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New Car! RPM Motorsports Stage 3 Tune Questions

9K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  The_Ghost 
#1 ·
Hi,

My main questions will be below, for more background you can read the paragraph at the bottom but it probably isn't necessary.

Car already has this installed with a cold air intake but stock down pipe

I want to install this in addition to that I would be getting this downpipe as it is required

1. Although I would like to be, I am not very mechanically inclined and they said the install would take about 8 hours. So how much about do you think it would cost to get this installed?
2. What kind of power do you think I could expect, they said 350whp/375wtq is this realistic?
3. What kind of 0-60 / quarter mile times?
4. Would the car be reliable? If not would downtuning it to say 22 psi instead of 24 make it more reliable without sacrificing too much power?
5. Is this a good way to go about doing this and do you think the price is fair ($1659 + Shipping) before install?

Unrelated question:
I want to upgrade the head unit to something that has android auto and maybe a backup camera while I'm at it. Any suggestions?


So I got my first solstice (2007 GXP with about 75,000 miles on it) in 2015 and I loved the car, but then the fuel pump failed in Florida and stranded me there, got it fixed and a while later I noticed my coolant light was coming on, and I kept having to add more coolant. Water pump was probably failing which is an $800 repair, and I didn't really want to put another $800 into the car since I had just put $1500 into it for new tires and rims as well as the fuel pump. All of these decisions were a mistake, but as they say... retrospect is 20/20. So since I live in North Carolina and at least once a year would make a trip to CT or FL I needed a reliable car and due to the issues I had with the solstice I ended up selling it for a brand new (at the time) 2017 Subaru WRX. It probably took me 3 days to regret selling the Solstice, but I figured with a new car you have to own it for awhile or you take a huge hit financially so I ended up keeping it for about a year and a half. In this time things changed, I made more money in my job and I got married, my wife had a reliable toyota corolla so my car being reliable wasn't as big of a deal. I should also mention my commute is about 1.5 miles. So I barely even need to drive really. So I sold the WRX and bought a 2008 Corvette, I could afford it I mean the WRX was $450 a month and the corvette was $550 a month so what's a $100 for a 430hp V8? Well this logic held true for awhile, and I really like my corvette but I find myself still missing the solstice, this combined with the fact that spending $550 a month on a car I drive 1.5 miles to and from work and thats about it doesn't make much sense. And there are other things I would rather spend that money on. So I decided to sell the corvette (still for sale, PM me if interested) and just get a $1900 2000 toyota celica with 187,000 miles on it because really, thats all I need. Well I found that even though the celica is all I need, I like having a nice car and there was no way I was going to give up my corvette and drive an old celica around for the next few years. I just like having a nice, sporty car too much. So I looked up solstices on cargurus and lo and behold I find the perfect one! My old solstice was yellow, but I always waned a red one. This one is Red, automatic (I thought I wanted a manual, but the WRX was a manual and I really didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would) 2008 GXP about 34,000 miles on it and it has the RPM Motorsports Stage 2 tune on it so estimated (he hasn't dyno'd it) 285whp. And it cost's less than half of what my corvette does. Great! So here I am, going to purchase this car soon and once I sell my corvette I want to put the Stage 3 on it, because according to RPM Motorsports that will bring it up to 350whp/380wtq which is approximately 404hp/420tq and for comparison the corvette is 430hp/424tq (however I have not had it dyno'd to see the what the whp is, I want to do that before I sell it). So the Solstice wouldn't be far off and considering the solstice is about 8% lighter the performance gap should be fairly small at that point. Just loosing out on the bigger tires (corvette has 285 at the rear) and better transmission for the most part. So thats essentially my goal, to make the solstice almost as fast as a 2008 C6 Corvette or at least close enough that I wont be able to tell much difference for half the price of the corvette (gives me about $2000 to work with after purchase price). Reliability is still very important to me as it will be my daily driver but I dont necessarily need to depend on it for long road trips. But I would like to know that I could do them without issues. Once I finish the tune on the solstice I will keep the celica for about another month just until I establish that the solstice is reliable enough for me to sell the celica and therefore have to rely on the solstice 100%. This also gives me a second car while the solstice is being upgraded.

p.s. DDM works is a lot closer to me (5 hrs away) vs RPM Motorsports(24hrs away) but they don't seem to offer what I am trying to do, or do they? Let me know.

Thanks!
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Hi,

If you are getting the stage 3 package and is getting tune on 91/93 octane you can expect between 300-320 whp and 320/350 wtq, if it's getting the e47 tune expect 320-340 whp and 330-370 wtq

If you only want 22 psi don't upgrade it would be a waste of money, you are better off just going with the e47 tune. The reason to upgrade your turbo to a bw k04 is to take advantage of boost at higher rpms, the stock turbo can hold 20-21 psi until redline, the bw k04 should be able maintain 24-25 psi until redline with no problem.

The corvette from dig is way faster than solstice and from a 40 roll the vette is also faster ( the solstice keep up with the vette for about 1-2s)

RPM's tune are very conservative which is understandable, so the car should be as reliable in comparison to stock.

