I am thinking about doing some mods to my LT1, in the 1 month that i've had her i've gone from "holy crap its fast" and being scared of it to "meh".

I'd like to keep it reliable, nothing to crazy. The cheaper the better I dont want to have to rebuild the engine, its got about 75,000 miles on it. Ideally i'd like to go from the stock 275hp to about 350hp, what would be the best things to do? Exhaust, heads, cams, FIPK, HPP etc.

 

Exhaust would be the 1st place to start...nice and simple
Flowmaster was my choice

 

how much louder then stock would that be? and what kind of hp gains can I expect? I was looking at the corsa and they seem REALLY nice but REALLY expensive.

Also anyone else notice that in the cabin the Z28 seems louder then the trans am, did they have the same exhaust from the factory? difference in sound deadning? or is my muffler just shot and i'm imagining it

 

depeneds on your taste, but me being loud and obnoxious, i like the slp loudmouth. Loud, mean, fair price for a stainless exhaust system, nice power gain. Id also do a cold air intake at the same time. lingenfelter or slp or moroso or k &n are all close to equivilents.

 

The best thing you can do is exhaust. The hole bit including headers would be best but if your looking to keep it simple and cheap, then do a cat back system and also a CAI. Those will provide you with a nice gain. Also...many people go to flowmaster because of its name and price, but its also been known to be one of the worst in terms of performance. A lot of people have been happy with the Hooker catback system.

Aaron

 

how much hp would i gain with say the hooker cat back and the k&n FIPK?

The hooker on thunder racing is only 280 bucks american, i like that!

 

also what about a catalytic convertor any hp gains by getting a high flow one? if I can get some hp and help emissions at the same time then i'd be all for that!

 

I would guess you would see a gain of somewhere around 20rwhp with the combination of both a catback and CAI. I highflow cat would help but on a stockish car I dont know how much it would really help. Also, I believe if anything its going to hurt emissions, but it should still be legal enough to past tests.

Aaron

 

so then i'd be around 300hp that would be a good start, then I just need to find another 50, what would be the best for that? heads and cam? or is there something "easier" that I could do?

 

Close to 300 hp would be about right if your talking flywheel HP, but everybody refers to RWHP...rear wheel horse power so if you figure in a drivetrain lose you would probably be around 265-270 at the rear wheels. One thing to realize when modding cars is first of all, not all cars run or react the same to simular mods. Also, it takes several modifications working together to make good power.

Aaron

 

yes I realise that, i'm just trying to figure out if doing this is worthwhile or not. I mean would i be better off to just buy a LS1, slap the exhaust on it and have my 350hp at the flywheel.

 

Yea if you can afford one then go for it, but for the price difference that your going to pay, you could have your car making well over 350hp at the rear wheels.

Aaron

 

Oh NO, not another LT1 vs LS1 debate. j/k I think you should stick with the LT1. If all you want is a quick boost of performance, you can get a K&N FIPK, DMH cutout, and a mail order tune. You'll easily gain 3 tenths. (I gained 4 tenths from this setup)

 

haha not trying to start the debate again lol. i'm just thinking that for the price of heads if I had to do that to get the kind ofhp that i want i'd be better off with an LS1. I figure I could get 12,000cdn for my car and the cheapest LS1's are going for around 16,000 so i'd only cost me 4,000

but i've already fallen in love with my car, i dont think i could sell her. I couldnt even sell my cavalier to get the Z lol. I think i'd have a severe case of seperation anxiety lol

 

GEARS

By far, this will be the best mod you can do, for the "fun factor" All other mods are secondary.