1996 Camaro Z28 LT1 Project

[Kwazrollinz28]

Recoat them, and your fine. I'd be pissed though.

[alone_and_insane]

Well I'm probably going to put off removing the headers as long as possible, mainly because it's more of a pain than I have time for right now. There are other things I'd rather spend my time doing with this thing than messing with the headers again.

[alone_and_insane]

so I've been doing some big-picture thinking lately. My goal for this car is at least 300-325 hp at the wheels, while still being able to get 25 mpg highway. I was thinking my next mod would be a ported intake manifold and ported throttle body, but my friends on Camaroforums informed me that there's no sense in doing that without a cam. I was planning on probably doing a cam when I have to do head gaskets (with my car having 140k miles, I'm probably anticipating that within the next year or two). Any input?

[MunsterZ28]

my buddies old 94 with ported intake, full exhaust, a4 with a 3500 stall was a complete dog, i always thought it was because of his intake be way to extreme for his motor set-up. but thats just one car, i say wait til you can put a cam on it and port the heads when they are off.

[alone_and_insane]

ok, well let me start here. Would my CAI, longtubes, dual exhaust, and a tune get me to my horsepower target without a cam?

[MunsterZ28]

to the 300 mark? i think so without to much of an issue.

[Fox Slaughter]

There is a point when big is to big. You need to match your intake to your motor. If your intake lets in more air then the motor needs you lose throttle response if I recall. So there is no point in opening the intake up if you don't have mods that need it.

Well rough estimate.

CAI = 7
Long Tubes = 10
Dual Exhaust = 10
Tune = ??? (Never read much into tune gains)
Underrated factory LT1 = 300

So 327 + ??? = 278 + ???

So if your tune can gain at least 22hp I would say 300whp is capable with that.

[MunsterZ28]

stock intake is good to flow like 400 ponies, from what ive read.

[meissen]

I thought it was even 500, but yeah stock intakes really don't need the port work. Do you have the converter yet?

[alone_and_insane]

you mean a stall converter? Not that I know of, unless the previous owner had one installed.

[meissen]

It'll eat up HP, but a higher stall will make that car a lot more fun to drive.

[alone_and_insane]

so forgive me for maybe being a noob, but what exactly does a stall converter do? I've never been very clear on that. This car is going to be my summer DD, so I don't want it to be unpleasant to drive casually, and I don't want to be getting 10 mpg in the city either.

[meissen]

I honestly don't have any idea how to explain it fully but when you stomp on the gas it lets your car rev a little higher and thus keeps you in your power band better.

Drive-ability wise, you won't hardly notice unless you "get on it." Putting around town you won't even tell.

[DETROITMUSCLE]

a converter for an auto is like a clutch on a manual car, the higher stall speed means your car will flash (or go to) that rpm when you go WOT putting your right up in your power band immediately.

[alone_and_insane]

so yeah, just got a call from my dad, who took my car to a transmission shop last week. Turns out that the clutches and stuff are all burned out, and I'm gonna need a rebuild. I just paid $700 for that transmission in March. FML!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I think as long as long as it's getting rebuilt, I'm gonna make sure it gets done how I need it to be. My goal is at least 300 hp at the wheels, meaning roughly 350 or so hp at the crank, so I need to be sure it can take it. I think this is also the ideal time to get a 3200-3400 converter, as long as the trans is out anyway.