Hi guys,
I opted for Jason's 200 Cell High Flow Cats from Nameless Performance, and they are due to arrive today! I plan to post pictures later this evening, and hope to have them installed within the next several days. Jason was kind enough (and had enough belief in his product) to offer to pay for my Dyno Runs, so as to gather real data for all of us to digest. As he will soon have Dyno Info on both his 200 Cell Cats, and Downpipes, he will not be paying for any more Dyno Runs. This really was a very magnanimous offer by Nameless Performance, and I appreciate it greatly! I have an appointment for my first Dyno Run this afternoon, so I had better check my air pressure.

More later!
Brian

 

ooooooh, nice. subscribed!

 

Good one. Try to make sure the dyno conditions are very similar, I usually measure the temp of the intercoolers with a IR gun and make sure they are the same temp as a previous run as then the results will be best comparable (this could easily make 10-20 rwhp difference which you don't want as that could be just the difference of the new cats). Also take your time with the new cats to drive in, so the ecu has had time (if you have disconnected the battery) to adjust again. Looking forward to the results!

 

Thanks guys, I'll try to keep everything as similar as possible and definitely let the ECU reset. I got lucky and flagged the UPS Man down to get my Cats delivered early. They were packaged securely, and appear to be extremely well manufactured! I am by no means an expert, but they look GREAT to me!
Here are the pics. I'm off to the Shop for my initial Dyno shortly.
Brian

 

This gives me a good opportunity to mention that we now have test data lined up for the baseline and post-install on our high flow cats as well as downpipes so we look forward to sharing that information when the 'after' tests have been done by Brian & Steve.

Until then we won't need any other dyno tests for the XKR/XJR. I'll keep you all posted as we have need for other people to dyno test other designs.

Thanks so much to Brian for giving us an opportunity to have these tested on his car.

J

 

Congrats Brian, i know you will love them as have I.

 

Hi all,
I have an appointment to get the new Cats installed Tuesday morning. I'll take Andre's advice and let the ECU adjust for the change, then make the follow-up Dyno Run. The auto shop owner was eager to see the new Cats, as he is a hardcore Car Nut. (His older Mustang delivers over 450 HP to the rear wheels due to his tweaking.) Anyway, he drooled over the new Cats, noting the excellent weld quality, and how the insides had been so well smoothed out and finished. He was more than impressed, which was good to hear, since I am the furthest thing from an expert. This is turning out to be a great modification/enhancement for my XKR. I hope to pick up some decent HP with this addition, but if not, I will still be happy with the mod. I don't race, and rarely even get my foot into it, but it is nice to have the ponies ready to take off. My exhaust will now be complete, starting with the Nameless Performance Cats, and continuing with my McLeod X-Pipes. The Jag will breath easy and definitely sound more aggressive and sporty, which is music to my ears!
Brian

 

Am looking forward to the results. Just to be sure, you do not have to take the battery off, however if you do, give your car enough miles (50 or so at least) with careful normal driving before going on the dyno again for the after run. Double check your tire pressure on the dyno before each run to ensure they are the same, and make sure the environmentals are about the same. I'll take it they will do a run or 3 per visit? that would be great. Please also post the dyno type with the dyno, looking also forward to the 1st dyno.

 

Hi Andre,
It was very interesting, as I have never seen one performed before.
He did several runs, but the first one did not record for some unknown reason. During the second one, he accelerated too quickly and it downshifted, so that one was thrown out. He did a few more, and said that the last two were pretty much identical. It was 91 degrees in the small shop, with about 100% humidity and no air conditioning. Yes, I sweated my *** off! Typical weather here in Florida during August.

The Dyno Machine was a "Mustang" brand. I balanced my tires at 30 psi prior to leaving the house. The car was well warmed up before getting to the Shop, and it had plenty more time to heat up while there in the Sweatbox.
The results listed are:

MIN MAX AVG
Channel/Run 1 2 1 2 1 2
Eng Torque T (Ft-Lbs) 195 110 266 262 238 206
Eng Power T (HP) 111 63 261 261 207 178

He is going to put everything together for Jason in Electronic form for his dissection and evaluation.
Brian

 

If I were ever to modify the exhaust system, it would start with out the 'shoebox' on the downpipe. That section just begs to have the corners straightened and flow smoothed. I hope the actual performance gains are worthwhile.

 

It is a low result for a 4.0 SC car, I would have expected at least someting like 300 rwhp or higher. I assume that these numbers are SEA corrected? and what was your A/F ratio? Do you have a dyno slip?
Where these runs done in 4th gear?

I would suggest for the next time to do similar runs, so make sure the system gets just as hot as now and do a couple of runs until you get the same result (by which I mean that last 2 runs have about the same values, so probably a run or 4/5 in total as now). Doing a couple of runs will heat up the system very much, so hp will drop, unless you take enough time (could take 10 minutes or so, and you need to measure it with a heat gun) to cool down the intercooler circuit between the runs. Supercharged cars with water to air cooling are a pain to get repeatable runs from, it takes to get the intercooler temp similar between runs.

Anyhow, as long as you can repeat what happened today, it could be fairly comparable. Just make sure you drive enough miles after you have changed to the new cats, so that everything has setteled.

