Hey whats up. I have an Lt1 with 129,000 miles on it, the car is in brand new shape and everything is awesome. Car also has a very nice amount of power, I did all the small mods and got intake and exhuast and for me the car is pretty fast. But I have that craving deep down inside of me for more power! Im at around 320 Hp right now but I want something major. I want to know what you guys think I should do so I can be happy and not learn the hard way. I was thinking of getting nitrous but then I though itll mess up the engine faster at this kinda mileage. I thought of doing an engine swap to an ls1 but thats too much work, and then I thougt of doing an Lt4 engine swap but thats also work and money and alot of it! I have a fair amount of money but I wanna know what I can best do for my current situation. I do not want to do upgrades like supercharger cam or things that cost alot but dont give as much as they are worth. I want something that will dramatically change performance and I want it to be simple. I am now leaning towards the lt4 conversion kit, and while converting it, I can replace all the worn parts in my engine and consider it a rebuild. What do you guys think of this? I am planning on doing this with myself and a very good motorsport guy that knows his ****, but Im asking you guys for adivce on what I should do to make my car have an outrageous horsepower increase.. maybe in the 425 HP range and have it NA all engine. By the way, my name is Michael and Im 18 years old and hopefully im gunna graduate this year outta high school and if I do my parents will give me $5k to spend on my car, but I wanna know what I can do now to make good horsepower. I am very patient with work on cars and I have a feeling I can handle the upgrades/conversions.

 

heads and cam
for $5000- you can get a complete crate engine makeing pretty much as much power as you want- 500 wont be too hardhttp://www.cmotorsports.com/lt1crateengines.htm

enjoy
thats what i did with my graduation money (but built my own)

never looked back

also-
I too am 18 (FAR FROM A PRO), but I've built my own motor so I know what its like.
I also see how much fun it is to have fast sports car, cars are fun, dont let them take over your life. You will barely even use it college. College is expensive. be careful. I think you would be better off with rockers and headers.
Spray nitrous, dont worry. 150 shot properly tuned is cakewalk for these motors. My friend is shooting 150 on his motor (same milage) constantly without tuning.

 

Unfortunately, Trey's suggestion appears to be too much of an undertaking for someone who is fairly new to hotrodding. No flame intended, just trying to be realistic.

I suggest an intercooled ATI procharger pullied for 8psi of boost. The intercooled blower will give you an easy 100 horse with the reliability and simplicity you are looking for. You will also have nearly $1700 left over should you need to rebuilt your short block later down the line. The blower could easily be installed on a weekend, making it a fairly straight forward operation.

 

Quit being a sissy and get the nitrous. Spend around a thousand bucks and get all the bells and whistles with it.

 

for sale section

 

My recommendation would be go with a 125 shot of nitrous. If tuned properly you will have no problems with it. I have a friend of mine with over 100 nitrous passes down the 1/4 and the motor still runs strong. I would not recommend going with a blower because you will start to run into alot of issues. Buying the supercharger is the cheap investment. The other things that happen are the expensive investments. If you decide to go with an LT4 conversion I would recommend getting the Lt4 heads ported. I also would recommend going with some Hooker Longtubes.

 

Yeah put the laughing gas on there. It's cheap horsepower. IMHO

Joe

 

You are "hopefully" graduating from high school at age 18 and if you do so your parents will provide $5,000.00 toward hot rodding your car? Is that a correct statement?

I suggest putting the money in the bank and forgetting about it. Are you going to college or a trade shcool? Re you getting a job? An apartment? I bet there are many choices you need to make that this point in your life and blowing $5,000.00 on you carto make it faster probably isn't real high on the priority list... Spend that $5,000.00 on the engine and the next thing you know you will break the rear on a good launch and it will be another $2,000.00 for a 12 bolt.

There is a lot to going fast, being legal and safe, and not screwing up your car in the process. There are some pretty sharp guys here that have done it and share their knowledge freely, but you need to exercise some common sense throughout the process.

 

Ted: you did my fatherly duties for me, thanks

Seriously, if I had $5,000 to invest at age 18 and put it into a good diversified stock mutual fund it would be worth ~$150,000 now. Makes a hell of a lot more sense than throwing it into a car. In my case, I had to struggle with college and med school expenses, so didn't have this opportunity. None the less, the schooling was a good investment both in terms of providing the avenue to a satisfying career and personal growth.

BTW: I didn't have a car until I graduated from college. I used my bicycle and public transportation for the first few years, then I bought a motorcycle, which I used pretty much 4-seasons!! Finally got a car when I started med school. It was worth ~$500, the sort of car you could buy now for $2-3,000. Spent many an hour on my back in the parking lot working on that POS.

Anyway, a blower would be a real poor choice, IMHO.

Rich Krause

 

Heads cam all the way and you will save 3k for school or just gas it and save your money till it blows. If aint broke dont fix it!


Well i must say i enjoyed my car at school, but i go to school in Durango Colorado. There is nothing better than taking you car in the mountains after a bad day of class. I found ways to make money and go to school it was not to hard. Right now im taken a year off, but I would buy and sell a couple cars per year and find plenty of money to survive at school. I dont think i would buy any stock unless your doing some PUTS. The market is performing as well as a blown 4cyl, and thats why im working 65hrs/wk.

 

What mods do you have right now?

 

Dude, what are you talking about guys! Hell no im not going to spend my money on college and no im not going to live in an apartment! Im staying home and I will to commute to college FROM home, it is 10 miles away (SJSU) and then Im gunna go to Dental School so I can be a dentist like my father. That 5000 is from them as a gift to spend on my car. All other expenses such as gas, room, food, and entertainment will be paid by my parents until I get married. I live in an extremely nice house and I would not like to part with it to live in a crappy dorm or aprtment. I already got my future setup. Ha, but thanks alot for telling me to spend it wisely it was as if you like a dad to me. Good, but come on, I need a super fast car cuase I used to own 2 ss's before and now i have a Z28 and i wanna make it into a monster. I was thinking if I got ported aluminum or iron heads, a cam, n20 a torque converter, and computer tuning, and this should bring me up to 425 hp without spraying and maybe over 500 with spraying. Im not going to settle for anything less than a 200 shot too! Thats why my dads gunna have my engine rebuilt soon, or we with by the kit and work on it during the summer.

 

Well if your dad is going to pay for a rebuild then I would not mess around. Slap a supercharger (D1SC) on your car and wait for the motor to go (motor will probably last a week). If not get some AFR heads and a nice aggressive cam and shoot a 175 of nitrous. Either way it seems like you have some pretty good financial backing incase something goes wrong.

 

K, Ive come to the conclusion,
Im gettin:

Aluminum ported heads
ASA Hot cam
NOS
Shorty Headers
Torque Converter
Trans go shift kit
Torque Arm
Trailer arms
Cutout

And last but not least a full engine rebuild... what do ya guys say about that?

 

How did you go through 2 SSs already if you're only 18

Anyways, if you don't have subframe connectors yet, be sure to have a set (preferably welded) put in before you put your foot to the floor with that combo. These cars alreadyneed them with the stock power.