tnorm077

Alright so I've been doing some research and I was wanting some other opinions. I have a 1996 z28 camaro. The only mods I have are K&N cold air intake, Flowmaster dual exhaust, electric water pump, msd ignition, and a shift kit. It is an automatic. This is what I want to do: a 383 stroker kit, the LE2 kit from Elliot, gears in the rear end, long tube headers, stall converter, and later down the road a supercharger.

Does this sound like a good set up?
What are some other ideas?
My goals are 400 to 500 rwhp and I have 3500 to spend right now so obviously I'm gonna buy parts as I go.
In what order should i do these parts?
Any replies are helpful thanks

Injuneer

Just start with a good heads/cam package and you are over 400HP at the rear wheels, on the stock rotating assembly. The high stall converter and a set of 3.73 gears will make it street friendly and fast. You will of course need larger injectors, a 52mm throttle body, and a good tune. Then you need to work on the drivetrain, beefing up the trans. Finally, the suspension needs to upraded to put that power to the asphalt.

You indicate you already have "Flowmaster dual exhaust".... is this a "true duals" system with headers, and dual pipes all the way to the back, or simply a catback with a dual outet muffler? You will need good headers for your build if you don't already have them.

From that point, the 383 build would be directed toward the S/C upgrade, with forged internals, 4-bolt main conversion and lower compression ratio to accept the boost. An S/C's 383 can easilly run as high as 1,000HP at the flywheel, but the cost is going to be high, well into the 5-digits.... Then there's an upgraded rear axle assembly, etc.

tnorm077

Alright thanks. Heads kit do you think would be best: LE2, LE3, or LE1 and which cam would you suggest? Also Which stall converter? I'm not sure which rpm's one would be best.
I don't think it has true duals. I am going to get long tube headers, is there a specific brand or size that would be best?

Thanks

Injuneer

The heads will be whichever HP level you are shooting for. Let LE pick the cam, based on your preferences with regard to street vs track. The more aggressive the cam, the more power it will make at high RPM, but you may not see as much gain in torque at low RPM. The stall will depend on the cam. But you are looking at someting in the 3,500-3,800RPM range.

The Pacesetter long tubes seem to deliver good bang for the buck. Just make sure you get the cera-metallic coating to keep under hood temps down, pick up a couple extra HP and minimize rust and thermal stress cracking.

Since you are focusing on the engine, let's move this to "LT1 Based Engine Tech" so you can get a wider range of opinions on which way to go.

tnorm077

What is the best suspension upgrades for this car? Also what would working on the drivetrain and beefing up the trans include? Lastly is the Granatelli G load brace worth getting?

Thanks

RamAir95TA

"Best" suspension upgrades is completely relative to what your intentions with the car are going to be.

The factory g-load brace on my car is long gone (10 years ago) and I'm running the times in my sig.

Additionally, these are fairly basic questions that a quick search on the forum would easily reveal. Good luck.

tnorm077

Ok suspension upgrades that actually make a difference? Like Sub frame connectors, Sway bars, Lower control arms, G-load brace, Strut tower bar. Basically my question is which one of these is actually worth getting?

Thanks

bw_hunter

This may seem too simplistic...but I'll explain why we do these upgrades in the first place and you can decide what's important.

For a suspension to perform as originally intentioned, the spring is supposed to be the only 'flexible' part. In reality, there are many flexible components in the stock suspension, all of them at different rates than the suspension engineers designed. When you run over a bump, the wheel rises and feeds energy into the spring, which is supposed to return it to the wheel...controlled by the shock absorber...when you get off the bump. The spring rate chosen allows the wheel to move, in both directions, smoothly and without abrupt body motions. What really happens is that as you hit that bump and the wheel starts to climb, some of that energy that should go directly to the spring, ends up going into lower control arms that flex slightly, into bushings that flex slightly and even into the body which, you guessed it, flexes slightly. As you come down off the bump, all of these flexing components feed engergy back to the wheel...but at different rates. The result is poor control of wheel hop and compromised handling.

