this is probably a stupid question. is there any cheap or free mods to boost that measley 430 hp in my 2008 coupe(you never know when you might run into a Ferrari at the light)? whats been the most bang for the buck?

 

Best bang for the buck is probably a tune. Gears, headers, CAI, higher stall converter, all come to mind if you want to get more serious/spend more money. It only grows from there

 

First, 430hp isn't measley. Second, street racing is illegal and not allowed on these forums - not that there are any Ferrari owners that would bother street racing. Lastly, trade in the vette for a crotch rocket and you'll go a lot faster for a lot less.

 

first im confused, your concerned with the mans well being by telling him not to street race yet your suggest a crotch rocket, look up hypocracy in the dictionary...

second - way to answer his question - he doesnt want an opinion

to the original poster do you know how dangerous stre... JK if your loking for max budget concearns get the "vet air" intake which cuts the radiator shroud and transforms your stock intake into a pseudo vararam, find a set of used z06 headers - they flow pretty nicely, get a hand held tuner.

for most performance pick up a set of headers, any of the brands (LG, kook, ARH) will make you smile. Buy a real vararam, get a dyno tune. you can do the cheap version for about 1000, and the latter for 2k. btw when i was stock (350rwhp) i walked a 360. with a bolt on LS3 you should be around 410 and hunting 430s.

also a cam is cheap with big gains, look up what LG has gotten out of an LS# with bolts ons and a cam

 

i've had 3 9 second bikes a gsxr 1000,Hayabusa,and a zx-14,measley was a joke and who said anything about street racing?lighten up just a tad.

 

good for about 50hp..

 

some good ideas guys, i remember when i had my 2002 coupe some people were doing the tiewrap mod on the air filter housing ,bypassing the coolant to the throttle body, etc

 

Honestly GM understands that horsepower is what sells these cars, so if there was "free hp" to be had which still passed emissions and didn't affect reliability they would have done it already...
That said, when emissions and reliability are not a concern there are all kinds of "ghetto hacks" (forgive the wording) you can do to boost HP: Punching out the cats with a broom, cutting up the factory intake or even running without an air filter, the "resistor mod" which tricks your car into thinking it is still in cold start mode (this no longer works on modern vehicles btw; the ECU will realize the car is not warming up and will throw a check engine light), modding the MAF to make the car run leaner, etc. I know this because I used to drive an import and cheap mods are the norm in the rice burner world

Since you drive a corvette I am going to assume you aren't really looking for "hacks". In my experience, hands down the best bang for my buck was getting long tube headers and a tune for the car. On a budget you can buy used headers, or even C6 Z06 takeoff headers and cats, which still net some gain. From there a retune will net some more additional HP; my advice there is to avoid handheld tuners (my friends C5 LOST about 15HP with one ) and instead pay for a dyno tune; you'll want whatever mods you plan on doing done by then since more mods will require a retune and thus additional money. I don't personally feel intakes a a good bang for your buck mod on the C6, having had a VaraRam Cold Air Intake that didn't make much of difference but did ingest dirt, but some will disagree... There is probably a real 5-10whp to be had there.
Finally you can swap out the thermostat for a lower temperature one to make the engine run cooler...
Your car with a set of heades and a good tune should break 400whp, which would put it somewhere in the 460+ horsepower range. After that, you'll probably want to start tearing into the engine or adding forced induction, which mean more money, less reliability and more compromises... The old saying remanis true: "Speed costs money, how fast can you afford to go?"

 

There aren't all that many Ferraris even made that can actually beat a stock LS3 Corvette in a straight line anyway and yes there are at least some Ferrari owners that will go for it when challenged at a traffic light or on the highway. I've both seen it and heard of it happening on more than a few occasions.





100%

 

Porting the throttle body and intake manifold.

Tuning it to burn a mixture of E85 and premium gasoline. Of course this carries with it some risk to the engine and components of the fuel system from the tank on up in a car not rated to burn E85.

Gutting the catalytic converters.

If you want to go faster, but without actually adding horsepower, there are few weight saving steps you can take as well.

A lot though will depend on how wild you want to get.

Removing the windshield washer reservoir and the windshield wipers. Removing the pull down motor for the hatch. Removing passenger seat, radio, and carpeting from the cargo area or the entire car, and/or removing other non essential interior items. Going from the cast iron manifolds to the Z06 manifolds and exhaust.

 

Headers, CAI, Cam, UD Pulley, Tune and a Cam.

 

Money buys speed, how fast do you want to go?

 

I do the tunes for free plus a $50 donation to St Judes Hospital and the 99 dollar HPtuners fee that goes to license your car. If you get a few mods put on, it may be cheaper to get me a plane ticket and a few friends together to get me there to tune a few cars. 2005's are completely free. I'm close to done on a few years universal licenses and would have been done with all years had my cable not been stolen. No good deed.........

If you get 5 guys to go in, the hospital would get $250 and I get some warm days in sunny FL.

I get no money from the transaction.

 

If you really want some hp for free you can take a saw and cut off the back half of the exhaust right after the x-pipe and weld on some turn down tips. You can also stick a pipe snake up into the cats and mess up the honeycomb then rev it up and watch all of it come out the exhaust. I don't recomend those things but if your goin for free then thats all I can think of. Weight reduction is free hp also.

 

What??????????????? That didnt answer his question???

 

Weight reduction is free. A 160 stat is cheap too.
A good tune is around 450.00 Be very careful who you let tune your car.
there are many people that think they can tune. Do your homework!!!
Ask the guys that track their cars whos a good tuner. A Vararam is a very good mod too for 300.00 or so. Headers are great, but around 2000.00 installed for a good set. Tires are a good mod too. Sell the runcraps and get non runflats. Lighter and hook better. sell the tires that are on it to someone here on the forum. Get DRs for the rear.
you will start smoking guys with more power than you because your hookin!!

 

Not a stupid question. But Hp is not cheap or free. Most start with CAI, headers and tune. Vararam or Calloway on the CAI.

 

coming from the f-body world, I understand what you are getting at, the ole !mods.

As mentioned, you can somewhat hack up the shroud to make a cold air path. I haven't found others worth doing. The cars run rich from the factory so porting the MAF a tiny bit might trick the car into a bit leaner mixture up top. I would not do it. If funds are tight, used or E-bay headers, 160 T-Stat, and a tune are the best bang for the buck. Maybe you find someone with the software and piggyback on them for less than buying a copy.

 

Complete Z-06 exhaust take off. I know some have gotten them for almost nothing (not me), and there is some resonable evidence that it's worth 20+ HP on the 08. That's pretty damn good if you can get it for free.

 

That's what I'm doing! plus a 3200 stall converter from Yank.