smittyz28

Well I am fairly new here and I just picked up my 96 Z, 6 spd about 3 months ago. It already has cat-back and a K&N CAI. Over the winter I want to do a few things to it. Anyway I have just been reading alot of stuff, but keep getting alot of different info, what I want is to make about 400rwhp. My question is what are the best things to do and what is the best way to spend my money. I want to make as much power as possible on as little money as possible, not do things cheap and half assed just best way to spend the money. Thanks in advance.

jdhommert

Buy some longtubes. Pacesetters makes good ones, that can be had shipped with a Y pipe, coated for under 500 bucks.

But the best bang for your buck, by far, is nitrous oxide. Nothing comes close for performance to dollar ratio. If you know what your doing,and have the right safety equipment and such,don't be scared of it.

Gears are a pretty good bang for your buck, get some 4:10's, wont make any more horsepower, but your car will have a lot more pull to it. Only knocks a couple of mpg off too. 80mph=2150 or somthing like that.

I'd make sure the car has a good tune up (plugs,wires,filters,etc etc)

Also, Tires will make or break how fast it is. Example, i've got a damn near stock LT1, and my buddy has a LT1 with a blower on it. Both on street tires. We were out cruising with the club, everyone was kinda dragging each other from this stop sign for about 100' or so, until they had to slow down again, and i put a good car on that lt1 with a blower because of the simple fact that he couldn't get traction. Now had we raced the full 1/4, it obviously would have been a diffrent story, which is why i dont go around saying i beat a car with a blower, etc, but it goes to show you that all the power in the world doesn't mean crap if you can't get it to the ground.

One of the best mods you can do is learn how to launch and drive the thing. Six speeds can be tricky to launch on street tires, especially with 4:10's.

Weight Reduction=very good. Every 100 lbs you lose, is a .1 in the quarter.

My favorite thing i did to my car was the Pro 5.0 shifter. Helps with the driver mod, and it is SOOOO much better that stock. Its the only mod that made me go "holy ****" after i did it instead of ...ehh...

Now you say your ona budget, and i'm not sure how tight it is. But if your looking to do a heads/cam setup, check out the LEx packages. Lloyd and Bauer have some fine packages for LT1's for under 2k, using your stock heads. Now, your still going to need to buy injectors,tuning,timing chain,gaskets,valve springs, etc etc, not to mention all the supporting mods listed above.

Best way to do a budget racer imo, is Traction, nitrous,cutout,gears, lotta weight reduction,and a air intake. But traction+power+six speed=by by 10 bolt.

Bow94z

Exactly what he said, for now you should start off with a Pro 5.0,Then move onto 4:10's with a MADZ28 pcm Tune.
How many miles are on the motor?

jdhommert

Another thing, is that it depends what your looking to do, a fun street car, street racer, track racer, etc. I'll let you know up frotn that with 4:10 gears, traction is a luxary you will not have in first gear with street tires. Makes it very tricky to launch. And sometimes the gears will break,and the rear end doesn't last long after 4:10's, etc....and you'll need a stud girdle too, to keep the inside from flexing from the drivetrain shock...what you may just want to do here, i fyou can afford it, is just save up for a 12 bolt. Because with installation of the gears, price of the gears and installation kit,stud girdle, your lookin at at least 500 bucks there, and that could be put towards a 12 bolt, which you'll need eventually if you ever plan on making over 350 rwhp, give or take. Traction on these cars kills the rear end if your making any power. Drivetrain shock on a six speed tears 'em right up.

If you do go with the 4:10 gears, i'd only go with GM/Motive gears, they don't whine like Richmond's/Stranges might,they are a 4:11 gear actually, and are a tad bit bigger, so they are a little stronger. And get a solid pinion spacer, and maybe have your axles welded. That and the stud girdle is about as much as you can polish that turd.

I'm not trying to scare you away from doing it, I love my 4:10's i'm just trying to let you know that if you have to one thing, you always have to do at least 5 other things since you are doing the original thing. This is a hobby that is NOT cheap, but its worth it.

smittyz28

First of all thanks for the input. The car has about 100,000km (65,000miles), and my plans for it are to have a car that is fun on the street but will run good times at the track. No offence to anyone but I just dont want to go the route of nitrous...I was thinking more along the lines of heads, cam, TB, Injectors, Long tubes and ignition, LS1 driveshaft, that type of thing. I was think of the Eliots LT1-LE2 kit. I would like to keep the stock gearing but maybe do a stronger rear end. The short shifter is on its way so thats done. I am not afraid of the work I used to have a 210 fwhp blown cavalier, the only thing that I am a little timid of doing is the cam, I have heard some horror stories about putting it in wrong.

