Quote:
Originally Posted by 1LE_L1FE
I've had the car for around a year now, powertrain warranty will be expiring soon-ish and I'm ready to have a *bit* more fun, but it's my only car and my daily, so I don't want to make it a worse car for running errands, road trips, etc. I go for a lot of spirited back road drives, and hope to get on a track soon, but it's primarily my daily. I'd also like to be able to revert it to stock relatively easily.
I've spent a couple weeks reading around and just want to make sure I have everything straight.
Seems like the best bang for my buck would be:
- Pray ported stock IM/TB
- Rotofab dry
- E85 kit
- Maybe an ATI underdrive harmonic balancer if I'm feeling extra, least sure on this/the benefits
Everything I've seen here seems to indicate that there aren't worthwhile gains to be made with the exhaust on a bolt on build unless you're willing to remove the cats, and I'm not interested in that right now. Seems like my stock NPP exhaust is pretty damn good as it is.
MSD intake seems like overkill/poor value for this mild of a build. LT2, and potentially larger throttle bodies I'm unsure about - would I see much gain going to a ported LT2 and 95mm TBs, or would that be wasted on this pedestrian of a setup?
Tuning I have less of an understanding on. So far as I can tell, I'd be able to run this (minus E85 of course) on the stock configuration, it would just be a bit suboptimal/leave some gains on the table. So I could self-install the parts, and drive it before getting it tuned. When I do tune it, my best options are either finding a local tuner, or HP Tuners MPVI2 + 4 credits + Pray remote tune + book some local dyno time? Am I missing anything? I believe Pray has said no wideband necessary with a Rotofab.
+50 rwhp, and extra power all over the curve + a little better noise from the engine seems realistic for this, no? Any input, corrections, advice, whatever else would be greatly appreciated.
|
I am nearly in the same shoes as you. I've had my 1LE for a few years and October this year the powertrain warranty expires. As you can guess from my username, my Camaro is my daily same as you.
I just recently started to get into modding this thing. First stop for me was a Rotofab Dry. I already installed this myself. My next order was a DSX Tuning E85 kit (have it sitting next to me now) and I am currently on week 6 waiting for my ARH catted full exhaust. Once this comes in I will be installing both the E85 and exhaust at the same time. I will also be getting a tune and dyno which will all be done by my local speed shop.
I asked them to do a baseline dyno (which would just be with the rotofab that is already on car) and I am pretty sure they will dyno on 93 and then again on E85. If they do, I will have clear results to view how much HP the full exhaust added and then how much E85 added on top of that. I can share those once I have them which I hope will be around May 10th. Though if this exhaust doesn't come in soon I will have to push that out. I had no idea it took this long to get exhaust.
Anyway, while I originally told myself I would stop after this, like you I am finding people are posting a lot of gains from different intake manifolds which is hard to ignore. However, I think I will hold this off for a while as my next "wave" of mods and maybe consider something like a TB/IM combo and perhaps a cam. We'll see how the funds look next year for that though.
Lastly, I don't think it's fair to say exhaust adds no power. I've looked through dozens of threads, and I find people post anywhere from 10-25whp gains. I tend to believe the lower end, but that is still more power. I think the problem is the cost / HP gained. My exhaust cost several thousand, and while you can go cheaper, even the cheaper stuff cannot match something like the LT2 intake cost / HP gained. Hard to beat $300 intake that seems to add 10-20whp. Any mod will look bad compared to that, so I think it's best not to compare anything else to that. Guess a new intake will be next on my mod list after this round!