Whats the best option(s) to add 40-50 HP to a stock 98 C5

 

Intake, exhaust, headers, and a tune will get you there!

 

Cold air intake, long tube headers, LS6 intake manifold, tune...

 

Prepare for every possible opinion...


May I ask what you plan to do with the car?

When I started mod'n i had more of a drag racing mentality, not terribly concerned with drivability or anything else. My car pulls hard and it is fun.

Later, i started doing HPDE's and regret (in a way) several mods.

I also started by being "cost aware" and after 5 years I ended up putting a lot of money into my car.

My current setup is 243 heads, 224 cam, 4.10 rear, Ti exhaust and a lot of handling/braking mods. As the handling mods went on the power mods started coming off. I no longer have headers and i don't miss them. I put my LS1 intake back on cuz the power gain from the LS6 was about 3hp for $450. My cam can be annoying at times on the track cuz it comes on strong at about 3500 RPM which can be a handful when I am coming out of a turn flat out on street tires. The 4.10s are super fun on the street but a PITA on short track HPDEs. They are fine on the longer/faster tracks.

I am not changing anything yet because the biggest bottleneck is my driving abilities. My next 15 mods are seat time

However, if I were to start all over my first mod would have been CAI and AFR 205 cc (or similar) heads with a tune. I am not sure how much power that would add. With headers, probably quite a lot. Most people do not go this route due to the cost of the heads vs slapping in a huge cam and getting big peak numbers. To each his own, but I wish I would have just invested big bucks in heads first and built from there.

 

 

yup, like everyone says, cold air, headers, tune, LS6 intake, just make sure you have about $2500.00 to spend.

 

I have a '98 coupe with Borla straight pipes ($350), Hypertech programmer ($120 used), Hypertech 160 thermostat ($40), Halltech intake ($350) total of about $850. No other hp related mods. Just dyno'd this passed Saturday at 335hp to the wheel about 385 hp to crank. Right about 40hp gain. The torque increased by almost exactly the same amount. Check out the dyno video and listen to the guy at the end of each run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4-nRuAZNyY

 

I still think after all the mods I v done which is in the many thousands of dollars now, ..the best bang for the street buck is not horses but rear end hook-up ie: a 3:42 or better yet 3:73 rear diff and sticky rear tires..then exhaust sys..then longtubes..then cams and head pkg then coil overs..then then then!! The disease is progressive I promise you...

 

no one likes nitrous ? cheap and effective, 50 hp shot sounds weak tho

 

Nitrous has it's uses but for an every day driven car who wants to be turning on a bottle, refilling the bottle, laying out more cash every time the bottle goes empty. Just my opinion.

 

Why settle for 40-50? spray it and get an easy 100