L99 Increase Performance

[wagner]

My Project is to increase the air flow, improve fuel burning and give greater flow at the exit air (SS L99 2014).
Increase flow: Intake Manifold Fast LSXR 102mm + Fuel Rail FAST + Throttle Body BBk 102mm + Cold Air Intake K&N Big Filter.
Improve Fuel burning: Supercoil Accel + Spark Plug NGK Iridium + Spark Plug Wire Taylor Cable
Greater exit air flow: ARH Complete (hearder long tube 1,7/8, catalyst, pipe 3" and muffler)
Investment around $ 5k
Anyone have this experience?

[Splitter]

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36676

you may find a similar setup in that thread somewhere.

[woodside783]

I think you can pick up a lot more with cam heads and full exhaust

[i2disturbedSS]

I don't think you'll need that big of an intake/throttle body until you reach higher power levels such as with heads and a cam or more cubes.

[gomezcorp]

Well don't now about bteer fuel burning, but I will tell you this. I have a Borla ATAK CatBack exhaust and a HallTech CAI, ran great. Just installed a BBK 102mm TB with the 1/4" spacer it came with and I have noticed a great difference. Whether I start the SS from a dead stopn in either Drive, Manual w/TC off or Manual in Competitive mode, my rear end now fishtails more than ever before. This to me says an incease in HP and rear wheel torque. Of course only a dyno will prove this, but driving it now, Holy $HIT!! Will be needing new Pilot super sport tires soon!!

[christianchevell]

while you may be tempted to think that always bigger is better, a increase in throttle response while still remaining in the warranty would be to use one of the throttle controllers that remove the lag in the potentiometer that's the biggest thing you could do to remove the built in lag for cheap by reducing the built in resistance in the gas pedals operation through its operation which is designed to save gas..... or even better install the headers with a good tune that really does eliminate the throttle lag if done properly and also modifying other parts of the ECU programming such as eliminating or greatly reducing torque management and the getting a custom fuel curve somewhat richer to allow the power you build not going lean which can destroy a engine. Most here know the stock plugs are pretty good along with the stock coils and wires and do not waste money changing them until way down the road on a build.

I am sure you can gain better flow with removal of the stock system cat back with all its restrictions and resonators. Your performance gains from doing a CAI, headers with tune, and better free flowing exhaust will wake the car up and the tune with tuning the automatic trans will help a lot. I would not recommend the K&N, yet its all in what you want, and for around $4500 in my car I had a cam and its supporting mods installed with new headers and high flow cats and HP dyno tuning to compliment my CAI I already installed a CAI with scoop and washer relocate.

In your case I would just do headers, CAI, dyno tune, and better exhaust. I used to own a l99, and traded for a ls3, the Cam installation of a l99 car can be more involvled and through time they have made some good vvt cams yet many do a LS# conversion despite having half the lifters different, different valve and lower compression to start with, and many delete AFM, and also install a 3000+ stall converter to help the cam and then there is the cam phaser, and is you want a new timing chain and you already have a good oil pump..but to change the chain you might as well do both...and the money goes up depending on how many variables...

There are many here who have built up l99's you should look through there past posts and others input in the engine section and read up. Good Luck. I know it may be hard to find a good tuner of a LS engine in Brazil, and you may want to do a remote tune from someone like say ....Jannetty who is a sponsor on here who sends custom tunes to your hand held....
And just so you know many on here are waiting for a truly great intake to be made for our engines..... Vararam has slowly been developing one and one is just coming out which is not supposed to be as much of a performance gain that is out from Mallory I believe called the air force .... Also others have intakes like holley etc that are more for carburation. Also I do not know if you have environmental laws that require you to use a catalytic converter in Brazil or if you have testing......
If your trying to burn more gas yes a larger throttle body may burn more, if your looking for more power the thing is..... those mods are more for a larger cube or major built up engine, the intake is minimal gains and is not very cost effective for building power as its more in a power band area for road racing and 5 h.p. for $1000 installed is not good. There are other intakes, yet our intakes on our engines are really good and some have ported them with good results for way far less than going to the intake you want. And many on here have ported their throttle bodies through the vendors here for fairly cheap and had good results, if your really looking to do the right mods the first to start with is the oil catch can.

[layzurguy]

Kooks front to back, Airaid CAI, 160 tstat, hotter plugs and a tune. Stock 320 rwhp to 375. Guess I did something right.

