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

[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.

[Can'tHave2MuchHP]

Honestly, I would just go with an 18% lower, ID1050s, BAP, and a set of plugs. Look at Jannettys 125 RWHP package for an outline. This allows lower supercharger bearing wear, lower temps, and right at the sweet spot for boost on the stock cam/unported heads/unported blower.

[ZMEnow]

Originally Posted by Can'tHave2MuchHP

Honestly, I would just go with an 18% lower, ID1050s, BAP, and a set of plugs. Look at Jannettys 125 RWHP package for an outline. This allows lower supercharger bearing wear, lower temps, and right at the sweet spot for boost on the stock cam/unported heads/unported blower.

Ditto, keep,the HX and a reservoir ( had great success with D3), for the heat soak.

[Robmnrd]

Hey! Thanks for the reply my man. Couple questions based on a setup like that:

What are your thoughts on Isolator failure/replacements? Main reason I originally opted for replacing both pulleys instead of just the lower was to also replace the stock isolator (I have read it fails semi-frequently even on stock boost/SC speed applications). Figured it would be a two birds one stone kind of thing - little more boost and replace the isolator.

Second, would an upgraded heat exchanger not be of enough benefit with just a lower pulley to warrant buying one? Given the TX heat I would think it would be good even on a stock application lol.

Third, would E85 give a high enough horsepower-per-dollar increase to include it with just a lower pulley? Or is the boost increase not enough to call for it, and thus the money/effort not worth it...

Edit:

I somehow missed ZME's post - thanks man, I figured the HX would be good! lol.

[tstodii]

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

Third, would E85 give a high enough horsepower-per-dollar increase to include it with just a lower pulley? Or is the boost increase not enough to call for it, and thus the money/effort not worth it...

How available is E85 on that road trip? Would suck to run out of corn and not be able to find a place to fill up. Unless you were doing flex fuel which case you can ignore me haha

sorry I didn't answer your actual questions. I'll leave that for the experts.

[Robmnrd]

Originally Posted by tstodii

How available is E85 on that road trip? Would suck to run out of corn and not be able to find a place to fill up. Unless you were doing flex fuel which case you can ignore me haha

sorry I didn't answer your actual questions. I'll leave that for the experts.

*If* I were to include E85 in any manner, it would be a flex fuel setup. But I won't even consider it unless the horsepower-per-dollar ratio is high enough, given the high cost of parts, labor, and additional tuning..

[Robmnrd]

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

Hey! Thanks for the reply my man. Couple questions based on a setup like that:

What are your thoughts on Isolator failure/replacements? Main reason I originally opted for replacing both pulleys instead of just the lower was to also replace the stock isolator (I have read it fails semi-frequently even on stock boost/SC speed applications). Figured it would be a two birds one stone kind of thing - little more boost and replace the isolator.

Second, would an upgraded heat exchanger not be of enough benefit with just a lower pulley to warrant buying one? Given the TX heat I would think it would be good even on a stock application lol.

Third, would E85 give a high enough horsepower-per-dollar increase to include it with just a lower pulley? Or is the boost increase not enough to call for it, and thus the money/effort not worth it...

Edit:

I somehow missed ZME's post - thanks man, I figured the HX would be good! lol.

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

*If* I were to include E85 in any manner, it would be a flex fuel setup. But I won't even consider it unless the horsepower-per-dollar ratio is high enough, given the high cost of parts, labor, and additional tuning..

Bumping this a few days later given these new questions and info.

Thanks again for input guys!

[BURNYs]

Your mod outline looks good. I would go DSX Aux Pump/flex fuel sensor. And 1050X injectors in case you want to go more power later. Especially if you gonna mess with E85. Also I have 1050X injectors if you interested , only 1k miles on them.

[JANNETTYRACING]

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.

Originally Posted by Can'tHave2MuchHP

Honestly, I would just go with an 18% lower, ID1050s, BAP, and a set of plugs. Look at Jannettys 125 RWHP package for an outline. This allows lower supercharger bearing wear, lower temps, and right at the sweet spot for boost on the stock cam/unported heads/unported blower.

Thank you for the referral.

Robmnrd;10339801, I have put together the most reliable power packages available anywhere using my own 2013 ZL-1 Auto as a test platform which I have Drag raced, road raced, and taken my wife to dinner or just simply back and forth to work.

You are about 1/2 way to my JRE 125 RWHP package, Your factory blower is warrantied for 10 years 100,000 miles for the Isolator noise issue so I recommend you don't touch so your warranty will remain in tact.

