Redtop BEAMS - Terrible Low-end torque and dead spots in RPM range

Hello all,
 
Hope you're having a delightful start to your new year.
 
I've had my 96 Bathurst, BEAMS swapped NA for some time now and I can't help but be absolutely shocked at how slow it is. I struggle to keep up with anything on the road, even normal sedans and hatches!
My engine is definitely not running right. I'm having huge issues in the low RPM range, from 1,000 all the way to 4,000, only then do I see a decent kick in and the car starts actually moving. I always have to rev to 3.5 - 4k RPM in 1st gear in order to keep up with seemingly very normal traffic, this is with fairly quick shifts, so I know that's not the issue.
 
My fuel economy is decent, I average 8 - 9L/100km with mixed driving, can get 7L/100km on freeways, sometimes slightly better actually!
 
I also get gaps where the needle slows down then goes on between 1K - 4K RPM, then it's much smoother from 4K RPM to 7k RPM and that's when the kick comes in, and it's a very noticeable kick.
It feels like a turbo that just hit boost, and I've been told the BEAMS is meant to be much more linear.
 
Simply put, I got beaten by a Forrester with 29kW less than the BEAMS and only 20NM of torque more, that weighs 200kg more... Clearly shouldn't have happened. Something is wrong.
 
I've tried running a different high-end intake from my mate, as I'm currently running a basic pod filter (I know, BEAMS intake is the best, but I can't get my hands on one of those fairy-tales) and I reset my battery in order to put the engine in learning mode, that didn't get rid of the gaps in my low-end RPM range.
 
Any thoughts? Could this be an ignition or timing related issue? Has someone faced this exact problem before?
 
Thanks in advance and sorry for rambling on, just wanted to clear as many things up for you all and provide as much information as needed.
 
 
EDIT: Worth mentioning, my RPMs take a while to start dropping, and even when I let go of the gas and clutch, it's still sluggish, and I could tell that when I drove my mate's Subie Forester, was so easy to shift and have RPMs drop rapidly!
 
-Andrew

The other option is to try and find a SARD SportsEX + pod filter like this (SARD Part Number 59340):
 
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.jp%2FSARD-%25E3%2583%2588%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2583%2597%25E3%2582%25A4%25E3%2583%25B3%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25AF-SPORTS-VVT-I-59340%2Fdp%2FB00R7NPNA0&edit-text=
 
These are the only aftermarket pod filters that have any reputation for working reasonably with the BEAMS engines. One of the reasons is for that is that they come with a MAF mount/intake pipe of the precisely correct diameter.

There are some sellers of that intake kit in Japan on Yahoo. You could ask a company like Gorilla Industries (forum sponsor) to buy it for you as they have Japanese bank accounts and Yahoo logins etc.
 
http://search.shopping.ya...hp_pc_search_searchBox

Nope. No one. I don't know who to go to that would actually know what they're looking at.. :/

I'm also in VIC, residing in Knox City area. :)

Sure, I'll PM you to see if we can sort something out. I appreciate this a lot in advance!
 
Also, for everyone else, I noticed when I drove my mate's Subie Forester that when I clutch in his RPMs start to drop much quicker than mine. I get a massive lag, sometimes even a bump in RPM when I clutch in. I've tried completely letting off the gas and pausing for a split second before clutching, it works but it makes my shifting slow and the RPM still take a while to drop!
 
On the Forester they drop so quickly when I do that, just like you'd expect...
I'm sure it's not meant to be like that in a 3SGE!!!
 
Thoughts? :/

It sounds like your ecu isn't sensing load correctly. I don't know how these engines are set up and they may sense load via a MAF and/or MAP sensors. Make sure that you have these in place and they are wired correctly. If the wiring is good, try different sensors to see if yours are faulty.

Thanks for the reply, Admin!
I've looked into that forum thread you showed me, that's how I found out about the MAF/ECU issues. It could possibly be that or a combination of.
 
I've looked into trying to acquire the intake or getting the "Redtop intake lid" and getting it on "stock intake box", but I couldn't find the part number provided, and I made a thread about that before, which wasn't much help.