EVO196

iTrader: (51)

Damn, after reading this thread I'm comtemplating on selling my S1's to get S2's....i love Topend Gains....I have my FP Green w/ bnib S1's waiting to get installed plus a few other goodies which would put me over 400whp.
i love the the brup brup lol sound the S2's give the VIII's...

I do hear the S1's make a big difference & don't need to change the valvetrain.

ethan169

iTrader: (3)

So the cams are IN!!!

After an entire day of working on the car the evo fired right up at 11:30pm last night. When we were doing the valve springs on the car the compression tester tube that we were using to apply pressure to the cylinders one at a time had a bit of a problem and I ended up dropping a valve in the chamber So we had to pull the head and we were delayed for quite some time while I tried to located a head gasket. Luckily i found one and we were good to go. The darkness and cold slowed us a down a little but we got it all done.

The car fired right up no DTC's not stalling issues. Had a medium lope to it. the car was still on jackstands and had no passenger side wheel on it so it was just idling as we were taking care of getting the airpockets out of the water lines. One it warmed up a bit the lope became much more even and solid. No stalling except for when the A/C was FIRST turned on. After a couple goes the ECU seemed to learn the new airflow during idle with the compressor on and compensated for it. We did bump the idle up a little bit to around 1000 or 1100. Gave it a quick drive and no stalling when coming to a stop or anything like that. Good stuff! When first letting the clutch out it does require a few more RPM's to get it going past the slow lope or else its a bit of a sketchy start. I think this will be better after the cams are properlly tuned.

How does it feel? Well I was please to notice NO loss in low end power. Actually it seems to have a bit more testicular fortitude on the low side then before. Hard to tell becasue im not really getting into it hard yet (car is still untuned) but to my surprise there is a DEFINITE differance in power all around. again these are half throttle blips from maybe 3k to 6k tops. When I get the the car tuned for the cams ill be able to really feel the differance.

So basically i am VERY happy with the S2's. they seem to be a great cam set! Also with my facoory 9.8 03 evo VIII turbo i didnt loose any low end from what i can tell. Even feels like it gained some untuned!!

The car definatly sounds louder wich i found interesting. Maybe it has something to do with the overlap???

Ill update this when i get them tuned as well and give my thoughts. Im certainly not dissapointed now though and i feel after the tune i will be VERY HAPPY with these.

-Ethan

ethan169

iTrader: (3)

a video of the idle for anyone that was curious. Keep in mind this is untuned. oh and dont mind my car heat shield rattle lol.

Enjoy!

-Ethan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C3uUo6oz4I

newbieEVO8

iTrader: (9)

Sounds great man. That is exactly how mine sounded at idle.

ethan169

iTrader: (3)

Thanks man! Yeah Im satisfied so far with how they sound/drive. Cant wait for the tune and really take advantage of these bad boys!

-Ethan

CMB

iTrader: (5)

Nice setup for sure. When is Mellon tuning you?

ethan169

iTrader: (3)

Im not sure yet what im going to do for tuning. I really enjoyed working with mellon and he did a great job on my tune. He also had great customer skills and communication skills which I feel a lot of people these days are starting to lack. Im not sure if i want to do another e-mail flash setup again. My schedule is way to difficult for me to find times to run logs let along find a good road to do it on safely. It took me just over 2 years to get my last mellon tune done (this was becasue of me not having time to run logs NOTHING to do with mellon...he was GREAT and very understanding.)

If mellon was within even 5 hours driving of me I would be at his doorstep in a heartbeat. So I have been considering Sean Ivey. He seems to be right up to par with mellon and hes about 3 hours from me down in Jearsy. I need to do something soon though. I like the continence of bringing the car to someone say Ivey and leaving a couple hours later or however long it take and having a solid tune all done. With an e-flash there is that back and fourth process that just takes time to do. Also Its hard for me to find a safe place to do this without raising too much hell.

Again I just want to make it clear that Chris from Mellon tuning is a great guy and an amazing tuner. GREAT service from him. I woulnd't sport the Mellon tuning army banner in my sig if i though otherwise

-Ethan

newbieEVO8

iTrader: (9)

Once tuned it will be a completely different car. There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss my old evo.

ethan169

iTrader: (3)

Yeah I cant wait! It already feels like a different car. Did you have after market cams in your evo?

Mellon Racing

iTrader: (38)

kyoo

iTrader: (29)

Will upgrading to S2's from S1's be worth it if I'm not planning to do the work myself? Probably not right..

newbieEVO8

iTrader: (9)

I would look at kevin@mellontuning's build thread to compare you power to his maybe and see if there is enough difference to take on the additional expense.

newbieEVO8

iTrader: (9)

I had these in my car. (GSC S2)

ethan169

iTrader: (3)

the only additional expense is valve springs and installing them. wich i guess the intallation is where it gets you becasue of the time it takes. Anyway i say if you already have the s1's maybe its not worth it maybe it is. But if you have no cams why not spend a little extra now and get the springs so you can run the s2's...s2 and s1 are the same price...for the VIII at least.

-Ethan

Jp7

iTrader: (11)

I have the S2's and GSC upgraded beehive springs on my HTA3076R setup and I love the way they sound. Full blockback exhaust setup, it is pretty loud.