What is the right combo of mods for me? (Input appreciated)

[BigblockSS]

If you are near Aikman Performance I would highly recommend that you go by and speak with Jerry. I purchased a ZL1 that he did several modifications on and the car runs flawless.

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

Hey guys, relatively new to this forum (been on a few different camaro forums since I bought my '93 Z28 over 9 years ago...) and am nearing a point where I am ready to begin bigger power mods with my current car.

Current car: 2013 ZL1, A6, 26000 miles, roto-fab CAI, Kooks LTs, high-flow cats, stock muffler w/fuse pulled, dyno-tune.

I need a little bit of direction in terms of what I should do though... my forte is not FI cars (My Z28 was a H/C/I NA build with all work completed by myself. I will be having a shop do all of the work and tuning on the ZL1...).

I don't have any *real* horsepower goals, and don't plan to ever take it to the strip (thus no ET or MPH goals). Maybe a track day here or there for some fun laps, but not at all competitive.

The car is *almost* a daily driver - as long as there isn't snow, ice, or more than a light sprinkle in the forecast I drive it (110 degrees, 25 degrees, doesn't matter to me...) with the cheap Ford Focus coming out for any real precipitation lol.

Reliability is incredibly important to me because I do drive it so often including long road trips (longest so far is ~3 hours one way, but next summer I plan to drive it to/from home back in Michigan - 21 hours one way). Therefore reliability trumps performance in terms of what I do to the car.

I do *not* want to break into engine internals with this car - having done that before (and having some idea of the costs associated with having a shop do that much labor) it is not something I am interested in.

What I *think* I want to do:
2.55 upper
8.6 lower
Afco HX w/fans
ID850s (ID1050s?)
BAP (Auxiliary pump? flex fuel setup?)
Quality tune (there are multiple high-caliber tuners near me including Aikman, Dedicated Motorsports, and a couple other big and small name shops)
Limit RPM to stock 6200 (for reliability, heat, and fueling reasons)
Oil cooling upgrades (Unsure what is available or if necessary given my use for the car, but Texas gets hot during the summer)

My main problem right now (after reading tons of posts here, on other forums, googling, etc..) is that I don't know what I genuinely need to keep the car safe/reliable, or what I want to do given my lack of *real* goals. A fun DD friendly setup that will take me another 26000 miles is what I want, so I might not even need everything I listed above. But the seat-of-the-pants is requesting more than what I currently have, so I will oblige...

If ya'll could give me some personal experiences, opinions, etc., I would greatly appreciate it. And if you guys have questions for me that might help you give me advice, please feel free to ask.

Thanks guys.

[Robmnrd]

Hey guys! Sorry I have been absent from my own thread - gotta work overtime to pay for fun car stuff, right? Feel free to jump to the mod list below; I know I can make long-winded posts lol.

I *think* I have decided on a direction for my car/mods based on input from this thread, and doing some more searching and goal creation. I still don't have super lofty goals, but I have *something* in mind, and thus have a direction...

Based on much of the input from this thread, I think I have decided to not do an upper pulley at this time (seems like the general consensus on here, given my goals are not incredibly lofty...). If I ever need more power then I will look into it, but for now a lower will suffice. However, I do wish to purposefully limit engine RPM to stock 6200RPM for a few different reasons, so I am considering choosing a 9.55" (23%) pulley instead of the 9.17" (18%) pulley. This should come out to a maximum SC speed of ~19700 which seems totally reasonable and should not be outside of what the stock cam will allow in terms of airflow (given the propensity for tuning with most mod/pulley combos to spin these out to 6500+).

Additionally, after doing more research (and looking more closely at local availability) I think I have decided to do an E85 flex fuel setup. I have three places to buy it within a 5 mile radius, and if I ever find myself elsewhere in the country where availability is low, I can just run 93 instead.

Now here is where things get a little...unique. I kind of want to do this setup backwards, and be a bit of a guinea pig. I think I am going to do the entire fuel system first, and tune/run the car (in current almost stock setup) on E85 before doing the pulley. I've searched pretty hard to find what our LSAs will do in stock form running on E85, and thus far I have found *one* thread on a CTSV forum where a nearly stock car was converted to E85 and it ended up making about 550RWHP just from the fuel change. I kinda want to try it for myself and report back to y'all... Could be a fun experiment.

Updated mod list:

-E85 setup first (suggestions on fuel pump and injector size will be greatly appreciated!)
-Lower pulley second (leaning towards 9.55"/23% instead of 9.17"/18% for reasons above...)
-Cooling mods third/as needed based on what happens in the summer. Ted from JRE suggested on the first page that I probably won't need a new heat exchanger, so I am willing to hold off on it until I see what happens in the 110 degree Texas summers.

Along with those "big" things will come an ATI balancer, idler relocation bracket, cooler plugs, new belt, and a crankcase breather (inspired by JRE's different packages).

Leaning towards having the work/tune done by Aikman based on several recommendations as well as having spoken to them awhile back (BigBlockSS ), but have DMS as a backup for tuning if needed.


Thoughts?

[Robmnrd]

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

Hey guys! Sorry I have been absent from my own thread - gotta work overtime to pay for fun car stuff, right? Feel free to jump to the mod list below; I know I can make long-winded posts lol.

