I was considering the CAI, header, exhaust and tune modification. It happens that Corvettes of Westchester is 0.6 miles away from my sister's condo in Ossining. Since family members never seem to be able to see you enough, I hatched the plan of driving up there (I am in east Tennessee), having the work done, and scoring family points. I discussed the prospect with Chuck. He had a package in mind, which pretty much matched what I was thinking: Vararam, 160 degree thermostat, American Racing 1 3/4" headers with cats and no coating, Borla Stinger (not the Stinger II).

After I continued to read on this and other forums, I've developed some questions and concerns about the thermostat, and what the important aspects of tuning are, how important a dyno is - and I felt like I just couldn't understand it enough this summer, and figured I would postpone until next year. Now my sister has gone and suggested "wouldn't it be nice" if I came for a visit. . .

1) Has anybody had Chuck do this install and tune?

2) I thought I read somewhere that Chuck does have a dyno, and incorporates that as part of his tuning. Has anybody had dyno tuning at CoW?

3) Will this particular header/exhaust combination be anti-social, obnoxious? **** off my neighbors? How loud is it going to be?

4) Will the car start throwing codes after this kind of work?

5) Can I trust CoW to install what appears to be a crappy Vararam so that no unfiltered air leaks past into my engine?

6) Is there any down side to this modification? Any unintended consequences?

7) What happens to your gas mileage after this modification?

8) I've read that a wideband oxygen analyzer is essential, and I've also read that Chuck uses one. If he doesn't have a dyno, is the rest of his tuning, with the wideband, adequate?

9) Is there anything about this modification that's bad for the car?

10) Does the fact that I do most of my driving with the top down, and that I have a manual so I can change gears to change cruising rpm, allow me to avoid the potential Borla drone?

11) Is there any downside to the Vararam (let's leave out the discussions of sucking water into the engine)? Does anything have to be cut or modified on the car? You don't lose the foglights, do you?

I do plan on conversing more with Chuck, and of course he may get involved in this thread. I wonder about long distance tune changes, whether it be further refinement of the tune, or restoring the entire tune if a dealer wipes it out, etc. But I also wanted very much to get the experience and opinions of the forum. I think this is plenty to start with; thanks very much for your thoughts.

Joe

 

Once or more a week somebody pops up on forum stating how chuck tune has turned there Vette around for them.. Do a search in general forum an see what pops up. Not one bad thing to say about the guy..
My first mod i did to my vette was vararam, exhaust, tune, MAF, ect and i must say was great for a little pick me up. Yeah it going to be louder but that comes along with mods. No codes thrown from those mods and gas milage went up. Starting out those are the most common mods guys do to there vette. Those are perfect mods with tune to give that extra boost.

Hope this helps
Good luck

 

It does help, and I have read many of those threads. Outside this forum, things are less unequivocal. I'm hoping some discussion on my specific questions can help me as well; a lot of those questions are more related to the mods, and less to CoW.

 

I like vararam but there are also other great true CAI out there that work great too...
The exhaust you named is great.. Top of the line.

Alot of guys on here will have mix feelings on vararam but tons still have it on there vette..

Chuck didnt tune my car as i have only read good things about his tune.

My opinion the items you named are great. But just like your worried just make sure whoever does the install is creditable. That is a major factor.. these other guys will chime in soon

 

I personally would hold off on the borla exhaust until you see how you like the sound with just the headers.

 

Now that's an interesting idea. I assume you're saying that because the car will be louder with just the headers, and this may lead me to pick a more mild exhaust than the Stinger, or none at all. I've always read that an exhaust, by itself, does not require a tune. Would it then also be true that adding an exhaust to the car with CAI/headers/tune would not require any further tuning? I'm just thinking that I'll be away from CoW in Tennessee when it comes time to get the exhaust. I've read on more than one occassion accounts of an exhaust becoming too much after adding headers.

 

4)Retaining the cats should prevent any emissions equipment related codes, and the tune itself will prevent any lead/rich condition from the breathing mods, in addition to killing any emissions type codes if they are present.

6) Downsides: Headers increase engine bay temperatures, especially uncoated. As long as you have all wires (plugs, O2s, etc.) routed properly (which I'm sure Chuck would do), this is likely not a huge issue, but something to be aware of. Can also increase cabin temperatures. Might be a good time to install a tunnel brace while the exhaust is off the car. These increase the rigidity of the frame, and the thicker material also helps insulate the heat (can be bought with additional insulation material, as well) from making its way up into the cabin.

