davered00ss

I've had the A&A vortec kit for about a year now and have the mod bug again.

what next?
*Headers?
*Smaller Pulley & Meth kit?

I know I need to do gears, it has 2.56's with an Auto.

Already has widebody and z06 rims

Patriot Six

Drag radials, if you don't already have them. After that, meth more boost, and headers.

RPOWU8

Z06 exhaust works really well.

Pulley and meth.

2800-3000 stall Converter. 2.56 gear is fine.

DJ

Unreal

Stall and suspension

bumpin96monte

If you're looking for more power, id go with meth and a pulley swap. I picked up ~60 whp going from a 3.8" to a 3.6" and from 50/50 water/meth to straight meth along with a retune. Going to the straight meth allowed for a lot more timing as well as the 50/50 mix apparently wasn't nearly as effective on my setup.

Headers will certainly add power, but I can't imagine they'd add near what meth and a pulley could do, and you'd be coming from no injection at all to meth.


I do also find it odd that you're unhappy with the gears. On regular street tires, 1st was useless and I couldn't go WOT in 2nd at any speed without significant wheelspin. I can't imagine how bad it would be with a 3.xx rear. Certainly drag radials helped a ton, but i still wouldnt want 1st any steeper tham it already is. I'm a lot more unhappy with the converter as its so tight.

Mike's LS3

1. Headers or Full Z06 exhaust if you live in CA.
2. Meth and pulley.
3. Sticky tires
4. Stall/converter

ESSFO

Headers for sure. You can do a pulley swap/meth and maybe a cam. I'm kinda where you are but I'm going the E85 route instead of meth.

davered00ss

I'm looking at best bang for the buck. Seems like headers will only yield ~20/30rwhp and cost roughly $2K.

Not sure what cost on pulley swap and Meth would be, but seems to have more gains.

As for Gears, my tuner told me I needed them. He said I was not seeing peak #'s because of them and my car ran the Dyno to 188mph in 4th. I also thought they would give a little more umph around town driving.

Tires are currently Bridgestone Protenza's 325/19"s on stock Z06 rims.

bumpin96monte

Obviously the cost varies widely depending what you buy.

For meth, a new kit is about $600, then a pulley and belt adds about $150, plus adjustments to your tune. Certainly you could save money buying used (especially the pulley) and you can recoup some money selling your old pulley and belt.

Headers can be done for close to that ballpark. I think I paid like $650 for obx headers plus front O2 extensions. Ideally you'll need a tune touch up too. Certainly it's easy to get a couple grand wrapped up in brand new name brand headers though. Even if the prices were the same, bang for the buck still goes to meth & pulley as it'll make more power.

​Do you really feel your car needs more umph around town? I'd definitely wait until after your next engine mods to see how you feel then. With meth and a pulley, I think you could very well start running into notable traction issues around town on street tires.

davered00ss

I was looking at Kooks 1 7/8's with catted X-pipe keeping stock cat back for about $1,900, then add extended O2's. I can install myself in garage. Not sure about retune?

I haven't checked into other brands. I had Kooks on my 00 Camaro SS and loved them. fit was awesome.

ESSFO

If you had the fuel system to support it I would recommend E85 over meth but you'll easily wrap up $1500 to support it.

davered00ss

E85 is not really popular in the northeast. I wouldn't even know where to get it.

another thought is headers and a smaller pulley. With the headers reducing backpressure, a smaller pulley will probably yield the same lbs of boost? Possibly not requiring a retune?

I will definitely talk with my tuner before changing the pulley though.

bumpin96monte

Didn't realize you were going to run cats. Seems like not many boosted c6s do when going to headers, so I assumed youd at least have to get the codes turned off in the pcm if nothing else to avoid a CEL. I guess you may still have to even with high flow cats. On other platforms I've dealt with it seemed to be hit or miss as to if they'd trigger a light or not.

Honestly, if the goal is a smaller pulley, meth would be far more beneficial. Same from a bang for the buck point of view, especially if you're pretty set on buying new Kooks. Even buying all new, it's only about 1/2 the price for meth + pulley/belt + retune.

Unreal

Skip headers and do a stall. Hands down the best mod for an auto car.

davered00ss

My state does a visual inspection for cats when we go through emissions. I think it is every other year.

I have never liked the drivability of cars I drove with higher stall converters.
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Unreal

What are you comparing it too? My mustang has a 4000rpm stall, and wife never noticed. Any modern car has electronic lock up, including yours. So you only feel the effect of the stall at WOT and getting on it from the line. Other than that drives like stock. Without an electronic lock up, they can suck but that is a complete non-issue on any modern car.

davered00ss

last stalled auto I drove was a 98 Camaro with a 550rwhp ls2 and a high stall.

LSX228R

Any updates?

Dirteater19

You don't need gears. At least you won't once you add a little HP. I used to think my gears were tall, not anymore.

I know a lot of people like meth, and I understand why, but I don't want another thing to refill constantly and worry about not spraying when I need it to the most.

A mild to moderate cam and opening up your stock exhaust will do wonders to help your engine to breath and free it up.

For me, going from just an A&A kit which was relatively tame, to adding an LS9 cam, kooks headers and Flowmaster exhaust really woke up the car and I'm almost afraid of it now. She really feels like she's holding nothing back when I step on the gas no matter what rpm, gear, or throttle position.

I just told the tuner that keeping it safe was my number one goal and not hp. She never knocked or pulled timing in Vegas 110 degree heat.

Unreal

Because it isn't something to worry about constantly refill or worry about not spraying. Its a great performance upgrade, and octane is needed to make power.