BlkLT1Z28

Get some LT's, a cutout, I would stay away from the 4.10's just for the fact that you will break the rear end one day and it will be money better off spent on a 12-bolt.

Do a H/C combo and the required bolt-ons and you will have what you want.

But if money is tight right now, the best bang for buck other than nitrous is some LT's.

jdhommert

You seem to have a decent idea of how to hit the power you need.

If you dont want to go for nitrous, one of the the best ways to go for a street car is a LE 2 setup. Great for a max performance street car. You decide what you want out of the car, tell them what you want out of a cam/heads swap,and bret and lloyd will hook you up. The LEx packages are just the most popular packages they offer. They can and will do all sorts of inbetweens.

Ya, if your planning to go heads cam, you'll definatley need a 12 bolt if you plan on launching from a dead stop on tires that hook worth a darn.Don't even waste your money on the 10 bolt. Best way to do it, is get a new rear end, and then you can sell your old one for a couple hundred bucks.

Reason why i didn't say definatley before, is with nitrous you can control it to come on/off at certain times,so its not as hard on driveline parts.

If your wanting to keep things cheap, or on any kind of budget, I'm trying to make you aware that whatever your planning on doing,always will cost more. For example, headers. I'm a guy that doesn't like to cheap out, and i'm of the mindset do things once, do things right. I got a deal on new pacesetter long tubes and ory, coated shipped to my door for 440. But if its almost time to do it, and you have the headers off anyway, why not replace the plugs while your at it?15 bucks. Since we are at it, if i'm doing plugs, i should do wires too. But with LT's, you need to route them over the valve cover, so there is another 150 bucks for the wires and OVC looms. You'll want to use better gaskets than Pacesetter sends you, so theres about 25 bucks for some Felpro 1406's. You'll also want locking header bolts. For Stage 8, they run 40 bucks, but some people have had problems getting all the headers locked, and everyone who has done them say next time, they are going with Breselin bolts (www.gobreselin.com , www.summitracing.com ) Thats 60-80 bucks depending on how they are finished. You will also need 02 extensions, 25 a piece, another 50 bucks. Since you are OBDII, you might need 02 Sims in the rear.45 bucks for each. Also, since you'll have the 02's out, you might want to replace them if you have a lot of miles and they need it. If you run the Bosch 02's, the cars run rich, so you can only use Ac Delco's, and i think you can score them from Jason Cromer/dal (online dealers who sell to cz28.com guys for a lil above list, i think) for under 50 a shot.....i think. Dealer wants about 100 a pop, but i think you can get them cheaper. Also, you'll probably need to replace your motor mounts, since after you get your headers on, you'll need to remove them to do 'em, and if you have saggy mounts, every time your engine torques over, your y pipe bangs the K member. Another 50 bucks for both. Plus most people like to get a tune after they get headers, so there is approx. 150 bucks more.

If you like to do things cheap, you could just drop them in there, and use all the stuff you were provided or have, maybe try to ziptie the wires away, might work for a while, keep checking your header bolts and heat cycle them, but everyone who does it the cheap way always says "I should have done ____while i was in there", and ends up going back sooner or later to do what they could have done all at once.

smittyz28

Well again thsnk you, you have been a great help. And when I say I want to do things cheap I dont mean cheap on parts cause I agree totaly thats its easier to do it right the first time what I mean is I dont want to go spending money on things that wont do me any good... I want to do the right things right and get the most out of my money and car. Also I think I am going to do the OBD2 to OBD1 conversion from madz28.com just to make things easier and more tunable.

CustomSSI

Another vote for LT's for bang for the buck if you want to stay away from nitrous..... Heads are cam you'll need if your planning on hitting 400rwhp.


Josh

Warlock1313

tires tires tires. and a set of gears

Robs97Z28

Talk to LLoyd. He is your best bet on reaching your goal of 400rwhp. You will need all of the supporting mods. http://www.eportworks.com/LT1LE2.htm

cat1055man

There are alot of choices out there but in my opinion the best bang for the lowest $$$ would be the hot cam kit $500 and a PCM tune from PCMFORLESS. The hot cam kit includes cam, 1.6 rockers, springs, retainers and keepers all matched GM parts that fit and work well together. shorty SLP headers worked well for me and can be added later as the budget allows. If you can do the work yourself this approach can get you close to the 400hp. at the flywheel with reasonable driveability. Good luck with your project!