Power mods for the I-5
 

I've been thinking about ways to improve power on a vehicle, and it seems to boil down to air intake, exhaust output, efficiency of burn, internal friction, and aerodynamics. Decals alone add 20 hp, but that's for another thread :D

Most performance mods try to achieve more power by getting more air and fuel into the combustion chamber. I'm thinking about hi-flow filters, mandrel bent air intakes, superchargers, turbos, throttle body spacers, aftermarket fuel injectors and such.

What have you tried that works? And what do think is a bunch of crap?

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

I think most of it is crap.

A Supercharger or Turbo, won't be much help to an inline 5 that is maxed anyway. Hell only GM could get another 20 hp out of it! :D

You'll just start breaking sh1t;)

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

hhhhhawhattttt!?!?!??

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

I think most of it is crap.

A Supercharger or Turbo, won't be much help to an inline 5 that is maxed anyway. Hell only GM could get another 20 hp out of it! :D

You'll just start breaking sh1t;)

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

My bs way of saying....I have no f'ing idea:confused:

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Yeah, there's a lot of crap out there. I've seen people mod their MAF sensor, PCV valve, throttle body valves, or install home-built s/c's (inline fans), fuel line magnets, modded (out-of-spec) sensors, grounded capacitor plug wires, and lots more wacky stuff.

I'm hoping for some serious input on chipping and airflow mods that could add a little oomph without starting a fire or killing the engine.

You know, like maybe an army surplus rocket motor to mount on the back ;)

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Talk to pedro at south of the border. He has his own rocket city!:cool:

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

LMAO! The Big Sombrero in the SKY!!!:D

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

I don't know if anyone else has seen or heard of this.. but I just had a customer of mine show me what he had done to his f-350 power-stroke diesel.

Let me start off by saying this guy is crazy.... Anyway, in addition to his power chip (which gave him about 150 more HP), he is running Hydrogen into his air intake. It looked like a freakin' science lab under his hood!

The system was really kind of basic. All he has to do is put water in the system, it then uses some sort of 'crystals' and electricity from the battery to seperate the Hydrogen from the Oxygen in H20, and the hydrogen travels through a tube straight into the air intake. The Hydrogen then combusts with the fuel, adding 20-30% HP.

I pretty much told him he was full of it, and there's no way it's actually doing what he's claiming. He then proceeded to disconnect the 'Hydrogen' hose, and wrapped a zip-lock baggie around it. He turned on his truck, and sure enough the baggie started puffing up w/ cloudy white gas. He then zipped the bag up, set it on the ground, and took a lighter to it.... Sure enough, it blew loud enough to set my car alarm off!

He said they're available for cars too, for about $800... I can't remember the website though.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Also recommend: 3 Layer FIA and SFI certified fire suit, gloves and balaclava. Along with a full in ride fire extinguishing system, ejection seat, and a good lawyer. :p

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Uh, dude ... remember the part about not starting a fire? :eek:

Dey aint no frikkin way I runnin no fizzin hydogin in my injun. No frikkin way!

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Nothing proven to make much of a difference so far.

S.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Try a JATO Pack. They add alot of bang for the buck. ;) :D

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Now that's more like it :cool:

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

It's called electrolysis, and there is no way he is producing enough hydrogen to make a difference unless he has a nuclear reactor in the bed of the truck.

Most aftermarket power boosters are garbage with dyno results which aren't corrected for temperature and pressure, and aren't controlled for variables.

Michael

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

hey sorry to revive this thread but i was kinds curious.

Can someone with the proper technical knowhow tell me if the h3's engine and trans, the whole powertrain can handle the addition of a supercharger. Is stuff gona break or explode for sure or most likely not?

Im just curious because i was reading the h3t concept specs and it had a supercharged I5. So im thinking maybe they thought about people wanting to supercharge the I5 and made the whole system tough enough.

What do you think?

Thanks!:)

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

The best and only way to improve the acceleration and mpg is to hook the H3 to the back of an H2, put the H3 in nuetral, and relax. It works great.


Some have had issues with the K&N kits, some dealers have stated it will ruin the MAF sensor and void warranty, others have had good luck, B&B exhaust will help very little also. Other than that, there's not much out there to really make a huge difference. SC's and Turbos will give you issues and cause more issues off road.

