Well I am in my last few months of a long 15 month deployment in Iraq and I have decided that I reward myself when I get home by spending about $3000 on mods for the Z28 (pending wife's approval ).
My current mods are in my sig. I am thinking AS&M headers (want to pass emissions so LT's are out) and a cam & tune, plus installation fees... That should put me near my budget right? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

 

get the LE1 head/cam package with headers, and you'll be good to go

 

Headers, a cam and the supporting valvetrain mods, and a tune should put you around your budget. There are alot of cam grinds to choose from though, may want to try a search as you will pull up alot of good posts.

 

If you don't have a convertor, I don't think you'll get the most from a cam.
I'd do convertor, headers and save for the cam and tune.
Or as suggested - a heads/cam pkg and a tune - but for sure a convertor (good one) would be my next choice.

 

Does a convertor require a tune or does it just bolt right on? I had considered maybe getting a Vigilante but I'm unsure of how high of a stall to get, this will be my daily driver so I would like decent street manners.

 

For a bolt-on, street driven car, a converter in the 2800-3200 range will work. I would look into installing an auxillary tranny cooler though to combat the higher tranny temps that will result from the converter.

 

it will help to get a tune, if you get bigger than 3000, you WILL need it, or you may get what is called "stall wall"

 

I agree with this logic - but have used a 3600 Yank successfully with just bolt ons - and was able to leave it in after I added heads/cam.
A cooler is always wise with a stall.
I am uneducate regarding the tune - but - I put in that 3600 with just a HPP III and only used the shift point, gear ratio options.
I'm sure a tune will improve any car at any stage of mods - but I have used a stall convertor without a tune on more than one car and been very happy.

 

So how much would the installation be on a Stall convertor? I know the Vigilantes have a good reputation so I will probably go with one of those. How much for a tranny cooler + install? I am already looking at close to $1200 on the headers + installation alone (I do not have the tools, knowledge, nor the patience to do it myself )

 

for a stall, they have to drop the tranny, which i think you're looking at like 150-200 for, might want to double check on it though, i know thats what it runs around here.

 

A shop that I go to that knows the joys of working on a 4th gen quoted my brother $450.

It's not to hard to install one, it's just the time and patience needed. 3-4 hours tops.

 

ah, when i looked at trannys, i was quoted from a local shop that my buddys dad owns like 150-200 to drop a tranny and reinstall one, so idk how much he would charge to install a stall since that isnt very hard