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Honestly easiest way to make the most hp and keep stock drivability with no inspection issues would be a blower and probably cheapest or just as expensive as an new ls3 installed but make A LOT more hp.
Sky is the limit. How far do you want to go? Are you bone stock now? How much hp do you want or "think" you want? Then we can suggest some ideas. Do you want the car to lope? Do you want it quite, like stock? MPG an issue? Honestly easiest way to make the most hp and keep stock drivability with no inspection issues would be a blower and probably cheapest or just as expensive as an new ls3 installed but make A LOT more hp.
Me personally i'm always on a budget...best bang for buck would be a H/C package and staying with what you got now. How many miles on your car? The bottom end in these cars can take a H/C package easy as well as 6lbs of boost...so ya in the end it comes back to the questions i asked in the beginning of my post.
I would like 500hp at the wheels.
Im bone stock now. The car has 38,000 miles on it .
Mpg is not an issue.
I do like an N/A engine and big cubes.
I want it to be faster than my 08 zo6 . Its stock too.
Ya, and i compared it to a stock ls3 which wont put down 425. Bolt on LS3 yes. I'm not going to get into all of that. So a bolt on ls3 installed vs a blower installed. I still think its cheaper to put the blower in not to mention it's a lot less labor intensive.
500 to the wheels is going to cost some coin anyway you do it and if that is the case i would go with ls6 heads, mild cam, headers, blower would put down an easy 500rwhp.
I'm not really sure what H/C LS3s are putting out but thats an alternative.
Last edited by Stevo92z28; Jul 11, 2009 at 11:40 PM.
I would like 500hp at the wheels.
Im bone stock now. The car has 38,000 miles on it .
Mpg is not an issue.
I do like an N/A engine and big cubes.
I want it to be faster than my 08 zo6 . Its stock too.
If you want big cube and NA, you're better off not getting the LS3 at all.
At this point, you're going to want to bore the LS1 out to a 454 (Or get the LSX block), get a cam and Stage 3 L92 heads. A Fast 102 intake and tune. You'll be set.
I recommend the LSX block, though. That's dropping a lot of money on a 454ci LSX that's going to be sturdy as a rock and put down crap loads of power with plenty of room for more later.
Pretty much that setup there will give you 500+ to the wheels and will definitely be faster than your Z06.
I can see you'd be dropping $8-9K on that all together. Maybe more depending on who's doing the work for you.
Your at 38,000? Why would you want to swap engines? I could understand if you had a high mileage vehicle. Just slap on a blower or twin turbo and be done with it. Down the road you could always add heads and a blower cam.
Hrmm... I don't know if I'd do it. I think I'd rather go h/c, full exhaust and tune. Get more power for about the same money and that includes install.
But CA has those stupid CARB laws. a Create motor LS3 with hot cam should be CARB compliant vs all the bolts are are not.