Any step you take to stiffen the supporting structure will help this phenomenon which, in reality, isn't even noticable except by people pushing their cars towards the limits. So the typical components to be concerned with are:

The torque arm and its' bushings - This heavy sheet metal part flexs rather easily. Boxing it in should help but switching to a tubular arm with polyurethane bushings works much better.

The rubber bushings on the control arms - these give a smooth ride but flex pretty badly. Switching to polyurethane helps considerably but increases road harshness.

The sheet metal rear lower control arms - these flex pretty easily and seem to contribute to wheel hop on hard launches. Boxing in the stockers is a cheap but effective fix but you get much better results with aftermarket LCA's

The rubber bushings in the sway bar mounts - pretty much the same issue as those in the LCA's.

Shock towers - The stock design allows for inward flexing at high lateral forces or twisting on really hard launches. A shock tower brace is a must for any F-body that is driven hard.

Sub frames - All unibody cars flex to some degree and ours are no exception. The addition of a set of sub frame connectors stiffens the body....and allows the suspension to do its' job.

Another reason to modify the suspension is to correct for a known problem. many F-bodies suffer with wheel hop on a hard launch and while the suspension mods listed help a great deal, there is one more thing you can do. A set of LCA relocation brackets, welded to the rear axle, lowers the back control arm mount, improving the anti-squat tendencies of the car.

I've done all these things to my car and it is clearly much stiffer than stock and the suspension is better control than when I got the car. These cars definitely improve with upgraded shocks as well...the stockers are a good compromise but limited if you push them to the car's limits.

Good luck!

Injuneer

Depends how you use the car. Setting up the suspension for 1/4-mile car is a bit different than setting it up for high speed cornering, auto-x, etc. What are you looking for?

tnorm077

I would say I'm looking more for the 1/4-mile

tnorm077

What fuel injectors should I use if I want to do a supercharger in the future?

Injuneer

I'd select the injectors based on the normally aspirated application, then step them up when you go to a supercharger. If you are looking at anything up to 550-600HP at the flywheel, 42 #/Hr injectors will suffice.

When you consider that a supercharger can increase HP easily by 50% or more, and that the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) for a supercharged application is significantly higher than a normally aspirated application, you could be looking at injectors approximately twice as large, or something like 84 #/HR. No sense attempting to tune a 500HP motor with injectors that large.

You would select the injectors for the normally aspirated setup, then trade up in the future when you go to the blower. Note that your 383 will have to incorporate several compromises for the future installation of the supercharger. While a static compression ratio of 11.5:1 might work great for max HP without the blower, you would have to set it up with a SCR in the range of 9.0 - 9.5:1 to allow for the future blower install. You would also want a cam with a lobe separation angle around 114* with a blower, while you would want something substantially narrower without the blower.

slick1hunting

I would consider nitrous rather than the supercharger as it would be cheaper and easier to piece together as you go(mostly because of cost). As Fred alluded too you do have to keep the future build and goals in mind. Since you can get 400 plus hp to the wheels with the heads cam and supporting mods you could have alot of fun as you begin to build up. If you dont think you can come up with another $8000 plus for the supercharger and bottom end after you have the supporting mods and beefed up drivetrain I would choose to spray. I also would consider what parts can be had used for a good savings too as I probably saved $1500 on my setup once all is done. There is a guy on here with 450whp running 10.8 and he is na. He has everything working together very well. Sometimes too big of plans never get to the end because life happens first. There also comes a point were things get touchy and not real dependable without alot of hands on work.


Posted from Camaroz28.com App for Android

tnorm077

Thanks for the replies guys. I do really want to do the SC set up though. Could I just leave the stock fuel injectors until I get the blower instead of buying two different sets?

RamAir95TA

Honestly you're going to be spending thousands and thousands of dollars between combos so what's $300 for the right injectors?