This truck will never be like your Z was.:rolleyes: But it will crawl like a mult when you shift into 4LO.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

well i doubt that will really help much, since the h2's spedo shows only 10mph more, and its 0-60 rating is 1 second faster, correction .6 of a second faster. But anyway i am not concerned with speed or power or anything like that.

I was just being curious if anyone knows how tough the I5 is and if it was the same one that was since the initial planning, from when it was a concept vehicle, or if it was heavily modifed to fit production costs? The concept one on the h3t is with a supercharger.

If anyone knows from experience or technical specs, would stuff break on the h3 definately or not?

Thanks for your responses!:)

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

ahhh come on michael j Fox had the Mr. Fusion in the deloren... how about ptting your old garbage in the airbox to enrigh the flow with meth

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Like I said...GM got 20 more HP. Then they ditched it.....no mas Vortec 3500:D

No sense in getting the nitty gritty, it's not worth the time.

fini

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Ah, but GM got the 20+ HP from boring the engine out to a 3700. The engine is capable of obtaining quite a bit more HP with a turbo or SC, but unless GM offers it, it would void the powertrain warranty.
Later engines, or those with the new cylinder head, should be able to take the extra HP, as long as you keep it low, around 270. This is not from any GM official information, but from what I know someone did with this engine.:D

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt:D

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

So if that is all they did, was bore, we will now have 10.5:1, 11:1??

Will they now have to step up in octane rating, or will the computer take care of it?

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Thanks for the replies everyone!:)

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Compression ratio is 10.3:1. so it went up .3 (current has a 10:1). You will not have to burn premium fuel, the computer is programmed to compensate.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

The limiting variable for drivetrain life is torque, not horsepower. Keeping that in mind, the torque drops off from the peak about 20%, so that is your opportunity. You can forget about all those air filters, and exhaust systems. You won't get 20% with those. I'd suggest you look into what people do who race this engine. The first place I would look for more power would be porting the heads, and putting in bigger valves. Then I would be looking at the intake manifold. I would shorten the runners for tuning at a higher RPM, and port it for better airflow. The other place would be the exhaust manifold, and replacing it with tubular headers. This is a touchy area though, because there is a close couple catalytic converter.

Michael

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

I bet you can get to 265 BHP with the correct air box/intake, exhaust, and tuning.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Actually, that's not really true. Since HP is the measure of torque over time, HP is just as limiting a factor as torque.

You can't have HP without torque.

Now suggesting one to copy what race engine builders do, is not a very good idea either. They get to tear their engines down after relatively few miles and are pushing the engine to the limits during most of it's running life.

You simply are not going to be able to do much with this engine to justify a tear down, port, polish and rebuild just to gain a few HP on the high end.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

265 hp not likely with aftermarket stuff (excluding turbo, s/c). GM did it the right way to the I5 in 2007, and the power increase is modest.

All Hummers (H1, H2, H3) are slow street machines as usual, because their strength is offroad ability.

S.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Very few people would actually "race" with an inline 5.

Rod Hall, maybe.

If you have the shop, tools, talent, ability and machinery to do something you all are desribing, why not just put a 350 in it??

It makes just as much sense:rolleyes:

Want in one hand, crap in the other, see which one fills up faster:rolleyes:

Leave the I-5 alone. It is what it is.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Different vehicles for different purposes for sure, many of us have fast sports cars in the garage for fast road work.

S.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

I've already seen the before and after dyno plots.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

So now it's:

after previously saying a few minutes earlier:

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

:rolleyes:

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Nothing like a sure bet.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

:) :rolleyes: . Someday I'll get to drive one too.

S.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

RIIIIGGGHHT!:confused:

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

Just as an example, here is someone else's dyno plot from another website for an H3 with an airbox, exhaust, and tuning. This after these mods the BHP is about 253 hp. From what I was told, this is without port matching of the CAI, stock throttle body, no thermal shields, and no cold air ducting. Also, this might have been with the stock resonator.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

so, the extra 100HP is arbitrary?

What I see is a 12-13 point increase in HP which is less than a 10% increase at the rear wheels even.

Re: Power mods for the I-5
 

100 pts both HP and Torque, yes?

It reads 153 not 253? I'm confused:confused: