if you got 8-9 grand left then through a blower on it, if not most people start with exhaust, tune and cai and maybe a cam.
[Z06] Performance Suggestions
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
From: Indiana
Performance Suggestions
Hey Guys, I'm going to purchase a 04Z06 very soon and interested in some suggestions from the people on this forum. I'm looking to make mods fairly quickly and looking to make mods that will get me the best bang for the buck. I have been looking through this site for quite sometime and have read many of posts of mods people have used and their overall rating of them. But I would like to get suggestions for my own account in one single location that I could then use to make my decisions. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Safety Car
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 4,306
Likes: 772
From: Long Island NY
Yeah if you have the money now, get a blower. If not than just got the normal NA route which is...
Power mods
CAI (Vararam, Honker, or others) LT's w/X-pipe (American racing, Dynatech, LG's or others) and tune.
If you can afford it add a cam to the above before the tune as you don't want to pay for the tune twice in a short period of time.
And if you can afford it add heads to the above. (At that point though you'd probably be better off with going with a blower)
After cam and/or heads or Blower than you'll probably need a stronger clutch and better traction too. This all adds up to a lot of money. It all depends on your budget.
Miscellaneous: short shifter, shorty antenna, CAGS delete, column lock bypass, lower it on stock bolts.
Power mods
CAI (Vararam, Honker, or others) LT's w/X-pipe (American racing, Dynatech, LG's or others) and tune.
If you can afford it add a cam to the above before the tune as you don't want to pay for the tune twice in a short period of time.
And if you can afford it add heads to the above. (At that point though you'd probably be better off with going with a blower)
After cam and/or heads or Blower than you'll probably need a stronger clutch and better traction too. This all adds up to a lot of money. It all depends on your budget.
Miscellaneous: short shifter, shorty antenna, CAGS delete, column lock bypass, lower it on stock bolts.
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 3,692
Likes: 5
From: Hayward CA
First - What performance cars have you had in the past? I say this because a stock Z06 can be way more than a handful to someone that has never experienced this much hp / torque. With that said, get used to stock power then go small with the mods( exhaust, cai, tune, etc....).
Burning Brakes
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,158
Likes: 1
From: St. Peters MO
First - What performance cars have you had in the past? I say this because a stock Z06 can be way more than a handful to someone that has never experienced this much hp / torque. With that said, get used to stock power then go small with the mods( exhaust, cai, tune, etc....).
Also what do you want to do with the car?
Drag, road course...........?
If you want it to be just like it is only the baddest one in your area, then I agree with the blower...........Procharger claims to put these cars from stock 405hp to 600hp with no other add-ons but the blower and tune, gas mileage should be close to the same...............wish I had the cash to do this myself.
Pro
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 585
Likes: 0
From: Jacksonville FL
Get good rubber! Invest your early money in seat time (driving events, auto-x, at the strip, etc.) to determine what you want to do with the car. Get a harness bar and a quality set of belts. Don't mess with the shifter without doing some research.
Look at what the fast guys are running and ask a lot of questions. Vette owners like to talk about their cars and are usually, very helpful.
Look at what the fast guys are running and ask a lot of questions. Vette owners like to talk about their cars and are usually, very helpful.
Last edited by KBRVETTE93; Jun 12, 2007 at 08:25 PM. Reason: gramma
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Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 51
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From: Indiana
TM -96ce, very good point, even though I haven't for say "owned" a fast car, I have a lot of friends that do and of course I get the luxury of driving them. I've ran my buddies 92 camaro, 11.05 sec car at the track, so as far as where I want to be with my DD, (11.50s), I think this will be plenty quick for what I'm looking for until I want to take that next step. Thanks for the comments.
Race Director
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 10,649
Likes: 31
From: Central Florida
Step one is to get GMPP warranty coverage on the car before the 36/36 expires.
Step two is to do the driver mod, getting comfortable with the car and refining techniques to hook the stock power and keep it hooked thru the shifts.
With those accomplished, do the performance mod if you need more power.
New owners who go straight to modding the engine often never learn to harness the power.
Just a thought.
Ranger
Step two is to do the driver mod, getting comfortable with the car and refining techniques to hook the stock power and keep it hooked thru the shifts.
With those accomplished, do the performance mod if you need more power.
New owners who go straight to modding the engine often never learn to harness the power.
Just a thought.
Ranger
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
From: Indiana
Thanks Ranger. By what I see on the forums your opinion is well respected. I actually was reading some other posts from you were you preach the driver mod before car mod and couldn't agree more.
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 2,265
Likes: 2
From: Tejas del Norte
St. Jude Donor '09
Step one is to get GMPP warranty coverage on the car before the 36/36 expires.
Step two is to do the driver mod, getting comfortable with the car and refining techniques to hook the stock power and keep it hooked thru the shifts.
With those accomplished, do the performance mod if you need more power.
New owners who go straight to modding the engine often never learn to harness the power.
Just a thought.
Ranger
Step two is to do the driver mod, getting comfortable with the car and refining techniques to hook the stock power and keep it hooked thru the shifts.
With those accomplished, do the performance mod if you need more power.
New owners who go straight to modding the engine often never learn to harness the power.
Just a thought.
Ranger
do whatever Ranger tells you to.HPDT is first and foremost. I had all these visions of cams, headers, tunes, twin turbos.. until I twice ran HP training with The Driver's Edge .. now all I think about is brakes, tires, and the seat. And maybe a shifter. Your stock Z06 has more power than you can handle (unless you've got some skillz we don't know about).. and your stock 3" TI exhaust flows almost as well as any cat-back kit. The expense on a cat-back/Xpipe kit won't be worth the money/HP gain, imho.
My recommendation, after owning one for a year and absorbing info on this forum and from other Vette owners is: start small. Very small.
-Air kit (CAI or Blackwing, or even the ziptie mod)
-CAGS (<-- my mod level, whooo)
-90mm TB
-Headers
-Dyno/Computer Tune
After that you'll be putting down close to 400 at the rear wheels, which is puh-len-tee unless you plan to actually race the car, or just show off.
My $.02
Thread Starter
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 51
Likes: 0
From: Indiana
do whatever Ranger tells you to.HPDT is first and foremost. I had all these visions of cams, headers, tunes, twin turbos.. until I twice ran HP training with The Driver's Edge .. now all I think about is brakes, tires, and the seat. And maybe a shifter. Your stock Z06 has more power than you can handle (unless you've got some skillz we don't know about).. and your stock 3" TI exhaust flows almost as well as any cat-back kit. The expense on a cat-back/Xpipe kit won't be worth the money/HP gain, imho.
My recommendation, after owning one for a year and absorbing info on this forum and from other Vette owners is: start small. Very small.
-Air kit (CAI or Blackwing, or even the ziptie mod)
-CAGS (<-- my mod level, whooo)
-90mm TB
-Headers
-Dyno/Computer Tune
After that you'll be putting down close to 400 at the rear wheels, which is puh-len-tee unless you plan to actually race the car, or just show off.
My $.02
Thanks for the input guys, how do you feel about the vararam system? I know my buddy has it on his 03vette and had some problems with it running rich, I've seen mixed reviews so far during my research on other forums.