Posts: 569
Joined: 9/13/2006 From: Manhattan Beach, CA Status: offline
Whenever I see ebay bids on an item that still says "reserve not met", I just assume most, if not all, bids existing bids were placed by the seller (under other user id names) or by the seller's friends/accomplices. But, hey, I'm a skeptic.
Anyone notice how well the rear ducktail and hood pieces fit together on the media car they used for those Sterling Edition pics??? And yet, Saleen STILL hasn't tried to get the side skirts down to the right size! I would think that for a $90k+ media car, they would resize those pieces so they line up perfectly! But, hey, that's just how I would run my business.
Frontier Ford bought #1 and #2 of the Sterling cars, as far as the sideskirts goes, the issue has been brought up, and we have made a new mold for the carbon fiber side skirts that fits correctly and they are still working on the production ones to fix it.
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Jared Chavez Eastern Regional Representative - Saleen SpeedLab 04 Saleen S281 #381 Saleen Series IV S/C, Saleen 2.875 Pulley, 05 Fuel Pump, Saleen 14" Brake Kit, JDM Air Kit, JDM 90mm MAS Air, 42 lb Injectors, Optima Red Top, Custom JDM Tune
I know someone who bought one, but I don't know what price was paid. I heard of someone else trying to buy one through a dealer trade and the holding dealer wanted at least $112K.
As for #s 1-10 being held for close friends and family, I'm not so sure how much of that goes on these days. Though Steve still owns a part of the company, my understanding is that he's no longer involved in things like divying-out cars, and I know nobody in the family is slated to get one.
As far as the sideskirts go, what if you had issues with the clips and the side skirts pretty much getting F'd up? Does Saleen replace them and pay a dealer to pray them/install them?
Posts: 235
Joined: 8/25/2007 From: Rotterdam, NY Status: offline
quote:
ORIGINAL: sparkadv
they jack the fuel pressure way up with the 39 lbers...
I'm sure they do, but that's kind of my point.
From everything I've read, jacking up the fuel pressure to enable the smaller injectors to work is generally a bad idea. Your fuel pump then has to work that much harder to keep the pressure up and the injectors have to have a much higher duty cycle. I thought that both of these were things you wanted to avoid as they make it just that much easier to go lean and go BOOM!
I guess it just seems strange to me on such a "high end" car that costs so much, that they'd "cut corners" like that, especially on something that could affect reliability.
Of course, I'm sure I could be completely wrong... after all, I'm just going by what I read while I was trying to figure out what injectors to run for my 14psi KB swap which should make about 550-575 at the crank. I came up with 42lb injectors as a minimum and went with 60lb just to be safe.
I just get flash backs to the S351's that had so many reliability problems because of inadequate fuel system design.
Haha I hear that. The 351's were a different nightmare all together. They did the job, don't get me wrong, but I hear ya.
Fuel injector duty cycle doesn't harm the injector because it's just like opening a faucet to fill a glass of water. The fuel pump does have to fun harder to get the higher pressure, but it still ends up flowing the same amount of fuel. It's the head pressure that makes it harder.
Anyway, i don't see the system having any real issues from a fuel pump/injector standpoint, but I see your point.
2 other things I think are worth noting:
1. 620 hp and it still passes an emissions test. Mass air and injectors definitely have a lot to do with that. 2. Ford started jacking the fuel pressure on their stock applications with the mustangs and F-150's (others as well i'm sure) and are now moving to a mechanical returnless system as a cost savings that runs at the higher fuel rail pressures 100% of the time! Idling, cruise, and WOT.
Anyway, I see your point. Seems to me you could probably go either way and be fine though.
High duty cycle on injectors....90% + is Not good. When an injector is running that much (held open) it heats up the windings, which can lead to premature death to the injector. Also with the added heat, it will transfer it to the fuel.
Ford is working on new gas fuel systems that are running pressures close to like on the diesels. But current model stangs, trucks are still running at 39lb rail.
The 39lb injectors are really a 42. They are just flow tested at a different pressure.
I agree. 90% is obviously not good because you'd want a factor of safety. Where did you get the 90% number though?
And fuelp injectors are made to be opened. If you're talking about them being held open, you're talking about 6500 RPM at WOT for an extended period of time. If you're sitting there in an Extreme, there are a lot of other things I'd worry about before the life of my injectors!!
Heat in the fuel. Sure. I would agree with that. I think the result would be marginal, but I can't deny that an injector that is grounded for longer would have more heat and thus transfer some to the fuel. I just think it would be fairly insignificant.
I would be surprised if Ford was running pressures close to the diesels though. The diesels run insanely high (25000 ish psi i think) whereas the ford currently run 39 psi. THey run such high pressures because the fuel is so viscous. Anyway, I don't know that it's not happening, but I would be surprised. Hey, who knows. It could be a research and development thing!
In any case, 90%+ would be cutting it close I agree. All I'm saying is that the fuel pressure is raised and there are reasons why you'd want to do it. There are also reasons why you wouldn't.
Yea, your correct on the diesel pressure. My typing and brain thinking aren't in snyc......early diesel stuff.. LOL I put the 90% as a general rule....at least for us here! Allot of insignificants can add up to Significant. But who knows, i'm just anal about things
If I had the $ I would buy the car now and theorize about injector duty cycles later.
IMHO this is the most beautiful and perfect interpretation of a S197--and a Saleen--and it has the power, features and ultimate exclusivity to be worthy of those good looks.
I see it ended at reserve not met at $91,000. That is still below list, I guess, but I hope these jerk dealers aren't going to gouge people too badly on these cars, that would sure take all the fun out of it for me, even if I had all that money and more.
Hmmm...silver with striping--no wonder it looks so good!
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