I was just going through a bunch of old posts that came up in a search I did on LTCCs and Delteqs, and noticed that one of the only knocks on either system was the cost. I also noticed that a lot of people with mild combinations reported back impressive fuel efficiency gains.

I just wanted to point out a couple of things:
1) When you are making a purchase and cost is an issue to you, you have to look at life cycle costs, not just first cost or up front dough you lay out.
2) While it is a big outlay for a college guy or teenager, there are a lot of us on this board that don't consider $600 or $700 bucks to be an insurmountable figure. Those numbers are more like a weekly tax assessment.

With that said, I want to get a Delteq or LTCC for my Formula. Now, in the course of doing so my wife will find out, because even if she doesn't notice the actual purchase, odds are she will find the UPS box on the door step at our house or notice me out by the garage with my car up in the air and tools strewn all over the place. At that time I will have to come up with some type of justification for why i have dropped $700 on an ignition sytem (because she doesn't understand my car dementia, and will ask, I **** you not, "Doesn't your car already have an ignition system?")

Now, for the justification (here's where I make some general assumptions based on my own experiences and the search I just did. We'll go with the Delteq as an example for no particular reason.):

The up front cost: $700

Now, assuming you don't currently need a cap and rotor for your car, we'll only look at expected fuel savings. I have had my Formula for a little less than a year. I like it. I am keeping it. I have a particular love of having no car payments. I'm putting abot 20,000 miles a year on the car. I put in 89 octane for daily commuting duties @ about $2.05/gal here in Palm Beach County. I get a mixed fuel economy of around 19mpg. I've read a lot of claims about the fuel economy gains of the coil per cylinder setup, but 30 gallons/tank seems like a nice low estimate of gains. That comes out to about a 2mpg increase infuel economy.

Let's look at this:

20,000 miles/year
19mpg Annual Fuel Cost: ~$2150/yr
$2.05/gal

20,000 miles/year
21mpg Annual Fuel Cost: ~$1950/yr
$2.05/gal

So, if the delteq does get you a net gain of 2mpg, I can save about $200/yr on gas. With that estimate, the delteq will have paid for itself in 3.5 years in fuel savings alone. If you re-run the numbers at about 15,000 miles/year, the savings is somewhere near $150/yr. So you get all of that, the smooth idle, and the performance gains to boot for the time you have the unit, not to mention not having to worry about the dreaded Opti No-Start issue.

If you currently need an opti and are thinking of a coil per cylinder arrangement, then the payback period for a Delteq or LTCC goes to about 2.5 years assuming you get a non-vented opti for $200.

If you're still reading this, bless your number crunch loving heart. Of course, individual realized mpg rates and miles per year stacked on your F-Body will vary. This is just the bit-o-fact I will spring on my significant other when the unit is delivered, but I thought it was worth thinking about.

Anyway, dont be too quick to criticize the price of a new item for our cars. When did a higher stall converter or a cam swap ever have an actual economic upside? Be very happy that people are still paying attention to our "niche" market. I'll bet the creators of the Delteq and the LTCC products are not jetting around the world and dining on caviar due to the prices of their respective units.

Cheers!

 

So are you trying to decide which one to purchase? I believe most people are more concerned with money and time expense of constantly replacing optis over the cost of gasoline but that just my opinion.

 

I fail to see why this would produce any better mileage then the factory setup. WOT the burn would be better, but there isnt a significant load cruising, and I dont foresee there being a significant difference in cruise mileage.

 

You shouldn't have to justify it to your wife, the only way she would see the package is if she left the kitchen or stopped cleaning :O (I'll hurry and post this before my g/f see's this)

If you are so worried about cost and payoff for the long term, get an AutoZone opti with a warranty.

I personally went with the Delteq and love it....no problems, easy install and smooth running all the way up the powerband.

 

[QUOTE=GhostZ]You shouldn't have to justify it to your wife, the only way she would see the package is if she left the kitchen or stopped cleaning :O (I'll hurry and post this before my g/f see's this) QUOTE]

ahhhhhhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahah ahahahahahahahaha...sorry it was really funny at 4am

 

Did anyone catch the part saying he runs 89 octane? 10.5:1 CR in a LT1?! That thing isn't pinging? Anything less than 93 and my car is a dog. More power to you. Nice breakdown by the way too.

 

Thats all I run with no problems. I've also made numerous runs with my scanner connected and found almost no knock retard at all. I see no reason to run premium gas if the car isn't requiring it. Our cars have sensors to detect detonation so You could run 87 Octane if you wanted to.

I looked into both systems and avoided the LTCC only because the coil mount brackets look like someone assembled an erector set on the valve cover. It looks like S**t! The Delteq is totally invisable and runs great. An I also gained almost 1 full MPG in gass milliage with the system.

 

Couldn't you just say NO!

My g/f would believe it. and how the hell do you run on 89 octane?

 

i always ran 89 with no problems whatsoever. 93 on the weekends though when i knew i was going to give it hell.

 

I run 89 during the week. I have a pretty long commute that's all on I-95, so it's mostly just me going at 75mph and under 2000rpm. I never have any problems under normal light driving. Hell, I haven't noticed anything under lead-footed driving on 89 either.

I put in 93 when I go to the track.

 

What brkts. are you referring to? Flat plates, or the oem coil brkts.? Or is it cuz the coils are mounted on the covers?

 

These systems have longer coil "charge times" than the factory ecm allowed.
This would explain where the mpg gain would be coming from.