I was thinking of that because i see everyone's sigs and most people have some stuff, but it's hard to realise what i need for my purpose, what i'd find a use for etc.

Something like "recommended for starting to upgrade", "if you wanna get down to business", "hardcore" list of upgrades you should get etc.

So basically i'm asking is there no place you can get some REAL TESTED and reliable advice about getting certain setups and some close to reality expectations etc ?


I have a bone stock '96 SS convertible manual and sometime next year i'm going to be starting to upgrade. I don't want to go too far, but i want get something noticeable and real out of the deal.
- what i came up with so far: Pacesetter LT (with Y and original catback), intake elbow and airfoil, thermostat, obd1 swap from madz28 with tune, TB bypass (which i reinstall during winter), maybe 1.6RR which i see everyone has, and if it's not too expensive everything that can be replaced without taking the cyl heads off (springs...).

 

Without knowing what you expect in terms of HP, drivability, money, performance, you are not going to get any definitive responses. As far as "tested" combinations, this site is chock full of information about different combinatons, including all the things you would need/want to know. So to begin with you need to include everything you are looking for.

Basic mods for performance include Roller Rockers, Cams, Heads, injectors, tuning, headers, exhaust system, etc. They all cost money and therefore you need to include your budget along with what you expect to get with that budget.

Try to be specific because there are too many combinations and mods that provide different results.

 

Ok then. Basically i'm interested in bolt-ons and cheaper, easier to install stuff. Something that will get me going and top it off with a tune and that's about it. Can't say a budget since i have no money atm.

As far as i can tell, doing the heads is EXPENSIVE and that's why i was thinking not going into that. Also i'm afraid if i go for RRs i need other stuff like i said, springs, rods etc and that's too much too.

About the cam... do i start losing drivability and gas mileage once you swap for more or is there a threshold from where if you go up you start getting a racer rather than a fun powerful daily that i dragrace sometimes As far as i can see the cam is the biggest powerup but what's the cost?

I'm confused about so many things i'm thinking i'd be better off with getting someone's phone number and getting things straight like that.

 

i daily drive mine and its not that bad, although some would consider it horrible, its all about what you want from the car and what your willing to deal with to get it

 

longtubes, true duals, CAI, DR's and Gears

 

Now,I read a powerful daily driver.
Might try this.
A good cold air setup.
Forget the air foil(2hp)The air is traveling 200mph in there anyway.
Might get a good high flow cat.(Catco)5 hp
An intermediate pipe might give 2 hp
get a good high flow muffler(stay away from flowmaster)
MSD wires are pretty good,but thier coil wire is no different than the stock one so stay with the stock coil and wire.
Remove the spare tire and jack(38 lbs.)Join an auto club.
Use TR55 spark plugs,(Bubba likes the platinum kind),but I like to change plugs often.Did all the plugs(all brands including G.M.Suck)
OIl,well,I like 10-30,seems to do the job.I like the blend)
If the car has over 90000 miles on it,replace the water pump.
The 160 stat in your setup is a joke,stay with the180,especially if you live in a colder region.(Why ware the fans out before thier time?
You don't need roller rockers unless you are running a bigger cam,and like adjusting them every 15000 miles or so.(could be wrong here).
Get some good tires.I like the firestonesZ50's(.B.F Drag's don't produce.)
They don't find every grove in the road,and they are predictable.
Later on you may want to drop the rear gears to a lower number ,just a thought.May need to re-calibrate the speedo.
If you are not handy replaceing the spark plug wires,then,get them replaced (even with the stock ones) .
Well,I hope this helps.
This IS a good stop light killer.Gotta go now,the beer is running low.
Oh ,the engine developes maximum tourq and HP and around 2500.I could be wrong,would not be the first time.Hope this helps.(Don't forget to change the fuel filter(next to the gas tank).O.K. I'm done.Whew

 

LT headers, exhaust, cold air intake, 1.6rr, EWP, gears, custom tune, DR's, nitrous (Bolt-On's that can be done in pieces)

Ported Heads, Cam, and Intake (Usually done as a package)

Forged Stroker Motor (When more power or a rebuild is required)
Aftermarket ported heads and new cam (At this point you should know what it is you want to do with the motor and if you will use FI)

There are a lot of extras expenses that go with some of these things or that may need replacing. (Ex: injectors, optispark, balancer, TB, etc..)

Have you considered Nitrous? You can keep your mpg and daily street manners but have the extra power when needed.

 

I'm totally against nitrous, seems like a waste of money, i'd rather slap on 10 permanent HP than 100 once every month...

What's EWP? When will the car need axles / driveshaft upgrade? Without heads and intake ported/modified (which is impossible to do here, and new ones are way too expensive) will a new more aggressive cam not work? even i fi get 1.6 RR on?

I'm not going to go beyond the cam point anytime soon. No point talking about rebuild/stroker/ etc

 

Since you're just starting from scratch, this is what I would suggest. These will give you a noticeable increase in power as far as the seat of the pants dyno goes and give you a good platform to work off of in the future.

