ZL1 or Z/28 belly pan on a 2013 1LE

[Nick S]

Originally Posted by td195f

The belly pan is all about creating additional front downforce. If you look at how they are installed the factory bellypan still allows airflow along the sides of the engine, and down the trans tunnel and around the exhaust and under the car with minimal disruption of the airflow from the front of the splitter to the firewall. This maintains a negative pressure under the front of the car and therefore more downforce. You also need to remember that more front downforce requires more rear downforce also, to balance the car. Excess downforce on the front will cause oversteer. Excess downforce on the rear will cause understeer. Adding downforce on both ends so the car is balanced means more grip and higher stable speeds.
My discussions with the GM Engineer at PRI basically stated that the 2014/2015 hood vent didn't create a big change over the unvented hood. He recommended that a ZL1 style hood insert is a better choice, but an unvented hood would be fine.

This is interesting as my original feeling was it wouldn't be wise to install the belly pan without having a vented hood for the reason of not having enough escape paths for the air entering through the front of the car and thus creating more lift. Did this GM engineer specifically work on testing the Camaro with and without a hood vent or was he more part of the Chevrolet performance division engineering?

[td195f]

Originally Posted by Nick S

This is interesting as my original feeling was it wouldn't be wise to install the belly pan without having a vented hood for the reason of not having enough escape paths for the air entering through the front of the car and thus creating more lift. Did this GM engineer specifically work on testing the Camaro with and without a hood vent or was he more part of the Chevrolet performance division engineering?

He was one of the original design engineers on the ZL1, 1LE and Z/28 and is now the Director - Performance Variants, Parts & Motorsports Engineering.
FYI, with the belly pan installed there is still a lot of room for airflow around the engine and flowing out along the sides of the block around the exhaust.
The photo below is of the Ultimate Track Camaro SS that Chevy Performance had at PRI. It has the Z/28 belly pan.

[Camaro Dude]

^^^Very very interesting stuff there sir (cigarette) ^^^

I likey

[olblue75]

Will ZL1 Wheel Well Liners work with a non ZL1 Fascia???

[Nick S]

Originally Posted by td195f

He was one of the original design engineers on the ZL1, 1LE and Z/28 and is now the Director - Performance Variants, Parts & Motorsports Engineering.
FYI, with the belly pan installed there is still a lot of room for airflow around the engine and flowing out along the sides of the block around the exhaust.
The photo below is of the Ultimate Track Camaro SS that Chevy Performance had at PRI. It has the Z/28 belly pan.

Thanks for posting this info. This makes me think a little more about doing the belly pan without worrying about a vented hood. I could put the vented hood off for a mod later on down the road and concentrate on mods that will give me more bang for the buck right now.

Thanks again for sharing the info you learned directly from the Camaro Engineers!

[Burt]

Subscribing to this. Ideally, I'd like to put a belly pan on the front of mine, an actual diffuser on the back (not the for-looks vanity panel) and run the factory brake ducts. This looks like a nice start for that

[sswiss3000]

Originally Posted by olblue75

Will ZL1 Wheel Well Liners work with a non ZL1 Fascia???

No, the front panels will not meet up correctly with the SS fascia. You might be able to make it work with some cutting and drilling, but you would probably be better off just making those panels from scratch.

[Camaro Dude]

Originally Posted by Nick S

Thanks for posting this info. This makes me think a little more about doing the belly pan without worrying about a vented hood. I could put the vented hood off for a mod later on down the road and concentrate on mods that will give me more bang for the buck right now.

Thanks again for sharing the info you learned directly from the Camaro Engineers!

Although I do not consider myself a purist, I'm nonetheless quite reluctant to install a vent on my '13 1LE hood. Something about doing that rubs me the wrong way, even though functionality wise, just on engine bay temps alone, it would make sense to install one, and almost silly not too.

If my ride had been a regular SS, I would have performed this hood vent mod a long time ago. This "13 1LE thing" is killing me . It almost feels like I'm butchering it, especially should I decide to sell it one day. I dunno , perhaps my thinking is flawed?

The belly pan I will now do, with no looking back, regardless of the hood vent .

