If I was in your case, I'd go with an intake, and a nice set of midlength headers. You can pick up, a set of headers for around $400 and intake for around $150. Those bolt ons will probably net you a good 25hp or so over what youre making now. Add a camshaft after that, keeping your stock heads and you could pick up another 30hp or so, while staying emmisions legal. Porting your heads are going to be good for another 30-60hp on top of that.

These are just general numbers I'm quoting... you'll have to do a bit of research to find a combo that suits your needs, budget and performance desire.

Also realize, that the more you start modifying a car, the more likely it will be to break. You can get away with the basic bolt ons without much worry at all, but once you start swapping heads, and going inside the motor for cam swaps and such, the likeihood that somerthing will go wrong goes up. This is somethign to keep in mind if you plan on daily driving the car and dont have a back up.

 

I already have a moroso CAI with a K&N filter. and flowmaster exhaust. would it make any difference at all the get the heads ported and polished right now without headers or changing the cam? I am trying to do the least expensive mod that makes the most difference. what about a hypertech chip?

 

Your car doesn't have a chip. You'd have to buy the Hypertech Power Programmer. Those are junk. If you plan on doing a head/cam setup, wait and get a custom tune for a fraction of the price of a hpp.

 

I think most would agree with me when I'd say don't waste your time getting your heads ported and polished without considering a better cam or upgrading from the stock exhaust manifolds. Nothing like choking a strong motor. Even still, why bother with the heads if you're not interested in a cam? It's like doing half the job. IMO.

 

First thought:
You may not have the budget to achieve what you want to do.

Those who can afford to play the mod game typically start by deciding what they want to achieve, ie "I want to have a car that will pass emissions and go 13.0 in the quarter or better", then figure out how to get there.

Your uncle may be a great help in getting stuff done cheaply... but often, 'cheap' means "do it again to get it right, and spend WAY more than estimated" and sometimes even means "throw out the mistakes and start over with new heads" when porting is involved.

FWIW: JUST a decent gasket set for an LT1 heads and cam job costs well over 100 bucks, and good head gaskets can cost 150 by themselves...

Stop asking what you'll get from unconsidered modifications for a while. Spend a couple hundred hours here (and in the LT1/LT4 section of LS1tech) reading and searching. It's a good place to start.

 

do headers, gears(4.10s), tune, RRs and springs then come back.

 

Best advice yet.

 

and do us all a favor and swap out the flowmaster muffler for a magnaflow or something equivalent. High flow is what you want with exhaust..

 

Ehh. If you want free flowing exhaust, leave the Flowmaster and put a 3" cutout after the cat. For the price, you can't beat the way a Flowmaster sounds, IMO.