1st - Get a good Cold Air. K&N, Moroso, Lingenfelter etc...

2nd - Cutout or catback. If you don't mind the noise, go for the cutout. No catback is going to flow better. If you want to keep the noise down, go with a good flowing catback. There are way too many choices out there to go into that any further.

3rd - Headers. If you can get away with it where you live, go for long tubes. If you can't, go for the mids. I wouldn't ever buy shorties, but that's just my personal opinion.

4th - Gears. Nothing will wake an M6 car up quite like gears. Go for the 4.10's, they don't really affect driveability in a 6 speed car, some people claim that they didn't lose ANY milage going that route.

That will give you a good start and should be good for you in the future should you decide to dig into the motor...

 

This is why I asked if you considered a nitrous setup. It is the only mod I can think of that gives a huge hp increase, is fairly cheap, easy to install, does not change the feel of the car or mpg much, and deos not require head removal. I realize that it is not for everyone. EWP is an electric water pump. I have the Meziere HD EWP.

Good Luck

 

Ok seems like you want basic bolt-ons, and you don't want to sacrifice reliability/gas mileage.

That's all pretty easy.

1.6 rockers
headers (long tube or mids depending on where you live) with a y pipe
cat back exhaust
cai
you can get an intake elbow and air foil for $50 from an ebay store...
A SHIFTER (surprised no one has mentioned that yet)
160 or 180 thermostat
4.11 gears for the rear (i'd high suggest motive gears for you, they are the quietest, and it seems your trying to stick close to stock)
a tune from madz28 or pcmforless
a nice set of rubber
maybe an aluminum driveshaft if you so desire
a ta girdle stud kit for your rear end.

all that should get you in the low 13's/ high 12s... depending on where you are at and your track.
and above all a good tune up

things i disagree with what was said:
obd I conversion: unless you plan on getting into tuning yourself, don't bother with it, waste of your money
electric water pump: easy/cheap horsepower, but if you want reliability, ewp's are not the way to go.
cam/heads/injectors: that's when you start getting into reliability issues, lowering gas mileage, becoming unstreetable. please note i said WHEN YOU START...
avoid msd ignition wires...they are rather thick and it's kinda tricky to get them to go into the looms
you don't have to adjust rockers every XXXXXX miles.... and rockers make an improvement over the stock rockers with the stock cam... even using rolling rockers with the stock 1.5 ratio will give you gains over the stock stamped 1.5 rockers

start with all of that and see if all that additional power satisfies you... if not.... cam it!

 

maybe a stupid question and sorry for jacking the thread but how will a ta girdle stud kit strengthen the front end? isn't it just a rear diff cover? And how about a larger throttle body, i haven't seen anybody recommend that yet, wouldn't that make a decent difference or will it do nothing in a stock engine?

 

I do agree with the shifter and tires. In my old M6 car I ran the stock Hurst shifter from an SS and the "short stick" that gets rid of the crappy rubber bushing and liked that set up a lot. The Pro 5.0 is a great shifter as well, but is a little too notchy for some people. As far as tires go, I really like the Nitto drag radials. They don't hook quite as well as BFG's or Mickey Thompsons, but they last fairly long and grab well enough that you should dead hook with them at track temperature. A tune is also a great idea. For a bolt on car, you can get a mail order tune and be pretty on the money.

I wouldn't suggest the roller rockers at this stage though. I know some people get away with it, and I've done it myself in the past, but you really shouldn't run 1.6's on stock valvesprings and the 1.5's don't make enough difference to warrant the cost IMO. When you get into a cam, then you can change them out for 1.6's since you have to swap springs anyway.

 

The TA girdle strengthens the rear diff. If you're really interested in rear covers, here's a pretty basic article on them. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...08/ai_n9278259

As far as the throttle body, you're really not going to see much of a gain with a bolt on car. The stock unit flows well enough that I wouldn't touch it until I made enough power that the injectors needed changing too. I may be flamed a little bit for saying that one, but my personal opinion is that a 48mm TB is enough to support anything that 24lb injectors can throw at it...

 

pontiac performance did a comparison and got 20 rwhp with crane 1.6 roller rockers over stock. car craft did a comparision of stock 1.5 vs roller rocker 1.5 vs roller 1.6. just going to a roller got 5 and uping the ratio got 10 hp.

Some people have only seen 7 rwhp though.

figure 300 for rockers, 50 for some lt4 valve springs.... so 350... that's as much as a catback, and will net you more gains.

I'm not trying to start a pi$$ing match, just figured I'd throw some results in there to help him make the decision he wants.

edit: 52mm throttle body is a controversial thing... I will say these three things.
1) the fastest bolt on lt1 car has a 52 mm throttle body
2) you can have your stock throttle body ported to 52 mm for ~$100
3) some people have reported LOSING hp going to a bigger throttle body on a stock internal car.