I *think* I have decided on a direction for my car/mods based on input from this thread, and doing some more searching and goal creation. I still don't have super lofty goals, but I have *something* in mind, and thus have a direction...

Based on much of the input from this thread, I think I have decided to not do an upper pulley at this time (seems like the general consensus on here, given my goals are not incredibly lofty...). If I ever need more power then I will look into it, but for now a lower will suffice. However, I do wish to purposefully limit engine RPM to stock 6200RPM for a few different reasons, so I am considering choosing a 9.55" (23%) pulley instead of the 9.17" (18%) pulley. This should come out to a maximum SC speed of ~19700 which seems totally reasonable and should not be outside of what the stock cam will allow in terms of airflow (given the propensity for tuning with most mod/pulley combos to spin these out to 6500+).

Additionally, after doing more research (and looking more closely at local availability) I think I have decided to do an E85 flex fuel setup. I have three places to buy it within a 5 mile radius, and if I ever find myself elsewhere in the country where availability is low, I can just run 93 instead.

Now here is where things get a little...unique. I kind of want to do this setup backwards, and be a bit of a guinea pig. I think I am going to do the entire fuel system first, and tune/run the car (in current almost stock setup) on E85 before doing the pulley. I've searched pretty hard to find what our LSAs will do in stock form running on E85, and thus far I have found *one* thread on a CTSV forum where a nearly stock car was converted to E85 and it ended up making about 550RWHP just from the fuel change. I kinda want to try it for myself and report back to y'all... Could be a fun experiment.

Updated mod list:

-E85 setup first (suggestions on fuel pump and injector size will be greatly appreciated!)
-Lower pulley second (leaning towards 9.55"/23% instead of 9.17"/18% for reasons above...)
-Cooling mods third/as needed based on what happens in the summer. Ted from JRE suggested on the first page that I probably won't need a new heat exchanger, so I am willing to hold off on it until I see what happens in the 110 degree Texas summers.

Along with those "big" things will come an ATI balancer, idler relocation bracket, cooler plugs, new belt, and a crankcase breather (inspired by JRE's different packages).

Leaning towards having the work/tune done by Aikman based on several recommendations as well as having spoken to them awhile back (BigBlockSS ), but have DMS as a backup for tuning if needed.


Thoughts?

Bumping 5 days later for final thoughts - might start buying parts this coming weekend.

[JANNETTYRACING]

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

Hey guys! Sorry I have been absent from my own thread - gotta work overtime to pay for fun car stuff, right? Feel free to jump to the mod list below; I know I can make long-winded posts lol.

I *think* I have decided on a direction for my car/mods based on input from this thread, and doing some more searching and goal creation. I still don't have super lofty goals, but I have *something* in mind, and thus have a direction...

Based on much of the input from this thread, I think I have decided to not do an upper pulley at this time (seems like the general consensus on here, given my goals are not incredibly lofty...). If I ever need more power then I will look into it, but for now a lower will suffice. However, I do wish to purposefully limit engine RPM to stock 6200RPM for a few different reasons, so I am considering choosing a 9.55" (23%) pulley instead of the 9.17" (18%) pulley. This should come out to a maximum SC speed of ~19700 which seems totally reasonable and should not be outside of what the stock cam will allow in terms of airflow (given the propensity for tuning with most mod/pulley combos to spin these out to 6500+).

Additionally, after doing more research (and looking more closely at local availability) I think I have decided to do an E85 flex fuel setup. I have three places to buy it within a 5 mile radius, and if I ever find myself elsewhere in the country where availability is low, I can just run 93 instead.

Now here is where things get a little...unique. I kind of want to do this setup backwards, and be a bit of a guinea pig. I think I am going to do the entire fuel system first, and tune/run the car (in current almost stock setup) on E85 before doing the pulley. I've searched pretty hard to find what our LSAs will do in stock form running on E85, and thus far I have found *one* thread on a CTSV forum where a nearly stock car was converted to E85 and it ended up making about 550RWHP just from the fuel change. I kinda want to try it for myself and report back to y'all... Could be a fun experiment.

Updated mod list:

-E85 setup first (suggestions on fuel pump and injector size will be greatly appreciated!)
-Lower pulley second (leaning towards 9.55"/23% instead of 9.17"/18% for reasons above...)
-Cooling mods third/as needed based on what happens in the summer. Ted from JRE suggested on the first page that I probably won't need a new heat exchanger, so I am willing to hold off on it until I see what happens in the 110 degree Texas summers.

Along with those "big" things will come an ATI balancer, idler relocation bracket, cooler plugs, new belt, and a crankcase breather (inspired by JRE's different packages).

Leaning towards having the work/tune done by Aikman based on several recommendations as well as having spoken to them awhile back (BigBlockSS ), but have DMS as a backup for tuning if needed.


Thoughts?

I am proud to be your inspiration.

I would suggest a Fore innovations twin pump return system with fuel rails, ID1300 injectors along with a DSX flex fuel sensor kit, we are a dealer for all these items and stock them.

If you can do the install I can provide the custom tuning.

I offer full remote custom tuning and you become familiar and are part of the process.

We can do this in the order you want to at your pace.

Feel free to call and discuss.

Ted.