How do I get my car to take off faster?

About the only performance mod I made is the K&N Filter and an exhaust. What can I do to be able to take off faster at the line? My car feels sluggish taking off but once I hit about 5k rpm, then it has no problems. But just at take off it feels so sluggish. I raced a friend in his old crx with NO mods and he was close at the start, but after I got moving then it was nothing but his headlights, ohhh about 2 traffic lights back. But it doesn't seem right that my Galant had a little competition at the start with an old crx. HELP!!!!!!!!!! :shock:

Well first off....take the fat girl out the back seat and then try it .....j/k do you have a I4 or V6........

You could do a break torque...slam down the break and rev the engine up to about 5500 RPM's then let off the break and go. You might wanna try lifting the E-brake too to stop the car creeping...but that should help a little...lowering your tire pressure will be a help too. Make the front a little lower than the back and that will help also...


Marc :mg:

first of all remember the crx is much lighter than the galant. it takes less to get it off the line. but yea go back to the basics, make the car lighter, smaller wheels, no seats, forget about the dash, yea just stip it down to the bare essentials, gas pdeal, motor, chassis and wheels, and o yea the steering wheel too. but getting back to reality, you might want to check the throttle body cable from time to tiem to check if its still tight. nitrous won't hurt either

Hey FYI, I actually tried to rev my engine really high yesterday while stepping on the brake and guess what I've found. It's not possible to rev (to my recollection) over 3500rpms. With the brake depressed, it will not let the engine get up there. With my throttle on the floor, I think it was up to 2500-3000 at most.

Now with a heavy duty torque converter, then maybe higher. I bet the type of ATF also plays a big role.

Try it yourself and you'll be surprised how much your tranny holds the engine back. Let us know what your results are. :wink:

My car used to hit 2500 RPM before my traction control took over...WarrenG has seen this too when he came to pick up his muffler. Nowadays I can't get over 1800 RPM before TCL kicks in. If you can find a way to increase your low end power that will help you off the line...of course you will need to find a way to sustain that power through to the higher revs or else you really won't be doing much.

I have an I4. And does ATF stand for automatic transmission fluid? If it does, how does that make a difference? If it doesn't, I feel real stupid. Anyways, I know when I first put in the K&N filter, I felt a pretty good difference. But after a while, it seemd to be slow at take off again. But I think that might be due to me getting used to the power. The exhaust seems like it gives me more power in the higher revs, not at take off. Is this right?

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Originally Posted by Rallifan

My car used to hit 2500 RPM before my traction control took over...WarrenG has seen this too when he came to pick up his muffler. Nowadays I can't get over 1800 RPM before TCL kicks in. If you can find a way to increase your low end power that will help you off the line...of course you will need to find a way to sustain that power through to the higher revs or else you really won't be doing much.

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Uh, I think you misunderstood me. Yes, if you break free your drive wheel (fronts) and the rear wheel doesn't spin, the TCL will pick that up and keep the fronts from continuing to spin further. What I was talking about was mashing down on the brake pedal and at the same time stepping on the gas so you can get the engine speed higher and set it higher on the powerband for launches when you are racing someone from a dead stop. And because of the idle tranny, the engine will actually not rev that high (even with your foot on the throttle to the floor).

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Originally Posted by glinx1

I have an I4. And does ATF stand for automatic transmission fluid? If it does, how does that make a difference? If it doesn't, I feel real stupid. Anyways, I know when I first put in the K&N filter, I felt a pretty good difference. But after a while, it seemd to be slow at take off again. But I think that might be due to me getting used to the power. The exhaust seems like it gives me more power in the higher revs, not at take off. Is this right?

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Not a stupid question and I am talking about the Automatic Transmission Fluid. The ATF is designed to flow through the torque converter a certain way (that's way beyond my comprehension - although explained very nicely here at HowStuffWorks) to convert this phenomenon into power that turns the crankshaft. I don't know how big a factor but I know it does play a role. That's all I'm saying. You will realize that when you start to shop for ATF and realize there are so many options b/c each manufacturer has their own specs, lol. i.e. RedLine ATF.

