I've got a 96' Z28. As of right now it has a K&N air intake, an aftermarket cam, and recently refreshed piston rings. What else can I do to increase my hp and make it scream. Right now, Hooker headers, Borla exhaust, and performance chip are on the agenda. What else can be done?

 

Heads, bigger cam, nitrous... it will make it SCREAM

 

Dont bother with a performance chip, get it tuned by pcm4less or madz28. Also, some gears would really wake it up.

 

Assuming when you did the cam, you upgraded to 1.6 full roller rockers...if not, that's something that would help. Second on the gears...you can really feel the difference with lower gears in the back.

 

I can't believe you went to the trouble of putting new rings on and not do any head work. I gained 25-30 HP on my head work.

 

The cam and rings work was done by the guy who owned the car before me. He did not mention any headwork, nor did he mention any aftermarket roller rockers.

No nitrous...I want it to scream, but this is my daily driver in the summer. Also, Im not sure about gears. I would hate to trash my fuel economy...I average 22 mpg right now, even when Im gettin' it...

What does pcm4less do different than what a performance programmer can do?

What about the aftermarket pulleys and things like that? I want to try and get the most horsepower, by the easiest and cheapest modifications possible. I am a college student with a TIGHT budget.

 

If your on a budget, you might want to rethink the Borla. And don't bother with the pulleys, there's better things to spend your money on. Is it an A4 or manual? A quality converter would help a lot more than gears would if you have an auto.

 

Borlas and hooker are on order...took me about 5 months but I saved up...

My Z28 is an automatic. What is a converter...and what does it do?

 

Converter raises the point at which the car engages basically. When you mash the gas from a stop you'll see it takes off around 1500ish RPMs. And power doesn't hit until after 2800ish. So raising the stall makes the car not move until say 3000RPMs hit. Then when you mash the gas you are immediately in the power band.

Gains in the 1/4 mile are in the .3-.8 range. It will make a HUGE difference.

 

if you havnt already ordered the borla, go with something cheaper like magnaflow or the cheapest by far is just a cutout. madz28 or pcmforless is a custom tune for your specific application rather than a broad general tune which hypertech and other programmers do. they arnt specifically for what you have done to your car, and will only give you 5-10hp while a custom tune can deliver upwards of 20 depending on your mods. since you have a cam, id find out what the specs are on it, and send those into pcmforless, madz28 or what i used, trifecta, and they will make your car run better, get better milage and more horsepower. also, a chip is about $425 while a mail order like madz28 etc is about $200.

headers help too.

 

Mail order tune is better all the way around. Hypertech is useless for what you have, and actually could hurt performance with the aftermarket cam with us not knowing the specs on it.

You really need to contact the seller of the car and find out what the hell kind of cam is in it, if any at all. Does it lope at idle, or idle smooth like a normal car does? Any camshaft worth putting it will idle "rougher" and lope sort of like a race engine sounds. All choppy and not smooth idling. Here is a clip of my car, with a small-medium sized cam in it.

Idle: http://videos.camaroz28.com/recentvi...9b001728a1.htm

Wide-Open: http://videos.camaroz28.com/recentvi...9d010e8307.htm

Notice it sounds totally different from stock, revs a good bit higher, and idles WAY rougher (Has more "lope" to it)

 

My car doens't idle like that...It only has a slight cam. You can hear it best when you first put it in gear and let the transmission pull you. That is when you hear the "lope" the best. I will have to contact the guy who did the work to find out for sure what type of cam was put in it. Also, I see what you mean about the hypertech not being specific enough for what I have...I will have to send the PCM in...

What do you think that cam would be?

 

Well actually...my Z28 already has flowmaster exhaust on it. Would it be pointless to switch to Borla after I get the Hooker Headers? The only reason I wanted the Borla was because they are the most recommended for the LT1

Also...wouldn't a converter be hard on the transmission?

 

Who said Borla was the best? I have Hooker catback that was cheap, and it supports something like 500 horses...which I will never touch as long as it remains my DD. But anything is better than flowmaster; it's actually kinda restrictive on our cars.

 

That's what I've heard too. I've done some research to see what exhaust is best for the LT1 and the Borlas have turned up more than the rest. They are said to have a better sound, give more horsepower and have least flow restriction. That's just what I've found...so far.