7) With just breathing mods, gas mileage should be either unaffected or improved. Very possible the extra power and sound will cause you to get on it more often, decreasing mileage, though!

9) As I said in 6, it could be argued the extra under hood heat is not great, could cause the plastics to become more brittle, etc. I personally didn't let this stop me, but since you're asking for downsides, that's really all I could think of .

10) I don't have direct experience with borla drone (I have LG Streets with Z06 Tis and don't really get drone), but wanted to mention the 6 speed should give you more freedom, but also if you switch from 6th to 5th for cruising, mileage will likely take a hit, since the secret of the 'Vette's stellar mileage is the gearing allowing the engine to make use of its low RPM torque and idle along at cruise. Depending on the speed may be negligible, I've never tried to track it.

I don't have any direct experience with CoW, but everything I've heard on the forum has been positive.

I think your idea of holding off on the cat back exhaust portion might be reasonable, to see how the sound changes with headers alone. Generally cat back changes are for sound rather than power/flow, so you should be fine without a re-tune, but maybe not 100% optimal. Chuck may offer some sort of a re-tune through mail option in the event you add/change mods, as well, so it might be worth talking to him about.

Good luck and let us know what you end up with!

 

You own a CORVETTE. That is what you are supposed to do.


Just kidding

Good luck

 

Yea its fun for a while but sometimes you want stealth which is why I went to the TI's from straight pipe with my super pros and catless x pipe. Now I just need to get cutouts and Ill be good to go.

 

So I understand that if one is patient, it makes a lot of sense to wait on the exhaust. But are people also implying that the header/Stinger combination will stray into the "too loud" region?

Gotta go to a meeting; back later . . .

 

YES

Go to radio shack and buy a sound meter. if your under 89 dbs you should be good

 

Pull the trigger on it all man - -you'll be happy you did

I did all those mods a couple years ago, all at one time and couldn't be happier. Well, maybe the drone from the Magnaflow exhaust coulda been better, but like you said, with a manual, I just adjust the gear.
Best thing you could do for exhaust is attend a couple corvette shows or visit a club, and see if you can hear the various tones. I kinda wish my Magnaflows were a little louder, but they sound alot better than stock and good under accelaration. Other thing is, you can easily change out the catback and sell the used one here if you don't like it. Its really a personal preference of sound kinda thing.

Oh, and gas mileage - FORGET IT - once you pick up an additional 40hp or so it'll plummit cause ya can keep your foot outta it

One more initial "mod" suggestion, if you haven't already - "short throw shifter"

Good Luck and Enjoy

 

I recently had my 2000 A4 re-tuned after having a Vararam and Kooks headers and high flow cats installed.I noticed a big difference in low end torque.i have a Ti cat back exhaust which has a nice sound when I get on it but a nice rumble at idle.

 

Well, you know, I'm a member of the third largest Corvette club in the country, and we had our Corvette show in May - and there just aren't any/enough examples of the exhausts, especially with headers. We just took a trip to the museum and factory, and I did not like the Corsa's that I drove behind; enjoyed the Borla; and liked another which I found out was a GHL, which of course people say is a lot like the Borla. I'm talking tone, timbre here - not absolute volume. But I don't think any of these had headers.

Does anyone do headers and not do a catback? Do we know what it sounds like?

m6 c5 - if you are catless, won't you be louder than I'll be with cats? I mean, the combo of straight pipes and catless would have to be as loud as we can get.

AU N EGL - now you're sending me mixed messages!

I don't need zero increase in volume; I'd like some. I'm just leery of crossing over some level that I can't describe, or correlate with a particular system.

 

So not too loud. But we view the Ti exhaust as being one of the quieter ones, no?

 

There are several people who add headers without adding a catback, you will pick up a little sound at idle but it will be a lot different when you go to WOT at least from my experience. More people go with the Z06 ti exhaust as it is a little louder than the base yet flows really well and is reasonably priced and has zero drone. Also if you got a set of ti's you can always get your money back out of them as they are in demand.

And yes I would imagine that catless would be a tad louder but I dont think it would be by much. I am pretty sure that going catless has helped keep the temps down as I havent noticed much difference in before and after I installed the headers. I know a guy who has long tubes with stingers and it sounds good when you are behind it but it is loud and he said the drone is horrible.