[sswiss3000]

Originally Posted by Camaro Dude

Although I do not consider myself a purist, I'm nonetheless quite reluctant to install a vent on my '13 1LE hood. Something about doing that rubs me the wrong way, even though functionality wise, just on engine bay temps alone, it would make sense to install one, and almost silly not too.

If my ride had been a regular SS, I would have performed this hood vent mod a long time ago. This "13 1LE thing" is killing me . It almost feels like I'm butchering it, especially should I decide to sell it one day. I dunno , perhaps my thinking is flawed?

The belly pan I will now do, with no looking back, regardless of the hood vent .

There is a simple solution to your problem. Go out and buy a used SS Hood and install the ZL1 style vent on that one. Last I have seen you can get those hoods pretty damn cheap now (look on your local Camaro Forum). I got a hood with the ACS 1LT vent already installed in my color for $500 and that was over a year ago.

That way you can go back to your 1LE hood any day if you desire or want to sell the car

[Nick S]

Originally Posted by Camaro Dude

Although I do not consider myself a purist, I'm nonetheless quite reluctant to install a vent on my '13 1LE hood. Something about doing that rubs me the wrong way, even though functionality wise, just on engine bay temps alone, it would make sense to install one, and almost silly not too.

If my ride had been a regular SS, I would have performed this hood vent mod a long time ago. This "13 1LE thing" is killing me . It almost feels like I'm butchering it, especially should I decide to sell it one day. I dunno , perhaps my thinking is flawed?

The belly pan I will now do, with no looking back, regardless of the hood vent .

Your reasons above are why I would be looking at buying a 2014+ hood that is made for the hood vent and putting that on my car instead of cutting up my factory hood. I know the cowl lines will not line up but I can put the hood on and decide how much I do or don't like it and then make a decision on whether or not to have the front bumper cover modified to correct the cowl lines and make them match up.

I really wish the Camaro team would have just left the cowl lines alone. I talked to a guy at C5 fest 4 that was part of the refresh design team and the only reason the cowl was made wider was so the slight indentation lines from where the hood vent ends to the rear of the hood match up with the width of the "Mohawk" on cars without a sun roof (basically a mute point on cars with a sunroof then). So they made the cowl wider on the hood to allow room for that and I think make it look like there was still a flat spot on the cowl. As if they haven't already created enough model years that are "left behind" with all the updates they have made...now they just made one more part that is not truly a direct replacement part. Arggghhh.

Quite leaving early model years behind Chevy! Allow early model year buyers the ability to add these updated parts without it snowballing into a 12 part modification just for the one part they really want!!

[Camaro Dude]

^^^Nick S, unfortunately, the hood cowl lines would be an issue for me.

If you end up purchasing and installing the '14 vented hood, I'd love to see how you end up proceeding. I'll wait this one out for now..

Originally Posted by sswiss3000

There is a simple solution to your problem. Go out and buy a used SS Hood and install the ZL1 style vent on that one. Last I have seen you can get those hoods pretty damn cheap now (look on your local Camaro Forum). I got a hood with the ACS 1LT vent already installed in my color for $500 and that was over a year ago.

That way you can go back to your 1LE hood any day if you desire or want to sell the car

It's an OK idea, but Sledge NEEDS his flat black wrapped look, it's who and what he is

Originally Posted by td195f

He was one of the original design engineers on the ZL1, 1LE and Z/28 and is now the Director - Performance Variants, Parts & Motorsports Engineering.
FYI, with the belly pan installed there is still a lot of room for airflow around the engine and flowing out along the sides of the block around the exhaust.
The photo below is of the Ultimate Track Camaro SS that Chevy Performance had at PRI. It has the Z/28 belly pan.

With the picture you have here demonstrating the Z/28 belly pan on a SS (in post# 44 previous page), does this mean that Z/28 belly pan is the way forward and not the ZL1 one?

Need some closure on this before I place my order.

[SummitWhite1LE]

Does anyone have the part number for the z28 belly pan?

[cdb95z28]

Originally Posted by SummitWhite1LE

Does anyone have the part number for the z28 belly pan?

23459995

[SummitWhite1LE]

That's coming up as a f-deflector ? Not a belly pan