Hello all, I'm a newbee that just joined the forum because I just bought my new toy, a 2002 Camaro B4C. Needless to say I'm pretty excited. The car is a former Florida Hwy Patrol police interceptor and is a low-mileage, excellent condition car.

I know F-bodies pretty well because I work for GM, but I have a few questions about mods. Any assistance that the experts on this forum can provide is greatly appreciated. My questions:

- Standard, easy mods- I'm planning on an SLP airbox lid and Blackwing air filter. Any other "standard" mods that I should know about?

- Planning on getting a DiabloSport Predator programmer. However I see that Hypertech has a Max Energy programmer that seems to do the same things. Which is better?

- New ring and pinion - it is an auto car with a 3.23 rear end. I would like to go with a lower ratio; with the auto, is the 3.73 gear too extreme, would the 3.42 ratio be better with the auto? Advice is appreciated.

What else am I missing? I don't want to go too extreme and would like to keep the car stock looking. Any other recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks!

 

First off, welcome to the site

For your mods, the SLP lid is a good choice. Also, a good set of subframe connectors is a must...really stiffens up the car and makes it more responsive. As far as programmers go, the Diablo is supposedly the best handheld, however everyone will tell you a dynotune is the best way to go or software such as EFI Live. Both are/can be more expensive, but also more precise tuning. EFI Live also requires actual knowledge of tuning where-as the Diablo simplifies it for the average joe. For gears, I have a few friends driving auto Fbodies and running 3.73s and they LOVE them. And it honestly woke the car up alot compared to the 3.23s.

A good mod to do is long tube headers and catback. I just recently installed some American Racing Headers long tubes and it made a world of difference. At the same time I installed the LS6 intake (which you already have stock) and ported my throttle body, and I also already had a Borla catback. This made a very noticable difference from stock performance. You can pay anywhere from around $400 for longtubes, all the way up to around $1500. I got my ARH Longtubes for around $1350 shipped and it was worth every penny....not the first problem with installation/clearance.

Those are your basic "first mods". With an automatic, a higher stall will also be beneficial, but I'll wait on someone more versed on that subject to chime in, as I've only owned manual transmission cars.

 

My 2000 Z ran 7.90s @~85 in the 1/8 mile with BFG Drs, Pacesetter's LTs, Borla cat back, 3500 stall, free mods, torque arm, slp lid, and 4.10s... If I remember correctly I think you can get all that for around 2000-3000.

It was extremely streetable, way faster than most other cars, and got decent mileage... So I would recommend those exact mods, and good luck!

 

Going from a 3.23 to 3.42 is pointless. These cars work very well with 3.73 gears from both a performance and economy standpoint. 3.73 is the gear of choice for almost any automatic LS1 application from mild to wild that's mostly street driven.

Save your money on the programmer. The "tune" they upload is junk. They have some other good features like being able to reprogram the PCM for a gear swap (for your 3.73s ), but for the price it's not worth it. Most LS1 oriented shops will do this for around $50. Instead, save that $300+ towards other more useful items like headers and a catback exhaust or an underdrive crank pulley.

While you're replacing the lid, porting the throttle body would be a good idea. It's cheap and relatively easy to do, and consistently yields several HP and a very noticable improvement in throttle response.

Other things to avoid besides the programmer are an aftermarket y-pipe on the stock exhaust manifolds, a smooth intake bellows, or a larger MAF. All yield little to no results, and sometimes cause problems.

If you're willing to give up a little bit of drivability, a higher stall torque converter will turn that car MEAN. Probably the single most satisfying modification you can make. Likely moreso than a supercharger or nitrous!

 

All of your basic bolt-ons -- Lid, Exhaust, Headers, Tune, Gears, Converter, etc.

Once all of that is done, you can start going internal or power-adders.

 

I appreciate the replies, thanks for the info.