Just wanted some ideas & opinions. Next year I want to add some power to my stock LT1. Wanted to know what everyone thinks is the better route to go and why for a daily driven car.

Here are the criteria:
Daily car, needs to be reliable and nice to drive on the street. Needs to pass smog in CA. Needs to not break the car

If I went STS it would be just 5 lbs so as to not (hopefully) break anything. I love the sound of that thing and like the "cool" factor of having a turbo. I also like the simplicity and short time to install (= less $$ I pay someone to do it ). What I don't want is to break the motor (about 15k miles on it).

If I went heads/cam can I? :
Add 100 rwhp like the STS (or more?)
Pass smog

And how would it drive?

Lastly, which one would be cheaper out the door including install labor?

 

You are going to have to pay a lot either way you go but the sts can be installed in a under a day no problem plus they dont have to tear into the motor. you may look into a LLoyd Elliot h/c package because hes making good power and there are different level packages available. The sts system is new and i havent really seen too many numbers yet to recomend it.

 

The STS has the potential to give you MUCH more power than a heads/cam package. Espeically since you need to be smog legal... The area uner teh curve will be MUCH better with the STS also. Fun factor is 10x better with the STS...

Sadly, you are more likely to hurt the motor with the turbo than with heads/cam. Simply due to the fact turbos produce a ton of TQ and thus your car has to be tuned correctly or you run the risk of blowing something up.

You know my choice... I hated heads/cam on my T/A

 

As far as driveability, the STS will drive just like stock. You are not boosting as you drive around normally, only when you get on it. A tune is a must with either, but especially with the turbo. The turbo is something you can install yourself or if you want your dealer to do it, it is usually not pricey.
It may not be a concern, but you will not suffer any mpg loss with the turbo provided you can keep your foot out of it. I didnt loose any, and have broken 29 a few times with the turbo on the highway.
Call STS and they will get you in touch with a dealer near you to give you an install price.

 

Thanks guys. So w/ a turbo it'll drive like stock....what about with heads/cam ?

Why didn't you like the t/a with the heads/cam setup?

 

With heads/cam, depending on how big you go, you'll wind up with a nice raspy lope of an idle all day, as well as absolutely destroying your fuel mileage.

Personally, I'd get the turbo.

 

with my LT1 I went with a 224/236 114 cam designed for forced induction. It is much nicer to drive than Naturally aspired cams, my cam wasn't huge but wasn't small either. Out of all the modes I did that one really sucked the gas down-bad Theere was a very noticable difference in MPG. I loved the sound of lope but hated using moregas and it had a slight cam surge which is'nt bad unless your in heavy traffic going 5 mph. At any rate my point is that heads cam can be slightly cheaper, but you pay for it by not having a stock driving car. There is one guy out here with an LS1-don't know what you have, but he paid a shop I think about 3600 bucks and passes emissions and makes around 420 rwhp. Thats really good considering he passes in California. My LT1 was totalled and I couldn't retreive any of the parts- headers,cam, gears nothing since i was out of state with no where to remove those things. Now with that STS I could've removed it within a few hours and had no problem. This is actually much easier than having to pull off your hi po parts and replace them with the factory ones in case of a total loss which the insurance will require. The STS will probably be more fun on the street since you'll get the same gas mileage if you keep your foot off it, and great amounts of torque, plus you can always add more boost for special times. the only advantage to NA is the engine will ast a very long time where the turbo may not. By the way I'm going forced induction, either by the cheaply priced STS or the almost ready eaton positive displacement package in the works

 

Any good "guesstimates" as to how long the motor would last considering its nearly brand new and that I normally don't drive it hard at all, usually never sees past 3k on a daily basis (can't guarantee that I guess if there was a turbo on it ) and only running it at 5 lbs???

I know it really just "depends" but I'd appreciate a resonable estimate if anyone has an idea.


Oh yeah... I dont mind a lope in the idle, I personally think it sounds bad-***, as far as gas mileage going down the tune..... dont like that considering how much I drive

 

well i'm in the same boat as you I just spent a good amount of money for the car and don't want it to break since its my daily driver. There is no way of knowing for sure, but you could probably make it last a very long time. There are guys that have been running low boost powerdynes that have got many thousand miles outof them, some of gone at least 50k. Some blew the engine at only 10k, but with a good tune, good gas and maybe some injection i think you'd be fine, especially if your not punching it everywhere everyday. STS told me to run the water injection with everyday driving if I was worried since water is so cheap, and then run menthol with 7-9 psi. htere are guys that are running 8 psi supercharged daily. If you plan on keeping the car forever like me then take the chance and go forced induction, if the engine goes you can still rebuild it cheap and run the same mild boost and then have no worries at all. I'm guessing if you are only using the turbo a small percentage of your driving you stand a better chance of it not detonating. Keep in mind too that heads/cam packages can still detonate as well, leaving you still in the same rebuild situation, its just much less frequent. It did happen to me, I think the combination of running some bad gas or to much carbon buildup built a hot spot and blew a hole right threw my piston. It cost me aabout 1000 bucks to have the block rebuilt with me then reasembling it. Which meant better parts so overall it wasn't bad.