Alright - all of you VEC1 owners...help me commit

[Nexus-6]

I need the VEC owners to help me decide on installing it.

I have a VEC1 sitting in the garage just waiting for me to install it.

I ran a dry run last night to work myself through it - no problem. Pretty self explanitory, no questions really.

Here is why I'm hesitating though.

From what I've read here, I'll probably pick up about 10-14rwhp and similar torque too. Pretty cool stuff...not huge, not minimal. But, I'll be crimping onto some wires (not to big a deal) but splicing into one directly (kinda bigger to me) and the clutch dust boot needs to have a little slit in it (kinda bigger to me too). Why does this bother me? Well, I have a "no cut/no drill" kind of mod rule for my cars - if it's really a bolt on item, I have no problem. I like being able to return to 100% showroom stock at a later date - not that I ever intend to sell the car, but in 40 years when I restore the car, I'd love to have everything intact and not cut up. I know I know...but I'm a purist when it comes to these kinds of things.

So - I'm on the fence. I suppose that if it really bothers me that much, I can go and buy a spare wiring harness for the pcm for a future date...

But what I need to hear is :

"Man, DO IT. I'm telling you, I wasn't sure the VEC1 would really make that much difference and it did! You will not regret it!"

or

"I did it - I have it tuned properly and everything and I can't really feel a difference...I wouldn't do it again."

If it's really really worth it, I'll probably just buck up and do it. But it it's a neglible thing, I may hold off. At some unforseen point in the future (my wife seems to think it's when the house is paid off...she probably has more insight into this than I do) I'd like to buy another GenII and just go to town on the thing, leaving my FE pretty much stock all around (save the little things like filters and smoothies).

Alright, convince me one way or the other!

(and yes I already know I'm a "stock" pris - but it's just because it's a Final Edition and that's kinda special to me - I don't want to do anything I can't undo)

(and one last thing - the VEC is an oustanding bit of hardware - very very cool design, great write up and pics, great everything - my hestitation has nothing to do with Sean Roe and co's excellent product, just my own stocker prisiness and that's it! )

 

[McGuireV10]

I dynoed my RT/10 a couple weeks ago. Difference between having the VEC-1 zeroed out and having it set after four runs watching air/fuel on the dyno was a whopping 40 RWHP. At the time, my only mods were tubes & filters, and muffler delete. I still had the cats on at the time.

Green: VEC1 when I showed up seat-of-the-pants setting)
Red: VEC1 zeroed
Blue: An intermediate run

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Blue: Final run, peak RWHP numbers of the day

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[monnieh]

Hey, McGuire, what settings do you have your VEC set to?



Nexus, do it. I was thinking exactly like you and did it anyway.

Just make sure you soder the connections!

 

[Viper Specialty]

Do it, you CAN feel the difference. (I noticed it is most pronounced in the mid-high range of 3rd gear)

And yes, SOLDER the connections! it is worth the Peice Of Mind! (loose connections WILL result in a non-running car!)

As far as cutting/drilling, I HIGHLY recomend drilling a hole through the firewall Vs. cutting the boot. Best place for a hole is right behind the PCM, it will keep the wires invisable, and the hole can simply be plugged with a frame plug at a later date...will never be seen.

 

[BigCarrot]

Do it! I'm putting mine on this week too. Cheap, easy horsepower!

 

[McGuireV10]

Note that I originally posted the same dyno sheet twice (cut & paste error, which I have corrected). The real difference from no VEC-1 to a properly set VEC-1 was an amazing FORTY RWHP -- which I suspect is probably better than can be typically expected.

Settings: low +16, high -20.

Probably the best bang-for-the-buck anywhere.

 

[jimandela]

McGuireV10,
congrats
thank for the settings can't wait to try it.

Nexus,
but i got check engine light the other day, i thought i had it at zero's but accdently hit +1
on the high
ran poor check engine light looked at it sure enough not at zero's ... oops
other thank that minor problem i love mine.

good luck
JIM

 

[Nexus-6]

So far so good - nobody really neutral on the subject which is a good sign!

McGuire - that's insane! Pretty massive gains there - wow! I thought I'd read that most 2000+ cars usually gain the most with a ~+4/-16 average but like Sean has said, each car is a little different. How many runs on the dyno did it take before you zeroed in on that setting?

And another thing - how noticeable are the incremental changes when tuning? Is there really a point on high and low adjustment where you can actually feel a degradation and back it off to the previous position? McGuires seat of the pants vs the actual best numbers for his VEC bring this question up for me...

 

[Viper Specialty]

A dyno is the only real way of doing it... SOP is very difficult to get a good setup. Only thing we have going for us is the people who HAVE dyno'd, and have their settings handy.

 

[Snakester]

I didn't get near that kind of gains, and had the VEC-1 tuned on a dyno. I got 11RWHP/8RWTQ, but I'm running wimpy California 91 octane gas, and got pinging at leaner settings under WOT.

I'm now at low +10, High -10. But much more than the raw HP gains, the VEC-1 really flattened out my power curve, and we dialed it in to flatten the A/F ratio as well across the whole RPM range.

The upshot is that the part-throttle acceleration feels noticably meatier, like you are always driving on a cool day where the dense air makes the car feel healthier.

I did wonder about cutting the boot, and splicing into the CPU wires, but it seems to be a small price to pay to make the car run better, and it wouldn't be too much to get it back to stock if need be.
Most likely any new owner would want the kind of extra A/F control that the VEC-1 provides anyway. Just like they would want smooth tubes and K&N filters installed.

-Dean.

 

[McGuireV10]

The difference was very noticable in both cases -- between zeroed and my SOTP setting, and SOTP to the final setting. Of course, a few days later I cut the cats off and added the O2 sims and that was noticable, too -- so I had a few days of continuous increase.

I should note I knew my SOTP setting wasn't optimal yet. We had done some other changes and experimentation recently, for which I preferred to zero my VEC, so I was in the process of hunting for a good setting when I decided to arrange the dyno day. (Note I said I'd only cut off my exhaust; that's wrong, I forgot, just prior to this I'd switched up to MSD wires and Bosch 4-prong Platinums, which itself was noticable and worth the total cost of $140.)

It only took five runs on the dyno (including the baseline) but the owner of the shop was mildly familiar with the VEC already. Suffice to say I'm quite happy with the power now, and can focus on controlling this thing at every track date I can afford to hit.

Next up is adding a wiring harness to the A/F guage, and putting my other VEC-1 into the V10 Ram.