So I have thoroughly enjoyed the v8 vantage ownership this past week. But I do wish it had a bit more power. I have a 2006 v8 vantage manual transmission with tubi style exhaust and the Aston Martin power upgrade (black intake manifold). In my reading of the numerous forum posts this is what I could surmise as being the order of doing upgrades: if not doing all three at the same time:

1) sport cats
2) h pipe
3) tune

or

1) tune
2) sport cats
3) h pipe

headers seem to be less effective in terms of $/hp. In terms of brand, seems like fabspeed or velocityAP for the exhaust parts and velocityAP or Thoughts? Since my car has the Aston Martin power upgrade tune already, would it make more sense to start with sport cats and h pipe?

 

I would (and did) do the tune and then the AMR flywheel/clutch. I'm done with power upgrades. Full throttle is far more thrust than I need on any street and the character of the 4.3 is fantastic.

 

Headers give the most power, so they are the best place to start, but they are expensive.

A tune on its own won't give much power, so this is very different from a car with turbos. You need to change some hardware then get a tune to optimise the power from those changes. That means that your second sequence, starting with a tune then sports cats would give a poor result. Getting sports cats then a tune would make more sense. But if you might get headers at some point in the future then get the tune after the headers.

You've got H pipe on your list, that would change the sound but won't make much difference to power, adding an H pipe doesn't seem to be a very common upgrade, there must be people that have done it, but I don't recall ever hearing from someone that has made that change.

On the Fabspeed/velocity AP decision, Fabspeed have been claiming some massive power increases from just cats and an x pipe, leaving the very inefficient OEM headers in place. As every other tuner seems to need headers, sports cats and a tune to give that much power, I don't believe their claims, so would stick with Velocity AP, their stuff has a lot of users out there and gets great reviews.

 

If you want extra performance. Some good suggestions here. If you are going to do the clutch and fly wheel do the headers at the same time and save on the labor. Along with the headers do 200 cel cats. A X pipe will give you more of a high pitch exotic sound where as a H pipe will give you a deeper muscle car sound. Then have it tuned for all of the modifications and you will have quite a big improvement.

 

Get a tune first, it's independent of the other mods, makes the most difference, and isn't illegal (sport cats won't pass smog check if someone looks really closely at them as a lot of CA techs do).

 

Thoughts on if the tune will really help that much such I already have the Aston power upgrade? I saw an old post over on the other forum of someone who dyno’d before and after the Aston Martin power upgrade and they had way more than the advertised 20hp gain. Similar level to what the velocity and other tunes are getting. I would venture to guess that most of the power is from the tune part of the Aston Martin power upgrade rather than the valved intake box.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1403875

 

My 4.3 has the power pack as well. It's better than the stock engine, from what I understand. But the VAP tune livens up the engine quite noticeably from there. It's absolutely worth it. The folks who say it doesn't make a difference clearly don't have it. It's not just the bump in power, but it's power band and power delivery that improves. It really makes you appreciate the engine. As I noted above, I have no further plans for added power. The downside, IMO, to exhaust changes is that I don't want more noise. For me, the car is the perfect balance of sounds and volume as it is.

 

is this dyno on a 4.3 or 4.7? Do you recommend cats or x pipe first? Also, what is the forum pricing?

 

I Have VAP's Tune & 200 cell Cat's, Feels Good, Waiting on VAP XPipe & I will post a Dyno on 91 with Those 3.

I've Used this Dyno at Friends shop Countless Times, It will Give Conservative Solid #'s....

 

Are you doing before and after dyno runs? Do you have dyno numbers from before and after the cats?

 

No, He'll Do No Charge Few Runs to Get an Idea, Others Have Seen Very Low 300's Stock? Anything Over 340 wheel & I'll Be Happy & Know the 3 together helped, I Also Have VAP Filters. 06 4.3
Also Really Want low end TRQ.

 

+1 agree with blue2000s comments. VAP tune highly recommended. Many favorable reviews here on the forum. Personally it was the best speed upgrade for me along with adding light weight upgrades (brakes, battery).

 

Hey Deplorable,

Any chance you got the dyno done?

Thanks,

 

What tune modifications are needed with bolt-ons? As long as the internals aren't changed, shouldn't the fact that the MAF system automatically account for any volumetric efficiency changes due to any exhaust changes? I can see internal engine changes may effect the efficiency of combustion or intake systems may effect the flow through the MAF, effecting the reading and require tune adjustments, but I don't see why exhaust changes would call for any differences in the tune.

 

Nice thing with VAP is if you decide to add on more mods afterwards they will sent you different maps for them.