My best 1/4 is a 12.7s at 112 mph, DA 2700, my 60' was terrible 2.15

My bw k04 is from a different company and I did my own tuning (originally was tuned by RPM, but it was a bit to conservative)

The price very competitive, maybe you can ask for a free e47 tune upgrade :)

If you want to be faster than a c6 save another 1.3-1.5k and buy a wr-3.
 
#4 ·
the bw k04 should be able maintain 24-25 psi until redline with no problem.
PSA: Have not been able to get a tune dialed in that lets mine run at that boost level at higher RPMs without excessive knock/knock retard. It's okay until abotu 5250 or 5500 RPM, then Dave has the boost dialed back to red line. Werks K04 and tune. Also have Solo high flow cat, street race exhaust, and a Werks IC/CAC.
 
#5 ·
I think that 320 whp is realistic - dynos vary as do claims of outputs. And getting into the 12.9 1/4 mile times is also realistic. I agree that unless you are willing to run up to 25 psi you should save your money, though, I have a tune that does that without excessive knock (custom Trifecta, logged and fine tuned - I am tuned for 94 octane)).

Don't expect to match the times the Cobalts get - we have more driveline loss. But then we don't blow up transmissions, so I call that a fair trade-off.
 
#6 ·
Just so we're all on the same page here....my car holds 23psi of boost with the stock turbo, up to 7k rpm. No misses, no knock. I have 82k on my car. It's still pulling hard when it hits the rev limiter. (my rev limiter was moved to 7k) I was dialed back a bit on hp because I have a stock IC and regular cat... But, I'm pushing 286hp (which equates to about 330bhp) He had one pull that was at 305hp, but had too much heat and knock....and the turbo fell off at about 5500rpm. So I feel what I have was a fair trade...I'll take 20hp less for a reliable car.

All cars are a bit different now that they've aged. What works on some, might not work as well on others and vice versa. Use suggestions as that....suggestions as a baseline to start.
 
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#11 ·
I hold the 23psi all the way to rev limiter...As far as I know, I don't have a bw K04...But the car was crapily tuned when I bought it so who knows...In 2nd and 3rd gear, after 4k, things happen quick for me with my car and I don't have time to watch too many items....I'm a bit busy. If I would have had a HFC and IC, he said I would have seen 320hp.... He (ZZP tuner) had a 2.0L ATS with IC, CAI and HFC and he was pushing over 400hp....But that's the next gen LNF too.... What was weird was that everyone there had the Ford ecoboost 3.5L....:huh: When I asked he said you could get 550hp to 600hp out of them with little effort and very little money.
 
#8 ·
One comment - don't know what the desire for full boost at higher rpm is all about.

The great thing about a turbo engine is that with properly chosen gear ratios (ours aren't ideal but they aren't bad) there is no benefit to buzzing the engine past the point where the turbo becomes less efficient - just shift into the next gear and you drop right onto that fat torque plateau.

The big wheel K04 is a nice compromise - enough added flow to increase performance by a fair bit without hampering bottom end torque.

To each his own, of course.
 
#9 ·
One comment - don't know what the desire for full boost at higher rpm is all about
He wants to compete with a C6 vette.

The stock turbo after 5250 rpms starts to die off (in 4th gear -- 90 mph at wot) you can feel how the car is struggling to accelerate. With a bw k04 the powerband of the car changes, it gains around 10-20 whp across the board and it plateaus at higher rpm (here is where it makes the biggest difference). Where the bw k04 plateaus the stock k04 boost drops and the power difference is more than 10-20 whp (~20-40 whp depending on the tune and the fuel)

In a roll race, if you have the bw k04+e47 tune, you can compete with a c6 ls2 from 40-100, ls3 probably 40-90 (you need to brake boost in both scenarios)

The only way to beat a c6 vette on pump gas is to upgrade the stock turbo to an efr 6758 (wr-3, there are other turbos kits, but they are not direct bolt on)
 
#10 · (Edited)
they said 350whp/375wtq is this realistic
Martin is a great guy, and an honest businessman. I like him.

My GXP, with the RPM stage 2 tune, made 250WHP on a Mustang dyno. I am not proud of this, but, hey, I didn't build - or tune - the thing. Picking a Wild Ass Guess of 15% drivetrain loss, that'd be 294 crank HP, or only slightly better than the GMPP tune. I don't remember the torque number, but it was not awesome. I looked at the tune and found timing severely retarded, among other things. I'm not a tuning expert, but for the money I paid, I'd expect better results. I haven't dyno'd the newest tune I have from a different vendor, but I went from 30 dyno HP less than a friend's GXP (Same dyno, same day, about 5 hours apart) to having to hit the brakes when he was trying to pull away. (But, that was also with the big wheel K04 upgrade - there are a lot of variables here.)

CAI does nothing - it's engine-bay bling. (I also have that engine-bay bling.It sounds like a clogged, not-engaged garbage disposal when the dishwasher is running.) The stock intake on these cars already flows very well. Even DDM has said that it is provides zero perf benefit. (It does make it slightly easier to get your intake manifold off since there are fewer components to remove, so at least there's that.)

If you just feel like throwing money at the Internet, have fun. If you want to get the most out of your car, find a dyno tuner in your area. Look for speed shops that tune Camaros and Corvettes in your area and give them a call. Make sure that they don't lock the tune. (Hi, John.)
 

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