Got a quick question, just bought my 95 Z and Im getting married on june 11th 2011 and was wandering if there is any tricks for free hp on my lt1. Tricks that cost me no money or little at all. until I get married. I have a k&n fipk installed and uninstalled I have edelbrock shorty headers and flowmaster american thunder cat back. and I also has subframe connectors. Any help would be great to make car faster, thanks. shaun

 

good luck. there's no such thing as cheap or free horsepower that you can feel.

Underdrive Pullies (Crank and Alternator) – $60 to $100

Weight Loss – free-100 lbs off the car equals one tenth reduction in 1/4 mile ET.
Cutout/Electric Cut-Out – $30/$200

Manual Fan Switch – Free to $75- Used to manualy turn the radiator fans on and off when needed. TO do so for free, all you need is an automotive relay, switch, and some wire….10bucks at radioshack

160 Degree Thermostat – $20

 

Underdrive pulleys provide negligible to zero HP, so that's not really worth it, IMO.

The best free mod by FAR is the throttle body coolant bypass. It's worth about 7HP - do a search to find the details.

The only other significant free mod is weight reduction.

 

You must have missed the 2 dyno results of the ASP 945103 set, a 5-6 rwhp gain, I agree the others are useless.

 

Beltless is worth about .1 in the quarter, stands to reason a 30% underdrive would then net a .03 quartermile improvement and on a car with a stock idle might cause idle charging issues.

I will probably eventually have an underdrive DAMPER but the reason being for the performance damper and it will happen to be underdrive.

 

You don't really need a relay and stuff for the manual fan switch. I used 14 gauge wire and a micro toggle switch for mine. After reading up, I spliced a wire into the wiring harness to the computer. Ran it to the switch then to a ground. With the switch off, it works off the computer, on, it stays on unless the car is switched off.

Th bypass is by far the best bang for the buck. Less than 10 bucks easy and like 6 HP.

 

Manual fan switch is pointless unless you have an electric pump and use it to cool the car between passes at the track. I would say even worse than pointless because it substantially increases the possibility of fan electrical troubles by over complicating the system.

 

When I bought my car with nearly 100K miles, I did several things like plug, cleaning K&N filter and MAF. All the normal things that the previous owner was behind on. I got a lot better performance. Depending upon the condition, these might help. You better spend the money before the wedding

 

after a long time of driving a car fast and fast starts and punching the gas your throttle cable will stretch and then your throttle body wont open as far as it used to. resulting in decresed power when you give it gas. so even if you can find a way to restore the original length of the throttle you will open your throttle all the way instead of just partial.. just something to think about haha.

 

This is the first time I've heard about a tbi cable "stretching", is this something I should check on my 120k mile car?

 

Never heard of it before or had a problem. I think we have someone who "learned" something back before most of us were born and still thinks it applies.

 

Cool lol, I was thinking... it's twisted steel cable, right? How could that stretch a good quarter inch, enough to keep the tbi partially closed on full throttle?

As far as free horsepower, forget it lol. The best way to start is to get the inexpensive things first. Tbi bypass, etc help, but the gains are tiny individually. I'm in a similar position with cash, but if you save up a couple hundred at a time, you can splurge and pick up some of the more inexpensive bolt ons. I know that's not what you were asking for, just my 2 cents lol. Keep us posted on what you do to your baby!

 

What is a tb bypass and how does it work.

 

Nothing more than a tube and two hose clamps. Companies like BMR sell them, but you could just as easily make one with a trip to the hardware store.

The stock configuration routes coolant through a passage in the throttle body in order to prevent the throttle blades from freezing in extremely cold weather. It serves no other purpose, and doing the bypass is supposed to be good for about 5-7 RWHP. There's an old dyno graph somewhere showing a 7HP gain.

 

Actually, on a 95 no hardware is needed whatsoever. You can connect the passenger side hose directly to the radiator.