[Pro Stock John]

sig

[wagner]

Hi Christian,
Thanks for spent your time and your colaboration.
Are you right about intake manifold. To much Money for Little Benefits.
About CAI System, what you recommend? (Roto-Fab?).
You dont recommend a best Ignition? (Accel super coil, NGK Iridium Spar Plug and Taylor Cable 10,4mm Wire)
I don´t planning go to Supercharger (Edelbrook) or Cam (Compcam).
I will to CAI Systems, ARH (headers & exhaust) and professional tunning.
What more I can to do to get performance?
Best Regards, Wagner.

[EFI]

You dont recommend a best Ignition? (Accel super coil, NGK Iridium Spar Plug and Taylor Cable 10,4mm Wire)

No, the stock pieces are more than adequate to do the job. Only replace if something is not working properly.

For $5k you can do full exhaust, heads and cam and gain significantly more power than what you have listed.

[layzurguy]

Originally Posted by EFI

No, the stock pieces are more than adequate to do the job. Only replace if something is not working properly.

For $5k you can do full exhaust, heads and cam and gain significantly more power than what you have listed.

L99 cams can get pretty expensive to have installed with vvt and afm delete.

[Rocky1974]

Originally Posted by wagner

My Project is to increase the air flow, improve fuel burning and give greater flow at the exit air (SS L99 2014).
Increase flow: Intake Manifold Fast LSXR 102mm + Fuel Rail FAST + Throttle Body BBk 102mm + Cold Air Intake K&N Big Filter.
Improve Fuel burning: Supercoil Accel + Spark Plug NGK Iridium + Spark Plug Wire Taylor Cable
Greater exit air flow: ARH Complete (hearder long tube 1,7/8, catalyst, pipe 3" and muffler)
Investment around $ 5k
Anyone have this experience?

The number one mod to pickup power on any LS engine is a set of long tube headers. 1 7/8 tubes seem to be the sweet spot for the 6.2. I think there wouldn't be more than a few HP difference between most of the better brands, but I'm partial to Kooks. They are very high quality and fit like a glove. If you don't have emission testing in Brazil you can save some money by buying the cat-less connection pipes with your headers. Cats tone down your exhaust note somewhat and make your exhaust smell better, but there's virtually no power difference, with or without them. I'm not sure about a L99, but on a LS3, there's not much power in the cat-back. The general rule is that you do cat-forward for power and cat-back for sound.

I would also do a cold air kit. Again, everybody has their favorites, but I'm partial to the CAI brand with an optional scoop. The CAI brand is high quality and when paired with a scoop, makes excellent power.

I don't think that you'll gain much with ignition mods unless you go to forced induction or nitrous. I think I would skip the intake and throttle body until after you have done some other mods.

If you do the headers, you will need a tune to keep your CEL light from coming on. The tuner can also disable your AFM and you will definitely want to do this with aftermarket exhaust.

I would do these mods first and if I wanted more, I'd do a LS3 conversion with an aftermarket cam and possibly, depending on the cam, a high stall converter.

If I still wanted more, I'd do heads, intake manifold and throttle body.

Good luck and I hope this helps.

[wagner]

Hi Rocky,

Thanks for your colaborations!

I think the new Cam is good idea, but in my Country (Brazil) I have problem with especialized mechanical (for tune too).

I like the idea to converte L99 to LS3 (same fuel consumption) but is the same problem.

Probably, I will go to CAI, Kooks and Tune.

Best Regards, Wagner.

[RatedZ]

Rocky gives very good advice and pretty much echo my build plan. Starting out with a bone stock L99 so far I have:

Removed the stock mufflers and replaced them with GM Performance Axel-backs
Roto-Fab Air Intake
VMax Ported Throttle Body
Apex Scoop and Washer Relocate
Elite Catch Can (no HP gain here)
1LE Oil Separator (no HP gain here)
Kooks Headers
Kooks High Flow Cats
Kept stock resonator H-pipe
Taylor 10.2 Wires
NGK Plugs
PCM Tune (both engine and transmission tune)

This has given me a very powerful vehicle that still has the reliability for a daily driver and the performance when it's time to play. Sounds awesome and looks great. Only thing left I want to do is to upgrade the Toe Links and Trailing Arms to avoid any wheel hop which is very hard on the independent rear suspension. Overall it has been a fun project doing the little upgrades one at a time to see the difference in power and drivability and overall was very easy to manage in the budget.

Here is a great article by John Ryan at Super Chevy to help you what to expect: http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/eng...or-the-masses/