whitehooptie

50k miles, kooks headers and x pipe, vararam.

Had it on the dyno being 96 degrees, so a little on the warm side. Im guessing I am about on par for the mods done. I'm not trying to throw a cam in there just yet, but any other mods that anyone can think of to squeeze out a little more power?

jbs02somws6

Ported intake manifold is really about it without doing a cam. Why do you need moar as you put it? lol I have a similar setup only with ported heads and intake, and put about 8 cars on a new bolt-on 5.0 the other day and that was just me pulling through third gear 80-115. If you don't want to do a cam yet just put a 100 shot on it and of course pray. By that I mean pray your heads make it......of course most on here will say address your heads first, and they'd be right.

whitehooptie

Once I start down the path of breaking into the motor, it's all down hill for me. All of my money goes into the car, it gets the biggest and best of everything. Excess weight gets pulled out, etc. It ends up turning into a race car. I have two other cars to prove that I have poor control when it comes to this! I figure if I can stay out of the motor, I'll be safe and won't go crazy. But..... I would like a little more "umph" to satisfy myself as the acceleration and the seat of the pants feel is going away.

I'm not worried about picking on 5 liters. I've got a buddy with a 2014 GT500 I've got to make sure I stay a head of. My mods versus his stock, I was about a car out on him at the top of third. From a dig, he gets out better than me and I catch him on the big end. If I could squeeze out say 520 to the ground without breaking into the motor, I feel I'd be doing pretty good.

I actually going through the weight list above trying to decide what I can do to knock some more weight out without compromising comfort. I've already removed excess sound deadener, removed modules that aren't being used like onstar, the valve controller, gps and XM. Tires are changed, rotors will probably be next and will be looking for a CF hood. I want to be under 3000 lbs without me in the car.

whitehooptie

And the heads are fine. Changed valve springs and didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. I. Was thinking about pulling them anyway and get them cleaned up and maybe a solid valve job. But I'd be breaking into the motor....

Sorry about and typos, I'm on my phone.

rio95

This is easy..... Heads! Some may disagree but I highly doubt your heads are OK. I certainly wouldn't trust them.

whitehooptie

Not worried about the heads in the slightest. There is some truth, some hype and speculation. I'm not going to be paranoid everyone i drive the car. If it blows up, it wouldn't be the first time I've had a failure. I'll find another short block or go the LSX route and build one up. I've had this car for years and has been a blast for me. I still get that crappy smirk on my face when I put my foot through the radiator and make it go.

Long story short, if I want something that isn't a race car, I'll buy something else. Like my truck. You can't expect "exotic" parts to have the same life expectancy as the time proven stuff.

REDZED2

Your 07 Z (if stock shocks ) are the softest shocks that came on a c6Z. My 08 has quite a bit of wheel hop as you get in to WOT in 1st gear, 2nd gear is fine..some good shocks (Billsteins or DRM bills etc.) and new rubber would help that out for me. I don't beat on mine really much anyway and especially not outta the hole. You should be farther ahead of your buddy's Shelby than that.

Dan_the_C5_Man

Put 3.90's in the diff.. You will gain acceleration and do so w/o touching the motor - does that count?

I plan to make right at 500 RWHP (Dynojet) on my next visit, and I have an intake, headers (and I guess I did cheat somewhat - heads milled .020 when I had to address the guide issue at 15k miles) and a tune.

We will see how close I get.

I would do gears in a heartbeat if someone made a gear set for the Z diff.

whitehooptie

Are the FAST or MSD intake manifolds worth anything on a stock motor? Throttle body?

Do tunes pick up much with these few mods?

I would step up the gears, but as mentioned, super expensive for something that is a DD/weekend warrior.

JoesC5

An E-Force or a Heartbeat isn't breaking into the engine, is it? Easy to remove(and with some resale valve) if you want to return the car to stock. Around 580 at the wheels is "moar" than 484.

whitehooptie

Boost on a high compression, cast piston scares the crap out of me.

fueledpassion

But you could run bottom 10's with a drag pack, lol.

If you didn't want to crack the engine open, this to me is your only real option for a quicker car. A way quicker car I might add. It's probably as effective as a head/cam swap really...

Also, did you just imply above that you DON'T have a tune on the car?!?! That alone is worth 20-30whp! You'd likely break 500rwhp or get close if you don't already have the tune on the car...

JoesC5

4-5 psi boost isn't going to hurt it if you stay with a safe tune.

Callaway has a GS running around with well over a 100,000 miles with high compression and cast pistons.

Plenty of people(I personally have four friends with PD blowers on high compression cast piston C6's, and with zero problems) running around with low boost PD blowers on high compression, cast piston engines with no problems. Just stay with the canned tune that comes with the turnkey kits and away from tuners that want to extract that last horsepower, with a tune that is on the edge.

whitehooptie

No tune on the car. I have HP tuners, but have only tuned out the rear O2s, skip shift and a few other odds and ends like the fans. Haven't jacked with the fuel tables or spark.

Is there anything tuning wise that can help without the need of a wideband at present? I had one long ago when I used Tuner Cat for LT1 cars. I need to get something new now and jump back into it. So many changes on the stuff. I messed with that stuff like 17 years ago or something!

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Go for a 102mm intake and TB. On a stock car should be worth at least 18 rwhp if not more.

If you are not scared about cracking the engine open....cam is going to be the best bang for the buck short of nitrous (not a big bottle fan myself).

whitehooptie

Which manifold is better? MSD or FAST? I know you've got to buy fuel rails and such with the FAST, but don't now about the MSD. Throttle body would be a nick Williams I guess.

Anthony, do you think 525 rear wheel is possible with tuning, TB and an intake manifold?

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Picking up 50 at the tire.....probably not, at least not without some other items to go along with it.....electric water pump, underdrive pulley......

I do not recall the highest "bolt on" LS7 I have seen running on pump gas with no internal work but I have had a few cars in the 505-512 rwhp range on stock cam and heads go through the shop.

I have very little testing so far with the MSD intake here in house just from customers. Mixed reviews but it does seem to pick up a bit of mid range over the FAST.

robz

Well Gary has been 9's and near 139mph with a bolton LS7 setup so we can assume his car is up there in hp.

whitehooptie

Who is Gary?

0Anthony @ LGMotorsports

Sorry I don't know Gary either....but you can do a lot with weight and gearing too....