01torchred

I just signed up this is my first time on here I hope I'm doing this right ? I Purchased my 2001 C5 brand new in 2001 it had a total of 3 miles on it. I have kept up all maintenance on it myself since new. I currently have around 46,000 miles on it 10/29/2020 and until recently have kept it completely bone stock "completely" other than a tuner that I bought at the same time I bought the car . I recently installed a dual cone cold air intake up to the MAF sensor to get smoother air flow and I thought it may run better but it actually seems to be at a loss it is sluggish off the line ? When I first bought the Corvette in 2001 I did purchase a Diablo Sport Predator tuner I have installed the performance tune from the unit and back to factory several times and it never really impressed me with a noticeable difference in performance etc. I have never tinkered with changing any of the parameters in the tuner to experiment because I really do not know what to try to change and how much to change it . this past year I called Diablo Sport to ask about updating the tuner for newer or different programming and as expected due to the age of the tuner they just tried to get me to purchase a new programmer instead. I am basically retired and my budget will not allow me to spend the big bucks I would love to spend but I still love the feeling of power and the more the better. So all this writing is leading to one question and that is what would be my best upgrade / upgrades to the engine to get the most for the money. I know it's not much but I could probably swing $ 2 to 4,000.00 for improvements ? Any reasonable ideas would be greatly appreciated.
I began building my street racing cars at 15 years old and was self taught self learned back in those days it was easy to get power all you had to do was spend money lot's of it and install good mechanical parts and of course the tune by ear back then worked out great. But now it's all what you know with electronics to get the best tunes etc. and at that point is where I'm lost.
I retired as a grade A medium / heavy duty diesel technician and in 2019 when I retired after 40 years I had to bring my unknown $ 000,000.00 of dollars in tools & equipment home. I already had a 30' X 12' shed but it was full so I purchased a 20' shipping container which was much less expensive than a whole new shed so I could bring all my tool boxes / tools & equipment home and that extra 20' container was just barely enough to store all my equipment. Sorry about all the writing and if anyone does read through this I'm sure your bored by now but this is my problem also being bored and just want to get back to having the good old too much power for me feeling again that I used to have. Thanks for reading if anyone does ?

My 2001 C5, August 2020 just changed out 17" Front 18" rear wheels & tires to 18" x 9 1/2" front wheels & 19" x 10 1/2" rear wheels and Michelin tires Front 255/40ZR 18" & Rear 285/40 19".

tblu92

Best mechanical mods for a stock C5
1 cold air intake- $350 10 RWHP
2 cat back exhaust $450 10 RWHP
3 LS6 intake manifold $350 12 RWHP
4 ported T Body $150 5 RWHP
5 Shorty headers $350 12 RWHP (smog legal)
6 long tube hearers $1000 30 RWHP ( Not smog legal -requires tuning)
7 Camshaft /kit $1500 45 RWHP ( requires tuning)
8 supercharger installed $6500 150 RWHP
Choose your poisons according to your budget
TUNING with a real tuner no handheld HP tuners or EFILIVE
On a stockish engine maybe about 15-17 RWHP as these cars are well tuned bone stock
On a cammed engine with an intake manifold long tubes you may gain maybe 25 30 HP
PS the reason your car felt sluggish after the CAI install is because UNLESS you get the added airflow compensated for in the tune it will be lazy Again a handheld cannot fix this

FINALLY If you car has an auto trans a tune with HP or EFILVE can make your car 2-3 tenths quicker in the 1/4 mile without even any engine changes BY making the shifts firmer--getting rid of the TQ management--Abuse MGMT and the TQ limiting tables
Depending where you live a real tune can cost as much as $500-750 for a dyno tune
However to me a dyno tune is worthless on a street car because on the dyno the only go to 3rd gear or the gear ration that is 1:1 and only make adjustment from about 3500-6500 RPMs WOT
But a street tune is much less--anywhere from $200-$400 AND they drive your car in various ways start-up--idle--P/T--midrange AND WOT and make adjustments everywhere---This helps in bottom off line launches mid range and increases the throttle response greatly As an example say you are at a stop light and floor it--The throttle actually does not go to WOT until about 3600 RPM's!!!!! The drive by wire system limits off idle throttle position After tuning the throttle will go to WOT OFF IDLE !!!

01torchred

tblu92, Thank you for the tips. I was surprised to get a reply so quick and it is greatly appreciated. It appears my best bet is to shop around for a shop that can perform a good street tune at this time and go from there. Thank you again.