Buick V6- questions about a few bolt ons.

[Anthony .]

Hi all,

I want to apply the following to my VR V6 (Buick motor):
. Mace Cold air intake
. Headers and catback exhaust
. Mace memcal

The thing is, however, that I absolutely love the brilliant down low torque characteristics of the Buick motor. They are however asthmatic/ run out of puff higher in the RPM, and I would love to improve this (extra bottom end certainly won’t hurt either).

My question is, will the headers and catback (specifically) cause low-end to be impacted? Or does it help the entire rev range? How do the Buick motors respond to such modifications?

Cheers

 

[losh1971]

The CAI, cat back and headers will improve bottom end.

 

[Anthony .]

The CAI, cat back and headers will improve bottom end.

Thanks mate. Would they improve mid- top end also?

Do you know if the Mace Engineering memcals are brand specific in terms of modifications? For example, genie v pacemaker v tiger headers

 

[losh1971]

Yeah it will but you will rarely if ever drive it in a way that you need top end. ICR what my dyno figure were when I had mine done but it was something like 30-35kw in gains from what you have, plus Mace high ratio rockers. Reco and ported heads gave me probably another 10kw and some more bottom again but I never got it on the dyno a second time. At a guess you might gain 20kw with your bolt on's and tune.

 

[Anthony .]

Yeah it will but you will rarely if ever drive it in a way that you need top end. ICR what my dyno figure were when I had mine done but it was something like 30-35kw in gains from what you have, plus Mace high ratio rockers. Reco and ported heads gave me probably another 10kw and some more bottom again but I never got it on the dyno a second time. At a guess you might gain 20kw with your bolt on's and tune.

Cheers. Did you use a memcal?

 

[losh1971]

Cheers. Did you use a memcal?

Yeah, I had a Mace memcal. They had a different tuner back then so no real idea on what they are like now, only what I've heard. My tune was a tad lean at WOT but I didn't race it so it wasn't really an issue

 

[Anthony .]

Yeah, I had a Mace memcal. They had a different tuner back then so no real idea on what they are like now, only what I've heard. My tune was a tad lean at WOT but I didn't race it so it wasn't really an issue

What exhaust did you run on your Ute? I think Redback seem to be what most use.
I have a sedan though.

Also, you said you chose roller rockers over a cam. Was it because of ease of installation? Right now and for a while actually, Mace only have stage 1, 2 , 3 Camshaft packages. Roller rockers have been out of stock for a long while, and ETA is unknown

 

[losh1971]

I bought the last set of rockers they had for the VR V6. Redback is decent for the price. Get the full cat back with resi. The rear straight pipe will drone bad at 100kph and sound raspy when putting your foot down.

 

[Anthony .]

I bought the last set of rockers they had for the VR V6. Redback is decent for the price. Get the full cat back with resi. The rear straight pipe will drone bad at 100kph and sound raspy when putting your foot down.

Cheers mate. With the headers and full catback with resi, does it still have that raw Buick sound? If you know what I mean. So if the roller rockers don’t get restocked, should I avoid the cam?
Did fuel economy improve for your Ute after doing your bolt ons?

 

[losh1971]

Economy was somewhere around 11lph and city driving was about the same. Yeah it sounded ok for a V6. The CAI adds some induction noise which is not obscene. 1.9s will probably never be made again. I bought mine probably five years ago. They're not RR's either they are just HRR's. I think Crow may do a set of HRRR's if you really want them.

I don't know what a cam would be like on a Buick so can't comment. I do know now that having one in my 6L I would probably save my money and go straight for boost. I think cams are over-rated. Some may disagree.