Looking fowarde to the next results

 

Thanks Gordo, Even more than the any HP gains, I can't wait to hear the sound of the exhaust!
Brian

Hi Andre,
The Dyno Guy was surprised at the low numbers also, but chalked it up to the hot and humid day. We were in there from 1:30-3:00, and it was definitely hot. Unfortunately, I can't answer the technical questions, but I'll gladly email you all the data from both runs after I get it. The 2nd page of the Dyno Report does list an "AFR" (Ratio) It was:


MIN MAX AVG
1 2 1 2 1 2
AFR (Ratio) 12.2 12.0 14.6 14.5 13.1 13.4

Thanks again for the advice, I'll send you the data when I get it.
Brian

 

OK, the new Cats are in! The Tech was again most impressed by the SS construction and overall build quality, and the fit was perfect! As Jason had expected, there were no CEL or warnings of any type, which makes me very happy. The new Cats sound absolutely fantastic! Are they more aggressive? Hell yes! Are they obnoxious or over the top? Not to me, I definitely like the sound! The Jag has more of a pronounced SNARL now, bringing to mind that of a well tuned Euro Sports Car. Acceleration "felt" quicker and smoother, but I know that is quite subjective, so I'm interested in seeing the follow up Dyno Stats deciphered by more knowledgeable parties. In any case, I am very happy with the new Cats, and have no regrets there.

It was unseasonably cool today, so I am waiting for identical hot weather for my second set of Dyno Runs. This will also give the ECU the opportunity to reset. They are putting a CD Rom on their computer so as to be able to give me all the info in electronic form, rather than just a printout.
Brian

 

Keeping an eye on this thread and waiting with bated breath as quite a few are I suspect Brian
Keep us updated

 

Hi Brian,

Good to hear you like the sound, I still am very pleased with the sports cats I have (though in combination with the stock exhaust), this is what made it worthwhile for me.

I missed the post regarding the ATF ratio, and to give a better answer I would have the see the graph actually. So going on the figures now I would say this is way to lean, and not normal for the 4.0 cars, and this could have robbed some power for sure. Normal figures would be in the lower 11 range, and sometimes even lower (for me it was more often below the 11). This could also have been caused by a leak in the exhaust somewhere or the O2 sensor used is not calibrated right, certainly worth investigating as when the values where right you are way to lean. You can PM me if you have more questions.

 

I was curious about this as well. When Steve did his baseline prior to installing our track pipes on his car, his afr numbers were flat across 12. Beelined. I would expect that proper AFR assuming decent intake air temps would be between 11.5 and 12 for best power. Steve's numbers were pretty impressive as a baseline. The other thing I'd be curious about is sensor location and calibration. Usually it's a tailpipe sniffer on an air compressor driven venturi or something similar. These can get whacky readings sometimes. People forget to recalibrate their sensors in clean air too often too (at least the aftermarket widebands, which many dynos use with a more complex controller).

Brian, glad you got the pipes in well. We're pretty good at getting a decent factory fit so far on the products we have come out with. We are developing some new ways to hone in our tolerances on our fixtures and speed up some processes.

As an aside, I'm sorry to hear about your difficulty getting the factory secondary O2 sensors out. I usually try to get the car in the air (on the lift) as quickly as possible and spray them with a few squirts of PB Blaster or Aerokroil. If the cats are too hot, you've got to be careful though, most of that type of penetrant is flammable, though not spectacularly when sprayed onto a hot surface. Also I always add a little penetrant after I've gotten the O2 sensor started backing out, then crank it back in to get all of the threads lubricated. Works pretty well usually, even on crazy designs that put the O2 sensor in the turbo housing.

Can't wait to post some details on our new 2007+ XKR downpipes. Waiting to hear back on the first installation (these were designed without the car, fixturing to a set of factory cats that were shipped to us by one of the list members here).

Jason

 

Hi guys,
Thanks for the good feedback on the AF Ratios. I'll have the mechanic look into that after I take my second Dyno Runs. I want the circumstances to be as exact as possible, so no tinkering yet. Just a thought, would the AF Ratios show up in a "Scan"? I do have a Scanner, so I'll scan it here shortly. I recently went through a nightmare of trying to hunt down persistent P0171 and P0174 Codes, so I really hope that the old problem is still not lurking in the background. (I just did a scan, and nothing showed up. Maybe they are not far enough out of whack?) I need to learn how to better utilize the Scanner's capacity for showing operational info. So far, I have just used it to check for the reappearance of those problem codes.

It's a shame that the Cats are so well hidden, as they are definitely an Artful improvement, as well as Functional. I can't wait to drive it today and listen to the exhaust music!
Brian

 

I can't believe you are still using the the stock exhaust! I measured it to be as small as 1 3/4" in the bend that goes over the axles and less than 2" for most of it. That can't possibly flow enough for 500+ hp like you have.

My AFR was in the low 12's.(12.18-12.23) They measured it at the tailpipe, so it may be a bit richer since it was measured after the cats and at the tailpipe. I thought mid 12's was the best for power as well as still have a safety margin.

 

Steve, what was your dyno output after the track pipes were installed?

 

Someone once said that about a track pipe I designed for the Mazda RX-8 and my suggestion was for them to buy a second pipe and bolt it to the roof......vertically. ;-)

We'll have to work on some trick looking engine bay products.

Jason