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Originally Posted by TJC

Uh, I think you misunderstood me. Yes, if you break free your drive wheel (fronts) and the rear wheel doesn't spin, the TCL will pick that up and keep the fronts from continuing to spin further. What I was talking about was mashing down on the brake pedal and at the same time stepping on the gas so you can get the engine speed higher and set it higher on the powerband for launches when you are racing someone from a dead stop. And because of the idle tranny, the engine will actually not rev that high (even with your foot on the throttle to the floor).

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Nah I understood you perfectly...I depress the brake to build up rev without going anywhere, but the ABS sensor will kick in due to it thinking the wheels are locking and allow the tires to move at around 1800 RPM (for me). It'll do that little creeping dealy...wonder how non-ABS equipped cars react...

Don't forget that our auto trannies are rather crappy, so if you are serious, you should look into upgrading your torque converter through www.levelten.com and getting your tranny bullet proofed.

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Originally Posted by Danger DANJ

Don't forget that our auto trannies are rather crappy, so if you are serious, you should look into upgrading your torque converter through www.levelten.com and getting your tranny bullet proofed.

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Good Point Dave, also doing those brake/throttle releases will break down your tranny fluid in a hurry, so make sure you change it more often.

Also, a fuel pressure regulator will level out your power curve at the low end a bit and give you some more launch torque. I can definately feel more power at the low end since I added mine. Need to get to the track to see if I get the top end I was looking for.

Chip

You wanna take off the line faster huh. Well this is something you might wanna try. Reset your ecu. Then go out and about driving i mean. Then everytime you are at a complete stop slam on the gas pedal and don't let go unless you have to. After a while you tranny will learn that you want it to rev quick when you are at a complete stop. Remember our trannys have the fuzzy logic that learns to our driving ability. My car when I first got it was sluggish at the beginning but after I did what I just told you to do I can take off the line pretty good. I can stay with alot of cars you would think I shouldn't and I've even beeten some cars that you wouldn't think and I4 galant could beet. It all depends on the driver. So try it out. The worst that could happen is that you have to reprogram you radio stations.

You wanna go faster? install nitrous, turbo, supercharger

Hey Big H Killa. You said to reset the ECU. Now I know that's just a matter of disconnecting the battery for about 20 or 30 min. So are you saying that after I reconnect it I should drive it hard so the ECU will learn my driving style? Another question I had was about the tutorial showing how to do the intake by flipping it over. Well, my question is, how do you do it on the 8G Galant? It has a extra part attached to the airbox and that stops it from fitting once I turn the airbox around. Is this mod possible for the 8g? Also, is it safe to reset the ECU and do the airbox mod along with the hard driving to re-adjust the tranny all at one time? Or should I re-set the ECU each time I wanna do one of these mods?

where do I get the info on the airbox mod?

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Originally Posted by madspeed

where do I get the info on the airbox mod?

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on the main site. thegalantcenter.com

The main page under the 8G tutorials. Though, I was wondering the same thing with the extra part attached to the airbox. I remember it being asked a while back but I forgot what was said.

http://www.tgc-forums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=872

That should help. It did me.

To get that plastic thing to fit on the side of your airbox you need to take out the bracket that holds your resonators in below your intake take everything out below it so you just have the filter box flipped upside down with the filter facing up. DO NOT DO THIS if you have an Evo hood with the vent in it. Anyways it will be a tight fit to get it in there but itll fit right by your headlight. I noticed a difference in performance and sound when I did this. It will help a little with the take off. Remember to disconnect your Negative (-) battery terminal before you drive away and while your at it when you disconect it for the intake go ahead and do that Transmission ECU mod also since its already reset.

what would be better? Do this and slap in a k&n type panel filter or go with a k7n cone type???

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Originally Posted by madspeed

what would be better? Do this and slap in a k&n type panel filter or go with a k7n cone type???

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cone filter, you get to suck air from all around instead of one flat panel. but the differences in gains are fractional.

if you do get a cone filter, try to get the biggest cone filter u can get. the price for em does go up but the don't get as dirty as quickly compared to a smaller cone filter.

with any type of filter, either it be cone or panel type, rotate ur filter from time to time. your car likes to suck its air from a certain sweet spot (it varies) and if you rotate it, the life of the filter can be extended a lil bit