I can tell you this from experience though:

With a CAI, Headers, ORY, Catback, 1.6 RR, & springs, you should get a mail order tune. My car could really use it. My mileage went down a noticable bit since the 1.6's ...

But I was holding out until this winter when I do (Hopefully) Heads & Cam ... Or, not so hopfully, N20 or ProCharged ...

Make sure you have someone who will sticker it come emissions time if you have emissions in your area. Im still trying to get a straight awnser if my boss will do it for me if I go heads cam ...

 

The advice has been very helpful. I've decided to begin with longtubes and y-pipe. Not sure what type of cat back exhaust to go with though. I'm not going to do anything with gears just yet only because I may be using the car for road racing as well as drag and need to research the road course. I've been hearing a lot of people saying I will need a tune whenever I add a bolt on mod. What actually happens when someone tunes the car? Does that mean they download info into my cars computer? Do they change any parts? A longtime ago a tune meant new spark plugs and a timing adjustment but I'm thinking this kind of tune is different? Also, what is a mail-order tune? And, should I expect better results than I had with my mail-order bride??: Thanks.

 

By tune they mean a ecu tune. A mail order tune is when you send your ecu out to someone like madz28 or pcmforless to be reprogrammed by someone and they shipped it back to you "tuned". I was thinking of getting one but decided to wait until I got my cam installed. People seem to get good gains from them. As for the cat-back, check out some sound clips. They are everywhere.

 

A tune refers to having certain areas of your car's computer reprogrammed to take the fullest advantage of mods you have added to it. Generally this means that spark timing, air/fuel ratio, and a few other parameters will be remapped in the PCM (I'm probably forgetting some, but someone will chime in with the rest ).

If you go to a shop to have the tuning done, then no parts are changed. Your other option is a mail-order tune, where you send off basic data about your car and a list of your mods to a company, who will remap a PCM using these data and send it to you. You then swap out PCMs in your car and mail your old one back (to avoid a core charge). There are a few companies on the board here who do mail-order tunes.

 

Okay, to my dissappointment I just learned that I will not be able to lift my car up high enough with my jacks and stands to install the longtubes and exhaust,...or am I wrong? I read that I would need to get my car at least 2 feet off the ground. At best, I can get the crossmember up about 17 inches. It seems like this is a very common mod. I can't imagine many people have a lift in their garage and it seems a bit sick to pay a shop to install this mod. Any suggestions? I'm in the Detroit area.

 

Go BBK shorty headers, $375 with y pipe, think flanges and nice size primarys.
Had my for 1 and 1/2 and love them.

Dont worry about catback just throw a muffler on it like hooker or something bc stock catback is mandable (ever how you spell it) bent and is 3 ins; however the stock muffler is what gets you. $125

Get the lingenfelter intake for shore $195 to your door

Definantly get Lower control arms. EASY to install and a GOOD 3 tens of second of your 60 foot. $125 from jegs nothing fancy but it works

Then tires tires tires. Get two Nitto 555's DR $385.68 put on a balanced.

All that and you've got one mean z. All you need now is a used NX kit or two decide which cam to get and some 1.6 rrs.

PS Get under your car and see if the weap whole on the water pump has rust around it if so go ahead and get a mezeira (dont know about spelling) electric water pump to get a lil more out of your opti.

 

Alright, so I've spent the last few days researching bolt ons. I've already decided to do LT, Y, and catback once I find a friend with a lift. I have a question about intake mods. I would have to think that to maximize performance you would want smooth transitions between throttle body, upper intake, lower intake, cylinder head, and exhaust. If the holes on any one part are smaller or bigger than the part they are joining that would create turbelance or problems, wouldn't it? So, how do I know if everything will match up. For example, everyone keeps telling me I should get a Lingenfelter intake. But how will the ports on this intake align with the ports on my stock cylinder heads and what if I get different ones? It seems that to do bolt ons correctly, you have to do everything at once and have all the components custom ported and matched. Yet, i know most people don't actually do this. Are people bolting together crap packages and claiming good results? Furthermore, its annoying trying to shop because the ad usually only say things like "for LT1's 93-97". How am I supposed to figure out if that BBK throttle body will match my lingenfelter intake and so on? Help me...I don't want to bolt together a bomb.

 

The Lingenfelter is a cold air intake not an intake manifold. It connects to your MAF.

 

And its not 195$ ... I paid 160$ shipped ...

Also, you dont need a lift for long tubes. I have 18" ( I think) jack stands. I sat these on solid 4" concrete block ( Make sure their solid though, you dont need to put it on a regular block, have it collapse, and crush you or something ****ed like that). This was just barely enough to get my long tubes in from underneath. It took me two days to get them in and everything together. But my car is a convertible and I sat there pulling my dick for a couple hours trying to figure how to move the convertible X brace under the car down enough to clear my Y Pipe ... A hard top car wont have this ... Also, the other thing that screwed me up, was that the exhaust manifold gaskets that came with the headers ... The bolt holes in them were too tight. So it was almost impossible to start the botls through them. Once I realized this was what was holding me up, I yanked them out, opened the holes a bit, and everything went together like a breeze.

Best bang for your buck:

Pacesetter COATED LT's $400
Pacesetter Y Pipe $125
O2 extensions $40 ??? I forget
Lingenfelter CAI $160
Mail Order Tune $ ???
1.6 Roller Rockers $ 130-250 Depending on brands ...
LT4 Springs, Locks, Retainers $40-50
LCA $ 125
GOOD TIRES

That should put you about where you want to be money wise.

And you will definatly notice a nice improvement.

Honestly, though, do it all at once. You will be quite suprised how well a LT1 responds to bolt ons.