Good Morning, I am a first time owner for a 2001 C5 and I am interested in considering good/great cost effective MODs and at a reasonable price. Please share any advise or suggestions. Thank you.

 

Hi, what are your goals? What do you plan to do with the car?
Your inquiry is too vague to give any decent info. I have had my C5 for a long time and the mod list has changed depending on what I planned to do with it.

 

Good Day, I am look for easy and cost effective mods for now. Can you also share the manufacture for references? Thank you

 

Your request is vague. Mods for what?

More power?
Better handling?
Wheels and tires?
Audio?
Cosmetic Modificaitons?
Ejector seats? I prefer those made by Q branch.

 

Thank you for clarifying. I am looking for more Power and Cosmetics. I have new tires and slotted brakes.

 

Is your car a manual or automatic? If automatic, find out what gear ratio you have (2.73 or 3.15). If you have 2.73 most will agree that the most cost effective upgrade is to get a 3.42 differential from a manual.

 

What is your opinion on cold air intake and increasing radiator size?

 

Neither is worth it unless you want to track it. The car was designed to run at the 200 degree range and reducing that doesn't help power. A CAI can only draw cold air if you cut through the radiator shroud at at most would give you 5 HP.

The cheapest way to get 10-15 HP is get a mail order tune with a handheld tuner. I have a DiabloSport Trinity 2 and it improved my shift points and optimized the engine performance to get the most out of it. I am just running on the 91 octane tune that comes with it but will be getting a custom tune in the spring after I get my 3.42 diff installed.

 

How much money u got?

Easy way just use nos

 

Autoeng has asked very pertinent questions. We need to know what tranny. An A4, or M6? Reason being M6 cars came with a 3.42 axle. A4 2.73 standard, 3.15 optional. My 2000 A4 ran high 12s@110mph thru the stock exhaust manifolds with Flowmaster mufflers, 160° thermostat, LS6 intake (which your car SHOULD have, as they were standard on all LS engines from '01 up) Blackwing air filter, and a tune. These mods should mostly apply to a M6, as well. I was in the 13.30s until the tune. But the tune alone wouldn't have been enough to get me into the 12s without the rest of the bolt ons. But again, if you're not interested in 1/4 mile tracking, you may want to go a different route....

 

Thank you.

 

my 2 cents...
after spending a small fortune on mods and up grades
my advice would be to leave the engine alone, it's as fast as it needs to be
spend some money on making it look nice but don't go overboard (like I did)
yea it's cool to have that bad *** *****' but you really don't need it
you have a sweet c-5 corvette, the more you do engine wise the more you have to deal with
enjoy what you got, keep your money in your pocket, don't go down the rabbit hole
that being said, this is coming from someone that has had a bad experence with all that
it's your car and you can go as far as your wallett will take you
enjoy it man, your one of the lucky ones who gets to drive a corvette

 

If you had to tell us, how much HP you wanted to increase the engine to, what would it be?

How much would you say you have to spend on the mods necessary to achieve those goals?

Im in the same boat as other modders. I spent a TON of cash on Mods only to want more mods. Everytime you do a significant modification to the engine, you really need to tune it for optimum performance. Tuner time is NOT CHEEP!!. A good in the shop tune is approx. $400-$500. I did 2 sets of modifications on my 02 ZO6. Headers, VARARAM, Ported TB and a tune. She went from stock 360 RWHP to 395 RWHP. Next set of mods was ported heads, big cam, 42 lb/hr injectors and a home ported FAST 90 intake manifold.and a ported 90mm TB.

She made an easy 450 RWHP. When you do big power mods, most of the time you pay the price of necessary and sometimes mandatory drivetrain modifications. Mine was a sticking clutch and necessary up grade to an $$$ aftermarket clutch. Also had to do some differential mods (broken Beleview springs in the Limited Slip Diff)

If,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, You decide to do engine mods, I STRONGLY recommend saving up for all the mods that you can afford and desire and then install them ALL at the same time and then have it professionally tuned.

Like others have stated, make it look good, ride good and learn to drive it. Once the cars performance and handling no longer excites you, in my case "scares you" (LOL), its time to make a new set of limits.and spend a lot more cash!

WHY, do you think you need a new radiator? My ZO6 at 450 RWHP is using the same OEM C5 radiator as you are using. The car is designed to operate at coolant temps from 190-230 deg and be happy all day. NO gains to be had there!! Just a lighter wallet. What temps are you worried about?

Cold air intake: As others have stated, Unless you get something like a VARARAM that gets the air from the very front of the car, its a waste of time and cash.

One of the very first things that I did to my 02 Z TO MAKE IT HANDLE BETTER was to up-grade to C6 ZO6 shocks. Bolt right in, makes a great handling improvement and wont break the bank. It will make your LS1 Car very happy.

You can also Change out the Manual trans fluid to AMSOIL Torque Drive ATF. Shifted MUCH better. YES the manual trans used ATF as the gear oil!

You do have a MN6, correct??? You never provided that info..

All the modifications that I listed above required a giant list of supporting parts, fluids, gaskets and stuff that would make a frightening list of THINGS NEEDED that has NOTHING to do with adding HP/TQ to the engine!! Its called reliability parts.

Remember the old racers creed: FAST ~ RELIABLE ~ CHEEP You can have two but you can NOT have all three!!!!

Bill C

 

Thank you great advise.

 

I'll second leaving the engine alone. Before I ever changed even the spark plugs, I had a high 12 second car that got 27+mpg on the highway. Unless you're good with wrenches in general, and engines in particular, I'd leave it alone. Though pricey, if I had to do it over again, I'd go with a centrifugal blower. Keep internal reliability, and not use any extra fuel, unless your foot is on the floor much of the time!!

 

100% AGREE! Great advice and I would do the same.

Bill

 

I'd add some 2" adjustable blindspot mirrors.
Very cost effective mod at $5.00

 

vzrdas:

I concur with the "heavyweights" that have posted their opinions above. Leave the drivetrain stock unless you have buckets of money to burn. I currently own my fifth Corvette and have treated each the same way --- heavy on preventative maintenance; light on cosmetic changes; no drivetrain upgrades! Why have I chosen this route? The primary reason is because sooner or later we all sell our toys and move on the the next one. I could sell my current C5 which I have owned for almost five years for just a few thousand $$$ less than I paid for it. Wow, that's an inexpensive hobby offset by lots of smiles for the miles.

IMHO, the best cosmetic upgrade that one can do to a C5 is a new set of wheels. The factory wheels are ubiquitous = boring. Take your time, get opinions which you are already doing, and consider an aftermarket set of wheels. Pay close attention to the wheel size and offset and remount your current new tires and the difference in appearance will amaze you. Save the original wheels to remount on the car in order to sell them with the car whenever you trade-up to the next Corvette. I believe that I bought my wheels from House Of Wheels, a vender that has been on this forum for many years.

Good luck. Keep us posted to your journey.

 

One of the 1st mods I did was an MGW shifter - changed the personality of the car

 

I bought my very minty 2004 Z06 eight years ago, when it was already eight years old and had 18K miles. Now it has 28K miles and just last weekend I had a bucket-list experience at a local track, Nelson Ledges Road Course. My only mods have been an MGW shifter and four Philips LED #194 lamps for internal illumination. My Z06 is so much more capable than I as a driver will ever be, you don’t need any mods. I enjoy my factory 405 HP and prefer to keep my car almost stock.