Are you a current Michigan-based car shopper? A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/2 for details.
Options
Pontiac Bonneville
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
A buddy of mine said to keep the heat down in the engine bay, that i should remove the big plastic 3800 decorative cap. I got home from work the other day and pulled it off...MAN that thing was hot and holding in the heat...any suggestions/ideas on this subject.
I really like hearing the supercharger 'scream' now when I nail it. And the car will completely obliterate the tires from a standstill now...
Here are my mods to date: 2000 Dark Bronzemist Metallic SSEi, 18 x 8" Konig Villain wheels, P255/45ZR18 Michelin Pilot XGT Z4 tires, 1.25” Saner front and 1" rear sway bars, polyurethane front and rear frame mount and end link bushings, Thrasher Cold Air Induction System, 3.25" Thrasher supercharger pulley, 71.5” Dayco Poly Cog belt, 180 degree thermostat, Jacobs Electronics Ultra Coil Packs and 8.5mm. Energy Core Spark Plug Wires, NGK TR55VX spark plugs (gapped at .065"), Valentine One radar/laser detector
The fun has begun.
Exhaust - What goes in must come out.
FPR - Under WOT, I would expect you to be running pretty lean. I should have mine installed this week.
I'm a relatively new owner of a 2000 Bonneville SSEi (black), and must say I am enjoying the car immensely. I've had it about 2 months and have around 3500 miles on it, so I drive it a decent amount. And after driving an SUV for the past 5 years, this is like getting a crash course in how much fun a car can be to drive.
I do have a couple of questions, however. I see a lot of people posting about getting the K&N Filter, and was wondering two things. One, where is the best place to get one? I would like to order online, and was wondering who might have the best price. Second, at the couple of places I've looked so far, they don't list a filter for the 2000 SSEi, so is there a certain one I need?
Thanks for any assistance!
had a better deal.
Thanks again.
Also another question for those who have had experience with the SSEi in the snow, are the stock tires good for this or is there another set I should be looking at now that winter is approaching. We got our first real snow the other day, and even with the trac control on, things seemed pretty slippery. Definitely need to learn to feather the throttle better when taking off in the snow.
Doug or Scott,
Any snow? Doug, I know you don't drive the new one much in bad weather, how about you scott?
What are your 0 to 60 times. Did you use autotap at each mod to measure the change? What have you blown away on the road. Have you been blown away and by what?
I have done the K&N filter and am awaiting the pulley party which we are trying to arrange here in the Northeast.
Eager to hear more of your comments
1. Because of the type of electrical system that GM uses in our cars ( digital series buss ground), and because of more than just music that is processed thru the "head/amp" sytem of our cars, as well as the BOSE 1 amp deal, it is impossible to REPLACE the head, and not suffer serious electrical problems.
2. There is available, if you must have an aftermarket head unit, a cable/ harness which allows the head unit to remain in circuit, but allows a new head unit to go in the dash hole. ( The old head must be relocated behind the dash.) Since actuall "performance" gains in CD/Casstte/FM/AM will be negligable, this will be for cosmetic, and "feature" issues. The CD pre-amp signal from the " Bose" unit is for all intents and purposes the same as from an aftermarket unit.
3. Most "hearable" change will be realized from a change in speakers and amp. This is realativly easy, especially if you leave the oem head unit in place. The up side to doing this is the electrical system of the car, and things like door chimes, remote radio controls, on-star, etc. remain unaffected.
4. The amp that drives the speakers is located behind the rear drivers side back seat. This is replaced by an amp of your choice and must be connected to the head leads with a module from SOUNDGATE which allows the head unit to think it is still talking to the old amp. After this, the sky is the limit speaker wise. A six channel amp would work fine.
Long highway trips with NO city driving get me 24.3 MPG max. Is this normal? I have a 3.5" pulley, but have not installed it yet. Will this adversly affect MPG?
Is anyone using synthetic oil? If so, any comments?
Friday night (12/08) I was at the movies with a friend of mine. Moments after starting the car to leave it was determined that my car is on fire! It burnt most of the upper rear portion of the engine block area; the rear half of the intake manifold (or engine) shroud burnt away also. I’m afraid a great deal of that plastic/chemical smell is now entrenched in my interior. One of the firemen had told me, with a qualification he was not trying to be bias in any way, “they” will try to tell me anything but two things would be for sure. He said the car in all probability would never be the same electrically (something about heat traveling along wires) and the smell would always be there.
The reason I’m on here with this story is that I’m looking for someone that has had a similar incidence as mine and could give me some feedback as to the details of their experience.
