Just purchased a 95 vette with 93K. Car runs very good and is in pretty good condition. I was wondering without breaking the bank, looking for some performance upgrades that will bring a noticeable power improvement. It has stock headers with a muffler system that is more bark than bite so I know that is one of the 1st things I will change, other than that need some suggestions.
Thanks
Curtis

 

Auto or manual? If auto with 2.59 gears I'd swap gear and get a stall convertor. Biggest seat of the pants difference for sure.

 

The 95 is a 6 speed manual shift.

 

Welcome to the world of C4!! A 95 is a great Vette.

Because the stock exhaust & mufflers on the 95 is non restrictive (for a stock engine) you are not going to see much if ANY improvement from changing out the exhaust system.
You could invest $$ and get yourself a set of long tube headers and bullet cats and retain the stock exhaust. This would (1) really IMHO improve the sound and (2) would already be in place if you decided to continue investing in fuel/air volume improvements in the future.

The LT1 is already fairly highly engineered and there is just not any inexpensive RWHP gains to be made.

For my money LT headers and the LT4 hot-cam kit really compliment each other but you're talking close to $2K in parts by the time you are done and at least that much for labor if you are not doing the labor yourself.

Get out there and drive the car as they love to be driven!

 

Thanks
My immediate budget was about 4 to 5k.

 

And my current muffler is way to loud, I almostneany to wear ear plugs after about 30 minutes of highway driving.

 

cam and new timing chain; work out from there. LT4 "Hot Cam" kit (there are others) is IMO the best bang for the buck for what you get...."shorty" headers won't give you anything more that bragging rights; Chevy tested them all and went with what's on your car stock.

 

With a $5k budget... cam and heads followed by a good dyno tune will be great bang for the buck (need someone experienced to do the tuning part right). Not sure if you will need to open up the airbox or increase injector size but maybe you can play with that during the tuning process. Or, a 383 stroker might be a good option if you don't mind pulling the whole engine apart.

When I first got my current car, it had muffler eliminators (tips)... so if you were outside the car it sounded great. Inside... it was mind-numbing resonance from 1300-1800 RPM.
So the first thing I did was get rid of the tips and put on a new pair of OEM mufflers. Car still has plenty of power (maybe a bit more low-end now) and that nice low rumble that i like.

 

Manual trans - consider 4.10 rear gear

 

With that budget I agree with DGXR. Cam and heads with a tune would really wake it up. Headers would help that combination also.

There are lots of choices, but I have heard a lot of good things about the Lloyd Elliot cam and heads. I have been looking at their LE2 set at http://elliottsportworks.com for my car.

As for mufflers/pipes, the best bet is to try to listen to a few setups. To me they sound different on the internet video clips than real life. Check out a club, show, event, etc where many people will let you check out the sound of their system.

I like it a little loud, so my choices might be different from yours, but I have a Borla catback on my '96 (ZF6) and a Corsa catback on my '95 (ZF6). To me, the Borla has a nice deep tone and is a little louder, but I like that since I listen to the motor and like hearing it. The Corsa system is very quiet inside the car and may be what you are looking for. To me the Corsa is a little too quiet inside although my wife says it is quite loud outside. I have also run muffler eliminators and I suspect they will be too loud for you. They are quite loud with any throttle, but they have the best sound at idle that I have heard. They are a nice very deep rumble at idle.

There are so many choices.

Good luck.

 

Best Mod on my LT4 by far