I own a Beautiful yellow C4 corvette, it's stock and i'm thinking of unleashing the beast inside of it. I live in Tempe, Arizona, and i don't quite have a good idea of where are good garages for Vettes and tuning. I came here for advices and tips on what to add on my vette. Nothing serious like a supercharger, but i'm looking to push all the way to embarrass any Mustang that comes by. I've been told a stock LT1 engine without changing the pistons and stuff can withstand about 500hp. I was thinking of adding a turbocharger also, any advices and where exactly are good tuning places? P.S. I just can't stand the idea of a stock 5.0 mustang passing me by!

 

The new Gt's will blow past you.

 

A turbo is just as serious as a supercharger. They just make their power at a higher rpm.

 

So what do you recommend i do to turn my LT1 into something much powerful than it is?

 

The new GT's get around 12.8 in a quarter mile...I've seen C4's do 12's. It just needs the time, work, and money ofcourse .

 

If you don't want a power adder then you'll need to go old school with a engine rebuild. More air and fuel into the cylinders and larger exhaust to get all that spent fuel out. Horsepower is expensive so plan on spending a lot.

You can change your cam and add headers and open up the air box but it won't get you much for your money. Want a good power increase then go with a 383 stoker kit, aftermarket heads and intake, headers with full exhaust all the way back, larger fuel injectors and fuel pump, modify the air box and a good tune.

 

Do you have a budget for unleashing the beast?
Or are you among the fortunate few with limitless income?

 

The new 5.0 why. do you. not. like the idea? The GT is producing 420 HP. The base 19 - 23 years, outdated LT1 only produces 300 HP. you could compete with the GT. With a real tune. and basic mods.

 

Do you have to pass smog

 

I do have a nice budget for unleashing the beast, i just don't know what to upgrade and what to get for my car. And to be honest it's my first vette, that's why i came here to seek some pro advices and people with a much more stronger background on tuning vettes.

 

How much money do you have and how fast do you want to go.

Without trying to piece together some combination of parts and hoping you get it right; if you have the money upfront, a proven 383 crate engine would be a good starting point and build out from there.

 

I personally hate the term 'power adders'. I dont consider boost a power adder. It is an integral part of the engine thats always there. Its not like nitrous where the bottle has to always be full, heated up, valve opened and switch turned to on.

Last time i dyno'd i made app 520 rwhp shutting it off early at 5800 rpm to double check afr's before spinning higher.

Then i ran out of time and couldnt push it higher on the dyno but have no doubt that theres more in it.

Mines a supercharged stock bottom end 93 lt1 with afr 195 comp port heads bought with bigger 61? Cc heads to drop comp from 10.5:1 to 9.7:1. The supercharger is an old school centrifugal p600b making 12.5 psi boost @6000 rpm w/ 2.8" pulley (makes roughly 2.5 psi boost per 1000 rpm). Meth/water inj, 1 7/8 stepped headers and 3" dual exh. Also a 224/236 114 lsa cam.

The tricks to making stock bottom end live (under boost) are:
1. Over built fuel system (i have 2 fuel pumps a walbro 340 feeding a gsl 392)
2. Meth/water inj with fail safe so if it malfunctions or runs out you wont detonate (ask me how i know. I got lucky the motor survived it and then installed the fail safe)
3. Lowered compression (if you want to run >10 psi boost without knock retard issues)
4. An uncorked unrestrictive exhaust (get that heat outta there!)
5. Reprogrammed fans / lower temp t stat allowing the coolant temp to run lower than the stock 215f temps)
6. A light car (detonation may be more likely with big loads and/or the cast crank would get jacked up if making that power on a pickup truck towing a trailer up a hill - for example)
7. Big injectors and a good tune (dont trust fmu's as a band aid - need to do it right)

Greg@blowerworks helped me set mine up. All the commercial kits for c4s have issues (the biggest being belt slip). Greg sells kits that have these issues overcome.

Good luck!