy when I want to be) Frank

[vb101]

It probably did cause you to loose some low end torque. I installed the JBA duals, not the newer true dual setup, and have experienced a bit of low end power loss as well as some small amount of backfiring due to too little back pressure. But when I got the Xcalibrator 2 to reprogram my computer these problems pretty much went away especially after adding CAI as well. They say that it's not necessary to reprogram the computer after adding duals but it certainly seemed to help with mine.

This is just my own experience but it's something to consider.

[DanteMO]

vb101,

Yep... I thought the h-pipe was supposed to mitigate the low end power loss. But I had my suspicions to tell you the truth... I've not experienced backfires whatsoever and the sound is really good but can sound a little tinny at high rpm's.
One thing I was wondering about was the drone folks have mentioned. I don't think I have this but was wondering what that sounded like? (I know it's hard to describe).

What's pretty cool is that the shop I had it done told me to bring it back in 2 weeks (this weekend) to see if I had any vibrations etc... and they would try to fix it (free of charge).

It's good to know about the tune/cai! Which cai did you go with (MMR, K&N, etc...)? I really want to get rid of the rev limiter etc... It drives me crazy but 600 bucks plus seems rather steep to me right now... (wondering if they will come down in price anytime soon)?

[vb101]

I got the Steeda CAI. As for the drone with the duals, it is hard to describe. With mine I get the drone at around 2000 rpm's give or take a couple hundred rpms. It's a low pitched sound that reverberates in the passenger compartment. The only thing that bugs me about it is that with certain music it has a tendency to resonate with the music, that is the drone gets significantly louder as long as the stereo is on but that's only with certain music. The first time it resonated like that I thought I lost my mufflers or something but when I turned off the stereo to listen the drone almost completely went away. It's kinda weird I know.

Mac makes a CAI kit that supposedly does not require a tune. Others on these forums have mentioned getting the Mac CAI and it does seem that it doesn't require a tune but it is a bit more expensive than the other kits. I do know that increasing airflow as with a CAI kit will increase backpressure somewhat and may give you back some, if not all, of your low end power. That along with the tune certainly seemed do so for me.

Sounds like you have a good exhaust shop to do your work. Heck, I couldn't find a shop that was willing to install duals on mine at all which is why I went with JBA and did it myself, with a lot of help from my brother who has a very well equipped garage.

[DanteMO]

vb101,

What tuner did you use with your steeda CAI and have you seen a big difference in performance?

Some people say "it runs like a bat outta heck now".. Other's seem more tame on the tune/cai combo. Wondering what your opinion was?