Thanks in advance for any help.
P.S. I’m am posting this in a number of sedan areas to try and get as much response/help with this as I can, I apologize for any inconvenience it may cause.
http://www.luckyjdr.homestead.com/ls1impala.html
I will go for a ride sometime to hear the exhaust and note any drone . He says there is a few other modified GTP's in this area of Xerox , I may have to watch out . There is two other 2000 SSEi's just at this small building and the one next door to mine , also 3 SE's . I envy you guy's that don't see that many around , you must stand out , I may contact the other SSEi owners and see if they are interested in performance !
Gas mileage , I'm getting about 19 mpg mixed highway town , but my foot likes to go to the floor a lot , I noticed as my car performs better with each level of mod , I get on it more . As for mpg related to pulley size , if you don't horse it , it gets about the same as stock . But if you have 30 to 65 more horses then stock and your using them ,well they got to eat , and guess what they eat ! I have noticed when I run 100 octane it gets 1.5 to 2 more mpg then the 94 I usually run .
What FPR did you get , is it on yet? My neighbor with the red GTP said he went with the Casper unit because it is easier to adjust then the RAT unit .
He says it really made a diff. , mostly at wot . This after the cat back and u-bend mods
As for the bypass valve, that is standard on an Eaton supercharger. Basically it is what allows us to get decent fuel economy even SC'd. I don;t know of an adjustment but it makes sense. Though tweaing it could have a big impact on mpg.
Personally I think they designed this care for those 5'-10" and under.
2000 ssei owner
First of all, this valve only has two positions - on or off.
Second, it doesn't regulate or govern boost in any way. It only disables boost in reverse, park, or under I think one other condition.
I got this information from the 2,000 page Helm manual. And, I have confirmed it in two different ways, which you can do at home without tools.
First, disconnect the valve and start the car. It will detonate the very instant you give it any gas at all, even in park. I believe the reason for this is that the boost climbs as soon as the RPMS do, and with no load at all the timing is so far advanced that the Knock Sensor can't possibly retard the timing enough to stop the preignition.
Second, leave the valve connected, and nail the throttle in Park, while watching your boost gauge. You won't see any boost at all because the boost bypass valve is doing it's thing.
It was a good idea though! If we keep being creative, eventually we'll figure out how to make our cars even more respectable...
My Autotap shows Air/Fuel ratio to be virtually perfect at 14.7:1, until right up to full throttle. At full throttle, it drops immediately to ~11.5:1, and drops slowly the longer I stay on the gas. It bottoms out ~10.5:1.
So, I don't see where increasing the fuel pressure would buy me any additional power, at least until I 'fix' the exhaust system. If I'm right here, this explains why my previous attempt at spoofing the Intake Air Temperature Sensor had no measureable effect on performance - the engine already had plenty of fuel.
Now, let's pretend I fix the exhaust, and find the engine to be leaning out at full throttle - then I'll understand how increasing fuel pressure could make a serious horsepower improvement.
Anyone have any good input on this subject? Am I overlooking something here with my tendency to oversimplify everything (so I can pretend to understand)?
The best kept secret in forced induction is the little known bypass valve. This small valve, when properly installed between the supercharger and the air throttle body, allows the supercharger to become extremely efficient in terms of economy and parasitic power loss. Our M90 supercharger uses less than 1/3 of 1 HP at 60 MPH cruising. The bypass is operated by a vacuum actuator control unit that is normally closed. When vacuum is high (idle-cruising) the actuator opens the bypass valve, equalizing the vacuum pressure throughout the system. When boost is required (accelerating) the vacuum is decreased and the bypass valve instantly closes, causing pressure to increase into the cylinders. This equalized vacuum condition virtually eliminates the normal parasitic power loss of a forced induction system.
General consensus on the GP groups appears to be that the car runs lean at WOT, with pulley changes and exhaust changes.
I think that might be slightly inaccurate. I believe someone posted a detailed message indicating that it was not how much fuel was getting into the cylinder, but when. Something along the lines o the injectors were still open and injecting fuel after they should be. So basically fuel is getting wasted and not contibuting to power. Increase in pressure lets more fuel into the cylinder sooner in the injector cycle.
As for air/fuel ratio, I am not sure the autotap numbers are entirely accurate. I will have to check the numbers and my helm, but I think those numbers are more what the PCM thinks the air fuel ratio is, not what it truly is. The PCM has a hard time dealing with our increased boost.
Just some random thoughts. I will dig through helm and autotap. Also we shall see when I put the FPR in.
Also any idea when we may be able to all get together?