Also we do not want to reduce belt surface area by moving to a smaller upper pulley up top which will induces belt slip.

We always recommend the lower pulley we can spin the blower up to max speed with just the lower.

The 18% pulley is right in the sweet spot for pump gas.

So you will need the ATI superdamper 18% pulley, Idler relocation bracket, belt, arp bolt, ID1050X injectors, JMS fuel pump voltage booster and a JRE custom tune for a true plug and play power solution.

Feel free to give us a call for any questions. 203-753-7223

Ted.

[JANNETTYRACING]

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

Hey! Thanks for the reply my man. Couple questions based on a setup like that:

What are your thoughts on Isolator failure/replacements? Main reason I originally opted for replacing both pulleys instead of just the lower was to also replace the stock isolator (I have read it fails semi-frequently even on stock boost/SC speed applications). Figured it would be a two birds one stone kind of thing - little more boost and replace the isolator.

Second, would an upgraded heat exchanger not be of enough benefit with just a lower pulley to warrant buying one? Given the TX heat I would think it would be good even on a stock application lol.

Third, would E85 give a high enough horsepower-per-dollar increase to include it with just a lower pulley? Or is the boost increase not enough to call for it, and thus the money/effort not worth it...

As I mentioned before your supercharger has a warranty lets keep that.

The factory heat exchanger is more than adequate for the JRE 125 RWHP package, you do not want to upset the balance of your cooling system PACK in other words rob Peter to Pay Paul.

E-85 is worth a 10% power increase or about 60 RWHP but you must upgrade the fuel system to support that.

Originally Posted by tstodii

How available is E85 on that road trip? Would suck to run out of corn and not be able to find a place to fill up. Unless you were doing flex fuel which case you can ignore me haha

sorry I didn't answer your actual questions. I'll leave that for the experts.

When we do a Flex fuel conversion you can purchase what ever fuel is available at the pump you visit and the car will self adjust to the ethanol content.

Originally Posted by Robmnrd

*If* I were to include E85 in any manner, it would be a flex fuel setup. But I won't even consider it unless the horsepower-per-dollar ratio is high enough, given the high cost of parts, labor, and additional tuning..

Ted.

[CAM....ZL1]

Originally Posted by JANNETTYRACING

As I mentioned before your supercharger has a warranty lets keep that.

The factory heat exchanger is more than adequate for the JRE 125 RWHP package, you do not want to upset the balance of your cooling system PACK in other words rob Peter to Pay Paul.

E-85 is worth a 10% power increase or about 60 RWHP but you must upgrade the fuel system to support that.



When we do a Flex fuel conversion you can purchase what ever fuel is available at the pump you visit and the car will self adjust to the ethanol content.



Ted.

For what its worth, my warranty was voided on a untouched supercharger.
At the time it only had a 10% lower and cai.

[JANNETTYRACING]

Originally Posted by CAM....ZL1

For what its worth, my warranty was voided on a untouched supercharger.
At the time it only had a 10% lower and cai.

Sorry to hear that.

Your dealer put the screws to you, I have had many of my customers with my 75 and 125 and 650 packages have the blower replaced under the policy.

[CAM....ZL1]

Originally Posted by JANNETTYRACING

Sorry to hear that.

Your dealer put the screws to you, I have had many of my customers with my 75 and 125 and 650 packages have the blower replaced under the policy.

It was a different dealer. the dealer I use now said they would of never did that.

[evonschu]

I started with Kooks LT, ID850s, and a 10" lower pulley with Tune at a nearby shop I trust on top of my already installed ported TB, Rotofab extra coolant tank, and Rotofab CAI. Had a lot of issues getting the tune to be happy and not pull timing / have high IAT2 temps. Made about 600RWHP / 600RWTQ.

Later on took it to JDP and had them change cam to stage 3+supporting upgrades, add meth inj, heat exchanger, and retune. Added about 100RWHP and 50RWTQ. IAT2 temps are extremely low even on multipel hard pulls. Definitely changed the experience and fun factor of the vehicle as well.

There are times though I feel like I don't get the full potential out of all the upgrades due to lack of grip though. Especially living in the Pacific NW. Having a vehicle with a rough idle cam also took some getting used to specifically in the 1-2k RPM range of driving, which I usually avoid being in now unless I'm cruising or in first gear.

Biggest thing I'd say with whatever route you go is find a good tuner! I'm friends with the tuner that's here in town and got lots of inside info about how any a$$hat can open a shop and claim he's pro tuner status cuz there's no real certifications for doing that line of work.