I just bought a '99 Trans Am, 6 spd, 16" wheels, no ram air or WS6 and it has 77K miles. It is completely stock, straight from the factory.

My question is, what mods should I do first. Which ones offer the most horsepower without making it a gas guzzler?

Also, I have access and free use to a professional shop with every tool imaginable if that helps.

If you were me, and had $1000 extra bucks and a stock Trans Am, what would you do to it first?????

 

I'm not up on the jargan, whats "Lid"?

Any suggested or prefered headers and exhaust?

How difficult is it to do? I understand the engine has to be lifted up correct? Is this a 4 hour project or a weekend project?

 

"lid" refers to the air lid, the big squar thing on the nose of the car above the radiator under the hood. stock one is very restrictive. they are dyno proven for 8-10hp

i would also suggest a supersucker ram air (link below SSRA), it is a very effective ram air setup that will seriously help on the top end at highway speeds. and it acts as a cold air induction in lower speeds.

next would be a catback, which is completly going to depend on the sound you prefer. check out www.ls1sounds.com
i would suggest either the hooker or magnaflow if you are on a budget, if not than something like the GMMG or corsa

as for headers, you DO NOT need to lift the engine. lift the car nose pretty high YES...engine no.
i did a long tube install, by myself for the first time, in 10 hours start to start up. the flowtechs that i bought, including off road ypipe, gaskets, blockoffs and clamps cost me only $600...most coated headers cost that or more by themselves.
if you want to see what is involved, check out page 11 of my website below in the signature...step by step and pics.

since it's an m6 i would SERIOUSLY consider a shifter, or at least a short stick. the stock unit is HORRIBLE compared to aftermarket. the best is probably the Pro 5.0, next being the B&M ripper or the Hurst unit. if you want to just do a short stick i have one for sale, also with pics on my webpage.

other than that i would look into some suspension stuff to tighten the car up and make it handle better.

 

you're going to want to stick an LS-6 intake on there too.

 

hands down your two most important cheap mods you wanna throw on there are lid and a cat-back. The lid is all preferance they all dyno about the same 10 hp, just look around I got my slp lid for 80 bucks. Same with the cat-back. It depends on which sound you like and which look you like or want for your car. Stay away from flowmaster though they suck. I got my magnaflow for 349 shipped from hottexhaust.com. It looks and sounds great and only took about an hour and a half to install. You may also wanna change out those platinum spark plugs at 77k go with iridium or copper anything but platinum. Another cheap mod is gears. Go straight for the 4.10's and you will see about 3-4 tenths
on the quarter. You can get the whole kit with gears an hardware for under 400. Lt headers only flowtech or pacesetters can get the set with y-pipe for around 600 coated. Plan an entire day for installation. Also sub frame connectors to stiffen the car up and get some more horsepower to the ground. So in this order:
1. lid
2. cat-back
3. sfc's
4. gears or longtubes

You can also look into a granatelli maf about 12 rwhp I got mine off ebay for 275. forget the pulleys an tb's even the ls6 manifold isn't that much of a gain for the money.

 

teke 184 how do your flowtech's sound with the magnaflow. Did you notice a good performance gain out of them?

 

"You can also look into a granatelli maf about 12 rwhp I got mine off ebay for 275. forget the pulleys an tb's even the ls6 manifold isn't that much of a gain for the money"

you must be joking right...maf having more gaines than the LS6 intake.

the intake is a dyno proven 7-10hp gain...done by several members as well as several magazines. including one that tested 4 different intakes...the LS6 making as much hp as the LSx intake for 1/2 the $$

i have yet to see anyone prove the maf is an advantage, most have claimed a loss of track time when changing to one.


as for the flowtech sound...um...they sound like every other header with no cats....LOUD. the MF was a bit raspy at higher rpms due to 2/3rds of the exhaust being free flow, not muffled.

before the headers i had manifolds with a Bassani orp and the magnaflow...i couldn't tell much of a sound difference after the headers...so it's mostly attributed to the cats quieting the exhaust.

and the power gain was VERY nice...particularly mid and top end. cruising in low rpms in high gear and when pulling out form a stop i seemed to notice a drop in torque, but nothing horrible.

 

Lid / Exhaust ... first things. Headers are the best bang for the buck as the LS1 motor really wants to breathe.

Next? Subframe connects

 

well if you only have exactly 1 grand to spend i would definitely do a lid. any lid will do. i had the mti lid on mine. the next thing i would do is definitely a catback. there are alot out there so just go to ls1sounds. and see which one you like sounding the best. some of the good ones are magnaflow, borla, gmmg and loudmouth. if you are gonna do headers you might wanna think twice bout the loudmouth because its ungodly loud. and the SSRA (super sucker ram air) is a good mod as well. you can actually get the lid and full length headers and a catback for about a grand.

lid-99-100$ new 40-60$ used
pacesetter or flowtechs headers 300-500$
catback-300$

 

I'm actually looking for more low-end power as of right now I have plenty of top-end. I'm going to do 4.10's so that will help me out plenty though. I will do lt's in the future but I think I'll do the gears first.

The thing about aftermarket maf's is that most of them are only tricking the computer into actually thinking the air flowing in is cooler, resulting in power gains for only about 200 miles until the computer figures it out. That would explain the power loss some have experienced. The granatelli maf is actually custom tuned so it is not tricking the computer and the power gain stays. There is no noticable power in the low rpm range. I did notice a big difference in higher gears like fourth and fifth pull much harder which can be fun. I raced 94-98 gt with exhaust at about 70 and pulled hard in fifth gear while he dropped to third. It's kind of the same concept as the ssra more high speed power.

 

"The thing about aftermarket maf's is that most of them are only tricking the computer into actually thinking the air flowing in is cooler"

this is news to me...i was under the impression that the aftermarket mafs were designed to be less restrictive, hence being 85mm instead of the stock 75, and not having the restrictive divider in the middle.

the maf doesn't tell the computer how cold the air is neccessarily, it measures the amount of air entering.

the problem with the mafs is that they can cause a change in the A/F ratio, which can sometimes be a good thing and sometimes a bad thing for performance depending on the individual car. as in...if the car is running rich, and the maf leans it out a little, you may see a bit of power.

however, with the amazing "learning" ability of our computers, these changes are often slowly tuned out by changes made by the ECM. which will negate most gains/losses. so what is the point??

save the $300-400 and buy something a bit more proven

 

I'm in the boat that says don't waste your money on a MAF...I had the SLP MAF on my car, and it was running pretty damn rich. However, I really can't complain too much cause the car ran the times in sig. with that MAF on it. I really can't tell any difference in the car with or without it on the car, however I really didn't like the A/F ratio reading I got back while it was on the dyno with the MAF on the car.

-Dan

 

From a fellow new owner, get a Pro 5.0 Shifter. I just got mine installed and it makes a huge difference and is a very easy install. Under the hood, go with an air lid, yet another easy install for 8-10 more hp's. While you're doing it, you can get the smooth bellows to smooth the connection from the MAF to the TB. or buy the appropriate size Turbo Tubing (High temp Silicone Hose) and cut your own and save a few dollars. Then you'll be at my current point. Probably the best immediate bang would be to get a catback and Long tube headers with Y pipe. I'm personally going to get a set of Kook's LT's and then run Random Tech y pipe and cat back. Anyone else hear anything on the RT catback system, it doesn't get brought up that often. One of my instructor's runs their set up on his 00 TA and it sounds very nice and is priced very reasonably. He highly recomended it. That will easilly clear your first $1000. After that a gear and beef up the suspension. Just my opinion.

 

[QUOTE=teke184]"[ hence being 85mm instead of the stock 75, and not having the restrictive divider in the middle.

the granatelli maf is the stock 75 mm size. Look into it and you'll see there is a big diference between the granatelli and other aftermarket mafs. I'm not saying make it a priority on your list but it does add noticable power and I would recommend it over a pulley or tb.

 

Awesome, you guys rock! Thanks for all the info!